Michael Taft, American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, live, October 24

Please join the UWM Society of American Archivists (SAA) Student Chapter for a discussion with Dr. Michael Taft, Head of the Archive of Folk Culture at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress!

Who: Any SOIS student- DE and On-site.
When: Tuesday October 24th from 4:00-5:30 PM Central Time.
Where: Bolton 521

Dr. Taft will be meeting with the SAA student chapter and other students in an informal presentation and question and answer session. The discussion will be made available to DE students via streaming video, and we will facilitate questions for discussion from DE students through D2L. Instructions for DE students to log on will be provided soon.

Please join us for our first chance at bringing together ALL of SOIS’s archives students!

For additional information about the American Folklife Center visit the website at https://panthermail.uwm.edu/horde/util/go.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.loc.gov%2Ffolklife%2F&Horde=1971f3e9dc5fd3cdd3e488da7ddc4d98/

SOIS consistenly ranked among top information studies schools in scholarly productivity

According to a very recent study, "Scholarly productivity of U.S. LIS faculty" by Denice Adkins and John Budd (Library & Information Science Research, Autumn 2006, 374-389; for access to the article itself, go here), SOIS ranked among the top ten or twenty among other leading LIS schools in several categories. Updating an earlier study that covered a period through 1998, the researchers examined productivity and citedness among LIS faculty from 1999 through 2004.

Among "Programs with the most journal articles," SOIS tied with UCLA for 9th place, below Indiana, Tennessee, Florida State, Syracuse, North Carolina, Illinois, Rutgers, and Washington.

Among "Per capita journal articles by program," SOIS ranked 7th, below Tennessee, Missouri, Hawaii, UCLA, Indiana, and Florida State.

Among "Programs with the most citations to faculties' works," SOIS stands at 15th place, after Michigan, Rutgers, Illinois, Indiana, North Carolina, UCLA, Syracuse, Washington, Maryland, Tennessee, Drexel, Simmons, Pittsburgh, and Florida State.

For "Per capita citations by program," SOIS ran 18th, after Rutgers, Michigan, UCLA, Indiana, North Carolina, Maryland, Illinois, Tennessee, Missouri, Washington, Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Catholic, Hawaii, Drexel, Simmons, and Queens.

Overall, SOIS ranked 13th, after Indiana, Rutgers, Tennessee, UCLA, North Carolina, Illinois, Missouri, Syracuse, Washington, Michigan, Florida State, and Maryland.

Prof. Dietmar Wolfram tied for 9th place among all faculty in all LIS schools for total number of journal articles during the period studied.

Prof. Wolfram also ranked 25th of all the scholars at all institutions covered in total number of citations to his works.

This comes at a time when SOIS is developing a new PhD program and otherwise exploring new avenues and higher levels of research productivity. SOIS also did extremely well in the previous study and it is good to see it continue at this rate. Given the new recent research mandate from SOIS Dean Johannes Britz, the larger number of research faculty now than during the period covered by the Adkins/Budd study, and the introduction of a doctoral program, the next five years promises to be even more impressive.

Nancy Pearl, Live: Franklin Public Library, Nov. 8

The Milwaukee and Waukesha County Federated Library Systems, in conjunction with the Library Council of Southeastern Wisconsin, present Nancy Pearl on Wednesday, November 8, 2006, Franklin Public Library, 9151 W. Loomis Road.

9:00 to noon: Yes, Ma’am—Mood, Appeal and Motivation inProviding Excellent Readers’ Advisories. In order to effectively match up a reader with just the right book, you need to understand how to apply appeal characteristics, as well as the mood and motivation of the reader. This session will focus on defining, refining and using appeal characteristics, the role of mood and motivation in selecting a good book to read, and offering tips and tricks to use in readers’ advisory work at the reference desk.

12:00 to 1:30: lunch on your own

1:30 to 3:30: Jump Start Your Book Clubs! Learn how to successfully set up, promote, run and reinvigorate book clubs. Pick up tips on how to help people of all ages participate in discussion groups. You will have the opportunity to learn from other participants as they share their successes and failures.

Nancy Pearl . . . The New York Times calls her “the talk of librarian circles.” Since the release of the best-selling Book Lust in 2003 and the Librarian Action Figure modeled in her likeness, Nancy Pearl has become a rock star among readers and the tastemaker people turn to when deciding what to read next. Copies of Nancy’s books will be available for purchase at the Franklin Library throughout the day. Special note: Nancy Pearl also will appear at Little Read Book, 7603 W. State St., Wauwatosa, on Tuesday, November 7, from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m.

Register by phone (414-271-8470), fax (414-286-2798), or email (libco@execpc.com).