Harry Potter: Call for volunteers.

Alicia has suggested in the last meeting that we be a part of the Harry Potter Book 7 release. There are two bookstores in Tucson that will be having a midnight release party. Alicia has contacted them to ask permission if we can join them in the release in a very casual way. No booth or anything. The book is released at 12:01am July 21st, so the release party is July 20th.

We would like to do the same thing in Phoenix, and we need your help. Please contact Jill and let her know your availability.
This would be a great way to get the Phoenix SIRLS students involved.

We also would like all of the distance/virtual students to participate in their city. Please let us know if you can get involved. Contact Jill or Meridith.

The general idea is to be there with our new LSO shirts and just hang out and answer questions about the LSO and why we are there.

So, please, get involved and volunteer. We need you :)

Phoenix Friends of SIRLS Meetings

Wednesday, Feb. 7, 6 pm at the Carnegie Center, 1101 W. Washington St., Phoenix –
Speaker: Christopher Miller, Southeast Asian Studies Bibliographer, ASU Libraries.
Topic: Challenges in developing special collections caused by the social, political, and economic climate in developing countries. Mr. Miller will discuss his experiences, specifically, doing field research for 2 years in Myanmar (Burma) and in his position at ASU.

Wednesday, March 7, 6 pm at Burton Barr Central Library, 1221 N. Central Ave., Phoenix –
Speakers: Jan Knight, independent information broker, and Elizabeth Gouwens, Library Analyst at Salt River Project
Topic: Library Services for the For-Profit Sector. Speakers will share their experiences as an entrepreneur providing fee-based information services and as a corporate librarian.

Wednesday, April 4, 6 pm at the Carnegie Center, 1101 W. Washington St., Phoenix –
Speakers: Mary Mitchell, Phoenix Public Library, and Dan Lee, Assistant Library Manager / Systems Librarian at Chandler Public Library
Topic: Social Computing: Librarians Using Web 2.0 Technology. Mary Mitchell will discuss Endeca and the evolution of the library catalog. Dan Lee will moderate a panel of librarians discussing their experiences with using wiki as an intranet, instant messaging / chat at the reference desk, and blogging.

more to come!

Jobs, Careers, & Pizza (Tucson)

This semester SIRLS, LSO, SLA and Friends of SIRLS in Phoenix are sponsoring a Job and Career Series. Our goal is to provide SIRLS students with information relating to the current library and information fields as well as a chance to interact with professionals in the different fields.

On Monday, 9 October, a panel of speakers will discuss their different fields and their unique environments, how they got there, and what they see for the future. The Tucson speakers include: Mary Graham, she is the Head Librarian at the Arizona State Museum, Jan Knight, she is an information consultant who established Bancroft Information Services, and Ann Dutton Ewbank, who has served as a K-12 librarian and is now in the ASU West library.

The evening panel will be in the SIRLS multipurpose room, with pizza available at 5:30pm. The speakers will talk at 6:00pm for approximately half an hour and will end with a Q&A session. The evening should conclude at 7:00pm.

Please RSVP, even if you are not sure whether you might attend, so that we can get a good count. See you there!

Jobs, Careers, & Pizza (Tucson)

This semester SIRLS, LSO, SLA, and Friends of SIRLS in Phoenix are sponsoring a Job and Career Series. Our goal is to provide SIRLS students with information relating to the current library and information fields as well as a chance to interact with professionals in the different fields.

This Monday, 11 September, Jeremy Reeder will talk about career path planning. He currently works in the Maricopa County library system. He spoke in Phoenix this week and those who attended said he is an excellent speaker who shared some great information.

Here is the schedule of events for Tucson: We will have pizza in the SIRLS multipurpose room starting at 5:30pm. The speaker will talk at 6:00pm for approximately half an hour and will end with a Q&A session. The evening should conclude at 7:00pm.

We will attempt to capture and record the evenings to post online, either the SIRLS or LSO websites, for those distance students who cannot attend either evening. However, the current format is as yet unknown – so if you have experience in this area and would like to help, please contact me!

Please keep your eye on the LSO calendar for last minute changes and updates to the series at http://www.sir.arizona.edu/lso/calendar.htm. I look forward to this series and hope you are able to attend!