The Dean's Dialogue @ SLIS-CUA

A Fond Farewell

2009-12-03T08:46:00.000-08:00

To the SLIS Community,

I wanted to share a final farewell before I leave SLIS. My time with SLIS has been exciting, nerve wracking (at points) and a privilege. Our accomplishments during my tenure are truly amazing. We achieved two professional accreditation successes and saw a significant upturn in enrollments. We held a research symposium that was an unprecented success and brought the President of ALA to our School. We hosted a career development event in collaboration with the District of Columbia Special Libraries Association (DCSLA) that was well attended and received kudos from everyone who attended the event. We established our mission, core values and objectives in collaboration with our community and put in place a Working Plan for the School to guide us now and into the future.

The faculty had many research and teaching achievements and two of the SLIS faculty, Dr. Choi and Dr. Kules received OCLC grants for their research! Three other faculty had articles published, Dr. Hsieh-Yee, Dr. Lussky and Professor Shumaker. All in all, it was a very productive time.

The School is in great shape and its future is bright. Thanks for your part in making SLIS a great place to be and come back to in the years to come.

With best wishes for the holidays and always,

Dean Kelley

The Excitement Builds!

2009-08-20T04:41:00.001-07:00

We are about to begin the new fall semester! What an exciting time of the year. For those of you who took comprehensive examinations this summer, you will get notification of the outcome of the examination on August 28th, 2009. Typically, we are able to send out an email to the SLIS listserv in the afternoon about the outcome of the examination.

As we prepare for the fall semester, please be thinking about the following items:

1) Registration for classes. Please check that you are registered for the courses you want. Check Cardinal Station and be sure everything is as it should be.

2) Check in Cardinal Station to see that your email account listed in Cardinal Station is the one you will read and will readily read/receive. If you leave the default email address there, it will go to your CUA mail account. Your email account is used for all communication from the School so ensure it's correct before the first day of classes, August 31st.

3) Check to see who your advisor will be. And, consider sending him/her a note to introduce yourself. And, ask any questions you may have.

4) Keep in mind very important dates: The last day of drop/add: Friday, September 11th. Last day to withdraw from classes: November 13th, Last day of classes for the semester is December 14th and, comprehensive exams will be held: October 23 and 24th.

I welcome you to SLIS, or welcome you back after the summer break. I look forward to working with you and having a great academic year.

Dean Kelley

CUA-SLIS Achieves Full Re-accreditation

2009-07-28T12:06:00.000-07:00

I have received the official letter from the American Library Association’s Committee on Accreditation. They have decided to release SLIS from conditional accreditation status. This returns the School to the seven (7) year accreditation cycle putting our next accreditation visit in 2016. The recent decision means that your effort, contribution, and participation in demonstrating how wonderful SLIS is, led to the successful decision at ALA that returns CUA to a re-accredited program on a seven, rather than three, year cycle. The Committee congratulated us on our efforts in planning and assessment and stated that they are confident that if we continue on our path, we will continue to be fully accredited and successful fulfilling our unique niche in the metropolitan D.C. area.

Now is not the time for complacency, however. I intend for SLIS to continue on its path of success to ensure we remain accredited and meet the ALA standards by continually assessing our progress and improving our program.

I want to thank each of you for your efforts on our behalf. I appreciate your efforts and all that it contributed to this exciting, thrilling!, outcome.

A recent Library Journal article provides some more information on the outcome of the COA's deliberations at ALA. see http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6673356.html?rssid=191 for the highlights of the recent accreditation decisions of the Committee on Accreditation.

Thanks to one and all for your participation in this very happy outcome for CUA-SLIS.
Dean Kelley

2009-04-17T06:12:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-27T08:01:00.001-07:00

March 27, 2009

The accreditation visit ended on March 24th. The exit briefing with the External Review Panel (ERP) was extremely valuable, informative and a reassuring ending to the visit that started on the 21st of March. We were quite fortunate to have an experienced, thoughtful, and diplomatic chair for our ERP, Dr. Jean Donham, who represented the American Library Association (ALA) very well and led the team during their visit here to campus. I feel privileged to have worked with her and she certainly had an excellent team to support her during the recent visit with SLIS.

I also owe a huge debt of gratitude to the SLIS community. The outpouring of support was exemplary, the effort expended by our advisory board members, our alumni, our part-time faculty and our students was heart warming and an important element of the visit's success. I can honestly say that whatever the outcome of the visit, which I will know formally in July, the participation of the SLIS community was the most outstanding aspect of the visit and demonstrated how special the SLIS community of scholars and stakeholders is. The ERP mentioned how impressed they were with everyone who participated and what a delight all of the individuals were who joined us for the various events associated with the visit. I was overwhelmed by the response, by the level of participation, and the thoughtful feedback the ERP received that resulted in a positive impression for the ERP.

