December 1997 Silverfish
Silverfish Masthead

December 1997 Silverfish


From the President

Hi,
Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving!

First of all, on behalf of the new ALISS crew, many thanks to last year's officers - Ken Thompson, Kathleen Bennett, Tiffany Tuttle, Andy Wickens, Sean McCain, Cass Shettleroe, Darla Linville, Victoria Ertelt, Carla Hopkins, Britt Fagerheim, and Jon McConnel - for their outstanding service and "heavy lifting." Their accomplishments include the addition of 2 new classes (534 - Webmaster and 535 - Systems Librarianship) to the GSLIS roster, the curriculum survey, and the change of degree name from "Master of Librarianship" to "Master of Library and Information Science."

Next, we want to enthusiastically welcome Betty Bengston as Acting Director during this period of yeasty - if chaotic - opportunity. See the ALISS bulletin board in Suzzallo 127 for her new letter regarding the director search progress. As Director of the UW Libraries, she has a lot of irons in the fire. Even so, she's available to talk to GSLIS folks. If you'd like to talk to her, you can make an appointment through her secretary, Linda Ambre (lambre@u).

Course Evaluations: Soon (if not already), your profs will be passing out course evaluation forms. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE take the time to fill these out honestly and thoroughly. It is an important source of information for those of us who are trying to improve/ enhance/evolve the curriculum, as well as fellow students who may wish/need to take these classes in the future.

Lounge Rehab: During Finals week, we're going to refresh and rehabilitate the Student Lounge. In preparation, we are asking everyone who has Stuff laying around in there (clothing, umbrellas, excess dishware, etc) to please glean it and take it home before Finals week. Along the same lines, please MARK your mugs/etc. with your last name and class year ("Marz, 97"). UNMARKED STUFF LEFT IN LOUNGE AFTER MONDAY, DEC. 15 WILL BE CONSIDERED 'GARAGE SALE' FODDER. Participants eagerly sought and cherished -- email ALISS Treasurer Tina Kay (tkay@u) to sign on for the work(etc)party.

Holiday event: We're talking about a daytime "potluck" event to include munchies, activities, storytelling, maybe a video or two, etc. sometime between Dec 18-24. Will be in 127 and over before 5p. Kids, spouses, friends, et alia welcome. If you're interested, email me with preferred date and number of guests (if any).

Winter Quarter "Early Warning": Next quarter, we'll be submitting for your approval an update/revision of the ALISS by-laws, and a poll soliciting your input re: GSLIS classes/etc. Additionally, there will be an Official Departmental Survey by GSLIS which students will be asked to respond to. Please take the time to consider your input -- it makes a difference! The ALISS by-laws are on the webpage.

And, most of your ALISS officers are in the Kane Computer Lab regularly. Feel free to chat with us!

Zoe


Letter From the Vice President

As the students who have just finished their first term paper for graduate school have found, there is not much current research in the Library and Information Science field. While this can be just an irritation when you are looking for that perfect article or book for your research paper, it can be a big opportunity as well. The research you do now, whether as a thesis paper or as part of a class or on your own, can make a big difference to the whole field. Every time you can't find something in the library literature, ask yourself if this is where you want to make your valuable contribution to Librarianship. I have heard lots of good ideas so far, and I hope you all will take this chance to shape the future of your chosen field.


Secretary's Report:

As a busy autumn quarter winds to a chaotic close, your ALISS secretary is pleased to report that the old-fashioned announcement systems we know as bulletin boards are coming under control. Keep your eyes open for a new look after the first of the year on the lounge hallway bulletin board--to match the lounge rehab that also will take place over the holidays. The goal is less clutter and more useful information.

According to the ALISS Constitution, the secretary's responsibilities include maintaining records and correspondence; maintaining the calendar and bulletin board for ALISS; organizing and delegating responsibility for the annual booksale; and serving concurrently as the chair for the booksale committee and serving in this capacity until its completion.

Feel free to contact me via e-mail (riesland@u) with any questions that fall under my jurisdiction. Happy Holidays!

During Spring Quarter, ALISS will be hosting a book sale to raise funds for conference scholarships. This means that if you'd like to go to a professional library conference (SLA, ALA, ASIS, etc.), but just don't have the money, maybe the department can help you out.

If you have any books, videos, etc. lying around the house, donate them to a good cause. Information: contact Melissa at riesland@u.


From Colloquia Rep

A preliminary agenda for Winter Quarter colloquia has been set and is as follows:

January 13: UW Omsbudsman Lois Price Spratlen speaking about the issue of Sexual Harassment and Perceived Mistreatment.

January 20: Sheryl Burgstahler, Assistant Director, Information Systems, Computing & Communications speaking about DO-IT (Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology) program.

February 3: Professor Sam Oh discussing his current research.

February 17: Steven Corbato, Manager, Network Engineering, Networks & Distributed Computing, UW, speaking on the Internet2 project.

