Monday, May 23, 2011

Update from Davis College, May 6

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Today was the 3rd Hooding Ceremony here at the School of Library and Information Science. We had over 50 graduates being hooded with their MLIS and more than 300 family members and friends joined us for a lovely reception in the halls of Davis. It was a party! Carolyn Delton and our staff put on the Ritz. We didn’t even mind that there was a cooling sprinkle of rain. Everyone was so happy and honored and the sense of accomplishments was palpable. Thank you all for coming and thank you faculty and staff for being the very best of hosts. A link to a video of the ceremony is included in your five things below.

Last night I was invited by our student association, LISSA and the spring 2011 graduates to give their Last Lecture. I thank you all for the honor. I have included a link below to the video but the sound wasn’t very good when I tried it. A transcript of my talk will be available on our website and I suggest you read it before you watch the video. I have a wonderful ‘portfolio’ presented by the students, wrapped in a garnet silk scarf and I will treasure both forever.

Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor delivered the commencement address at the general ceremony this afternoon. Her theme was the power of mothers and how belief in education is one of our great levelers. I hope you will take time to hear her speech as it really was a powerful and lovely piece. And speaking of mothers – Happy Mother’s Day to you all! It is a great day to celebrate so enjoy.

A couple of fall dates to save are September 13 for the 5th Annual Literacy Leaders’ Award Ceremony -- details to come – and the first week in October for ICOMM week, our celebration of all the great scholarly endeavors from our College. This year we will be hosting an ‘Infocamp unconference’ on the weekend of October 1 so stayed tuned for details.

I’ll be in Tucson helping my mother mend her broken hip for a bit but will be available by email or phone so just holler if you need me.

In the meantime, here are five things to view, read and think about. Hope you enjoy them and let me know if you have comments or questions.


1. Last Lecture, Thursday 5/5/2011:
http://breeze.sc.edu/p77679712/

2. Hooding Ceremony, Friday 5/6/2011:
http://breeze.sc.edu/p17878465/

A next-generation digital book [TED]

3. http://www.ted.com/talks/mike_matas.html

4. Transforming Traditional Organizations [Jeffrey Trzeciak]
http://live.libraries.psu.edu/mediasite/Viewer/?peid=c16bf3c92af14d76a316a5acb5faa0af

5. The Architecture of Access to Scientific Knowledge: Just How Badly We Have Messed This Up [Lawrence Lessig] http://vimeo.com/22633948


Always yours,

Dr. Sam

Thursday, March 17, 2011

GENERAL NEWS: End of Spring Break, SCASL, Five Things

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Today is the last day of Spring Break. The campus is quiet, the phones are almost silent and I just caught up with the hundreds of emails that never seem to stop. It’s not natural! I miss the students and the faculty and the noise and commotion and challenge of meeting the needs of such a diverse clientele! It’s good to be reminded that the reason we are here is for the students. It’s easy to forget that education is a two-way street and doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It is in the intersection of ideas that real education happens and it doesn’t work in solitude. I will be so happy when everyone is back to school!

In the meantime, we had the loveliest alumni tea at the SC Association of School Librarians’ (SCASL) conference. Cocky joined us as our special guest and the room was full of fun and laughter and good friends. Thank you to Nonie Price and Kim Jeffcoat for putting it together -- you make it perfect! I felt that we were spot on for the theme of the conference “Building Community @ your library,” we just build community wherever we go!

We have several fun events coming up that you don’t want to miss:

· March 17 Augusta Baker Endowed Chair Candidate Presentation (Dr. Michelle Martin) in the Hollings Library-Program Room of Thomas Cooper Libraries at 10:00.

· March 22 Augusta Baker Endowed Chair Candidate Presentation (Dr. Dianne Johnson) in the Hollings Library-Program Room of Thomas Cooper Libraries at 10:00.

· On April 2 we will be in Waynesboro VA for a day of fun with our West Virginia and Virginia students. Join us if you are in the neighborhood.

