Florida Library Association 2010 Book Cart Drill Team Competition

The Annual FLA Book Cart Drill Team Competition will be held during the 2010 FLA Conference in Orlando, Florida. If you don't know what to expect at a Book Cart Drill Team event check out this video from the 2008 FLA Conference. There are also many other videos under the search term book cart drill team available at www.youtube.com/. If you are interested in participating be sure to read the Team Rules and Guidelines and complete an application. Both are available by clicking here.

Book Cart Drill Team

Drill Team members who are not attending any sessions, exhibits or events other than the competition, will not be charged conference registration fees. FLA is generously providing these individuals with a free pass to the vendors' exhibition for the day of the competition, this pass does not include food and beverages which are being offered to full conference registrants.

Event Details:
April 8, 2010 * 10:30AM
Rosen Plaza Hotel
Orlando, Florida

1st Prize $250 DEMCO Gift Certificate
2nd Prize $150 DEMCO Gift Certificate
3rd Prize $100 DEMCO Gift Certificate

Trophies awarded for:
Best Costumes; Best Decorated Carts and WOW Factor
-JV

East Coast Reading Guidance Class Celebrates the Year of the Tiger

Whenever possible students on the East Coast experience something different in terms of what goes on when the class meets. Dr. Smith's Reading Guidance class recently took part in celebrating the Chinese Year of the Tiger. T. J. Chang, a graduate from our SLIS Program is originally from Taiwan. T.J. is now the branch manager at the California Club Branch Library of the Miami-Dade Library System. His wife, Yung Tun, teaches elementary school in Taiwan. It just happened that she was here on Spring Break and the two were able to come to the face to face class. But not only did they come, they brought other guests with them. There was Mark, a quiet musician who played the Erhu, a two stringed Chinese instrument with a sound box made of python skin, and there was Casper, Mark's teen-age son, a sophomore at Douglas High in Miami. He displayed his dexterity with the very sophisticated Chinese Diabolos. He explained that these were an outgrowth of the early Yo-Yo! It was mind boggling to watch him.

Mark playing the Erhu.

T.J.'s wife, Yung Tun, played another Chinese instrument, the Gu Zheng. This is an instrument with 21 strings, tuned to the pentatonic scale. T.J., an accompmlished storyteller, treated the class to the story of how the twelve signs of the Chinese Zodiac came to be and why the cat is not one of the signs.

Yung Tun playing the Gu Zheng.

The session was topped off with everyone participating in a Tea Ceremony, and eating Chinese dried peas, each person using her or his own personal chopsticks. Watching the synchronized movements of T.J. and Yung Tun was like watching a symphony in motion as they simultaneously set out the cups, measured and blended the tea with steaming hot water and invited all to partake.

Yung Tun playing the Gu Zheng.

A memorable evening, enjoyed by everyone and the FULLNESS of the visit, a total surprise!

Click here to see more photos from the event.

- HMS

Blues at the Library @ Upper Tampa Bay Regional Library

Wednesday, Feb. 24, 7 p.m.
Blues at the Library
Upper Tampa Bay Regional Public Library, 11211 Countryway Blvd. in Tampa

Live guitar performance by Dr. Scott Simon of University of South Florida, followed by a presentation on music libraries. This is a free program provided by the Friends of the Upper Tampa Regional Public Library.
~SS

USF SLIS Represented at Regional Children's Literature Symposium

USF Sarasota/Manatee's College of Education and FATE (Florida Association of Teacher Educators) co-sponsored the fourth annual Children's Literature Symposium last Saturday, February 20th, 2010.

With the title The Value and Evolution of Story, the symposium addressed topics related to the history of stories as well as evolutions in and of literature. Opening keynote speaker Dr. Eric Tribunella, from the University of Southern Mississippi, presented a talk and discussion on "Pedophobia: Babes in the Woods, Unwanted Orphans, and Other Cases of Child-Hating in Children's Literature." The closing keynote address presented by Dr. Lance Weldy, from Francis Marion University, analyzed "The Textual Evolution(s) of Prince Caspian." Teachers, teacher-educators, academics, and librarians present in the event enjoyed many interesting breakout sessions with thought-provoking topics and original ideas, such as using graphic novels with ELL students, intergenerational narratives, storytelling, and myths in the modern world.

