Meeting start @ 6:05

Attendance/Introductions:
Dave Langen, Kyle Willis, Yangyang Zeng, Niamh Wallace, Jacy Bell, Angela Merritt, Ian Finnesey, Molly Stothert-Mauer, Ramone Romandia, Danielle Walker, Chanel Wheeler, Tanya, Robert Talbert

Announcements:

~ Symposium Meeting; Keynote Speaker will be new SIRLS Director, reception will be catered, logo made, tentative schedule made, volunteers & more presenters needed, Presenter deadline Oct. 23
~ Banned Books week; check in w/ PLG
~ Clean up student org. desk area in SIRLS main office; Sunday 27th, volunteers acquired
~ Academic lib. Panel next Thurs. 8th ; male librarian needed
~ RUSA, history of librarianship; instead of paying RUSA, invite them as a speaker for the panel
~ Special Collections; Oct. 1 early cuneiform talks
~ Grad student arrested for making chalk drawings on campus to protest high student fees; possibly send some token of support, cupcakes. Consulting PLG

End of The Year Party? Attempting to organize.

Officer Updates:
~ “Hire Me” workshop: Sandy Kramer, Health Science, confirmed
~ Committee Reps check-in

Meeting over @ 6:55

It’s time to elect LSO officers for Spring 2009! Please vote for one candidate for each position and e-mail arizonalso@gmail.com with your selections. If the candidate has submitted an election statement, it follows their name. Please use your arizona.edu e-mail address and include your first and last name in the e-mail.

The election is only open to students currently enrolled in SIRLS. The identities of voters shall be held in confidence throughout the election process by the LSO election supervisors except as necessary to ascertain voter eligibility.

The election will close on Friday, December 26, 2008, at 11:59 pm.

LSO President:
Sho Ikeda

LSO Vice President/Treasurer:
Jacy Bell

LSO Webmaster/Listserv Manager:
Rebecca Bliquez

I have spent the last semester working to develop the new LSO website and have a lot of plans to update the current content and features to make it efficient, accessible and visually appealing. Please vote for me so that I can continue this work into the next semester.

Social Activities Coordinator:
Brenda Taylor

Virtual Student Liaison:
Leanne Armstrong

I have been a full-time virtual student for the past year while attending the University of Arizona and took some online classes from ASU while living in the Phoenix area. I am motivated and enthusiastic about helping virtual students create camaraderie amongst each other. As the Virtual Student Liaison, I would like to:

• Invite virtual student alumni to participate in blogs to share their thoughts and experiences.

SIRLS Policy Committee Representative:
Sarah Dahlen

SIRLS Curriculum Committee Representative:
Sarah Dahlen

Have you had a really good advisor at SIRLS? What made this advisor so helpful and good? Here are a couple of thoughts to get your ideas churning:

• How did the professor communicate?
• What did the advisor communicate?
• Was the information timely or even proactive?
• If your advisor was not what you hoped for, what do you wish s/he would do?

Your comments will help to give direct feedback to the professors and advisors at SIRLS.

Thank you for adding your input!

Rachel Cannady
LSO: Faculty/Student Liaison

Candidates for each position are listed in alphabetical order. Each candidate has submitted an election statement, which follows their name. Please select one candidate for each position and e-mail arizonalso@gmail.com with your selections. Please use your arizona.edu e-mail address and include your first and last name in the e-mail.

The election is only open to students currently enrolled in SIRLS. The identities of voters shall be held in confidence throughout the election process by the LSO election supervisors except as necessary to ascertain voter eligibility.

The election will close on Sunday, September 7 at 11:59 pm.

Candidates for SIRLS Policy Committee Representative

* David Langen:

“I would like to be the student rep for the SIRLS Policy Committee. I am currently LSO Fundraising Coordinator and SLA Secretary. I have worked for the UA for 5 years and have seen how other departments run their grad programs. I feel this gives me a good base of knowledge to serve on this committee. Thank you.”

Candidates for LSO Social Activities Coordinator

* Michelle Martin:

“I would like to nominate myself for the Social Activities coordinator because I think it is important for the SIRLS community to unite in a social atmosphere in order to network with one another for professional reasons, to de-stress from work and school, and develop friendships/support. I would enjoy this position because it will give students and me an opportunity to explore what Tucson has to offer in entertainment and culture.”

* Brenda Taylor:

“I would like to nominate myself, Brenda Taylor, for the LSO Social Activities Coordinator. I currently just moved back to Tucson and want to be involved in the events and groups that are apart of the SIRLS program – this includes LSO.

I have some experience setting up events and activities as I was a Volunteer Girl Scout Neighborhood Manager for 3 years in Flagstaff. While I was the Neighborhood Manager, one of my responsibilities was to annually organize and execute a huge neighborhood encampment that included over a 100 girl scouts and about 40-50 parents.

