Mary Wepking joins SOIS school library media program

The School of Information Studies announces the appointment of Mary Wepking as senior lecturer, effective with the Spring 2007 term. With teaching and administrative responsibilities related primarily to school library media, she will teach additional courses in literature for children and young adults and elsewhere in the MLIS program.

A UW-Milwaukee SOIS alumna (MLIS 1992), Ms Wepking has a bachelors degree from UW-Platteville and a year of study at Newcastle Polytechnic, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne.

Ms Wepking has a decade of experience as a school library media specialist in Brookfield High School, Dominican High School (Whitefish Bay), and Nicolet High School (Glendale). In addition to her related teaching in those settings, she taught English and Drama at the high-school level and has taught courses supporting school library media certification on an adjunct basis for Cardinal Stritch University and UW-Milwaukee SOIS.

She is one of many SOIS alumni who have benefited from a field placement in the Golda Meir Library here at UWM, where she worked in the reference department. She built on that experience in an academic library as Collection Development Coordinator and Acquisition/Serials Librarian at UW-Platteville for several years. More recently, Ms Wepking has coordinated the continuing education program of the Wisconsin South Central Library System.

Mary Wepking joins SOIS at it continues to build a leading school library media program. With 2.5 full-time faculty and instructional staff, the School will have considerable strength in this area and children’s/young adult literature.

Please join us in welcoming Mary Wepking to SOIS!

Judith Krug speaks on intellectual freedom

The Center for Information Policy Research (CIPR), the SWITCH Library Consortium, and the UWM Libraries will sponsor Judith Krug for a morning of professional development and intellectual enlightenment. Krug, the Director of the Office of Intellectual Freedom at the American Library Association, will outline the types of academic and intellectual freedom challenges facing institutions of higher education today and address how these affect academic libraries in a lecture, "The 'Interesting' Times of Intellectual Freedom."

The Office for Intellectual Freedom is charged with implementing ALA policies concerning the concept of intellectual freedom as embodied in the Library Bill of Rights, the Association's basic policy on free access to libraries and library mateials. The goal of the office is to educate librarians and the general public about the nature and importance of intellectual freedom in libraries.

Please join the conversation on January 12, 2007 from 8:45 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. in the 4th Floor Conference Center of UWM Libraries, 2311 E. Hartford Ave., Milwaukee, WI.

Talking Taiwan: Educational and Research Opportunities in Taiwan

Ranked 14th among the largest trading countries in the world and a major player in the production and trade of information technology products, Taiwan is also the sixth leading country of origin for international students in the U.S. Taiwan's contributions to technology and research and its investmentin education impact our lives daily.

Please join the School of Information Studies (SOIS) and the Taiwanese Student Association as we welcome three distinguished guests from the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) for discussions and dialog on academic issues, scholarly and student exchange opportunities, and research initiatives.

The speakers include Director General Cheng, (TECO Chicago), Director Chiang, TECO Science Division, and Director Hsu, TECO Cultural Division on Friday, December 1, 2006, from 1:00 to 4:00p.m. in the 4th Floor Conference Center of Golda Meir Library.

Shana Ponelis to speak in CIPR series

The Center for Information Policy Research (CIPR) will present the final fall lecture in the International Information Policy Colloquium series Monday, November 27th, 2006 in Bolton Hall (521) at 11:30 a.m. Shana Ponelis, from the University of Pretoria, will speak aboutHer "Consumer issues in telecommunications in South Africa: quality of service and affordability."

Shana Ponelis joined the Department of Informatics at the University of Pretoria, South Africa, as a senior lecturer in Augues 2003. Prior to this, she was a senior consultant with Atos KPMG Consulting and an experienced consultant with Anderson Business Consulting, specializing in business intelligence and data warehousing. She completed a BSc in Mathematical Sciences (1995), a BA Honours (1998) and a Masters degree by dissertation in Information Science (2003) at the University of Pretoria. In 2000, she also attended the International Women's University (ifu) as part of the project area entitled Information in Hamburg, Germany.

For more information about the event or the live streaming video broadcast, visit http://www.cipr.uwm.edu.