I cannot thank everyone enough. I can also state unequivocally that the success of the visit is due to your involvement, that you provided unparalleled support, and your support mattered a great deal. I am cautiously optimistic about the outcome of our visit. I am extremely proud of all of you, SLIS's stakeholders, and I thank each of you for what you did to contribute to our visit's success.

Now, let's plan the next seven years, shall we? :-)

I'll send out a prospective date/time for a party in July pending the decision of the Committee on Accreditation.
Again, my sincerest thanks.
Dean Kelley

2009-01-24T11:28:00.000-08:00

To the SLIS Community.

It's been too long since last I said a few words about what is going on in SLIS. So, it's nice to be back and able to share a few words about the School's progress. My "absence" is due to the need to finish the final Program Presentation, our accreditation report to the American Library Association (ALA), which took the majority of my time over the final weeks of December culminating with the safe transfer of the document to the printer on January 15th, 2009. So, the report is currently in the process of being printed, and soon thereafter, I will post it to the SLIS Web site at: http://slis.cua.edu/Accreditation. I encourage you to review the Synthesis and Overview section of the report if you do not have much time but want to get a flavor of the report.

Also, we are putting the finishing "touches" on the upcoming SLIS Symposium that will take place on January 30th, 2009. It is indeed a privilege to host so many of our colleagues and students at this event. We currently have over 100 participants and which is gratifying and indicates the need for such events to make connections and improve our research and practice. Thank you to all of you who submitted proposals and are contributing to this exciting event in SLIS's history.

The accreditation process is progressing. The next major milestone will be to send the External Review Panel (ERP) the report on February 9, 2009. They will review our report, which is certainly an impressive effort by the SLIS faculty, and visit us in March. They arrive on the 21st and 22nd, have a full day of meetings planned for the 22nd, 23rd and 24th, culminating in a briefing for the SLIS community on their findings and an initial discussion of their recommendations to the Committee on Accreditatin (COA). I have been visiting our SLIS students to tell them personally about our efforts and asking for their help in achieving re-accreditation for the School. I also need to assistance of our alumni, adjunct faculty, and employers to help us let the ERP know that SLIS has great students, faculty, staff and employers who value the School's existence and want to ensure the School remains to fulfill its unique mission in the Washington, D.C. region. I will publish the itinerary for our guest's visit as soon as it is finalized. It is likely that the ERP will want to meet with SLIS adjunct faculty, alumni and employers on Sunday the 22nd, around 3 in the afternoon. Please "save the date" and plan to join us at this important meeting to be held in the Mullen Library, May Gallery.

I was touched to see the outpouring of support from the SLIS students I have spoken to thus far. Several suggested they would like to contribute letters of support for the School to add to our sources of evidence for the ERP to review. Certainly, if you are interested in providing a testimonial, I would be most pleased to receive it. All student, alumni or faculty testimonials received will become part of our sources of evidence for the visit and we would be most appreciative to hear from any/all of you. Please send these testimonials to me, either by mail or email, and I will ensure they are shared with our visitors.

May I wish each and every one of you a happy and healthy new year. As we gear up for the visit of the accrediting team, I feel most gratified by the support I have received within the SLIS community. Thank you for your support as we prepare to present our school and community to the visiting team. I know we can help them to understand why SLIS is important to our University, region and the LIS field. I hope you will agree that SLIS has made a difference for you too.

Dean Kelley

2008-11-20T05:51:00.000-08:00

There is much going on at SLIS and all of it is very exciting and the result of the efforts of so many of our dedicated students, faculty, and alumni. As we enter the holiday season, let me thank each of you for your contributions on behalf of SLIS and express my appreciation for all that you do for SLIS.

The Program Presentation draft for the American Library Association (ALA) is due on Friday the 21st of November. Once it is safely winging its way to ALA, I will work with the faculty to put it up on the SLIS accreditation Web site so all members of our outstanding community have an opportunity to review and read it (it is quite long, however, so be forewarned). We have spent countless hours to obtain the data necessary to tell our story, be self reflective, and improve our program. I hope you will see that our efforts have paid off and that SLIS is meeting stakeholder needs through self-improvement.

