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