Friday, April 17, 2009

April 17, 2009
I wanted to alert our community that the final report, finalized by the SLIS External Review Panel (ERP), was submitted to the Committee on Accreditation last week, the week of April 13th, 2009. If you are interested in the report, it is now available through the SLIS Web site at: http://slis.cua.edu/about/Accreditation/ . At this point, the ALA Committee on Accreditation will review the Program Presentation we submitted in February and the ERP report submitted this month, to make their decision regarding SLIS's accreditation status. The ERP visit went well and we are very appreciative to the ERP for their dedication and thoughtful, final report on our program and School.

The SLIS faculty have been highly engaged in determining the future of the School and the visit with the ERP helped us to examine and refine our planning efforts for the School. It was an instructive, useful and informative opportunity for SLIS and we appreciate everyone's involvement.

Last night we had the Career Enhancement Event we co-hosted with the District of Columbia Special Library Association (DCSLA). Information on the event is available at: http://units.sla.org/chapter/cdc/events_files/apr1609.html . It was a great event. I think the "speed mentoring" which is a five minute discussion with a potential employer was extremely valuable to everyone seeking employment, interested in exploring new opportunities, or just learning more about how they present themselves and how they can improve their personal presentation for potential employers. The break-out sessions about employment opportunities in various information sectors were also very instructive and enjoyable. I want to thank Mary Talley and Diane Schnurrpusch for their leadership and for their willingness to coordinate the speed mentoring. I also need to thank Dr. Alan Goodman of the CUA Career Services Office for participating in our resume doctor activity as well as Deborah Brightwell of InfoCurrent for her tireless assistance to all of the individuals seeking advice yesterday evening. I also want to thank Dr. Goodman for leading a resume workshop for SLIS students in April preceding this event. I hope to do more of these types of events, at least repeat them every year in April for our graduating students and our alumni. I am glad we were able to host University of Maryland (UMD) students also and I look forward to co-hosting more events in the future with both DCSLA and UMD.

As the academic semester winds to a close, I can say it's been a very good year for SLIS. I hope you will share your ideas for how SLIS can continue to improve our service to our community and I look forward to hearing from you as we develop our programming for the fall semester over the summer.

Dean Kelley