The symposium also included a series of poster sessions by teachers and students, including our own USF SLIS student Patricia Carr, who presented her poster Good Grief! The Fine Line Between Tragedy and Comedy, in which she compared Beverly Cleary's Dear Mr. Henshaw and Sue Townsend's The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 ?? and examined the tragic, comic, and structural elements that make these stories so successful.

"The Fourth Annual Children's Literature Symposium at USF Sarasota-Manatee was delightful, because of the spectrum of scholarly works presented spanned the history of children's literature around the globe and covered current trends in books, film, music, and digital media, as well as emerging technologies that are influencing the publishing industry, school classrooms, and libraries today," said Carr, a a Library Assistant with the Alachua County Library District and USF SLIS student."

USF SLIS Student Patricia Carr presenting her poster at the Selby Auditorium

USF SLIS Professor, Dr. Ann Riedling, Contributes Poster to ICDL 2010 in New Delhi, India

Dr. Ann Riedling, Associate Professor at USF, will contribute her poster "Approaches to Teaching and Learning Information Retrieval Online: Extreme Searching!" to this year's International Conference on Digital Libraries (ICDL). The conference will be held from February 23-26 in New Delhi, India and will allow experts in the field of library science to discuss issues pertinent to the development of digital libraries. Dr. Riedling will not be able to present her poster in person, but it will be presented on Wednesday, February 24.

This year's conference theme is "Digital Libraries: Shaping the Information Paradigm", which will focus on the advantages of digital libraries and "their role in education, cultural, social and economic development." 2010 marks the third meeting if ICDL.

~JV

Jim Schnur- Left-Right, Left Right-Sit Down

Jim Schnur, SLIS adjunct professor and grad, was inducted into the Tampa Bay Rays Wall of Fame at Tropicana Field on 2/20/ 2010. He was selected for his loyalty and intensity. He was also honored for his loud calls to opposing teams-"Left Right, Left Right-Sit Down!" from the Belfry.

2010 Wall of Fame Induction at Tropicana Field

"Technics Or Humanization In Librarianship?"

from "Technics Or Humanization In Librarianship?" by Helen E. Haines. Library Journal, Sept. 1, 1938.

"The foundations of the profession were established on Literature, in the older meaning of the term: on books as components of culture and character... on reading as inspiration, enlightenment and joy. Of course, immediate phases of development were practical; new processes and inventions, mechanical and bibliographical; the spread of library buildings; the planning and construction of unified city systems; the stage of ardent "missionary" campaigns in country regions; but booklore and book knowledge were essentials in the librarian's own professional background. In the influence of such leaders as Mr. Cutter, Mr. Larned, Miss Plummer, there was a spirit of culture, a responsiveness to books, that might now be thought "unlrealistic," but that enriched and humanized the librarian's vocation. This spirit is less evident today. The trend in librarianship moves rather toward and arid, specialized intellectualism or a streamlined adding-machine efficiency in the operation of mechanical processes.

Lewis Mumford gave us a word for it, as he surveyed the historical rise and sweep of the machine age adn showed us technics transforming civilization. In present-day librarianship the rise of technics - the growing emphasis upon statistical research, upon scientific-mathematical mechanization of library functions - is transforming the librarian's cultural background. It is replacing the warm personal understanding and use of book-values in human relationships by an impersonal acceptance of model formulas that is impervious to universals of human experience and unaware of the richness and stimulus of creative art.

.... There are, I think, two fallacies underlying technics as thus applied to book selection: first, that individual human beings, each one peculiar to itself, can be transmuted into mathematical figments; second, that book values, potent but imponderable, can be translated into statistical formulas for automatic mass application. Such a study of reading as Mr. Compton gave us in his brochure, Who Reads What? draw from individual circulation records, has more validity, is more representative of actualities of library book service, than elaborate tabulations demonstrating that a woman of, say, thirty-five, who has a high school education, who is unmarried, and who works in a newspaper office, reads books of the same kind and quality as do all other women of thirty-five, with high school education, who are unmarried, and who work in a similar semi-professional field. Of course, she doesn't; neither do they.

Aldous Huxley, in Ends and Means, says:

We shall never deal effectively with our human problems until we temper our longing for rational simplification by the recognition in things and events of a certain residue of irrationality, diversity, and specificity.

