Upcoming IRRT Webinar: Virtual International Connections: The Global Librarian Exchange Program

 Virtual International Connections: The Global Librarian Exchange Program

Date: November 22, 2021

Time: 1 pm PST, 2 pm MST, 3 pm CST, 4 pm EST

 

Description: The Global Librarian Exchange Program, a Michigan State University Libraries microgrant initiative, is a virtual symposium which promotes professional exchange between academic librarians from abroad or from underrepresented communities and MSU librarians or staff.  The goal of the GLEP is to enhance the exchange of ideas, expertise, and skills among librarians internationally and between communities, through mutual dialogue by a series of presentations and conversations.

Join us to learn about the benefits and challenges of the first iteration of the program, which was set to be in person, but had to be quickly redesigned to a virtual environment due to COVID-19 and was held from January-June 2021. This presentation will discuss the conceptualization of GLEP through the planning and implementation process, including recruitment and liaising with international colleagues, designing, and executing a speaker series with topics germane to global librarianship, while traversing international time zones and academic calendars, and will conclude with plans for future iterations of the program.

 

Presenters:

Andrea McMillan is the Chicanx and Latinx Studies Librarian at Michigan State University Libraries. Her work focuses on curating the César Chávez browsing collection, the Stephan O. Murray and Keelung Hong Special Collections Latino Collection, and the José F. Treviño Chicano/Latino Activism archival collection. She is Core Faculty in the Chicano & Latino Studies Program and serves as the faculty representative for the Chicanx/Latinx Association (ChiLA) of MSU.

 

Erik Ponder is the African and US Ethnic Studies Librarian at Michigan State University Libraries. His area of interests are southern African contemporary politics, history, and popular culture. He has traveled extensively throughout the African continent. In 1994, he was an international election observer for the historic democratic elections in South Africa. He has collected ephemera from Africa in response to the Obama presidency. More recently, he has collected Black Lives Matter protest posters in Washington DC. Erik has also worked extensively in the Digital Humanities combining his interests in Africa and digital scholarship.

 

Registration Link:

 ala-events.zoom.us/webinar/register/...

Call for Submissions for International Leads December 2021 Issue

CALL FOR FUTURE SUBMISSIONS: International Leads wants to hear from you!!

 

International Leads, the quarterly newsletter for IRRT, is accepting submissions for upcoming issues. Have you participated in an international conference lately?  Ran an interesting program with an international flavor for your patrons?  Visited a library in another country?  We are looking for news of your activities to share with our international readership.  Preference is given to authors who are also IRRT members (please indicate when submitting an article), but we encourage anyone with a story to share.  We also especially encourage our members and friends from outside the United States to keep us informed of your engagements.

 

We also run regular columns on the following and ask that you contact us about information or with questions about any of these opportunities:

• International partnership profiles - do you participate in a partnership with a library in another country?  We’d love to profile your partnership and give inspiration to other partnerships or sister library programs.  
• International librarian profiles - are you a librarian outside of the United States?  We’d love to hear about your work and your library. 
• IInternational library profile - have you visited or do you work in a library outside of the United States?  We’d love to learn about that library and your association there.  

 

Guidelines for writing can be found here: http://www.ala.org/rt/irrt/intlleads/authorinstructions/instructions 

 

International Leads is released quarterly, in March, June, September, and December.  Submissions are accepted on a rolling basis with deadlines on the 15th of the previous month of issue.. 

 

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to the editors at ala.intl.leads[at]gmail.com.  We seek your input and are happy to discuss ideas or give guidance on writing. We particularly want to invite early career librarians to participate and submit their work.

 

Warm regards,

 

Julia Gelfand

Michele Fenton

Reysa Alenzuela

Co-editors

International Leads - the newsletter of the ALA International Relations Round Table

View current and previous issues of IL here: http://www.ala.org/irrt/intlleads/internationalleads

Instructions for authors: http://www.ala.org/irrt/intlleads/authorinstructions/instructions

Follow IRRT on the web: http://www.ala.org/irrt/about   and   http://alairrt.blogspot.com/

Gigabit Libraries and Beyond: Improving Broadband Access Worldwide

Gigabit Libraries and Beyond: Improving Broadband Access Worldwide
October 19, 2021, 8:00-9:15 am CT
[To find your local time, visit https://www.worldtimebuddy.com/] 
FREE webinar registration at: https://tinyurl.com/isldbroadband

 Webinar Description: 

Libraries worldwide are a key resource in supporting and providing broadband access to their communities, which continue to experience inequitable access to the internet and information and communication technologies (ICTs). The Toward Gigabit Libraries toolkit is a free, self-service guide created to help libraries understand and improve their IT capacities and broadband resources. Join this webinar that will first introduce internet access globally and the role of libraries in providing internet access, followed by an interactive discussion on IT and broadband challenges your libraries face and learn about how the toolkit can help libraries beyond the US, understand and address them. While the toolkit was originally created for United States libraries, this session will focus on areas that can be applied and adapted to an international audience. Participants are encouraged to describe their technology challenges and work with the facilitators and other attendees to seek solutions.

Prior to attending the session, attendees can download and review a free version of the Toward Gigabit Libraries Toolkit at http://internet2.edu/tgl and also watch the short explanatory video on the site. 

A follow-up interactive, hands-on session is scheduled on January 19, 2022; 8-10 am CT for participants to virtually “workshop” possible approaches to localizing the toolkit for communities across the globe. 

Speakers: 

Carson Block (carson@carsonblock.com) has led, managed, and supported library technology efforts for more than 25 years. He brings a user-centered technological perspective, with an emphasis on transparent and powerful solutions, with some “gee whiz” thrown into the mix. Carson’s passions include leading technology visioning and planning, creating highly-functional work groups, technical design (including infrastructure, RFID, and points of self-service), and project management with a focus on technology solutions tailored for each library and its community. 

B. Shadrach (shaddy.shadrach@gmail.com) is an international consultant with BS Consulting and holds a PhD in Information Science from Loughborough University, UK (2003), with a specialization in Rural Informatics. He understands the rights-based processes involved in pro-poor information and knowledge systems at the grassroots level, and addresses the challenges of broadband access and affordable ICTs in the developing world. He has worked as CEO of large international and regional organizations, and pioneered programs and innovation.

Stephanie Stenberg (sstenberg@internet2.edu) is Director of the Internet2 Community Anchor Program, where she works with regional networking partners, community anchor institutions, and Internet2 membership organizations to support mutually beneficial goals of bringing networking, trust and identity services, and advanced applications to community anchor institutions nationwide. Since joining Internet2 in 2018, she has been part of three Institute of Museum and Library Services-funded grant projects focused on libraries and connectivity.

Sponsored by: International Sustainable Library Development (ISLD) Interest Group of the ALA International Relations Round Table, Mortenson Center of International Library Programs, and Gigabit Libraries.