In addition, I am the Volunteer Coordinator for the annual Arizona Celtic Highland Festival which takes place in Flagstaff every July. The Northern Arizona Celtic Heritage Society hosts this event every year and for the past 4 years I have been the Volunteer Coordinator for this festival. I am also the Membership Coordinator for this group and have assisted in planning several events and activities over the past 10 years with the President of the
organization.

I will be more than happy to help plan events for the LSO student organization as I really enjoy planning parties and creating fun for a variety of people.

Thanks for you attention and I hope that I am nominated as the LSO Social Acitivities Coordinator.”

From BoingBoing:

A judge has ordered JoAn Karkos of Lewiston, Maine to return two copies of It’s Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex and Sexual Health, which she checked out the Lewiston and Auburn public libraries last year.

In September, Karkos sent letters to the libraries, including checks to pay for the cost of the books. The letters said, in part, “I have been sufficiently horrified of the illustrations and sexually graphic, amoral, abnormal contents. I will not be returning the books.”

The judge has ordered Karkos, who is being held in contempt of court, to return the books and pay a $100 fine by Friday at 4pm. If she doesn’t comply, she’ll be arrested.

In 2007, NPR reported on the incident, providing several links, including a link to a letter Karkos wrote to the Sun Journal.

A great comment from the discussion below the post:

Speaking as a librarian I can only say, GOOD.

She stole these books (refusing, not just forgetting, to return a library item after the due date is theft) and then tried to buy off her crime.

I can’t recall it off hand, but there was something of a meme running in Victorian england wherein well-to-do young men would go on property crime sprees and then had mum and dad pay for the damage. The Hellfire Club perhaps? This reminds of me of that.

She’s better than the people who cut “offensive” materials out of books with X-acto knives and straight-razors, but not by much.

The slippery slope here is that deep pocketed types could simply check out materials they don’t like, pay for them and fund a sort of private censorship. Materials, especially ones related to sexual development, abuse and other “touchy” social issues need to be available. It can take weeks or even months to repurchase, reprocess and get a book back on the shelves.

I hope they throw the books at her.

Sho

The faculty wants our input on the very important issue: What makes a good online class? The more specific you are, the better your impact can be.

Here are some ideas to get your creative juices flowing:

* What are the do’s and don’ts for instructors from a student’s point of view?

* What are specific instances of  instruction, group work, assignments, or other “things” that worked well?

Your comments will help in the creation of a “best practices” document for on-line teaching.

Thank you for adding your input!

Rachel Cannady
LSO: Faculty/Student Liaison

As LSO president, I’d like to say hello to everyone and wish all SIRLS students, staff and faculty a great fall semester.  LSO has a lot planned for this term, and we look forward to making the organization a better representative of student interests and more active in faculty/student relations.  We are gearing up to make the blog into a forum for discussing faculty/student issues and we are also creating a SIRLS student online survey.  We are beginning to organize the fourth annual SIRLS Graduate Student Symposium and hope to see many student participants come November.  LSO also plans on hosting several other events in the fall including social and professional networking activities.

Please join us for our first meeting of the fall semester on Friday, September 5th at 6 pm in the SIRLS multipurpose room.  If you are a distance student and would like attend a meeting virtually, please e-mail me at ikeda [at] email.arizona.edu.  We’d love to see all students participate in our organization.

Sho Ikeda
LSO President

BiblioTech accepts contributions on a rolling basis. We welcome book reviews; reports from professional conferences; ruminations on being an info pro student; brief thoughts on current trends in information technology; teaser versions of a paper you’re presenting at a conference; and more!

We plan to publish an issue at the end of March and in May, so please submit soon.

Contact the BiblioTech editor at lsobibliotech@gmail.com about your submission.

See the message below:

You are all invited to attend a panel discussion on Wednesday, December 5^th, between 12-1pm in the Special Collections Conference Room. The 5-member panel will include 3 of our current Knowledge River Graduate Assistants: Janet Irene Allen, Natalia de Roock and Annie Smith.  They attended the Inter-Tribal Librarian Conference in Oklahoma City and will discuss issues confronting tribal libraries.  Please bring your own lunch!!

Thanks,

Pat

Patricia Promis
Special Collections, Fine Arts & Humanities Team Leader
University of Arizona Library, A204b
1510 E. University Blvd.
P.O. Box 210055
Tucson, AZ 85721-0055

Consider submitting your abstract for the 3rd Annual SIRLS Graduate Student Symposium to be held on November 10th! You have a choice between a 25 minute or 50 minute presentation, or a poster session! This is a great low-pressure way to get experience presenting at a professional symposium while sharing your research and stories with the library community. Submissions being accepted online NOW. Feel free to contact me or Rene if you have any questions. Look forward to hearing from you!