Quick Interview about professional organizations and periodicals

[Tammy]

Hi everyone as an upcoming Media Specialist student,
I wanted to ask how many of you are a member of a state or national library related organization, and do you feel that your membership is beneficial? If so why?
Include the link to these websites for my personal review.

Also what professional periodicals do you read regularly and how has reading professional periodicals benefit your career and your professional growth?
Include the link to these websites (if possible or if available) for my personal review.

Thank you all for your support and time in this discussion.

[Richard Beaudry]

Hi Tammy,

I am president of the Canadian Association for School Libraries (CASL) - National Association

http://www.cla.ca/AM/Template.cfm?Section=CASL2

I am a member of the British Columbia Teacher Librarian Association (BCTLA) - Provincial Association

http://bctf.ca/BCTLA/

I am a member of the Langley Teacher Librarians Association (LTLA) - Local Association

http://web.mac.com/technostudent/Site_6/LTLA.html

CASL is a division of the Canadian Library Association so I receive Feliciter.

http://www.cla.ca/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Feliciter1&Template=/...

I am presently the Editor of School Libraries in Canada (SLIC) and it is available to our membership online.

http://www.clatoolbox.ca/casl/slic/slicindex.html

The BCTLA publishes Bookmark for its membership.

http://psas.bctf.ca/bctla/Bookmark/2007SpringSummerBookmark.pdf

We do not have a local periodical for he LTLA.

I believe that membership in CASL and LTLA is beneficial for me. I have been quite involved in both organizations to promote school libraries and the importance of having a teacher librarian working in every school. Other than getting Bookmark from the BCTLA, I have no real involvement with them other than presenting at their conference. Feliciter from the CLA does occasionally have some articles of interest but it does cover a lot of ground based on the five different divisions.

I also look through Knowledge Quest on the Web and School Library Media Research from the AASL.

http://www.ala.org/ala/aasl/aaslpubsandjournals/kqweb/kqweb.cfm
http://www.ala.org/ala/aasl/aaslpubsandjournals/slmrb/schoollibrary...

I also look at articles from Multimedia and Internet @ Schools

http://www.mmischools.com/

I read some articles from D-Lib Magazine online
http://dlib.ukoln.ac.uk/

Same for the Journal of Information Literacy
http://jil.lboro.ac.uk/ojs/index.php/JIL

Depending on what I am researching, I read many other articles from magazines too numerous to post here.

I also read articles on Blogs - These are the ones I follow closely

District Dispatch
http://www.wo.ala.org/districtdispatch/

Information Literacy Weblog
http://information-literacy.blogspot.com/

Librarian.net
http://www.librarian.net/

Librarian's Matter
http://librariansmatter.com/blog/

Library 2.0: An academic's perspective
http://liblogs.albany.edu/library20/

Michael Geist's Blog
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/

and Joyce Valenza's Never Ending Search Blog posted in School Library Journal

Richard Beaudry
Teacher Librarian

[Tammy]

Thank you Mr. Beaudry :) Your information is very insightful and very helpful for me,
And thank you so much for the Websites and the Links :)
Tammy

[Arlen Kimmelman]

As soon as I started librarianship school, I began attending my state's school library association conferences (New Jersey Association of School Librarians (NJASL) http://njasl.org/. The experiences were invaluable. I learned things I couldn't learn as a student in a classroom; I networked with newbies and veterans; I even volunteered to make presentations at the conferences. I met people with whom I could collaborate, by whom I could be mentored, and with whom I could share resources. I found out about my potential vendors, about my state-level contacts and resources, and about relevant ListServs.

I also joined the American Library Association ALA http://ala.org/, the Young Adult Library Services Association YALSA http://www.ala.org/ala/yalsa/yalsa.cfm, the Assembly on Literature for Young Adults ALAN http://alan-ya.org/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1, and maintained my membership in the National Council of Teachers of English NCTE http://www.ncte.org/. I've been considering joining the International Reading Association IRA http://www.reading.org/, too.