Further, we are preparing for several upcoming events that I want to invite you to participate in and join us as we provide venues for our community to foster collaboration and mutual understanding:
1. The SLIS Holiday Party is scheduled for December 2, 2008 from 6 - 9 PM. Please join us and share in the spirit of the season.
2. The SLIS Symposium, Bridging the Spectrum: A Symposium on Scholarship and Practice in Library and Information Science is scheduled for January 30, 2009 from 10. Please join us as we share our research, foster discussion, and seek new ways to contribute to the field. We had over 40 submissions for presentations and poster sessions and James Rettig, ALA President is our guest speaker. It will be an exciting and rejuvenating event. I hope to see you there.
3. The ALA accreditation visiting team arrives on the 22nd of March and departs on the 24th of March, 2009. This is a call for alumni, students, and part-time faculty to join us and help us tell our story to demonstrate our contribution to the students, faculty, university and field. I will likely put out a call for alumni and part-time faculty to join us, I hope I can count on you to be there and show support for SLIS.

SLIS recently hosted its fall faculty meeting at the Mullen Library, May Gallery. The event included a presentation by Ms. Karen O'Brien, the ALA Director of the Office of Accreditation. We had some excellent conversations about the curriclum and the needs of the program. I encourage you to view the video of the event available at: http://slis.cua.edu/about/Accreditation page.

When we released the spring schedule of classes, we reviewed and analyzed the needs of students, based on their feedback, and made over five changes to the spring schedule to meet your needs. Be on the lookout for the summer schedule, we are working on it now.

As we enter into the season of thanksgiving and joy, may I wish you and your loved ones joy, health and well being this holiday season. If you have been touched by the recent economic woes our country is experiencing, please accept my heartfelt sympathy. I know that the situation will eventually improve. I know that we will survive and thrive and be the stronger for the experience. I also know the mood is anxious for us all. With the coming of the holiday season, let us take comfort in the knowledge that we are loved and that each day is a new opportunity.

My best wishes
Dean Kelley

The Next Round of the Program Presentation

2008-10-08T09:54:00.001-07:00

The School is achieving its accreditation milestones and carefully following its accreditation timeline. Our latest achievement is a complete, well-edited version of our program presentation. The program presentation will soon be available for you, our stakeholders, to read, consider, perhaps ponder, and give us your feedback. I wanted to alert you to this next phase in our process so you will be ready to comment and are aware of our progress. The faculty have worked extremely hard, with dedication and consideration of the needs of our students, faculty, and colleagues in the LIS field. I am proud of their accomplishments and their willingness to participate in this process to bring it to a successful conclusion. I also want to mention, as the time grows near, that we need you, our students, alumni and faculty at SLIS to help us tell our story when the visiting team arrives in March 23rd and 24th, 2009. So, mark your calendars and plan to join us as we ready ourselves to present SLIS as the great school it is!
Dean Kelley

The latest from SLIS

2008-09-18T11:33:00.000-07:00

SLIS has been very active these last months since I last wrote of our progress in May of 2008. Some highlights of our progress include:

The research/best practices symposium planned for January of 2009. The symposium committee, composed of Dr. Kules, Professor Shumaker, Assistant Dean Steelman and Dr Kelley has developed a concept for the Symposium that was approved by the SLIS faculty. This an exciting opportunity to share your successes and accomplishments with your fellow students, scholars and professionals in our field in a variety of areas. We are very excited to have this symposium planned. Further, James Rettig, current ALA President has agreed to be the keynote speaker for the event. Please find further information on our upcoming symposium at: http://slis.cua.edu/symposium/symposium.cfm. I hope to see you there and I strongly recommend submitting a proposal for consideration for the event.
The first, complete draft of our Program Presentation, the accreditation document for the American Library Association, is complete. This draft is now being reviewed and edited. We expect to produce a new draft each month leading up to the formal submission of the draft to the American Library Association on November 23, 2008. As soon as the editing process is complete, we will share this latest draft with all of our stakeholders, colleagues, and friends.
SLIS has received additional funds for improvements to the Information Commons as a result of our Strategic Funds proposal to the Dean's Council and through the auspices of the Provost. The School's Technology Committee, chaired by Dr Kules, is examining our next steps and determining what improvements are possible with the additional funds. Further, I provided funding to upgrade our licenses to the Adobe Creative Suite for the Laboratory and the SLIS classrooms. The latest version is now available and is part of our efforts to continually improve our technology infrastructure in Marist and on behalf of our students and faculty.
I am hosting an accreditation update on September 25th, 2008. The event is scheduled in the Information Commons from 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM. I hope I will see you in the Information Commons, in Marist Hall, on the 25th. I look forward to speaking to you about our efforts and hearing your views.
The fall faculty retreat is right around the corner. This is an annual event where the full-time SLIS faculty come together to discuss our current progress on planning and establish next steps. This year's retreat is scheduled for October 3rd. We are most fortunate that a former SLIS Dean, Dr. Elizabeth Aversa, is the key note speaker for the event and she will converse with the faculty on our present and future and discuss the School and how to best steward it into the future.
Finally, our fall, full faculty retreat will be on November 8, 2008. We will again have the company of Mrs. Karen O'Brien, Director of the Office of Accreditation, for the American Library Association. She will provide an update on the accreditation process and answer questions about the upcoming visit of the External Review Panel (ERP) who will visit SLIS in March, 2008.

