CLA President's Visit

Canadian Library Association President Karen Adams visited Western’s CLA student chapter on Thursday, January 26th.

We were able to host Ms. Adams for the afternoon, and enjoyed the time she spent speaking with us about working in an academic library, the role of CLA and its current projects.

 
One of the topics of interest for us was that Ms. Adams is working on fundraising for new backend technology for the website and membership databases that will allow for a “gap year” for new LIS grads so that they can maintain membership when searching for jobs.

As well, our local Progressive Librarians Guild took the opportunity to engage Ms. Adams on the role of CLA as a leader/champion for librarians. From there they posted on their blog here: The Canadian Library Association's Failure to Advocate for Librarians and Libraries , sparking a discussion on the CLA & BCLA list-servs, as well as on other Canadian library blogs.

We want to thank Karen Adams again for her time and encourage other CLA student chapters to have her visit their campuses.

Bursaries available for conference attendees

This term, the CLA Student Chapter will award three $100 bursaries to assist students with conference expenses. This money has been raised through the group's fundraising efforts. Any current MLIS or PhD LIS student planning to attend a conference this term (Winter 2012) or next term (Summer 2012) is eligible to apply. 

 

Of the three bursaries: 

 

• One will give preference to a CLA Student Chapter member; 
• One will give preference to an out-of-province student; 
• One will have no restrictions. 

Applications will be accepted online until March 31, 2012. Bursary award announcements will be made no later than April 30, 2012.

 

Please direct questions and comments to claatuwo@gmail.com.

Bake Sale Tuesday February 7th

Come on out to CLA's bakesale on Tuesday for some delicious baked goods!  We'll be set up outside the GRC from noon to 3 pm.  Help CLA raise funds and satisfy your sweet tooth at the same time.  Hope to see you there!

Time to start up the CLA/FIMS Mentorship Programs again

Peer Mentorship

New to the MLIS program and looking for someone to talk to about what to expect re: courses, co-op, job-shadowing, and other issues? Why not sign up to connect with a peer student mentor also in the MLIS program here? 

The CLA student group’s peer mentorship program is geared to first-term students interested in exchanging information with other students with more experience with the program. Mentees are matched with volunteer peer mentors (other MLIS students who have completed at least 3 courses).

Professional Mentorship

Perhaps you are looking ahead to graduation time and what types of positions you can prepare for, in which case you might want to consider the professional mentorship program. This program aims to find mentors for students in a library field they are interested in knowing more about. Last term this meant matching students with professional librarians working in medical, regional, law, public, academic, and government library fields around Ontario and in one case, Newfoundland. 

The due date for applying to the Peer Mentorship & Professional Mentorship programs is February 17, 2012.

If you would like to participate in the mentorship program or have any other questions about it, please contact Nara Petchsy, Co-Peer & Mentorship Coordinator at westernmentorship@gmail.com.

For more information on the program, please see http://uwo-cla.blogspot.com/p/mentorship.html.