Dr. Kimmel announced that Hayden's lecture will be entitled "Equality and Liberty in Libraries." This title reflects events that have occurred in the past year as they relate to intellectual freedom and libraries. We can only assume what "hot" topics will be discussed!
The committees gave their reports, and most exciting was the Admissions Committee Report. The Committee reported that an estimated 218 applications have arrived for the Fall 2004 term! It was noted that current students should be proud of the excellent reputation that our School has to garner such a high applicant rate.
The Recruitment Initiative was also discussed, and Dr. White suggested that the faculty work to clearly define the School of Information Sciences so that more undergraduate students will be informed about the School. She also recommended that the School increase visibility at conferences to ensure high recruitment. There is also a movement afoot to recruit more minorities to the DLIS.
In matters of the curriculum, a re-vamping of the field placement/field work requirement was discussed. Among the concerns are that a full-time faculty member should oversee the student within the program. To see an example of this idea in real time, talk to any School Library Certification Program student! In sum, Dr. Kimmel is proposing a more organized program for field placement.
This meeting was record-breaking in time, just under one hour! While Dr. Kimmel and the rest of the DLIS faculty cannot guarantee this brevity in the future, it is highly recommended that more students come to the meetings. As one student who was there (not one from SCALA, either!) remarked, "Going to the meeting really helped me to have more faith in the faculty, like they all are working for us." Meetings are every first Wednesday of the month, at 10:00am in room 501. The next meeting will be held on April 7, 2004.
Publication of the
Department of Library & Information Science
School of Information Sciences
University of Pittsburgh
135 N. Bellefield Avenue
Pittsburgh , PA 15260
biblio@mail.sis.pitt.edu