It is busy at SLIS, much is being accomplished and we are making excellent progress. I hope to hear from you and, please, if you have questions, do not hesitate to contact me.

Dean Kelley

The Latest from SLIS

2008-05-07T06:08:00.000-07:00

There have been several recent events of note this spring semester. In this blog posting I'd like to share information on our progress with accreditation, discuss the Stone Lecture, seek your support, and mention the passing of an important member of our community.

Accreditation

We have passed two major milestones this semester. First, the official Program Plan, was due March 23, 2008, exactly one year before we go through the re-accreditation process. We have submitted that document and it is also available on the SLIS web site at: http://slis.cua.edu/about/Accreditation/. The Program Plan received very high marks from the Executive Director of the Office of Accreditation at ALA and our External Review Panel Chair, Dr. Jean Donham. We are extremely pleased to have achieved this milestone and to have received such positive comments on our efforts by the individuals who are leading our review process and provide formal feedback on our efforts.

Second, We had a faculty meeting with the entire SLIS faculty on April 26, 2008, and this was also very informative and extremely helpful as we review the core courses in SLIS and revise and develop formal outcomes measures for the courses in SLIS. The current slides on the State of SLIS are now available on the SLIS accreditation site also.

We also had another meeting of the SLIS Advisory Committee and are continually seeking stakeholder feedback through many avenues to make SLIS's program a better place for all.

The Annual Elizabeth Stone Lecture

The annual Elizabeth Stone lecture was also well attended and Mr. Andrew Pace, the guest speaker gave a lively presentation enjoyed by everyone in attendance. We were particularly pleased to have Dr. Stone's daughter, Ms. Anne Cole Stone Crow, joining us for the event. Her remarks about her mother, her mother's dedication, and the impact of her administration on the development of SLIS were heart warming and reassuring, especially for a new dean such as myself! :-) A video of the speaker's remarks for the Stone Lecture is available through the SLIS home page. For more information on the Stone Lecture series go to: http://slis.cua.edu/people/stonelecture.cfm. Or, to learn more about the many activities of our SLIS alumni, please see: http://slis.cua.edu/people/alumnigateway.cfm.

SLIS Surveys

SLIS is reviving the survey process to obtain feedback on how well we have served our alumni and our current students. We are asking for your assistance to obtain sufficient feedback to use to improve our program. Please take a moment to fill out either the alumni or student survey to help us make improvements and continually refresh the program.

Jessica Dovi

We lost an important member of the CUA community two weeks ago, on April 24, 2008, Mrs. Jessica Dovi. Mrs. Dovi was a recent graduate of SLIS and after graduation, rose to become the Head of Access Services at the Mullen Library, CUA. In her short life, she made an impact on many, many people and is survived by her husband, Damien Dovi, and her infant son, Matthew. I had the privilege of attending her funeral and seeing her life's impact on her friends, family, faculty, and co-workers. I was reminded of one of my favorite films, It's a Wonderful Life, as I observed the love, caring and sorrow in the room after the funeral. She was a brave individual who lived life to its fullest in her short time with us here on earth. We are looking forward to welcoming her family at the upcoming graduation ceremony for SLIS on May 17th in the Law School Atrium. Her husband will be accepting her diploma in her place. If you had the privilege of knowing Jessica, or seek to assist in finding a cure for melanoma, please contribute to The Jessica Dovi Foundation c/o St. Mary's Episcopal Church, 2609 North Glebe Road, Arlington, VA 22207-3501. Jessica, we will miss you!

SLIS Graduation

On May 17th we will celebrate the degree completion of 46 SLIS graduates (and counting)! We are excited to welcome the graduates, their family, friends, and guests to celebrate the completion of their degrees and to share in the joy of success and the anticipation of life after completion. I hope to see you there! If you haven't let us know you intend to join us, please do so with Ms. Anita Coleman at colemana@cua.edu.

Have a great summer, see you in the fall (yes, I'll be here this summer, so, if you are on campus, stop by).

Dean Kelley

Exciting Developments in SLIS

2008-03-27T17:16:00.000-07:00

New Developments in SLIS:

The Faculty Web Page:

SLIS faculty, students, and staff have been extremely busy with many projects designed to make things better for all of us in SLIS. First, we recently "unveiled" our new faculty Web page available at: http://slis.cua.edu/people/adjunctresources.htm. I am very interested in your feedback on our new faculty Web page and any ideas you have for improving this resource for the future.