· On April 7 is our Deans’ and Directors’ Lecture and Dr. Michael Buckland http://people.ischool.berkeley.edu/~buckland/ will be our speaker. We will have Beta Phi Mu inductions around 6:30 and then our awards ceremony, the lecture and a reception following. I hope you will be able to join us. Our Advisory Councils will also meet on the afternoon of April 7 so if you have agenda items for consideration, please let me know by email to hastings@sc.edu .

We will webcast as much as possible from each event so watch the website for links.

I hope you had a great spring break and are ready to come back and finish up the semester. As a warm up, here are five things to read and think about:

1. Are Physical Interfaces Superior to Virtual Ones? [Technology Review]

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/mimssbits/26456/

2. Library of the future: Wi-Fi, flat screens, automated book sorting [Chicago Tribune]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/southsouthwest/ct-met-library-of-the-future-0308-20110307,0,5528757.story

3. Long Overdue, the Bookmobile Is Back [Smithsonian]

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/Long-Overdue-The-Bookmobile-Is-Back.html

4. Banned books return to shelves in Egypt and Tunisia [Guardian]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/feb/28/banned-books-return-egypt-tunisia

5. Librarians Join the Protesters in Madison [Library Journal]

http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/home/889461-264/librarians_join_the_protesters_in.html.csp

Let me know if there is anything we can do for you,

Dr. Sam

Thursday, February 03, 2011

GENERAL NEWS: Cool article on the qualitative use of digital books

2-1-11

You really need to see the cover of the Science issue this article appeared in for the full impact -- fascinating look at culture through ‘culturomics’ and a good scrubbing of the digital copies of 40 million ‘googlelized’ books for evidence in the study of human culture. http://www.sciencemag.org/content/331/6014/176.full.html

Enjoy!

Dr. Sam

GENERAL NEWS: A Report from ALISE, Spring Dates and 5 Things (Jan 25, 2010)

1-25-10

Hello dear Friends and Colleagues,

I am pleased to report that we were a big hit at the ALISE conference in San Diego. Our doctoral students, Christine Angel, Chris Cunningham, Robin Kurz, Barbara Montgomery and Patrick Roughen presented posters for the Works-in-Progress session, and Clayton Copeland presented a paper. I received several comments about their professional poise and the excellent quality of their work. We knew that, yet it sure is good to hear it from your colleagues! Several of our faculty also presented at sessions and served on committees so SLIS was well represented and in the limelight. The San Diego weather was on the cool side for southern California but no complaints since it was snowing here! Next year, ALA mid-winter and ALISE will be in Dallas so I look forward to more great work being shared.

We are busy recruiting with our federal IMLS funding for doctoral students with interests in cultural heritage informatics leadership (CHIL). The committee, chaired by Dr. Arns is currently interviewing potential candidates as we continue to search for the best and the brightest to come ‘CHIL’ with us.

Cocky’s Reading Express is rollin’ down the roads of South Carolina, reading to the children and working to eliminate illiteracy – if you want to volunteer, please contact Ellen Hinrichs ellenh@sc.edu. We are trying to find a large van for CRE to carry the student volunteers, the books, and of course, the Cocky! We need the money to buy the van and hopefully, a discounted offer from one of our friendly car dealers! Wish us luck and let me know if you have some good ideas for making this happen.

Two very uplifting events this weekend left me with great hope for the future of libraries. Friday night the first LISSA colloquium featured Todd Stephens, Director of the Spartanburg Public Library System. The video of the session is available and I highly recommend it! Todd was on a roll and shared his plans for keeping the Spartanburg Public Library as a central focus for funding. Todd has been collecting the cultural history of the community, systematically and in every format – very inspiring and great evidence that libraries are vital parts of our lives. Then, on Saturday I attended the South Carolina Library Association Leadership Meeting at the State Library. I know how dedicated the volunteers of this organization are and Saturday just proved it again! Look out as the new, improved, and even more relevant SCLA takes off! Check out the website revisions that will be coming soon thanks to Rob Lindsey and check out the legislative updates. Also note that the SCLA list has moved to Googlegroups and you will need to register to join. Both SCASL and SCLA are vital pieces of our professional landscape and I encourage you to stay active and continue your memberships. By renewing your membership, you are speaking out for South Carolina libraries in a most positive and very important way!

