From the Desk of Dr. Sam: <font color="#993300"> GENERAL NEWS: COA report, ALL Ceremony, Fall Semester, Third Year Review and More! </font>

September 11, 2009

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

It’s Friday afternoon at Davis College. Carolyn is at the post office, mailing printed copies of our Accreditation report to the ALA, Committee on Accreditation and the members of our External Review Panel. I just hit the send button on the electronic copies. Am I happy, you ask? Oh-my-gosh! I feel like an anvil just got lifted from my chest! I’m giddy and excited but mostly, I feel an intense pride in our faculty, staff and students. They made this happen. Check it out on our website – if you find a typo, don’t tell me until next week.

Now, I can look forward to the ALL Award Ceremony on Tuesday night, 9/15 at 5:00 p.m. at the State Library on Senate Street. This is the third annual and our awards go to Callee Boulware, Rodney Graves and Ida Thompson. Fox TV is giving us a live spot on Tuesday morning so look for Ellen Hinrichs; WIS is giving it air time; and Darci Strickland from WXTL is our master of ceremony for the event. I hope to see you there as we honor the individuals that make a difference by helping people read!

The semester is sailing smoothly – classes are running, research projects are humming and all of the community service we do is continuing to bring good results to both us and the people we serve. I’m most delighted with the possibilities we have to grow and improve on how we influence our field. From staffing libraries with professionals that know how to meet the needs of diverse communities to working to eliminate illiteracy in South Carolina, our School is there!

Thank you for the responses to my third-year review. I appreciate the accolades but really enjoyed hearing what you had to say and taking your suggestions to heart. I will try to communicate more ways for our alumni to volunteer and am working on getting more synergy between Journalism and SLIS. If you are one of my advisees, please note that nothing is more important than you! Don’t hesitate to contact me for anything you need.

Tomorrow (Saturday, September 12) is "Reading Rocks Our World," the kick-off of the Richland District One's focus on literacy, from 10 am to 2 pm. The parade and events are all at Crayton Middle School on Clemson Road. Hope to see you there! Jerry Pinkney is a featured author!

Remember:

· Our Panning for Gold series of continuing education programs (http://www.libsci.sc.edu/ce/September.html). There are some really good choices this month!

· October 25 for the 100^th birthday party for our beautiful Davis College

· SCLA October 28 – 30 http://www.scla.org/index.php/AnnualConference2009/HomePage

Here are five things to read and think about:

1. The lost art of reading [Los Angeles Times]

http://www.latimes.com/features/books/la-ca-reading9-2009aug09,0,1920172.story

2. Why Academic Libraries Matter [Library Journal]
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6675616.html

3. The future of libraries, with or without books [CNN]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/09/04/future.library.technology/

4. What Are You Doing for Library Card Sign-up Month? [School Library Journal]

http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6686647.html

5. Clive Thompson on the New Literacy [Wired]

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/17-09/st_thompson