ALA Accreditation:

We have completed, and submitted, the next report for our upcoming accreditation visit in 2009. The Program Plan is the next required submission. You can find the report at http://slis.cua.edu/about/Accreditation/. The final version of that report will be on the accreditation page in the next day or two. The Program Plan is the detailed outline of the report we are preparing, referred to as the Program Presentation, that forms the primary document for the on-site accreditation visitors in 2009. The Plan is under review by ALA and the SLIS Coordinating Committee will speak with ALA in early April to ensure we are on the right track and preparing a document that meets their expectations.

So many of our dedicated alumni, current students, faculty and staff have contributed to this impressive document. I want to thank everyone for your dedication and commitment to SLIS's future.

Upcoming Events:

Some important upcoming events on the SLIS calendar include:
1. The Elizabeth Stone Lecture, sponsored by the SLIS Alumni Board on April 30, 2009 in Hannan Hall.

2. The semi-annual faculty meeting of the entire SLIS faculty scheduled for April 26, 2009 in Mullen Library, the May Gallery and, last but not least,

3. SLIS Graduation! SLIS graduation is on May 17th in the Law School Atrium on the CUA campus.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!
Dean Kelley

The first draft of the Accreditation Program Presentation Plan

2008-02-26T14:10:00.000-08:00

Dear SLIS Community,

The process of developing a Program Presentation for accreditation is developmental. With this in mind, I want to alert you that the first draft of the Program Presentation Plan is available for review and comment by our SLIS community (you!). The document may be viewed at the following location: Program Presentation Plan Draft I. The initial draft is the result of significant work by many individuals associated with the development of the Plan. I have so many individuals to thank, the dedicated faculty of the School, the students who have graciously agreed to participate in the process and our caring, engaged alumni, to name a few.

The Program Presentation Plan outlines the process the School will follow, and the evidence the School will provide, to demonstrate our compliance with the six accreditation Standards. The next step is to develop the complete Program Presentation, the document that forms the detailed discussion of our evidence to demonstrate our compliance with the Standards for our accreditation visit in 2009.

The Program Presentation Plan, once reviewed and revised and finalized, will be reviewed by the Executive Director of the Office of Accreditation and our External Review Panel chair. These two individuals will examine the Plan, give us their views on our progress and alert us to any issues they see that we need to address as we develop the actual Program Presentation. The Program Presentation will be submitted at the beginning of 2009 to the Committee on Accreditation of the American Library Association's Office of Accreditation.

For now, this is an excellent first draft that includes the work of a dedicated group of individuals who are committed to our success in 2009. The draft will be revised per the feedback we receive through our SLIS Accreditation Web Page, through review and revision by the six standard committees responsible for this document, the Alumni Board of Directors for SLIS, and from the SLIS Advisory Committee.

If you have any questions or suggestions, please contact me or the chair of the standard committee responsible for the chapter.

Thanks
Dean Kelley

The SLIS Accreditation Forum

2008-02-13T09:53:00.000-08:00

I hosted the first accreditation forum on Monday, February 11, 2008 for the entire SLIS community. The purpose of the forum was to begin the process of reviewing SLIS's current status on planning for our next accreditation visit and to provide further information on the issues that SLIS is addressing as we prepare our Program Presentation for the External Review Panel who will visit SLIS on March 23 & 24, 2009. I had the event taped so I could provide it to you as part of our efforts to keep you up-to-date and informed about all aspects of accreditation and the progress we're making. I also hope it will generate questions that you will ask me here in my blog so we can have a continuing dialogue and discuss issues that may arise, or concern you, as we progress toward the visit in 2009. The taped event can be accessed here: The Forum Video. Thanks to everyone who attended I thought it was a thoroughly enjoyable discussion of the issues of importance to the future of SLIS.
Dean Kelley

The Latest on Accreditation Planning

2008-02-07T04:25:00.000-08:00

It is always exciting to share good news. It is my pleasure to announce the creation of the SLIS Accreditation Web site to keep everyone informed of our activities and progress toward re-affirming our accreditation in 2009. The new Web site is available through the SLIS home page by selecting --> about SLIS ---> Accreditation from the left-hand menu at http://slis.cua.edu/. Or, if you prefer, the direct link to the site is: http://slis.cua.edu/about/Accreditation/. The many individuals giving generously of their time are listed at the site as are the documents and presentations related to preparing for an accreditation visit. In addition, the current progress of the School on developing planning documents, and a planning process, are located here for your perusal.