March 3: Professor Lawrence Snyder, Computer Science Department, UW, speaking on the National Research Council project to determine national technical competencies.

If you have ideas about what you might like to see offered in the future, please e-mail them to me. I welcome all suggestions.

-Sarah Higgins (shiggins@u)


Upcoming SALA Events:

December 3: Service project at Bryant Elementary School at 3 p.m.
December 11: Service project at Van Asselt Elementary School at 4 p.m.

These projects only require a few hours of your time and the librarians really appreciate the effort. Some even show their gratitude with pizza! You don't have to be a member of SALA to participate.

New officer elections are just around the corner. Anyone interested in holding a position should contact a current officer.

We're considering having an end of the quarter happy hour, but only if there is enough interest.

bonster@u.washington.edu


Update on the University Initiatives Fund project: Health Science Interdisciplinary Clinical Education (HSICE)

Information on the Interdisciplinary Clinical Collaboration Project of particular interest to Health Sciences/Medical Librarians (and folks taking LIS 553 Winter Quarter) can be found at
http://healthlinks.washington.edu/courses/hsice/

The project involves faculty and students from all 6 health science schools (Dentistry, Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Public Health, Social Work) as well as the HS Library & Information Center, and the Graduate School of Library Science.

The project's initial goal is to create an interdisciplinary track in care of the urban, underserved and centered around the Harborview Medical Center and its community partners. Beginning Winter quarter we are

  1. strengthening the interdisciplinary team experiences of students from the schools who are already assigned to HMC (through conferences, intentional assignments to existing teams for example); and
  2. piloting interdisciplinary case-based, problem-based learning seminars on the HS campus. These will be focused around the urban underserved, but will eventually have a variety of foci, in order to create an ongoing mechanism for sustaining interdiscplinary clinical course work and experiences. Faculty from the steering group will lead these pilots in teams, and, jointly with students will develop the model for the future.

For winter, we are using the NURS 450 (connected learning) as a vehicle to provide credit to students in all the schools, and some schools are using their own special topics numbers. We already have 12 nursing students (mostly graduate) who have indicated interest and will need to create a waiting list for spring. The response is similar in all the schools.

We will apply for a UCONJ course number when the pilots are evaluated. Although there are similarities in the interdisciplinary process objectives to the UCONJ course used by the TIC (training in inter- professional collaboration) project, the seminars we will be developing are intended to add more possibilities rather than supplanting prior efforts. Further, our seminar is focused around populations specifically seeking health and illness care, whereas the TIC project is more broadly socially based.

Last, we will be beginning in Winter and Spring to recruit undergraduate and graduate students across the schools specifically to the urban, underserved track for clinical placement at HMC. We will be adding seminars based there as well as on campus, and will add interdisciplinary team projects developed in collaboration with HMC services and community partners. Eventually, we hope to create a mechanism by which all students in all the schools will have some explicit interdisciplinary clinical problem-solving and experience at some point in their time with the UW.

Registration Details: I think the best bet is probably to have students register as a GSLIS 599 with me (Sherrilynne Fuller) as faculty member of record. Per memo below students could alternatively sign up for Nursing 450 (but I'll leave that to Judith to recommend to me what is best. I'm also asking that students also register to take my course winter quarter LIS 553, Information Access in the Health Sciences.)

We would like to meet with interested students to go over the details of the course so tell them to get in touch with me ASAP if they wish to enroll in the HSICE course.

Sherri Fuller
sfuller@u.washington.edu


Lab News

GSLIS Lab is Hiring!!

The GSLIS Computer Lab is now hiring student helpers for the Winter Quarter. Duties include assisting users with basic computing skills, searching the Internet and various on-line vendors such as, Dialog, Datastar, Lexis-Nexis, etc.

Qualifications: GSLIS major standing; previous computer experience.

Salary: $7.00/hour

All positions are part-time up to 19.5 hours a week. Applications are available at the GSLIS Office and the Computer Lab. If you have any questions please contact:

Scott Schramke
schram@u.washington.edu
543-2869
or
Judith Nyman-Schaaf
nschaaf@u.washington.edu
543-1794

Technology Fee Grants

The ASUW is once again soliciting applications for technology grants. These grants are derived from the Tech Fee that every student pays as part of there tuition. Since this is YOUR money, I would like your input about ideas for enhancing the GSLIS's computer systems. I'm looking for ideas about acquiring new computers, peripherals, software, etc. Let me know by e-mail (schram@u) or place your ideas in the Lab's suggestion box.


Announcements

End of Quarter Party The end of quarter party is going to be on Friday, December 19th at 6:00 pm at Round Table Pizza. Everyone is welcome: students, faculty, staff, significant others, and kids! More Details and reminders will be forthcoming...

Lounge Reminder Don't forget to clean your belonging out of the Student Lounge and label your coffee mugs with your name and class year before December 12, as the lounge is going to be cleaned mercilessly. See the details in the letter from the President, above.

back to Silverfish index