ALSO Minutes 9/09/09 - First Meeting of the 2009-2010 Academic Year

Welcome New and Prospective Members!

Here is what went on at our first meeting of the semester on Wednesday, September 9th in the SLIS Commons:

First thing to note is that we had a joint meeting with the American Library Association - Student Chapter(ALA – SC) by chance, and those who were interested in both got to get information from each org. Contact Sloan McBride (smmcbride@wisc.edu) or Easter DiGangi (edigangi@wisc.edu) for more information regarding the ALA – SC.

For those who were unable to come to the meeting, or even for those who were there; ALSO is a new student group at SLIS. The group was just recently recognized by UW as an official Registered Student Organization. ALSO aims to augment students experience in the classroom and the workplace by offering professional development-like endeavors (among other things). This will include field trips, lectures, and volunteer opportunities just to name a few. Please join us at our next meeting or contact us for more information/to become a member.

There are several ways to stay up to date with ALSO happenings and communications. We will be posting meeting notes (and other things) on the blog at http://uwalso.blogspot.com/. We will also be sending out emails to the list of addresses that we have. A list was passed around at the meeting – if you still need to be added to the list, send an email to also.uw@gmail.com. Hopefully, a website will be up and running soon as well.

As a new organization, we are very open to and encouraging of an active membership. ALSO will depend on members getting involved and taking responsibility to be a successful group, so please let the committee know if you have any suggestions for events or other ideas.

With that said, there are some already planned events coming up:

September 15th, Advice from LIS Career Professionals, 4:45 – 6:15 @ SLIS Commons
- Get advice from practicing professionals, very useful session
- They will give a little spiel about their jobs/career paths and field questions from students

September 24th, Writing Resumes and Cover Letters for the LIS Professions, 11:45 – 1 @ SLIS Commons
- Get resume writing tips from employers, find out what they want to see on a resume
- Brush up on best practices
- Bring a copy of your resume along

September 25th, Trip to Milwaukee to visit Marquette
- Opportunity to meet librarians and get tours
- Great networking opportunity
- Possible visit to UW – Milwaukee in the afternoon
- Information about carpooling and departure times will follow




October

All day on either Tuesday, October 6, or Wednesday, October 7 (exact dates are yet to be determined): Volunteer at the Ask-a-Librarian table at the Union. Every year SLIS students team up with campus librarians to staff a table at the Memorial Union. Think of it as a Reference Desk “on location.” Not only can you get experience serving patrons but you get to spend some quality time with a librarian. Advice from Second Year Students: These types of relationship building opportunities are very important to your on campus job searches and futures in general.

October 20th -23rd Wisconsin Library Association (WLA) Annual Conference – Appleton, WI (Aprox. 1.5 hr drive from Madison)
- ALSO will be coordinating a daytrip – details coming soon
- Conference info here: http://www.wla.lib.wi.us/conferences/2009/program/index.htm

The ALSO executive committee is also looking for help with some fundraising ventures
- Last year we had a really successful game night in the SLIS library. Students brought significant others and kids.
- Let us know if you have any ideas or just want to get involved, this is a great way to become active in the group immediately.


Thank you to all returning and new members for helping to make our first meeting a success! We look forward to an active new year with our fellow academic librarians!

Did you miss the meeting and want to get involved? Contact ALSO by commenting on this blog or emailing also.uw@gmail.com. You can also always feel free to contact the ALSO Co-Chairs, Jessica Gile Hutchings at jgile@wisc.edu or Amanda Kramer at adkramer@wisc.edu.