I will also be hosting a forum on accreditation on Monday, February 11th, 2008. I hope to see you there. The event will be webcast and a copy of the event will be made available through the accreditation Web site also. In the meantime, or if you cannot attend the first forum (there will be more!) please do not hesitate to check out our new Web site and share your views, questions, or concerns with me on the process.

The Web site is the hard work of Professor David Shumaker and Ms. Colleen Candrl. I extend my thanks to both of them for their assistance with establishing this important Web site for our SLIS community.

Thanks.
Dean Kelley

Update on Accreditation Status

2008-01-25T05:15:00.000-08:00

Much has occurred since I last shared the information about SLIS and our accreditation efforts. The faculty are actively engaged in strategic planning, an essential foundational piece for our upcoming accreditation visit. One important milestone for having a successful accreditation visit in March of 2009 involves regular reporting on our planning process to the Committee on Accreditation (COA), the body that decides whether to accredit a School of Library and Information Science such as CUA-SLIS. In December, 2007, I submitted a detailed report on our progress. For the purposes of ensuring all of our constituents are informed, I attach a copy of the Executive Summary of that document here for your perusal. In addition, the Provost of the University, Dr. James Brennan, and I met with the Committee on Accreditation in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to discuss the School's progress and garner their feedback on our approach to reaffirming our accreditation status in 2009. This was a very productive meeting. The response from the COA was generally positive and they did not express any concern with our efforts, in fact, they were complimentary of our efforts. I will provide a copy of the PowerPoint slides of my talk with the COA on the soon-to-be-released accreditation web site. We are currently working on a web site for the accreditation process at CUA-SLIS to keep you informed and to provide a location for documents and updates to supplement my blog.

There is much that remains to be done. Our next milestone is the Plan for Program Presentation we will submit to the COA in March of 2008. I will also be hosting a series of forums to give everyone an opportunity to discuss our progress and ask questions on our approach and status.

Thank you again for your support and interest in SLIS!

The Full Faculty Meeting

2007-11-15T05:42:00.000-08:00

It has been exciting here at SLIS. We were fortunate to have had a visit recently by Ms. Karen O'Brien, Director, Office of Accreditation at the American Library Association. She came to SLIS on November 9th and 10th, 2007 to discuss our progress on meeting the Standards for Accreditation. We are steadily making progress for the Program Presentation document for our next team visit to SLIS in March, 2009. The discussions were uplifting and she had many, helpful things to share with us. She also provided important insights into the accreditation process for the entire faculty, who met on November 10th to discuss issues related to the School, teaching and learning and accreditation from 8:30 - 2:00 p.m. Ms. O'Brien's talk can be seen by visiting the site for our faculty meeting
http://digitalmedia.cua.edu/calendar/event_dsp.cfm?event=3863.
I was impressed by the outstanding quality of our faculty, their dedication great ideas, and support for the School. It was a great day for me and I really enjoyed hearing from the faculty on myriad issues. We discussed our newly revised core values for SLIS: Collaboration, community, innovation and excellence. I welcome your thoughts on these ideals that our faculty felt accurately characterized SLIS and supported the greater university's values of Reason, faith and service. We have also developed a new vision and mission statement and we are finalizing our program goals and objectives.
The outcome of the break out groups on Saturday, which were focused on mechanisms to foster community were also very helpful. We're working toward making some improvements in our support for community to help to engage everyone to the greatest extent possible with our busy lives. Do you have ideas to share on how to foster community? Please share!

If you are interested in what we've accomplished to date, the faculty meeting Webcast is a good site to review. I discussed our progress in some depth at the meeting and gave specifics about the planning process we've been undergoing for SLIS to achieve full compliance with the ALA standards in 2009. I welcome your feedback on the faculty meeting, and any thoughts you have about our planning process here in SLIS.

In the near future, I will submit our first, formal report on our progress to the Committee on Accreditation for ALA. Further, we are working on a Web site to keep everyone informed of our activities and documents related to planning and accreditation. Be on the look out for this new Web site, which I'll also announce, soon after the new year.

As we enter the busy holiday season, let me wish you a joyous holiday season!

The State of SLIS

2007-10-22T05:50:00.000-07:00

I think it's time for the Dean to weigh in on the status on SLIS and our future as a School. I am delighted to share that SLIS is doing quite well. Also, I need to clarify what it means to be conditionally accreditated. First, we are accreditated, fully accredited. Our full accreditation status will be maintained provided we successfully host a re-accreditation visit in March of 2009. A conditional status means that you go through accreditation in three years rather than seven, as is usually the case. Further, you complete additional documents to establish that you are correcting the problem(s) noted in the re-accreditation visit that resulted in the need to go through the process sooner. Granted, it is preferable to remain fully accredited. However, it is also quite an opportunity to examine the direction of the School, rally the School, University, and the community behind SLIS to ensure SLIS is going in a positive direction. SLIS needed to do some self-examination. I knew this to be the case when I came for my interview. However, there is no need for alarm. Far from it.

