NEWS RELEASE: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE      DATE: 10/26/05

CONTACT: LESLIE SCHALER, COMMUNICATIONS ASST., (413) 545-0162

 

UMass Amherst Libraries present

“Me, a Librarian?”

~ An ALANA Library Career Reception ~

All ALANA Students welcome! Find out more about careers in libraries and enjoy a great free meal!

Amherst , MA – The UMass Amherst Libraries' Community, Diversity, and Social Justice Committee (CDSJ) will host an ALANA Library Career Reception on Wednesday, November 9, 2005. “Me, a Librarian?” will be held in the Learning Commons on the lower level of the Du Bois Library from 5:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. The keynote speaker, Tracie Hall, is the American Library Association Diversity Officer. Other guests include students from library school programs and professional librarians.

Tracie D. Hall is Director of the American Library Association Office for Diversity. Before coming to ALA , Hall worked as manager and community librarian of the Albany Branch of the Hartford Public Library and as Young Adult Librarian and Young Adult Specialist at the New Haven Free and Seattle public libraries, respectively. She has received the 1996 ALA Excellence in Youth Services Award, the 21st Century Leadership Award from the University of Washington Library and Information Science School in 1999, and the 1996 Seattle Public Library Innovative Service Award. Prior to work in libraries, Hall served as director of a homeless shelter for teenagers in Los Angeles County . With interests in community service, leadership, and organizational development, Hall has been a board member or consultant to many non-profit and community based organizations and has facilitated training workshops for multi-type libraries nationwide. Hall received dual Bachelor degrees from the University of California at Santa Barbara , a M.A. from Yale University , and the MLIS from the University of Washington . She was designated a “Mover and Shaker' by Library Journal in August 2004.

A large number of retirements in the next decade is expected to result in many job openings for librarians, according to the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics. Librarians increasingly use information technology to perform research, classify materials, and help students and library patrons seek information. The traditional concept of a library is being redefined from a place to access paper records or books to one that also houses the most advanced media. Consequently, librarians, or information professionals, increasingly are combining traditional duties with tasks involving quickly changing technology.

ALANA stands for African, Latino/a, Asian/Pacific Islander, and Native American. It is derived from the ethnic student groups that are fostered by UMass Amherst. The CDSJ Initiative is a long term, campus-wide institutional change process whose primary goal is to create a more inclusive and equitable teaching, learning, working and living community.

This event is sponsored by the UMass Amherst Libraries, University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Library & Information Studies, and Simmons College Graduate School of Library & Information Science.

For more information or to RSVP, contact Anne L. Moore at (413) 545-6888 or amoore@library.umass.edu.

 

 

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