SLA Kentucky Chapter

Concern for Tuscon AZ Teacher-Librarians

It seems that despite the system's policy statement (provided below) stating the importance of the library and it's highly qualified staff, these positions are in danger.

The library — staffed by a highly qualified teacher-librarian — is an integral and indispensable component of the unique learning environment created in each of the (Tucson Unified School) District's elementary, middle and high schools."

The news article that prompted my investigation states that cutting the elementary school librarians is a consideration for the next budget cycle.

I'm not usually a rabid librarian when it comes to the "greater good." However, I have personally expereienced difficulty caused by  the lack of basic library and research skills in serving well-educated users.  The elimination of any level of skill building positions such as the Teacher-Librarian causes me a bit of selfish concern.  Is it really a good idea to replace highly skill librarians with low-paid clerks?

Second Life Presentation and Business Meeting 11/16/07

The Kentucky Chapter of SLA will be holding its next meeting on Friday, November 16.  The first part of the meeting will be a lunch and business meeting at Ramsey's Diner (496 East High Street, Lexington, KY 40507) at 12 Noon.  The second part of our meeting will be a Second Life demonstration and hands on workshop presented by the University of Kentucky's Beth Kraemer who has just been written up for working on the Teen Second Life College Fair (http://news.uky.edu/news/display_article.php?artid=2812).  The Second Life portion of the meeting will take place in room B-35 in the  lower level of the University of Kentucky's W.T. Young Library.  Driving directions to Young Library can be found here: http://www.uky.edu/Libraries/page.php?lweb_id=25.  B-35 is located within The Hub @ WT's (http://www.uky.edu/Libraries/hub) so you can stop by and see what our own Stacey Greenwell has been doing there to make the area a more exciting and attractive student space.

The meeting fee will be $20 for KYSLA chapter members, $10 for student members, and $30 for nonmembers.  Please RSVP by email to Alex Grigg (agrigg@lexmark.com) by 11/9/07 and send a check for the meeting fee by that same date to:

Leoma Dunn
Thomas More College Library
333 Thomas More Parkway
Crestview Hills, KY 41017

You can skip this paragraph if you're used to the parking around UK, but for everyone else I'll give some specifics on the "challenge" of parking near UK.  First of all, Ramsey's has some available free parking.  If you continue past Ramsey's on E. High St, (it's a one way street so you'll be heading NW) there is some parking available on the left and it is pretty well marked by Ramsey's.  Also, Ramsey's and Young Library are only a little over .5 miles apart so if you want to use the pay parking lot outside of Young (it is the gated lot on Hilltop Ave.) that is a viable option.  I'll be walking over from Young at around 11:30 AM so let me know if you'd like to join me.  If the Young pay lot is full, there are several other campus parking structures with pay lots (http://www.uky.edu/Parking/parking-lots-structures.html) but none of them are terribly close to the library.  Street parking is also possible in the area if you're willing to give yourself a lot of walking time and are willing to do battle with students looking for spaces.

For those of you who will be attending the Second Life presentation, it will be quite helpful if you can set up a Second Life account before coming to the meeting.  Second Life can stop you from creating a new account if it sees too many new IDs coming from the same place, such as the one room where we will be sitting.  To create a new account start at this site and follow the instructions below:

http://secondlife.com/

Choose the "join" link in the upper right to create the account.  You need to choose a unique name.  The last name is chosen from a list in the drop box.  The first name can be anything.  The name is case sensitive.  The combination must be unique in the Second Life system.  Choose something you can live with!  Your name is the only thing about your Second Life that you can't change later.  Bring your name and password with you to the session.

This has turned into quite a lengthy announcement so I'm going to cut it off here, but feel free to contact me (agrigg@lexmark.com) if you have any additional questions about the meeting.

Thanks and I hope to see you there!