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Visiting Days - March 15-17, 2008

I have been getting lots of questions regarding the upcoming Visiting Days event. Here are some general thoughts on the matter for those of you debating on attending. I attended Visiting Days during my application process. I found it extremely valuable to introduce students to the institutional culture, programs, and people at SI. If you are unsure if SI is the right place for you, these 2-3 days can really help make up your mind.

Some of the highlights:
-Tours of campus, libraries, and local housing options
-Information about specializations directly from current students
-Social activities with admitted and current students around Ann Arbor
-Lunch with faculty in your specialization
-Info on career services, alumni presentations, financial aid info
-More socializing with admitted and current students
-Did I mention free and yummy meals?

We all look forward to meeting the next generation of SI students. Of course, if you can't make it for Visiting Days SI admissions is always happy to arrange individual campus visits.

Posted by cassch on February 26, 2008 at 01:19 PM | Comments (0)

US News Best Careers 2008

Fellow classmate Elizabeth Perry sent out an email this morning reminding us all that SI is a great place to start a career. Librarian, Usability/User Experience Specialist, Systems Analyst, Professor, and Management Consultant are all on the list.

Check out these positions and others on the list here.

Posted by cassch on February 14, 2008 at 02:26 PM | Comments (0)

Not in WorldCat

I came across an interesting blog the other day: Not in WorldCat.

The author searches the web for items for sale that are not cataloged in OCLC's WorldCat database. WorldCat is the largest shared cataloging resources with over 1 billion records and used by over 60,000 libraries around the world. Last year OCLC came out with the public version at
Worldcat.org.

Posted by cassch on February 10, 2008 at 09:42 AM | Comments (0)

Web Portfolios

Since starting at SI the great people in Career Services have stressed that all MSI students should have an online portfolio, including us archives and library folks.

Well, I must say I put this task off thinking it would be too much work and not worth the effort. I felt like I did not have enough experience to make a portfolio. Now that I am in my last semester I have finally put one together. You can check it out here.

It feels good to see my work experiences, skills I have gained from classes, and projects all in one place. I have some more ideas on how to structure my presentation more effectively and add information on additional projects. I'll be working on this in the upcoming weeks.

Did I mention that creating the portfolio was super easy? One of the benefits of a place like SI over more traditional library and archives programs is the exposure to technology and design. In today's world these skills are essential for all information professionals, including archivists and librarians.

Posted by cassch on February 08, 2008 at 11:06 AM | Comments (0)

One Million Books

The UM Libraries have just scanned their one millionth book. This is the first Google partnered library to reach the milestone. Want to know how many pages, terabytes, tons, or miles that is? Read more and check out process and staff pictures via Flickr at One Million Digitized Books.

Also check out University Librarian Paul Courant's blog.

Posted by cassch on February 05, 2008 at 07:40 AM | Comments (0)