SLIS's faculty is aware that the planning process needed to be bolstered. Further, that we need to ensure we engage our stakeholder community (you) in the process. We are dedicated to doing this. If we do it successfully, and I am quite sure we will, we will retain our accreditation status and further, maximize our contribution to the field and to the academic community. We didn't need to revamp the entire program. Nor did the program completely fail its previous accreditation visit. The planning process was considered inadequate. That problem is actively being corrected. Further, the University is strongly behind SLIS and providing resources to ensure our success. SLIS has received permission for new faculty hires, we have identified and obtained a consultant to ensure we meet our ALA requirements head-on and successfully. We are already working to prepare a dynamite report that will demonstrate the greatness of SLIS that did not come out in the previous report. As is oft quoted from Mark Twain, "Action speaks louder than words but not nearly as often." Rest assured that we have have been diligently at work ensuring a favorable outcome of the upcoming accreditation visit at SLIS slated for March 23rd and 24th of 2009. So, we've been active but not speaking as loudly as perhaps we should. Our conditional accredited is something we will address wholeheartedly and our university's support for our efforts is stellar.

If you have been concerned about SLIS's future. Don't be. I do not make it a habit to bet on a losing horse. In fact, I don't bet. I ensure that when I come to an institution, and make it my home, I ensure the odds are in my favor. SLIS is strong, it's a great program. It's a program with a great deal of potential and its future is bright. You have my word that we will be better than we were before and we will achieve much through the self evaluation process that is self study. Most people will tell you I don't give my word unless I can deliver. SLIS will deliver in 2009 and for every student that enrolls in our program. Be a part of a brighter tomorrow. Be a part of something that promises to be even better than it has been before. Be a part of SLIS!

The next gen of librarians, JSTOR and the journal Science - What do they have in common?

2007-10-16T05:32:00.000-07:00

The controversy concerning the future of libraries has been in the New York Times and most recently, the latest edition of the Chronicle of Higher Education in the article: Young Librarians, Talkin' 'Bout Their Generation . The view of the "next generation" of library professionals is fascinating. What concerns them most? One area of concern, one area I think is a fundamental issue for the profession (and will continue to be) is intellectual property, ownership and the scholarly record. The librarians interviewed indicated that librarians need to take more control, assert their authority, take back their power, and change their perspective on what they can and cannot demand from publishers who depend, at least in part, on libraries as their customers (as one interviewee accurately pointed out). Further, they see a future heavily invested in digital, which makes sense. I was surprised, however, that they were not so adamant about the end of analog, but, they did see the integration of multiple technologies (hopefully in a coherent whole) that will shape their futures. It was also very reassuring for someone like myself, who is no longer in her thirties (!) to have such an articulate, engaged, and tech-savvy group of individuals taking the reins (so to speak) as the field evolves and looks to its future.

The issue affecting these young librarians are apropos of the issues currently facing the library community, especially in academe. The continuing controversy concerning the decision of the publishers of Science to withdraw it from JSTOR is heating up, and for good reason. When JSTOR came into being, and librarians began to provide it to their clientele, they did so with the expectation that the journals included would be there for the foreseeable future. It was not a situation where there wasn't a quid pro quo, librarians paid for the access to this publication and the price was certainly fair for all the publishers involved. Further, as one of the librarians involved with purchasing at the time, I know that that purchasing resources such as JSTOR affected myriad collection development decisions that are difficult, or impossible, to reverse because of Science's decision to pull out.

The Chair of the Council of Library Directors for the University System of Maryland and Affiliated Institutions (USMAI), Dr Celia Rabinowitz, stated in the recent Chronicle article that this is a significant loss, and further, it might result in a growing reliance on print to offset the ever growing need of publishers to extract more for their publications. While I certainly support the publishers right to make a profit, I balk at the loss of a scientific publication from an aggregated database resulting in its loss to the learner, scholar, and next generation. Once lost, there is no more opportunity to serendipitously find Science when searching through databases for materials. That is indeed a serious loss for learners, researchers, and the libraries who serve them. I also found it profoundly disturbing that Science felt it needed to pull out even when it does not index its journal into JSTOR for five years. Clearly, there is little or no loss of revenue at the end of a five year period for a publication that is about scientific discovery. Couldn't they consider lengthening the time before they contribute to JSTOR as an alternative to simply pulling out entirely?

