MiALA is on Social Media!
#MiALAAC19 Call for Posters Now Open
Joshua Sanchez MiALA invites you and your colleagues to submit poster proposals for the 4th annual conference to be held May 13-14, 2019 at Saginaw Valley State University. Please consider sharing your innovations, creative endeavors, and practical solutions for communicating, promoting, or visualizing value in academic libraries.
We welcome posters in any topic related to work in academic libraries, and particularly if they have a connection to the conference theme. Broad participation is encouraged from librarians, library support staff, LIS students, and administrators from all types of academic libraries (including but not limited to public universities, private colleges, and community colleges). Poster proposals should include a description of no more than 300 words. They will be evaluated on relevance to the academic library profession, originality and creativity, and clarity/applicability of content and outcomes.
You must be a student, individual, or retiree member of MiALA to submit a proposal and/or present a poster. Regardless of the decision on a proposal, MiALA encourages you to attend the conference. Poster session proposals may also be submitted if your presentation proposal is not accepted.
Please submit your poster proposal using the online form here ( https://www.memberleap.com/members/form.php?orgcode=MALA&fid=1703147) by February 28, 2019.
The primary contact listed on each proposal will receive a message indicating receipt of the proposal when it is submitted; decisions on all proposals will be communicated to the primary contact by March 22, 2019.
Questions can be sent to Poster team leader, David Scott ( DavidScott@ferris.edu). Questions about the conference in general can be sent to conference@miala.org.
Welcome New Members!
Western Michigan University Libraries
Alex Dark
Western Michigan University Libraries
Joshua Enos
Wayne State University
Erica Schiller
Marygrove College
Amanda Itria
University of Michigan - Ross School of Business
Mary Catherine Moeller
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President's Message
Paul Gallagher It seems that February is always a time to keep your head down, stay indoors, and get caught up. Many of you are still digging out from last week, some are returning from midwinter, and many are in the middle of the busy season for winter term. Between snow days, conferences, and serving our communities – I’ll add a few things for you to think about in the coming months (and a few places where you can get involved!)
Before you know it, the conference will be here! The deadline for conference scholarships is due on Feb 15th, and the call for posters is coming up on Feb 28th. A special thanks to all of you who have submitted proposals – your sharing of experiences and expertise is what makes the conference a success!
Beyond the hard work getting ready for this year, planning is starting for next year. The MiALA Board of Directors is soliciting proposals for next year’s location. Are you interested in bringing over two hundred of your closest friends and colleagues to your institution? If so, I encourage you to submit a proposal, details are available on the MiALA website – and due by April 1st.
Also, in line with planning for next year, is the upcoming nominations and elections process. If you are interested in getting involved, this is a great opportunity to help shape the future of MiALA. The nominations committee is gearing up now for elections in the spring – so please start to consider if you would like to “throw your hat in the ring,” and stay tuned for details.
Lastly, don’t forget about some of the programs for March. On March 8th, the Data Literacy Bootcamp is at Michigan State University Libraries, and “ Practical Assessment: From Beginner to Expert” is being hosted along with ALAO at the University of Toledo Libraries. On March 29th, “ Take charge: Communicate value and foster success at your library through ACRL Standards assessment" is at Northwestern Michigan College in Traverse City.
Please stay warm – and safe – and I hope to see you in March!
February Member Spotlight
Sheila Garcia  Sheila Garcia
University of Michigan
Resident Librarian in Learning Programs and Initiatives
What are you currently reading?
I am currently reading "Sites of Translation: What Multilinguals Can Teach Us about Digital Writing and Rhetoric" by Laura Gonzales and listening to "The Book of Unknown Americans" by Cristina Henriquez.
What are your research interests?
My research interests lie at the intersection between critical pedagogy and language, seeking to gain greater insight into how practices such as cultural brokering and information literacy instruction impact information dissemination in migrant communities. My overall goal through my work is to deconstruct flows of information within library spaces in order to improve the library services we provide to our communities.
Do you have hobbies or interests outside of the library?
When I get a chance, I like to draw. My preferred tools are charcoal and graphite for portraits while I love to use copic markers to color my more cartoon-style drawings. I am also a creative fiction writer and have various pieces of a novel I started writing five years ago residing across the plethora of journals I own. Aside from conference travel, I usually plan for one international trip a year with my younger sister. So far we have been to Tokyo, London, and San Juan.
What drew you to the library profession?
When I wrapped up my undergrad, I knew that I wanted to work with migrant communities in some way. A position as a library assistant at the local library opened up, and I applied thinking that I could help these communities indirectly, as I knew libraries offered many resources for migrant communities. After a year, I decided to pursue a librarian degree because I realized that I love to build community and help people by connecting them to the resources they need.
What do you value about MiALA?
I value the range of experiences that individuals bring to the organization. As a native of Michigan and someone that started out working in public libraries, academic librarianship has been like a whole new world on its own. Connecting with individuals all over Michigan through MiALA has shown me not only the vast range of resources and expertise available, but also many of the new approaches and practices that librarians are employing to continue to engage with their campus communities. As a fairly new professional, this has been invaluable to me!
Finally,
If you're on Twitter like me, please feel free to follow: ssgarcia23. I mostly retweet things but also post whenever I'm at a conference (including the MiALA annual conference!)
OER News
Scott Garrison As many MiALA members know, there’s a lot going on in our state around OER! Happily, in the new year we have opportunities to start to bring together several independent streams of work that began during summer and fall 2017. Many are aware of (and/or participated in) the 2018 Michigan OER Summit at St. Clair County Community College (SC4) on September 21, 2018 (see mioersummit.org for program and other information). The well-attended 2018 summit carried on the tradition of previous events at Lansing Community College and Kellogg Community College.
One day prior on September 20, a group of library directors and staff from across the state got together at SC4 for a pre-summit meeting facilitated by David Votta from MCLS. At the pre-summit, the participants discussed how we might create a statewide initiative around OER. We identified broad aspirations (student success, educator engagement, sustainability, access, collaboration, and quality and accessibility), defined those aspirations, and broke into six small groups to fashion vision statements that incorporate the aspirations. Then, considering their vision statements as a statewide “movement,” each group answered some questions about their visions:
- What words could describe this movement? What could the movement look like, feel like or include? How would you know the movement was successful?
- What would be some milestones to get us there?
- What are some short-term steps to get there?
After September, summit and pre-summit organizers stayed in touch, and discussed forming an OER “network” across the state, perhaps beginning with “nodes” of institutions near one another, whose library staff could connect faculty to each other to discuss OER experience, questions, and more. Also during fall, a new opportunity emerged: to send a cohort from Michigan to the Midwest Higher Education Compact OER Policy and Implementation Summit for the MHEC States, held November 28-30 in Chicago. The Michigan cohort consists of:
- Kelly Clark, Baker College (private institution instructional designer)
- Ronda Edwards (administrator, Exec. Director, Michigan Colleges Online)
- Regina Gong (community college librarian, early OER adopter)
- Poonam Kumar (public university faculty, faculty development director)
- Ann-Marie Mapes (state education department, director of MI Go-Open at MDE)
- Kristy Motz (public university librarian, OER effort leader)
As our state cohort, this group is charged by MHEC to lead statewide OER strategy. Over the coming months, the group will work to formalize and begin to build the Michigan OER Network, and the coalition that originally conceived the idea for the Network will stay connected and contribute. Stay tuned for more information and opportunities to connect with the coming Network, and please contact either ScottGarrison@ferris.edu or KristyMotz@ferris.edu if you have questions about how to get involved! |
