Association of Research Libraries :: Initiative to Recruit a Diverse Workforce Call for Applications

There's still time to apply for a great scholarship opportunity with the Initiative to Recruit a Diverse Workforce

Here's an excerpt explaining the Program Goal and Objectives:

• Attracting MLIS students from underrepresented groups to careers in research libraries, especially students with educational backgrounds (preferably a baccalaureate degree) in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) disciplines.
• Strengthening participants’ leadership and job searching skills via a Leadership Symposium held during the American Library Association (ALA) Midwinter Meeting
• Developing a network of mentors who will guide and nurture the career development of the participants

Apply by September 15, 2010

Association of Research Libraries :: Initiative to Recruit a Diverse Workforce Call for Applications

News in Library Diversity: ARL Diversity Publications

For current news about ARL's Diversity Programs including activities, research, scholarships, fellowships and more, you can subscribe to the Association of Research Libraries' Diversity newsletter by RSS feed found at Association of Research Libraries :: ARL Diversity Publications

Here's a sample from the most recent issue:

" The ARL CEP Fellowship: Is It Worth It?

Like some of the other ARL Career Enhancement Program (CEP) fellows who flew to Denver last winter for the Leadership Institute, I had feelings of anxiety and misgivings about the fellowship. I wondered, “Am I just going to sit through a bunch of lectures? Is this really going to help me in my career, especially with the state of the economy? How can it possibly do that?” Things lightened up when I met a diverse group of young, bright fellows from around the country. We had different backgrounds and lived in different settings but we were travelling the same journey. Then, we did sit through some lectures. Key leaders and strategists from the ARL community spoke about their projects and concerns. The amount of information we tried to absorb was overwhelming but at the end of the day, I thought, “What an exciting time to be in library school. I want to be part of this ‘revolution’.” "

-Report by 2006 SUNY Albany Library School graduate Sandra Baker for Synergy: News From The ARL Diversity Programs, Association of Research Libraries, Issue 6, June 2010, p. 5

Diversity Resources at UW

The Graduate School at UW's website has many resources for students from diverse backgrounds, whether enrolled in SLIS, enrolled in another department, or considering whether to apply to grad school.

The Office of Graduate Student Diversity Resources provides support to students from under-represented groups campus-wide.

You might also want to check out the Multicultural Graduate Network that sponsors networking and other social events targeted at graduate students. MGN collaborates with the Graduate Student Collaborative (GSC) and is housed in Bascom Hall within the Office of Graduate Student Diversity.

LAMP @ ALA

LAMP participated in the Diversity and Outreach Fair at the 2010 American Library Association Conference in Washington D.C. this weekend. With eye-catching light-up buttons as well as a poster, flyers, and brochures, LAMP representatives from University of Illinois (Nathan and Amani) and University of Wisconsin (Darcy) recruited and explained their mission to librarians and library students who passed by.

Some of the most frequently asked questions:

1. Q: What is LAMP?

A: LAMP (LIS Access Midwest Program) is a regional alliance of 10 Midwest universities and their libraries that encourages students from historically underrepresented groups to enter the field of library and information science. The program offers undergraduate (and graduate) students a number of opportunities to increase their awareness of the LIS field. LAMP provides students with mentoring, internships, and financial assistance in the form of fellowships once the student is admitted to one of the schools in the alliance.

2. Q: Who funds LAMP?

A: Grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

3. Q: What universities participate in LAMP?

A: Ten universities in four Midwestern states

Illinois

• Dominican University
• University of Chicago
• University of Illinois at Chicago
• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Michigan

• Michigan State University
• Wayne State University

Ohio

• Ohio University – Alden Library

Wisconsin

• Marquette University
• University of Wisconsin-Madison
• University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

The answers to these and other questions can be found on LAMP's website under LAMP FAQ.