Certainly, such recognition should come naturally and usefully from librarians. They deal with people and books; and in each these residues are ever present. To know and love books is to move with assurance and understanding through the immense range of human experience, to be aware of infinite variations of human nature; and only through this assurance, this understanding, can the relationship of books to readers through library service be made a vital, inspiring social force.

There is a minor by-product of the present preoccupation with tecnhics in librarianship that may be noted. That is the mushroom growth in our professional literature of what I can only call the jargon of the educational-treatise pattern. Long familiar in its own field - in texts and monographs, in technical studies - only within the last few years has it taken root and flourished in library scholarship, superseding simplicity and vigor in literary expression. There is a deadly monotony, a mind-numbing vapor generated by these arid sentences, these denatured, hackneyed words, brought together in formalized affirmations, that dull the most receptive intelligence. Here is an example:

Our argument points once more, then, to the need for social objectives, meaning criteria of social value, by which to judge, prefer, or reconcile, standards of taste and community reading needs. The formulation of these criteria will be the principle administrative function of public library book selection, and the procedure comprises not simply what at present passes for library science, but co-operation with any discipline which can contribute something to the elucidation of the problem.

It would be a boon to the library profession, I am sure, if among its elaborate studies now in process upon how to impart readability to books, one might be directed upon its own professional literature. At least, I should like to see a librarian's boycott declared or a rigid limitation enforced upon such words as "major objectives," "criteria," "function," "median," and "differentials." But my concerns with the present trend toward technics in librarianship is simply as it diminishes the librarian's own cultural background or dries up the springs of personal book knowledge and book love, which must have outlet and widening channels if they are to flow. I believe that books, in their diversity, their individual qualities, their radiations of influence, should play a larger part than they do in our present library school training; that they should not be regarded simply as tools of professional routine or as ready-cut building material for the library's structure of public service; but that they should be the basis and the inspiration for the librarian's own professional philosophy and practice. How much of the older "literary" element remains among the manifold activities of library school students today? I remember well the "poetry club" of the New York State Library School that flourished for many years; the foreign fiction discussions at Pratt, opening new world horizons; the lively play of conflicting opinions on creative literature - poetry, plays, novels - the vigorous discussion of new books in different fields, which were likely to ripple when young librarians (and older ones) met.

...

Librarianship ought to mean personal fellowship with literature - catholicity, tolerance, receptivity toward the new, familiarity with those older tideways from which fresh currents rise, diverge and flow endlessly through time; and always zest in an infinite adventure of exploration and discovery. It is true, as Dr. Canby said the other day, that the lover of the art of literature develops a wonderful tolerance for all sincere writers, no matter how diverse or mistaken their aims. Only the librarian who possesses this love can test, and know, and apply those book values which are not values of fact, of utilitarian information, but values also of imagination, of vicarious participation in the common emotions, the moving aspirations, the tragic experiences and the simple pleasures of human life and human nature. And in the recognition and application of these values is the humanization that offsets technics in librarianship.

This humanization of book service through knowledge of and enthusiasm for books is a very present need..."

- from "Technics Or Humanization In Librarianship?" by Helen E. Haines. Library Journal, Sept. 1, 1938.

posted by KdlPMc and thanks to David Wright who posted at his Facebook page.

SLIS hosts guest speaker Dr. Jamshid Beheshti on March 1, 2010

USF SLIS is proud to be hosting a presentation by Dr. Jamshid Beheshti. Dr. Beheshti holds degrees in Mining Technology, History, and Information Studies from British Columbia Institute of Technology, Simon Fraser University, and University of Western Ontario, respectively. He has taught at the School of Information Studies at McGill University for more than twenty five years, where he has was appointed as the Director of the School for six years. He was later appointed the Associate Dean of the Faculty of Education, and the Interim Dean of the Faculty.

Dr. Jamshid Beheshti

Dr. Beheshti's areas of expertise are children-computer interaction, information retrieval, and library systems. Children seek and interact with information differently than adults. The objective of his presentation is to discuss the design and development of bilingual web portal interfaces specifically for Children.

