The Board of Directors of the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE) strongly opposes President Trump’s proposal to eliminate the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) in the FY2018 budget. Over the past 20 years, IMLS funding has made it possible for students and library professionals to pursue formal and continuing education opportunities in library and information science. IMLS has also funded numerous research projects that have contributed to economic development, increased information access and expanded our understanding of cultural institutions and the important roles they play in enriching American society. The elimination of IMLS will be devastating not only to libraries and museums nationwide, but to library and information science programs around the country. 

Dr. Evelyn Markwei of the University of Ghana was awarded the ISSA Most Inspiring Lecturer Award. She introduced a community service project into her Undergraduate Information Retrieval Class. About 400 students in groups of 10 will be going out to teach Junior High School Students in underprivileged schools to teach basic and advance search techniques and introduce them to educational websites relevant to their subject areas. The purpose of the project is to:

1. Introduce them to community service which is rare at their level
2. Practice team work
3. Improve on their presentation skills 
4. Re-enforce what they have learnt in class, and 
5. Acquire new skills such as use of storyboards, video shooting and video editing.

They will be making 15-minute videos of the whole exercise for grading.

Congratulations Evelyn!

Greetings,

The Board of the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE) strives to make financially sound decisions, and is therefore seeking to identify affordable conference venues in the future. This survey will assist the ALISE Board in making decisions about the conference location in 2019 and in following years. The survey should take no more than 5 minutes of your time, and is open to ALISE members and non-members. Please use the link below to access the survey, which will close on April 7, 2017. Thank you for taking the time to share your opinions!

The ALISE Board extends its deepest sympathies to the family of Dr. Eugene Garfield (September 16, 1925 - February 26, 2017), who passed away on February 26th. Dr. Garfield was a pioneer in library and information science. He founded the Institute for Scientific Information, which developed important citation databases that we now know as the Web of Science. He was a leading contributor to research in scholarly communication, bibliometrics and scientometrics. Each year, ALISE honors outstanding doctoral dissertations addressing substantive issues in library and information science with the ALISE/Eugene Garfield Doctoral Dissertation Award.

The 2016 Statistical Reports are now available! This annual report on LIS education compiles, analyzes, interprets, and reports statistical information about LIS programs offered by ALISE member schools. These reports are offered in a new excel format. ALISE members receive free access to the statistical reports. If you are not a member, you can purchase the report for $135. Learn more.

The ALISE Board of Directors issue the following statement regarding the recent executive presidential order banning entry of citizens of selected countries into the United States.

In light of the recent U.S. presidential executive order banning entry of citizens from several Muslim-majority nations into the United States, the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE) reiterates its unwavering support for diversity and international perspectives in the education and representation of library and information professionals in the United States, regardless of country of origin. We are a global community of students, professionals, educators and scholars who benefit society through our diverse experiences and perspectives. We also wish to reiterate our support for our library and information science education colleagues in all affected nations.

Lynnsey Weissenberger, Adjunct Professor at the School of Information, Florida State University has been awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Fellowship for two years of postdoctoral research in the European Union. Her research project, LITMUS (Linked Irish Traditional Music) will focus on the development of the first linked data ontology specifically to address the needs of Irish traditional song, instrumental music and dance, and by extension serve as a reference point for other Linked Data projects involving orally based music traditions. More details may be found online.

Professor Lesley Farmer, College of Education, California State University Long Beach, recently authored Managing the Successful School Library, published last month by ALA. Professor Farmer is also the manager for the California State University ICT Literacy Project. Its mission is to help faculty integrate ICT literacy into their curriculum. Visit the ICT literacy portal.

Be a Part of ALISE 2018!  

Several opportunities will be available to participate in ALISE 2018. Please view the documents below for more details:

• Call for Participation
• Call for Juried Paper Proposals
• Call for Juried Panel Proposals 
• Call for ALISE Jean Tague-Sutcliffe Doctoral Student Poster Competition
• Call for Works In Progress Poster Showcase
• Call for SIG Session Proposals

The School of Information Science & Learning Technologies at the University of Missouri is proud to announce the following:

• Heather Moulaison Sandy published the second edition of Digital Preservation for Libraries, Archives, and Museums, with her co-author Edward M. Corrado. The book is available from Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
• Jenny S. Bossaller served as co-editor with Kathleen de la Peña McCook on the third edition of Introduction to Public Librarianship, published by ALA Neal-Schuman.
• Sanda Erdelez co-authored Incidental Exposure to Online News with Borchuluun Yadamsuren, available from Morgan & Claypool Publishers in the Synthesis Lectures on Information Concepts, Retrieval, and Services.
• On April 8th, 2017, the Library and Information Science Graduate Student Association will host its 4th annual research conference, with the theme “Engaging Your Community.” Registration is free and all are welcome.