In the News: Why Information Matters

There's good information and bad information out there, and being able to tell which is which is critical to making good decisions... and reporting the news accurately. Polling company Research 2000 whose statistics were widely distributed on blogs and internet news sources like Daily Kos has been accused of fabricating thousands of statistics.

My housemate brought this story to my attention because it directly affects his dissertation research-- about 5% of the data he's using came from Research 2000. He now has to re-do his statistics and crunch the numbers all over again. Students as well as reports should take warning: not all statistics (or data) are neutral!

Polling wars: Kos takes on Research 2000

Daily Kos Plans to Sue Polling Company

Certificate in Advanced Study for Rural Librarianship. Apply Now!

"The University of North Texas Department of Library and Information
Sciences received a grant from the Robert and Ruby Priddy Charitable
Trust to assist rural public libraries in Texas. Funding will support a
three-year project, Promoting & Enhancing the Advancement of Rural
Libraries (PEARL). The goal of the project is to enhance the role of
public libraries in targeted rural communities in Texas.


Five scholarships are available for students to complete a Certificate
of Advanced Study in Rural Librarianship. The students selected will
have tuition and fees paid for to complete a Certificate of Advanced
Study (CAS) with all classes delivered online beginning with the Fall
2010 Semester. This is for post-masters study and most of the credits
can be applied toward a doctorate. Students will have two courses per
semester paid for. They will have their way paid to the Texas Library
Association each year, to a workshop at UNT at the beginning of each
year, and to a yearly forum with region librarians. Additionally, they
will have the following paid for: a webcam, internet access, cell phone
plan, and a new laptop. The scholarships will be closed as soon as five
acceptable candidates are identified and their full admission status is
completed.

For more information about the grant and scholarship please go to
http://pearl.unt.edu"

Funding Opportunity: ARL receives new grant for diversity recruitment

This press release about ARL's new diversity-related grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services just came through my Google Reader. This program (see ARL Diversity Programs) is similar to LAMP in that it offers financial and mentoring support for students from under-represented groups seeking to attend library school. It appears that the program intends to provide career counseling and other support services to graduates as well.

Here's a sample from the press release. The whole thing can be found at http://www.arl.org/news/pr/IRDW-grant-17June10.shtml

"ARL Initiative to Recruit a Diverse Workforce Awarded IMLS Grant

Washington DC--The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has been awarded a grant by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) Laura Bush 21st-Century Librarian Program in the amount of $543,014 to fund the next iteration of the Initiative to Recruit a Diverse Workforce (IRDW). The IRDW will provide support for graduate school in library and information science and other professional development opportunities to 30 students from traditionally underrepresented racial and ethnic minority groups over the next three years. Recruitment for the program will focus on students with academic training in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines. Participants in the IRDW, known as ARL Diversity Scholars, receive a generous compensation package over the course of two years and numerous other benefits..."

Check out ARL Diversity Programs if you're interested in applying to the Initiation to Recruit a Diverse Workforce (IRDW) or other scholarships.

LAMP: friending and tweeting

You can friend the Library Access Midwest Program on Facebook and see photos from the 2010 Summer Institute and past institutes and activities!

Check out some pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=237318&id=175204709545

LAMP is also on Twitter: http://twitter.com/lampprogram

This is a great way to get updates on LAMP and network with scholars at other schools.

This is your brain on crackberries

On the Muskegon ferry ride across Lake Michigan on my way to the LAMP Institute, I noticed tons of passengers entertaining themselves with information. Many read books, of course, but I also saw people texting, playing games on their cellphones, using Kindles, doing business on netbook laptops, and watching Dora the Explorer DVDs with their kids on personal DVD players. One fellow LAMP attendee was Googling jobs in the middle of Lake Michigan on his Blackberry (at least until he could no longer get a signal).