Event Details
Date: March 1, 2010
Time: 10:30 A.M. - 12:00 P.M.
Location: TECO Room - EDU/DAC 103 at USF Main Campus - Tampa
Title of Talk: "Bilingual Web Portals for Children: The Challenges"
There is no cost for this event. Everyone is Welcome!
~JV

SLIS Student, Pat Carr, Presents Papers at Upcoming Conferences

Congratulations to Pat Carr, current SLIS student, for being selected to present two papers this Spring! On Feb. 20th, Pat will present her paper, "Good grief! The Fine Line Between Tragedy and Comedy" as a poster session at the Fourth Annual Children's Literature Symposium at USF-Sarasota-Manatee. Pat will also be presenting her paper, "Celebrate the Freedom to Read in Any Format," as a poster session at the 2010 FLA Conference in Orlando.

Penny Beile receives Distinguished Librarian Award

SLIS Adjunct Penny Minton Beile

Penny Minton Beile, interim department head for reference services and department head of the Curriculum Materials Center at the University of Central Florida (UCF) Libraries and adjunct instructor in the University South Florida School of Library and Information Science, is the recipient of the 2010 Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Education and Behavioral Sciences Section (EBSS) Distinguished Education and Behavioral Sciences Librarian Award.

This award honors a distinguished academic librarian who has made an outstanding contribution as an education or behavioral sciences librarian through accomplishments and service to the profession. A prize of $2,000 and a plaque, donated by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., will be presented to Beile at the EBSS program at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 26, during the 2010 ALA Annual Conference in Washington D.C.

To continue reading about Penny Minton Beile, please click here.

Congratulations, Penny!
-JP

SLIS Alumna Julie Moore wins Nancy B. Olson Award

Since 1986, The Online Audiovisual Catalogers organization (OLAC) has selected one outstanding cataloging librarian to receive the annual Nancy B. Olson Award. The award is designated to honor librarians who have "made significant contributions to the advancement and understanding of audiovisual cataloging." This year's winner in a unanimous vote is Julie Moore, Catalog Librarian at California State University, Fresno. The award will recognize Julie for her work as co-author and co-editor of Guide to Cataloging DVD and Blu-ray Discs Using AACR2r and MARC 21 : 2008 Update as well as for her efforts co-chairing an ALA ALCTS/OLAC preconference in 2009 entitled "Cataloging Digital Media-Back to the Future." Congratulations, Julie!

Moore (left)

USF Library Students at TEDxTampaBay

TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) touts itself as a conference for "Ideas worth spreading."

"The annual conferences in Long Beach and Oxford bring together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes)."

This year TED will host about 50 speakers, including Bill Gates, David Byrne, Valerie Plame, and Stephen Wolfram. But the best talks are often from folks you've never heard of. (For example this year check out Jane McGonigal, Stewart Brand, and Ze Frank.)

In the interest of spreading the TED model around the world TED launched TEDx. A "program that enables local communities such as schools, businesses, libraries, neighborhoods or just groups of friends to organize, design and host their own independent, TED-like events."

This year is the first year for TEDxTampaBay and two three USF School of Library & Information Science students are involved.

Arlen Bensen is a co-host and has been instrumental in organizing, stage design, and bringing in speakers.

Arlen is currently doing his fieldwork student work at Safety Harbor Public Library and is a Graduate Assistant at USF School of Library and Information Science.

Helping with the event is David Davisson. Dave is assisting with the social media and will be tweeting, blogging, and streaming information to the Facebook fan page throughout the day.

Nancy Petty will also be on hand to help speakers monitor their speaking time and act as support staff for the event.

TEDxTampaBay is this Friday, February 12. Be sure to check out the event. Speakers this year include Jimmy Wales (Jimmy's talk was canceled due to inclement weather), founder of Wikipedia, and James Tokley, first official Poet Laureate of the city of Tampa.

Click here for a slideshow from the event. Click here to see the talks on youtube.

Call for Student Scholarship Applications for the 2010 FLA Conference

Suncoast Information Specialists (SIS) would like to announce it's annual student scholarship for attendance at the 2010 Florida Library Association (FLA) Conference on April 7 - 9, 2010.

SIS is accepting applications for three student scholarships to attend the 2010 Florida Library Association Conference at the Rosen Plaza Hotel, Orlando, Florida. The maximum amount of the award is $150.

