A similar video was created by students at UBC in the spring and has received over 1.2 million hits on YouTube since April. Many other universities have produced Lip Dub videos, for example, Boston University and Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona.

The organizers are hoping to gather 30-40 members of the UTL community to participate. Participants would be filmed walking down College Street pushing book carts, holding books and assisting students regarding library inquiries.

All members of the UTL community are invited to participate! The filming schedule will be:

• 12:10PM – 1:30PM: SECTION CHOREOGRAPHY
• 1:30PM – 3:00PM: WALK-THROUGH
• 3:00PM – 4:00PM: RUN-THROUGH
• 4:00PM – 5:00PM: FILM

Participants’ time would be required from 12:10 – 5:00 pm.

If you would like to be part of the UofT Lip Dub video please let me know or contact the project coordinator, sandra.zhou@utoronto.ca, directly.

Proceeds from student-secured sponsorship of the video will be donated to The Hospital for Sick Children.

TEDxLibrariansTO Speaker: Amy Buckland – TEDx LibrariansTO.

Amy Buckland is the eScholarship, ePublishing & Digitization Coordinator at McGill University Library, where she is responsible for scholarly communication, publishing initiatives, and making rare items from special collections available to the world through digitization.

For more information, please visit her speaker’s page.

DATE May 16–17, 2011

LOCATION
McMaster University Burlington
Ron Joyce Center
4350 South Service Road
Burlington, Ontario

Universities today are facing unprecedented pressures fueled in part by technological advances, transformations in scholarly communications, evolving student expectations, increased calls for accountability, and greater competition. Simultaneously, we are experiencing uncertainty in financial support owing to declines in public and private funding partnered with ever-increasing costs. The global financial crisis of 2008 has further compounded our challenges and has added a sense of urgency to the calls for transformation of our institutions. Never before have the challenges we face been as great or the opportunities as exciting. As E. Gordon Gee, president of Ohio State University, has stated, our choice is simple: “it’s reinvention or extinction.”

As an integral component in teaching, learning, and research on our campuses, libraries are at the heart of these changes. Our challenges are similar to those faced by our parent institutions and “reinvention or extinction” could be our call to arms as well. In an increasingly complex, information-rich world, how do we assure that we remain relevant? Perhaps more important, how do we establish ourselves and our libraries as change agents on our campuses? This time of uncertainty may be a window of opportunity that may close as quickly as it has opened. How do we prepare ourselves to take advantage of what may be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity?

The May 17 symposium at McMaster will bring together some of the leading thinkers in our profession—speakers, panelists, and participants—to generate solutions to the key challenges we face.

To register, click through to  The Future of the Academic Library: A Symposium.

Entering the New Information Economy: Professional Preparation Strategies for New Info Professionals

Offered by the iSchool Institute at the Faculty of Information, University of Toronto

This course provides new and recent graduates with the practical tools and tactics required to successfully enter the information profession.

Complementing the formal learning gained through graduate-level information degree programs, this 8-week course offers participants timely access to practicing information professionals, and the opportunity to develop practical networking, collaboration and leadership skills to prepare them for the transition from graduate school to professional practice.

Course components include:

• Panel discussions with practicing information professionals with a variety of positions, backgrounds and career paths;
• Understanding the differences among a variety of information environments: public (libraries, museums and archives), corporate and special, government, non-profit, academic, sole proprietor;
• Benefits of professional associations, and how to choose;
• Networking skills;
• Career path development strategies
• Entrepreneurship within and without the organization;
• Leadership and your role in the profession

Specific Learning Outcomes:

At the completion of this course, participants will understand the depth and breadth of career opportunities in the information profession; as a result, they will have begun to strategically develop their career paths. Meeting with a wide variety of practicing information professionals will hone their networking and communication skills, and appreciate the importance of professional associations. Participants will know how to create effective, customized resumes and greater confidence during interviews. Finally, they will be able to articulate their role and the value of the information professional and be able to position themselves within the spectrum.

Target Audience:
Master of Information students who will graduate within 12 months, or have graduated within the past 2 years.

Students and graduates from outside of the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto are welcome to participate.

Course Details:

PLC5017S-11W1
Fri. 11 Feb 2011 – Fri. 8 Apr 2011
8 weeks (16 hours) – 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM
Instructor: Kim Silk

Current iSchool students and recent (up to 6 months) graduates are eligible for a scholarship to reduce the enrollment fee.

Click to find out more and to register.

The Early Bird registration period ends tomorrow – register today!!

See you there!

New FIAA Alumni Grant for OLA SuperConference – Apply by Dec 13th! | Faculty of Information.

The Faculty of Information Alumni Association (FIAA) and the Ontario Library Association (OLA) are pleased to offer a new Alumni Conference Grant for graduates of the iSchool, to be used for full OLA SuperConference 2011 registration* to attend the annual conference. This year, the 2011 conference will be held at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, from February 2 to 5, in Toronto.

Applicants must meet all of the following criteria:

~ be graduates of the iSchool or its predecessors (FIS, FLIS, FLS, SLIS, and Museum Studies) at University of Toronto

~ not have received a similar grant in the past three years (e.g., non-employer / company-provided grant)

~ submit a letter of application indicating need and potential benefit (e.g., one page letter where applicant explains why the grant would be benefical to his or her career)

~ commit to writing a brief article (maximum 300 words) for Informed, the FIAA alumni magazine

Deadline: Monday, December 13, 2010

To apply:  submit a letter indicating how you would use this opportunity to attend, how it could benefit you in your career path, and your current CV/resume. The letter and resume must be received by Dec. 13th by email to: alumni@ischool.utoronto.ca

or in person or by mail:

Faculty of Information Alumni Association
140 St. George Street, Bissell Building, Room 211
University of Toronto, Toronto, ON  M5S 3G6

A decision about the conference registration recipient will be announced in early January 2011.