Ever since I started my librarianship Masters degree in June, 2002 (finally finishing in December, 2006), these professional affilations have provided me with research information, awards, scholarships, and professional support, as well as opportunities to publish, volunteer, and participate in my field.

I would never question the benefits of joining a professional organization. Librarians, by the nature of their work, are a sharing bunch; I've received world-wide support right in my own back yard.

Arlen Kimmelman, Librarian.

Clayton Middle/High School.

New Jersey

[Tammy]

Thank you Ms. Kimmelman for the advice about voluteering while pursing my Media Specialist Degree.
I have been wondering how I can obtain professional hands on experience to prepare as a School Media Specialist.
And thank you as well for the Websites and the links so I can do further research about professional organizations
for Librarians and Media Specialist. :)

[Randy de Jong]

Tammy,

I am in the library program at Fresno Pacific University. I joined the California School Library Association during my first class. It has been very helpful both in and out of the class. I attended all four days of the conference in November. I left in a state of information overload. I was able to contribute also with a simple poster session presentation. I learned more from seeing how the other presenters approached there topics. I read the monthly periodical and find much of value. I will be even more impressed as I see it used in my own library. I have been able to assist the librarian at my site because of what I have learned. I was the one that informed her of CSLA. She hadn't heard about it from the program she is attending.

http://www.csla.net

There are many resources available on the site. Enjoy exploring it.

Randy de Jong
Future Teacher-Librarian
Kern Valley High School
[e-mail]

[Tammy]

Hi Randy!
Its great to meet another future librarian :)
And thanks for the advice, this is my second semester, so I am researching volunteer opportunities and organizations,
so I can gain professional experiences and opportunities to network with Veteran Librarians as well.
And the idea about attending Local State Conferences and National Conferences is a good idea and avenue I need to research for my personal knowledge.
Thanks for the suggestion and thanks for the Website and the link

[Randy de Jong]

Tammy, I am also doing a lot of volunteer work in and out of educational libraries. My program requires us to build up 160 hours of time working in elementary, middle and high school libraries. I received permission to work with the local branch of the county library because I am in a very rural area. None of the elementary or middle schools has a credentialed librarian. I am doing many things in all of the libraries. I am sharing book repair skills, reading shelves, presenting story-time for the younger children. I am also using books of the Genreflecting type to create genre lists for both the high school and public libraries. These lists will be along the lines of RIYL (Read If You Like...). Go to the CSLA web site and you can download the handouts for a presentation called “What’s Your Genre?.” It was a great resource. I saw the presentation in person at the conference. If you want some other great info that is useful to a future librarian, look at the School Library Learning link on the CSLA site. It may be called “Winter Fun” right now. I went through it last summer and got tones of useful web 2.0 tools. This is how I discovered this site. I have not been present here very much because last semester I was taking two courses while teaching full-time.

[Jane L. Hyde]

Hi, Tammy. I think we should be members of our progfessional organizations and I try to keep up. But somethimes the cost is prohibitive, e.g., for ALA. I am a member of my state's school library association and of AISL, for independent school librarians. I read School Library journal and a lot of blogs and websites and review Journals. I also subscribe to Horn Book, as it's one fo the best for children's and young people's literature. Besides conferences, where you get to see new products and meet people, I think blogs and communities like this are the most helpful for staying in touch with others in the field.

[Jean M Bruce]

Hi Tammy
I am a member of the state of TN Library Association , ALA in addition to AISL . Membership to all three are beneficial in staying current in local and national events. AISL is the best support group for Independent librarians around.

You will need to stay up with technology both within the profession and merging technologies that could be embraced by the library world. Never believe that becoming a librarian is a set amount of time for studying-- it's an ongoing process of retooling and staying on top of the wave.

My colleagues have already given you a great list for daily reading and subscriptions.