1st Time Attendees to ALA or SLA

Are you a First Time Attendee to the upcoming American Library Association or Special Library Association Conferences this year? Want to learn how to best navigate these two events? The MLS New Librarians Group opens up its meetings to all to come learn firsthand knowledge about these two conferences.

On Wednesday, May 13, 2009, 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. at the MLS Burr Ridge office, John Chrastka, Director for Membership Development at ALA will talk about how to get the most out of the ALA conference coming to Chicago this summer.

Later in the month on Wednesday, May 27, 2009, 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. in the MLS Chicago Office speaker Deborah Schwarz, President & CEO of Library Associates Companies and a SLA member will share her insight to attending the Centennial year of SLA’s Annual Conference in Washington, DC.

Register for the Navigating the ALA Conference for the First Time at http://www.librarylearning.info/events/?eventID=6503

Register for the Navigating the SLA Conference for the First Time at http://www.librarylearning.info/events/?eventID=6519

Any questions feel free to contact me,

Christina Stoll

Library Services Consultant

stollc@mls.lib.il.

 

Study of Lincoln at SIUE

Below is the web link with the description and application process for the National Endowment for the Humanities Workshop for Schoolteachers for summer 2009.

Abraham Lincoln and the Forging of Modern America

http://www.siue.edu/education/neh/

The application due date is March 16, 2009.

Two separate sessions will be held. These are one-week sessions on the SIUE campus, with a two-day, one night stay in Springfield, Illinois.

STIPEND, TENURE, AND CONDITIONS OF AWARD

Teachers selected to participate will receive a stipend of $750 at the end of the residential workshop. Stipends are intended to help cover ordinary living expenses, books, and travel expenses to and from the workshop location.

Travel supplements will be available, but will be allocated on a case-by-case basis within two weeks after each workshop is completed. Stipends and travel supplements are taxable.

GRADUATE CREDIT

Participants who might want graduate credit (History or Education) will be provided with an SIUE graduate tuition waiver for up to three units of graduate course credit for this workshop. University fees will still apply. To receive course credit and a grade, an additional series of three lesson plans will be required to be submitted to the project director following workshop participation. Registration for this tuition waiver will be processed on campus during the workshop.

CONTINUING EDUCATION

SIUE can provide you with documentation of your attendance and participation in this workshop.

Dr. Caroline R. Pryor, Project Director

SIUE

 

Institute for School and Public Librarians

APPLICATIONS FOR ANNUAL BRADLEY INSTITUTE
Applications are now being accepted for the 15th annual Institute for School & Public Librarians.

This week of library related educational activities will be held Sunday, June 7th to Friday, June 12th on the campus of Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois. The Institute for School & Public Librarians focuses on developing programs, delivering library services and selecting resources based on the needs of the people in communities across Illinois. The Institute is most appropriate for school and public librarians who would like to develop their basic library related knowledge and skills. To gain the most, consider the following:

* Applicants may be fairly new to the library field, have been in their current job position for less than five years, or feel they need the training this Institute offers.
* Applicants should be responsible for a variety of library duties.
* Applicants without a Master of Library and Information Science Degree are given priority, but applications are accepted from MLS graduates.

Attendees stay on the Bradley University campus, attend all programs and participate in all activities. Bradley University will award Continuing Professional Development Units (CPDUs) to all participants, and attendees may opt to pursue a college credit track. Complete the online application prior to March 20, 2009. Applicants will be notified of acceptance beginning the week of April 13, 2009.

More details, including information about the speakers and the agenda, are found at the Bradley University 2009 Institute for School and Public Librarians webpage.

 

IRC, ICE and ISLMA

ISLMA has in recent months participated in a cooperative venture with the Illinois Computing Educators (ICE) and the Illinois Reading Council (IRC) by exchanging booth space at each association’s annual conference. At the ISLMA fall conference held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Springfield there was sufficient space to allow an invitation to the two organizations to exhibit in exchange for booth space at their respective conferences. IRC accepted the offer and set up a booth in Springfield to bring information about their association to ISLMA members. In February Pam McDermott from ISLMA arranged for booth space and she and other ISLMA members spent many hours talking with participants at the ICE Conference about their respective interests. That event was followed by the IRC Conference held in Springfield at the Prairie Capitol Convention Center where Caroline Campbell, Kay Maynard, Anna Nalewajka and Leslie Forsman spent two days talking with attendees about ISLMA, the LBSS Fund grants and participating in the Monarch, Caudill and Abe Lincoln reading programs.

It appears that this cooperative venture was successful in bringing information and understanding about each of the association to the members of the others and it is hoped that the process will continue to do so in future years. However, when ISLMA holds its annual fall conference at the Chicago Sheraton Northwest in Arlington Heights in early November 2008 there is limited exhibit space, so a decision will need to be made soon concerning the continuance of this cooperative venture. The fall conference for ISLMA is a major part of ISLMA’s funding and the question becomes do we gain enough to continue the joint venture or will we be forced economically to fall back to the previous practice of each organization purchasing booth space at the other’s conference to continue this exchange. My hope is that we can find a solution that will be favorable to all three orgznizations.

Kay Maynard, ISLMA Executive Secretary