Student Member Blog
Thirty-two Chapters (aka state library associations) partner with ALA to offer students the opportunity to join them and ALA for one low price of $38, now through August 31, 2015. ALA asks you to join online by completing the secure forms found at the joint membership program page. If you join online, ALA membership and the participating Chapters each receive a receipt that day of your having joined! And you save the cost of mailing or faxing your application! These are the 32 state library associations participating in the joint student membership program: Alabama Library Association Arizona Library Association...
Last December East Carolina University MLS students weren’t only finalizing papers and preparing for exams, they were busy collecting materials for the ALA Student Chapter’s annual Holiday Book Drive. Students and staff contributed over 4,000 books to non-profit organizations, hospitals, elementary schools, and daycares, and food pantries. Some of the books were given to families with hospitalized children. Many MLS students who participated in the Annual Book Drive used this annual tradition as an opportunity to include students in collecting and donating. Fifth graders at P.W. Moore Elementary School in Elizabeth City...
Forty American Library Association (ALA) student chapter members were nominated by their schools and were accepted to assist ALA staff during the 2015 ALA Annual Conference in San Francisco. In exchange for working 16 hours during the conference (4 hours a day), these students participating in the ALA Student to Staff Program receive free conference registration, housing, and a per diem for meal expenses. During free time, students attend programs and participate in other conference activities. This year’s students are (in alphabetical order by last name of student): Sarah Breen—Simmons College (MA) Jessica Bright—State...
How would you like to spend a month in beautiful London, England, while earning graduate course credits? How would you like to earn those credits by touring some of the UK’s most important and historic libraries, archives, and special collections? If yes, then you may wish to enroll in British Studies 2015, a month-long study abroad program hosted by The University of Southern Mississippi’s School of Library and Information Science (SLIS) that takes students on guided, behind-the-scenes tours of libraries and archives in London, Oxford, Greenwich, and Edinburgh. The program is offered June 25 to July 29, 2015, and...
Each Annual Conference ALA provides a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for 40 students engaged in ALA Student Chapters both to attend an ALA Annual Conference and to work behind-the-scenes with ALA staff. The Student-to-Staff Program (S2S) was created so that each of 60 schools affiliated with ALA has an equal and equitable opportunity to nominate one and only one student to fill one of 40 available slots in the program. Established in 1973, S2S offers qualifying students in the program the opportunity to attend meetings, programs, and other ALA Conference events in their spare time. Faculty advisors nominate only one student...
August 20, 2014 Your state library association, also known as an ALA Chapter, needs your help to support libraries in your state. If you're not already a member, now, right now, is a good time to join! Indeed, it’s not only a good time to join, with budget cuts and worse directed at libraries in many states, it’s also imperative— now more than ever—to support your state library association’s efforts to advocate for and support libraries, librarians, and library workers within your state. Your Chapter membership will also benefit you personally and professionally: You’ll receive discounts for attending your state association’s...
Last spring the University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS, created Digi Day for students to be provided with a hands-on digitization experience and an opportunity for service hours for its students. Let me share with you how we created this successful event so you can re-create it on your campus. Early last spring, USM Digital Lab manager, Elizabeth La Beaud—who is also our student chapter secretary—came to me with the beginnings of an idea to provide LIS students with hands-on digitization experience and an opportunity for service hours. Over the next few months, she and I ironed out the details of what would...
Tired of the drab, uninspiring sales of T-shirts and coffee tumblers to raise funds for your ALA student chapter? Yes, we at Clarion University were too! Let me share with you how holding a literary photo scavenger hunt helped us raise funds for our annual spring trip to Washington, D.C., and not be bored! Faced with offering another boring fundraiser for our ALA student chapter at Clarion University, we decided to do something that would appeal to our entire member base, many of whom are distance students. We landed on the idea of a literary photo scavenger hunt. Our rules were simple. For $10, and the chance to win a Kindle,...