Spring Dates that you don’t want to miss include:

SCASL in Columbia, March 9 – 12
Dean’s Lecture TCL Hollings Room, April 7
Infocamp Conference Davis College, April 9 – 10
Baker’s Dozen, April 14 – 16 (with Leonard Marcus and a cast of thousands!)

SLIS Graduation and Hooding Ceremony, May 6
SC Book Festival, May 13 – 15

LIBRIS Conference in Orangeburg, May 20

If there are events I have missed please let me know and I’ll post them for you.

I just realized it’s raining pretty hard so I think I will try to make it home before Harden & Gervais flood. Here are five interesting links to explore and think about:

1. Adults With College Degrees in the United States, by County (this is a great map!)
http://chronicle.com/article/Adults-With-College-Degrees-in/125995/ [The Chronicle of Higher Education]

2. Humans vs. automated search: Why people power is cool again http://edition.cnn.com/2011/TECH/web/01/13/people.power.cashmore/index.html [CNN]

3. Network neutrality: A tangled web http://www.economist.com/node/17800141 [The Economist]

4. Library of the future: Despite Digital Age, expanded facility still likely to be utilized http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2010/oct/17/library-future-despite-digital-age-expanded-facili/ [LJWorld.com]

5. Ten Stories That Shaped 2010

http://lisnews.org/ten_stories_shaped_2010 [LISNews]

Sending all best wishes for a great new year and be sure to let me know if there is anything we can do for you.

Yours,

Dr. Sam

SLIS NEWS: Graduation and a recap of 2010 at SLIS (Dec 13, 2010)

December 13, 2010

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Our weather is so cold! No snow but cold, cold, cold. Of course, we still have our beautiful, perfect blue Carolina skies so we can’t really complain! I hope you have some holiday plans that make you smile and keep you warm.

Everything is good here at Davis College. We had a wonderful graduation today with many happy graduates and proud families. And, the welcome brunch was great! LISSA president BriAnne Baxley, her officers (Jenny Goulden, Kayla Burns and Sara Mason), and our faculty and staff put together a lovely menu of special treats and we toasted with coffee and orange juice before heading to Rutledge Chapel for the hooding ceremony. Thank you each and all for helping to make this day so memorable for our graduates.

It is always emotional to see our graduating students and the scores of family and friends that helped them get to such a good part of their lives. It makes me think about truth and beauty and justice and the potential that each graduate brings to us – the potential to change the world. Because of the high caliber of our SLIS graduates, I am convinced that the world will be a much better place with them on the front lines of libraries, leading and lighting the way, taking each challenge in stride.

This has been a most exciting year at the School of Library and Information Science. Among many projects and collaborations, there are three initiatives that are near and dear to my heart. First, our undergraduate degree in Information Science continues to grow! We have the very best of students in this new program and we can see a bright and successful future. Second, our doctoral students continue to grow into scholars and shining stars. They have done posters and papers at several conferences including SCLA, SCASL, ALA, ASIS&T, and ALISE this coming January. Having these unique and talented students in Davis College has energized everyone. They bring a sense of adventure and exploration of new frontiers, engaging our masters’ students and faculty in research collaborations and hallway conversations. We are getting ready to admit our CHIL fellows with the federal IMLS funding. Third, we continue to be the nexus for major research initiatives in literacy and children’s services. We are currently searching for our endowed chair in childhood literacy named for Augusta Baker and look forward to finding the perfect scholar to lead us in new adventures.

We are ready to bring in a new year with new challenges and opportunities. We remain grateful for our friends and each of you that support our projects and desires to eliminate illiteracy. We also appreciate all of the help to increase our scholarship funds.

Let me know if you need anything and in the meantime, I hope your holidays are wonderful!

Best wishes to you and yours,

Dr. Sam