GENERAL NEWS: Happy New Year, ALA, Donations

Happy New Year Dear Friends and Colleagues,

2007! Here we come! This is our year for all things bright and
beautiful at SLIS. We have our new programs coming online but we also
have two great advisory boards to help us develop a working plan for our
school and a diversity plan. Both our National Advisory Council and the
African American Leadership Group will be meeting in the next month to
continue their work and I look forward to their advise and support.

I will be in Seattle next week for the Association of Library and
Information Science Education meeting. Dean Bierbauer will also be
there on Monday and Tuesday. In addition to the Deans and Directors
meeting, there will be an education forum to discuss the proposed
changes to the ALA Standards for Accreditation. The proposed standards
are at http://www.ala.org/ala/accreditation/accredstandards/index.htm
and I encourage you to take a look. You can send your thoughts and
concerns directly to me or to the email link on the webpage. For
background reading I suggest the following article about the changing
roles of librarians
http://www.careerjournal.com/salaryhiring/industries/librarians/20070103-carmichael.html


These are interesting times for us. On one day I see a link at US News
and World Report saying that librarianship and information science are
two of the "hot" careers in 2007 and then I read about libraries closing
or weeding collections to leave only popular fiction or being unable to
provide services for the throng of after-school children. So, the
revisions of the standards that govern our professional education and
produce tomorrow's best and brightest should be of interest to us all.
I will let you know what I learn at ALISE.

Did you write your essay on how libraries transform lives over the
holidays? ;-} You can post them on the blog at
http://fridaymatters.blogspot.com. I will return to your five things
to think about next update.

In the meantime, remember us as you plan your giving and donations for
the year. We have several scholarships that often mean the difference
in a student being able to start or finish their degrees(
http://www.libsci.sc.edu/program/handbook/scholarshipslist.htm ) and
you can make your gift online at
https://giftsonline.sc.edu/contribute.asp. Thank you to all of you
that have given your help and support over the years. We couldn't be the
best without you!

yours,

sam