GENERAL NEWS: Update from Davis College as the term draws to a close

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

I just looked at the calendar and there are only six weeks left in 2008. What happened? How did time compress itself? Geez! As you know, this has been a wonderful year for the School of Library and Information Science. We might be small in numbers but we sure are mighty in what we produce! Our graduates continue to shine and be the leaders in South Carolina and throughout the country. Our faculty continue to win awards and garner external funding. Our staff works hard and smart and seem to really like what they do (doesn’t get much better!) Of course, if we could count a cost of living raise, it would be perfect. However, we are taking budget cuts just like everyone else in South Carolina. We’ll be okay and we’ll come out of this stronger and better than ever!

Again, we thank Ms. Nonie Price and her team for making our alumni teas a most popular conference event! We have been using the teas for an opportunity to gather survey data for our accreditation plan for the ALA Committee on Accreditation. We submitted our plan for how we are going to build our presentation to the committee and have received initial feedback. We have a lot of numbers to crunch and a lot of strategic thinking to do. We really appreciate your help and trust that when we do ask you to take a survey or tell us what you think, you’ll be there!

We have tried to cover all of the major conferences this fall. So far, we have done SC Library Association, the Maine and New England Library Associations, Virginia Library Association and VEMA, COMO and Georgia Library Association, the Charleston and Ed Tech Conferences, International Association of School Libraries, American Society of Information Science and Technology (where I got the Watson-Davis Award! Wow!) and Museum Computer Network. I’ve probably missed some but I wanted you to see that we are out there, making contacts and letting people know that Carolina is a great place to be.

As we wind up another semester and get ready to celebrate the accomplishments of our current graduates, I can’t help but think about the many children in our state that will not get to attend a graduation of any kind because they can’t read. Cocky’s Reading Express™ is one program that we have in our larger initiative to eliminate illiteracy in South Carolina. The CRE bus will be rolling again in January. We can always use your help to bring this wonderful program to our children. They love Cocky! They promise Cocky that they will read! They treasure the books we give them! Anything you can do will be appreciated. You can contact Ellen Shuler Hinrichs directly with your gifts of time or books or funds: shulere@mailbox.sc.edu

If I don’t see you before, have a lovely Thanksgiving and remember that if you need anything, just let us know!

Until next time, here are some items to read or cogitate on:

1. From SCLA in Greenville: Librarians have redefined jobs
http://www.greenvilleonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/200810280200/COLUMNISTS02/810280324

2. Regarding our literacy initiative, this appeared in last Thursday’s edition of The Columbia Star from Temple Ligon. http://www.thecolumbiastar.com/news/2008/1114/government/011.html


3. Video games and libraries [The Ottawa Citizen]
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/editorials/story.html?id=dcb8c723-d154-493d-8d6d-1baad564294e

4. Reference librarians in the age of Google [Duke Magazine]
http://www.dukemagazine.duke.edu/dukemag/issues/091008/brave1.html


5. The Google library [Los Angeles Times]

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-google10-2008nov10,0,1285565.story

Take care and hug a teacher!


sam