BEYOND MLA

This page is the home to news releases and articles sent to us from the wider library community. These articles are posted as they are sent to us.

"Promoting Books of Jewish Interest" - October 1, 2004

"Meeting the Assistive Technology Challenge" - March 10, 2004

"Simmons, Harvard Team to help Iraqi Libraries" -March 8, 2004

"Promoting Books of Jewish Interest"

The 92nd Street Y Buttenwieser Library and the Jewish Book Council are cosponsoring the Sixth Annual Jewish Children's BookWriters' Conference at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan on Sunday, November 21, 2004, from 9:00 am to 5:00 p.m.

Featured speakers are publicist Carol Fass of Carol Fass Publicity & Public Relations, Inc., associate editor Alyssa Eisner of Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, publisher Carol Hupping of The Jewish Publication Society, art director
Semadar Megged of Philomel Books, managing editor Steve Meltzer of Dutton Children's Books, and literary agent Scott Treimel of S©ott Treimel NY.

Author David Adler, winner of the Sydney Taylor Book Award and the Helen Keating Ott Church and Synagogue Library Award, will give opening remarks, and the day will include "Query Letter Clinic and First Pages" with the editors, an information session on the Association of Jewish Libraries' Sydney Taylor Manuscript Competition, and door prizes.

Sixth Annual Jewish Children's Book Writers' Conference Sunday, November 21, 2004, 9 AM to 5 PM 92nd Street Y, 1395 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY $80 before November 1, $95 after November 1. Fee includes kosher breakfast and lunch.

Call 212-415-5544 or e-mail library@92y.org for a registration form and additional information. The final registration deadline is November 15. The conference was a sell-out last year, so register early.

If you write or illustrate children's books for the Jewish market, this conference is for you!

For Immediate Release March 10, 2004
Contact: Lee Bracken, 617-373-2748 (l.bracken@neu.edu)

Library hosts "Meeting the Assistive Technology Challenge"
Presenter, Joe Lazzaro, Project Director, Massachusetts Commission for the
Blind
Date: April 1, 2004
Time: 12:00-1:00pm
Location: 120 Snell Library (first floor)
Free and open to the public

On Thursday, April 1, Northeastern University Libraries will host a special
program on assistive technology in education. The program will focus on
the rapidly changing field of information technology and its impact on
educators, librarians and other professionals, all who must provide a level
playing field for individuals with disabilities.

The American Disabilities Act and Sections 508 and 504 of the
Rehabilitation Act mandate accessibility within the public and private
sectors. These increasingly complex laws and regulations are forcing
institutions to create and deploy accessible technology in a cost effective
manner. The good news is that embracing the challenges of universal design
may help create a new generation of accessible information technology.

Debra H. Mandel, Head of the Library Media Center, states, "This program
will be helpful for educators and community members who need guidance in
providing equal access to all."

Following Mr. Lazzaro's presentation, members of the Library's Assistive
Technology Committee will be on-hand to provide brief demonstrations of the
software and equipment purchased with Library Services and Technology Act
(LSTA) funds received through a Massachusetts Board of Library
Commissioners grant. There will also be a Q&A.

Northeastern University's Snell Library is located at 360 Huntington Avenue
in Boston. The event location is wheelchair accessible. This event will
be sign-language interpreted.

SIMMONS, HARVARD TEAM TO HELP DEVASTATED IRAQI LIBRARIES
NEH Grant Seeks to Modernize War-Torn Libraries, Halt Serious Librarian Shortage

BOSTON (March 8, 2004)—Responding to the devastating effects of war on Iraqi libraries, the Simmons Graduate School of Library and Information Science (GSLIS) and the Harvard University library system are launching a joint program to provide training for Iraqi librarians and archivists, to aid in modernizing Iraqi libraries and help address the country’s serious shortage of librarians.

The program links the Simmons GSLIS--one of the premier library and information science schools in the nation--with the library and information science professionals of Harvard University, which is home to the world’s largest academic library.

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has awarded Simmons and Harvard $100,000 for the two-year project. The grant is part of the NEH program “Recovering Iraq’s Past,” which funds projects to help rebuild Iraq’s cultural heritage.

The program will begin in May, when a team of Simmons faculty and Harvard librarians meet with Iraqi librarians in Amman, Jordan, for a curriculum planning retreat. The Iraqis will identify their needs for training to rebuild collections and to modernize their library systems. Training areas may include preservation, cataloging, collection development and management, and automation and online information systems. Subsequently, Simmons faculty will teach graduate library courses for Iraqi librarians. In collaboration with Harvard librarians, they will oversee a series of special projects and serve as long-term mentors via the Internet.

Michele Cloonan, dean of the Simmons GSLIS and principal investigator for the NEH grant, noted that more than two decades of war and economic sanctions, as well as the chaos of the recent regime change, have left the centuries-old Iraqi book and manuscript collections with a “vast array of problems,” and few librarians with contemporary professional training and expertise.

“For years, resources were withheld from cultural institutions in Iraq,” Cloonan said, “and the recent war has resulted in widespread destruction. Librarians were cut off from technological and professional development. The United States has some of the best library and information science programs in the world, and we’re pleased to be able to bring our training to the Iraqis. So much has changed in library and information science since the Iran/Iraq war two decades ago. The Internet wasn’t even in use.”

According to political scientist Sidney Verba, Harvard’s Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor and Director of the University Library, librarians from Harvard will play a critical role in the Iraqi program. “The Harvard library is pleased to have this opportunity to join with Simmons to work with our Iraqi library colleagues,” said Verba, “and to help rebuild the intellectual base of higher education in Iraq.”

In addition to taking library and archival courses, the Iraqis will work with Simmons and Harvard library specialists on special projects that the Iraqis identify as most needed to rebuild their contemporary and historic collections and to modernize their library systems.

The Simmons and Harvard organizers also hope to have some Iraqi librarians attend the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions World Library and Information Congress in Oslo, Norway, in 2005 to join their international colleagues.

The Simmons GSLIS directed a similar library-rebuilding program (begun in association with the HarvardYenching Institute) in Vietnam, through which Vietnamese students earn their master’s degrees in library and information science at Simmons. Today, the Vietnamese graduates of the Simmons program are library leaders in Vietnam. Additionally, the ongoing Bosnia Library Project, based at and supported by Harvard University, has assisted in the rebuilding of destroyed and damaged Bosnian library collections since early 1996.

For further information about the Simmons Graduate School of Library and Information Sciences, go to http://www.simmons.edu/gslis. For information about the Harvard library system, go to http://lib.harvard.edu.