All these technological distractions got me wondering: Do we even know how to be idle anymore? Instead of standing on deck and appreciating the boat ride and the wind in their hair, most passengers were in the cabin, entertaining or informing themselves with technology. This article in the New York times seems to support my suspicion: computers are addictive and sometimes multitasking is not as efficient as we think.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/07/technology/07brain.html

A sufferer of iPhone-envy myself (the reference librarian in me wants to be able to instantly find out when the Sears Tower became the Willis Tower while I'm walking down Jackson Street in Chicago), I have resisted getting a smartphone-- or as a friend calls hers, a "Crackberry"-- in order to protect myself from information overload. Librarians of the future need to think about the implications of a world where information is always turned "on."

Ferry Photos!

Here are the Madison LAMPers on the Milwaukee-Muskegon Ferry.



(Photos courtesy of Pang Xiong.)

Reporting from the LAMP Summer Institute 2010

Traveling by land and sea on the Muskegon Ferry, six LAMP scholars and alums spent the weekend of May 20-23, 2010 in East Lansing Michigan at the 4th annual LAMP Summer Institute on the Michigan State University campus.

This was my first institute, and I was impressed right away by the community feeling that has grown up over the years. Returning scholars were excited to reunite, and new scholars (and PAs) fit right in.

I informally polled returning scholars who said this year's accommodations and programming were some of the best that LAMP has had so far. I also chatted with undergrad scholars who are considering librarianship as a profession, and they felt MSU and LAMP struck a good balance between career development presentations that were of use to recent graduates and introductory presentations showing the many different roles library and information specialists can have.

Below, I'll summarize some of the highlights of presentations at the LAMP Institute this year:

Friday, May 21

Job Search Tips:
(presenter: MSU Business Librarian Laura Levitt)

-Even if you're a beginning MLS student, look at job announcements and choose your classes and activities at SLIS to fit jobs that interest you.

-If you have gaps in your resume, ask for practicum and volunteer experiences. You won't know what's out there if you don't ask!

-Laura Levitt suggested that health science librarianship is an up-and-coming specialty area. She also advised students to take instruction/info lit, management, and research methods classes especially if interested in academic librarianship.

-Some online job resources:

libgig.com joblist.ala.org arl.org

Laura Levitt urged new graduates to join LinkedIn for networking.

day in the life of a library wiki provides profiles of professional librarians and is useful for networking

Publishing Tips:
(presenter Business Librarian Laura Levitt)

-Book reviews, encyclopedia entries, blogs, and newsletters are a way to get started with publishing.

-Collaborate with librarians and colleagues who have already been published

-Ask your employer if you can have "research days" or "research hours" built into your schedule

-Check out "A Library Writer's Blog" and ACRL Library News to look for publishing opportunities.

-Finally, have something you want to say.

Library Reference and Instruction Round Table:
(with 3 MSU Instruction Librarians)

-Panelists discussed their jobs in reference and instruction, using online tools like Questionpoint Chat services, LibGuides, Desktracker scheduling.

-Suggested conferences and online resources that will improve your teaching skills:

ACRL Immersion 2010
LOEX
WILU
Library Instruction Cookbook

-Also provided career advice for academic instruction librarians; advised new applicants to ask about tenure requirements at their new institution and to ask what kind of funding or opportunities for continuing education the institution provides its librarians.

Saturday, May 22

Libraries and Government Documents
(presenter MSU Gov Docs librarian Hui Hua Chua)

-Hui Hua Chua introduced the LAMP scholars to the work of a government documents librarian and shared some interesting online resources involving government-funded or produced information. She discussed President Obama's move towards more government transparency. Resources she highlighted included: FAS Project on Government Secrecy, OpenSecrets.org, follow the money, Wolfram Alpha, Chesapeake Project for archiving digitized legal information, govtinfo.org's Ask a Librarian chat service, archive.org's "Fed flicks," and the Google CIC Project to digitize government documents from depository libraries like the University of Chicago and place them into the Hathi Trust (similar to the Google Books Project).