Professor Tatjana Aparac-Jelusic from the University of Zadar, Croatia is pleased to announce the Erasmus+ funded project entitled European Information Science Education: encouraging mobility and learning outcomes harmonization – EINFOSE, which is a joint effort by eight European higher education institution partners (Barcelona, Boras, Graz, Hildesheim, Ljubljana, Osijek, Pisa, and Ankara). Starting from the chosen priorities offered by the EU funding bodies, the project's main goal is to investigate how the commonly accepted entry requirements and introduction of innovative teaching methods could motivate students, improve teaching and strengthen the network of HEIs in the IS field. Furthermore, it will also enable students to specialize in certain topics (such as digital humanities, scholarly communication and big data, economy of information, sociology of media, etc) at those institutions that have experts on these or other relevant topics.

The first summer school will be held in August 2017 in Hildesheim, Germany, and the second in Graz, Austria in July, 2018. Colleagues interested in details about the project could contact the project's coordinator, Professor Tatjana Aparac-Jelusic at: [email protected].

Ann Graf, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee doctoral dissertator and adjunct instructor, received the best paper award at the International Society for Knowledge Organization (ISKO) conference held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in September for her submission titled “Describing an Outsider Art Movement from Within: The AAT and Graffiti Art.”

Tess Prendergast, member of the ALISE Youth Services SIG, has had an article published in Library Trends.

Prendergast, T. (2016). Seeking early literacy for all: An investigation of children’s librarians and parents of young children with disabilities’ experiences at the public library. Library Trends, 65(1), 65-91.

Sarah Park Dahlen, Assistant Professor at St. Catherine University, recently worked with an illustrator to create an infographic showing the lack of diversity in children's literature, using the University of Wisconsin-Madison Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC) statistics. Her blog post has been seen by more than 40,000 people around the world, and has already been published in journals such as Knowledge Quest and displayed at multiple conferences. The JPG/PDF is available under a creative commons license. 

Nicole Cooke, Assistant Professor at the iSchool at the University of Illinois, received the 2017 ALA Achievement in Library Diversity Research Award for her contributions to the profession and her promotion of diversity. More information on her award may be found online.

Professor Cooke also recently authored a book published by Libraries Unlimited titled Information Services to Diverse Populations: Developing Culturally Competent Library Professionals. Learn more.

The 2017 ALISE Annual Conference has an app! Bookmark our mobile web app on your iPhone, Android, or Blackberry phone by visiting http://alise2017.sched.org/mobile. Create an account, view your personal schedule, browse what's happening right now or search for what you want to do at the conference. The mobile web app stores the schedule data locally on your phone for offline access too.

You can also check out our Interactive Conference Schedule by going to http://alise2017.sched.org/. 

The ALISE Board of Directors is happy to extend our congratulations to the winners of the ALISE 2017 Election.

Vice-President / President-Elect

Heidi Julien, SUNY Buffalo - New York

YALSA has opened up its call for program proposals for our 2017 YA Services Symposium, which will be held November 3 -5, 2017 in Louisville, KY.  This annual event regularly draws 500 attendees. The title of the event is “Libraries: Helping all Teens Build a Better Future,” and it will focus on the ways libraries can engage with community partners to help teens—especially those with the most need—build the skills they need to be successful in college, careers and life. YALSA is accepting program and paper proposals through Feb. 1, 2017. Please know that topics like partnerships, learning outcomes & evaluation, connected learning, learning spaces, making, digital literacy, college & career readiness, workforce development, youth participatory action, etc. are the types of things YALSA seeking to highlight at the conference. YALSA’s official focus in terms of age range for youth is 12-18, so that is something to bear in mind. To submit a proposal, please use these online forms: program proposal or paper proposal.

Registration is now open for the 2017 ALISE Annual Conference! Join us from January 17-20 at the Sheraton Atlanta Hotel to hear from leaders in Library and Information Science Education. The 2017 Annual Conference will have networking opportunities, poster sessions, plenary sessions, and exhibitors that will keep you up to date on all the latest research and trends in the LIS industry.

Learn more about registration, the hotel, sponsorship opportunities. 

Every three years, the ALISE Board undertakes a strategic planning exercise. As part of this important process, the ALISE Board is seeking input from both members and non-members to help guide the planning process in how to best serve the interests of current and future ALISE members. This survey should take no more than 10 minutes to complete. 

If you are a current ALISE member, please complete this short survey.

If you are not a current ALISE member, please complete this short survey,