In an emerging world that is ever more focused on cross-disciplinary research, being "an island" in the field, ie, not participating in an aggregated database that combines resources for a myriad of fields like JSTOR, is counter intuitive to the choices and preferences of science researchers. The only bright spot in all of this is that few publications would be interested in being isolated, Science is one of the few that would consider this to be in their interest.

In an era where musicians, some of the finest (e.g., Radiohead), are choosing to allow the consumer to pay what s/he thinks is fair for their latest album, I think the idea of paying more for the same information, such as the Science model doesn't have a bright future. We will see what happens with Science and whether they reconsider their approach. We will also see if they consider their debt to the scholars, librarians, and future scholars who make their journal possible and are the primary users as well.

In a word, librarians, unite! We've got the power! Apply pressure and let's see if we can be as successful as Radiohead! :-)

Course Offerings at SLIS

2007-10-15T13:29:00.000-07:00

In an effort to ensure SLIS is responsive to students, in this case considering your expressed needs and preferences concerning our course offerings, the SLIS faculty, led by Professor David Shumaker, devised an excellent survey of CUA-SLIS students to determine your needs (and preferences) for course offerings for the spring semester from SLIS. The survey was completed by 145 students. This is a significant sample and very helpful in learning more about your views, thank you! The survey results included a request for your scheduling preferences. We found that you prefer a blended format (a mixture of face-to-face and online), late afternoon class times and to have classes offered on Monday - Thursday. Many of you indicated you would like to see courses offered entirely online also.

We also took your requests for specific classes and examined them closely to see to what extent we can match the offerings with your requests. The five most requested courses were:

LSC 606, Cataloging
LSC 608, Collection Development
LSC 609, Preservation
LSC 841, Rare Book Librarianship
LSC 557, Libraries and Information in Society

For the spring semester, we expect to offer most of these. The faculty met and discussed every one of your preferences and made a conscientious effort to consider both the types and times/days/formats of the courses you indicated you need and would like to take.

We enjoy being a program that is student-centered. Asking your opinion, and using it as a basis for considering our spring offerings is something we took very seriously. I think we have an excellent, rich set of offerings for the spring semester. We hope you will agree.

The Latest at the School of Library and Information Science (SLIS) at The Catholic University of America

2007-09-12T05:33:00.000-07:00

I arrived at SLIS on the 20th of August, suffice to say, there is a great deal going on within the School and a sense of expectation and excitement to forge ahead. There is much opportunity for students in our program and our dedicated faculty provide an exemplary education. If you are interested in learning more about opportunities to pursue your education here at SLIS, I encourage you to review our letter for prospective students to learn what SLIS has to offer you as a graduate student in Library and Information Science.

Soon after my arrival, the SLIS faculty, our alumni Board and I started conversations on devising our approach to the accreditation visit to SLIS in April, 2009 and ensuring stakeholder involvement. We are discussing what structure we will use to develop the document that we will submit for the re-accreditation visit. As some background, the re-accreditation visit revolves around the Program Presentation document. This document is designed to demonstrate how SLIS is addressing the six standards. The six standards are:

1. Mission, goals, and objectives
2. Curriculum
3. Faculty
4. Students
5. Administration and Financial Support
6. Physical Resources and Facilities

We are now in the process of proposing a structure and approach to creating the Program Presentation document. I am confident our proposed approach will garner significant stakeholder involvement. One key element of our approach is establishing an Advisory Committee that will be composed of current students in SLIS, alumni, and individuals with whom we have a long-standing relationship, who are also in the field, such as the Library of Congress, librarians and other stakeholders in Virginia. In the near future we will "roll out" our approach for comment and discussion as we forge ahead with developing the Program Presentation.

At the same time, we are preparing for the first faculty retreat in October where we will continue to work on refining SLIS's mission, goals and objectives. Subsequently, we are hosting a full faculty meeting on November 10th from 10-12, 2007 of the entire faculty. I am pleased that Ms. Karen O'Brien, the Executive Director of the Office of Accreditation, ALA, will join us at that meeting to discuss the accreditation process and the role of faculty within that process. I also encourage, you, our faculty, to attend. We will Webcast the event if you are unable to join us in person.

I have learned, in the three weeks I have been with the School, that there is much to be proud of. The faculty are thoughtful, energized and committed. They are conscious of their School's strengths and have a willingness to examine areas where we can continue to improve. SLIS is a great place to be. I just had my first "meet and greet" with our students and I want to thank Ms. Caroline Jones, our AGLISS President, for setting up and hosting the event. I have also been spending time visiting classes and meeting our students. It has been a delight to see the SLIS students and hear your views.

I will continue to share current events, thoughts, and news of SLIS here, in the Dean's Dialogue. I invite you to share your thoughts will me also.

Sincerely,
Dean Kelley