* Other costs such as travel, accommodation or food will not be included.

In 2009, five U of T library school students and a handful of librarians from across the GTA took to the streets to raise money, fight AIDS in Africa, and challenge public perceptions of librarianship.  Armed only with laptops, wireless internet, and some good open-access resources, they set up an outdoor reference desk on Bloor Street, answering any and all questions put to them by passersby.

It was a big success: we raised over $800 for the Stephen Lewis Foundation’s Dare to Remember campaign, answered more than 65 questions (about everything from downtown directions, to the history of music, to immigration policy), and surprised a lot of people with the fact that librarians actually do this. We succeeded, we hope, in giving people a new impression of what libraries are for.

We’ve seen a lot of excitement from a lot of librarians, and many have asked about doing their own Street Reference dare.  Well, Dare season is coming up, and we’re hoping to make things bigger. I’d like to ask librarians across the province to join the team, grab a few friends and colleagues, and hit the streets – between October 19 and December 1^st (World AIDS Day) – to get out there, do some good in the world, and to explore new ways of connecting with your patrons.

It’s easy to get started.  Just go to http://www.adaretoremember.com/ and click “Do a dare”.   Sign yourself up or set up a team.  Give your team’s URL to your friends, family, and your patrons.  E-mail brandon.weigel@gmail.com for more information and any help you need setting it up.

To see how last year’s event went, check out the Access article: http://www.accessola.com/accessonline/onlineonly/archives/summer2010/StreetReference.php.  Street Reference was also covered in Feliciter, and the OLITA 2010 Digital Odyssey conference.

Thanks very much for reading.  I hope you spread the word and give it a try.  It’s a great cause, it’s a lot of fun, and it’s a great way to reach out to your community.  See you on the street!

In order to provide another great conference experience we need your help. Please consider submitting a proposal for a session at next year’s conference.

Call for Proposals
Submission Deadline – May 25th, 2010

2011 SUPER CONFERENCE
February 2nd – 5th, 2011
Metro Toronto Convention Centre

What topics is OCULA looking for?
We are looking for presentations that reflect the challenging and exciting times in college and university libraries. Particular topics of interest include assessments, collaboration, collection development, reference services, theory, digitization, scholarly communications, and more. This is a great opportunity to present your ideas, research or experience to your peers. Spotlight on Research At the 2010 Conference we added a new type of session called Spotlight on Research. In these sessions two presentations were showcased in one 75 minute time slot. The intention was to highlight the research being done in areas related to academic libraries and where a 30-35 minute time slot was more appropriate. If you are currently working on research you would like to present at the conference, you may wish to note that you would be interested in sharing a Spotlight on Research slot when you submit your proposal.

How do I submit a proposal?
You can submit a proposal for a session you would like to PRESENT; however, you can also submit a proposal for a topic that you would like to see covered but that you don’t want to present. Please submit your proposal or idea to the OLA website at:
www.accessola.com/education/superconference

To ensure that your submission does not get lost in the online universe, please also email the title of your submission to: pgreen@conestogac.on.ca

What if I have other questions?
Feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns pgreen@conestogac.on.ca or j.bengtson@utoronto.ca
We look forward to seeing all your great session ideas!

Collegially,

Patricia Green pgreen@conestogac.on.ca Jonathan Bengtson j.bengtson@utoronto.ca OCULA Super Conference 2011 Program Planners

“Domain Specific Applications of Knowledge Media Design”

• Do you work in a field that is related to Knowledge/Media/Design?
• Do you consider your work ‘domain specific’?
• Do you enjoy speaking to students and sharing your experiences?

If you answered yes to those question, we need you!

Who are we?

The professional development committee consists of KMD collaborative program students <http://kmdi.utoronto.ca/graduate/> who are dedicated to bridging the gap between research and education in the university setting, and the real-world experiences of the professional world.

We are looking for featured panelists who have domain-specific work experience they would like to share with KMD students in a workshop-format. The workshop-format is designed to be an alternative to the more traditional short presentation followed by Q&A format.

Where is the space?

The brand new Brian Cantwell Smith idea Exchange is a collaborative space  at the Faculty of Information (140 St. George Street) with a brand new SmartBoard set up, completed with a fancy coffee machine.

The space has great potential for the kind of dynamic event we envision, all we need are interesting people and interesting experiences to tickle our student’s enquiring minds.

Participation Details:

Two professional panels in a workshop format are being organized for Wednesday March 4 and April 1st, from 4-6pm at the Faculty of Information (140 St. George Street), featuring guests and projects that reflect our theme: “Domain Specific Applications of Knowledge Media Design”.  These panel discussions will showcase projects from various disciplines and provide an informal and dynamic forum for students to learn more about the emerging and dynamic field of Knowledge Media Design from a professional perspective.

We are seeking interested speakers (faculty, alumni, advance graduate students) to come in and showcase any projects that they have worked on, and to share their insight and experience to graduate students.

If interested, please forward us a brief bio, your professional background, your research interests, and some of the projects that you think you would like to share at this event to margaret.lam@gmail.com (“KMD PD Event” in heading). We are looking for 3 speakers for our March 4th event, and others who are interested in speaking at such an event some time in the future.

This is a pilot initiative, and the success of these first two events will steer the direction of any future events held by the PD Student Committee. Your feedback and comments will be greatly appreciated! We look forward to your participation.

Sincerely,

Ryan Kealey (PhD Candidate – Mechanical & Industrial Engineering)

Margaret Lam (Masters Candidate – Faculty of Information)

Tonya Noel (M.Ed Candidate – Curriculum, Teaching and Learning)

Dor Reich (Masters Candidate – Faculty of Information)