A List for SJSU Students Interested in Special Librarianship
Eli wonders if a discussion list she created for San Jose State University students interested in special librarianship should just be left for dead since it’s had limited traffic lately. I think this kind of discussion list sounds like a terrific idea and could be a great resource. I applaud Eli for taking the initiative to start one. I know many of my classmates would have been quite interested in the list. Eli, if the response at SJSU isn’t satisfactory, what about opening it up to students around the country? There are plenty of future librarians/information scientists/archivists at schools where no one talks about special libraries and nontraditional careers.
August 7th, 2004 at 1:00 pm
Jessica, you are right on target with this post. There is a desperate need for such a list. The current situation at my school is that most people are focused on academic and school librarianship and the course offerings reflect that. (We only have one class that deals exclusively with special libraries). A management class I was required to take this summer was the same way. All the assignments dealt with management issues in respect to public libraries. I know classes can’t be tailored specifically to everyone’s interest, but I really feel that neglecting special libraries in this course meant I didn’t learn a great deal.
I think opening up Eli’s list to students around the country would be very useful for people such as myself who know they don’t want to work in anything but a special or nontraditional library.
August 9th, 2004 at 6:54 pm
Thanks for the shout-out and suggestions.
Actually … there already is a nation-wide list for studies interested in special libraries called Student Group. It’s run by SLA and it was just set up this spring (April or May 2004). People can subscribe to it at http://lists.sla.org.
It’s been dormant since Nashville, but perhaps that’ll change once school starts.
August 9th, 2004 at 7:19 pm
Does the Special Libraries Association restrict membership of their lists to association members?
August 12th, 2004 at 4:29 pm
Sorry for the delay.
After asking around … most of SLA’s mailing lists are restricted to members. Subscribing to the Student Group requires approval of the list administrator (at least, if you’re not an SLA member). And from the response I received from HQ, it seems that SLA-run lists are considered to be member resources (i.e. predominantly or exclusively for the benefit of SLA members, but that’s my interpretation).
August 12th, 2004 at 5:02 pm
That’s what I thought about SLA’s lists. Although it sounds like they have a workaround for students who aren’t members, having a list for students that’s not tied to any particular association has its benefits.