Chinese Film Collection:
(presenter MSU Film librarian Xian Wu)

-With enthusiasm, Wu showed some clips and gave some film reviews of films in MSU's Chinese Film Collection, explaining the educational purpose and various classroom uses of these films. He also discussed challenges of building such a unique collection including DVD 'zoning' (which makes Chinese films difficult to play on most U.S. DVD players), copyright issues, government censorship, and purchasing strategies. Wu also introduced the audience to Tudou (meaning "Potato Net") which is the Chinese equivalent of YouTube or Hulu.

Controversial Materials Cataloging:
(presenter MSU Special Collections Cataloger Ruth Anne Jones)

-In this lively and engaging presentation, Ruth Anne Jones shared selections from several controversial collections at MSU and discussed the stakeholders and freedom of speech concerns related to having such collections at a publicly-funded academic library. She ended her presentation by letting the LAMP scholars peruse boxes of materials from MSU's Special Collections. These included Gay Erotica, Holocaust Denial Literature, Racist Cartoonists' depictions of African-Americans, Radical and Communist materials.

LAMP/AOF Pizza Social

To make sure our students eat during the final week of the semester, SLIS is hosting a

Pizza Social

on Tuesday May 11, 2010

from 4:00 pm to 6:30 pm

for LAMP Scholars and AOF Fellows

Please join us in the SLIS commons to relax, chat about the semester, discuss diversity stuff, or just eat pizza!

Project Information Literacy

Today's post isn't related to LAMP or diversity directly, but it's very relevant to anyone doing research at a university, both librarians and students.

Project Information Literacy (http://projectinfolit.org/) which brings together a lot of new data (2009) on the research behaviors of young adults/university students. It includes research on undergrads' use of Wikipedia, finding that most students use Wikipedia at the beginning of their research to get an overview but not towards the end of their research (that makes librarians happy to hear!).

On the PiL site, you can also find a full report on how college students in the "digital age" seek information. PiL surveyed over 2,000 students at six U.S. colleges in Spring 2009. Some findings I found interesting:

• Almost every student in the sample turned to course readings first—not Google—for course-related research assignments.
• Not surprisingly, Google and Wikipedia were the go-to sites for everyday life research for nearly every respondent.
  
• Librarians were tremendously underutilized by students. 8 out of 10 of the respondents reported rarely, if ever, turning to librarians for help with course-related research assignments.
• BUT....9 out of 10 students in the sample turned to libraries for certain online scholarly research databases (such as those provided by EBSCO, JSTOR, or ProQuest) for conducting course-related research.

What this says to me is that college students turn to librarians when Wikipedia and Google aren't enough and they need credible articles from (complicated) databases. Interestingly, the study also showed that college students in 2009 have different reasons for procrastinating than students in the 1980s:

• The reasons why students procrastinate are no longer driven by the same pre-Internet fears of failure and a lack of confidence that once were part of the college scene in the 1980s. Instead, we found that most of the digital natives in the sample (40%) tended to delay work on assignments as they juggled their needs to meet competing course demands from other classes.

It sounds like the "multitasking generation" is less concerned about doing a good job and more concerned about just getting the job done. Has college become more about busy work? Or have digital resources produced more access to information without more skills in critical thinking?

Since I'm procrastinating right now myself, I thought this video from Project InfoLit's Video Blog was fitting...

LAMP Institute 2010

It's another year and there's another project assistant in charge of the LAMP blog. I hope to continue to bring you news items about LAMP and broader issues related to diversity, technology, and the library world.

Also...it's almost time for the 4th Annual LAMP Summer Institute which will be held at Michigan State University in East Lansing from May 20-23, 2010. All current and past LAMP scholars are encouraged to attend. After all, it's free!

Here's where to register: http://www.lib.msu.edu/lamp/registration.jsp

I'll see you there!

--Darcy

Diversity and the ACRL

Here's an interesting discussion of diversity in professional librarianship, specifically at the ACRL's institute for academic library directors.

ACRL and “diversity”: A rainbow has more than one color

In her blog post, the Free Range Librarian suggests academic librarians shouldn't define diversity narrowly.