Application deadline: March 1, 2010
Announcement of winners: March 10, 2010
You can find scholarship information, guidelines, and application at http://www.tblc.org/sis/fla.htm
-JP

USF SLIS Alum Chosen to Attend MPLA Leadership Institute

Tom Taylor, Continuing Education Coordinator for the South Central Kansas Library System (SCKLS) in South Hutchinson, Kansas has been selected to attend the Mountain Plains Library Association (MPLA) Leadership Institute April 25-30, 2010 in Estes Park, Colorado. Taylor is one of only thirty attendees selected from a twelve state region. Taylor is a native of McPherson, Kansas. He received a Master of Library and Information Science degree from the University of South Florida and a Bachelors of Arts degree from Bethel College (KS). SCKLS provides grants, consulting, continuing education and cost-effective support services to 147 member libraries in twelve counties.

Congratulations, Tom!

Lauren Christos: 2009-2010 Chair of the Intellectual Freedom Round Table

Lauren Christos is the 2009-2010 Chair of the American Library Association's Intellectual Freedom Round Table (IFRT); the grass roots intellectual freedom organization founded in 1973. The IFRT serves as a channel of communications on intellectual freedom matters. The most recent IFRT Report is available online.

Issue 73, Winter 2010 of the IFRT Report

Also visit the IFRT blog. As a previous IFRT Report Editor, Lauren Christos expressed:

"My experiences with the Round Table over the years have given me an incredible appreciation and passion for this work."

Lauren Christos is a USF SLIS Alumni. She is currently an Associate Librarian in the Reference Department at the Biscayne Bay Campus Library, Florida International University. Congratulations, Lauren Christos!
-EE

This Book Is Overdue!: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All

--- a topical, witty study of the vital ways modern librarians uphold their traditional roles as educators, archivists, and curators of a community legacy. Illuminating the state of the modern librarian with humor and authority, Johnson showcases librarians working on the cutting edge of virtual reality simulations, guarding the Constitution and redefining information services-as well as working hard to serve and satisfy readers, making this volume a bit guilty of long-form reader flattery. Johnson also makes the important case for libraries-the brick-and-mortar kind-as an irreplaceable bridge crossing economic community divides. Johnson's wry report is a must-read for anyone who's used a library in the past quarter century.

KdlPMc

We want more cowbell!

There's a new face among The Tampa Bay Rays' Fan Wall of Fame. Jim Schnur will officially join the exclusive group of indisputably faithful Rays fans. Jim is Special Collections Librarian at USF St. Petersburg's Nelson Poynter Library and adjunct professor for USF's LIS department.

Members of The Rays' Fan Wall of Fame are awarded: "permanent recognition on the Wall of Fame at Tropicana Field, two tickets for one game in the 2010 season, a commemorative plaque, an official "Wall of Famer" jersey, and Pepsi/Rays merchandise." Congratulations, Jim!

Raymond--Mascot of The Tampa Bay Ray

Marcela Estevez: a 2009-2011 ARL Diversity Scholar

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) held the Sixth Annual Leadership Symposium in Boston on January 16-17, 2010. The Leadership Symposium allowed for over 70 MLIS students the opportunity to build career networks in research libraries. Marcela Estevez, a MLIS student here at the University of South Florida, is one of 20 students who is a 2009-2011 ARL Diversity Scholar.

Current SLIS Graduate Student Marcela Estevez

The ARL Initiative to Recruit a Diverse Workforce, funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services and ARL member libraries, provides a stipend, up to $10,000 over two years, to assist with the costs of a MLIS education. The purpose of the program is to attract students from underrepresented groups to careers in academic and research libraries creating a diverse academic and research library community.

Along with the stipend, awardees receive attendance to ARL's annual Leadership Institute, a visit to an ARL member library, mentoring from an ARL librarian or Diversity Scholar alumni, and paid membership in one of five ethnic caucuses of the ALA. Marcela Estevez will be visiting Purdue University Libraries in April 2010 to view the advanced operations of a major research library. Congratulations, Marcela Estevez!
-EE

Serving Patrons with Disabilities

Author of "A Few Good Books"

Given the current economic challenges, how prepared are libraries to serve patrons with disabilities?

Dr. Stephanie Maatta's current research examines the intersection between patrons with disabilities and information and communication technology. At the ALA Midwinter meeting she, along with Dr. Laurie Bonnici (who received her MLIS from USF in 1996) and Muriel Wells, presented some early findings of their research.

This research is supported by an ALA Office of Diversity's Diversity Research Grant awarded in June 2009.

An article from this research, "National Accessibility Survey: Librarians Serving Patrons with Disabilities in the U.S. and Abroad," by Bonnici, Maatta, and Wells will be published soon in New Library World.