22 December 2008

Welcome Molly to the Neighbor Island Student Space

It has been a while since I've had time to update this blog, so I'm very happy that Molly Due will be joining the editorial team. Please feel free to give her your news as we make it your space.

I should add congratulations to Hilo students Lisa Leach and Leslie Chow on graduating this December!

13 April 2008

Response to the survey



Dear Neighbor Island students:

We thank you again for taking the time earlier this year to meet with Violet Harada, LIS associate chair, and sharing your thoughts about the effectiveness of the HITS experience and your recommendations for strengthening and expanding the distributed learning options. We wanted to provide you with informal feedback before the end of the school year. In the itemized list below, we focused on your major requests and followed this with our proposed actions.

1. Have veteran LIS HITS instructors provide mentoring support to new LIS HITS instructors.
Response:
We plan to do this more systematically starting this summer. On a voluntary basis, veteran instructors will meet with new HITS instructors to offer advice and collegial coaching.

2. Offer the required core courses (601, 605, 610, 615, and 650) on a more regular basis.
Response:
All of these courses are offered at least once during a four-year cycle and several are offered at least twice during the cycle. We will consider other options that students might select and inform you as plans develop.

3. Offer more HITS courses each semester.
Response:
We have only two time slots given to us each semester. Starting in fall 2008, we will split the Saturday time slot so that two courses can be offered in the two-and-a-half time frame. This means that the instructors of the split courses will decide how to make up the rest of the contact hours. Although we will encourage instructors to consider online alternatives rather than weekend intensive sessions on the Manoa campus, the final decision must be left to the instructor’s discretion.

3. Offer more asynchronous online courses.
Response:
In the recent past, we have offered LIS 650 and LIS 686 as asynchronous summer courses. We will continue to work on other options and inform you as plans develop.

Site-specific matters introduced in the interviews
During the interviews conducted on Maui, Kauai, and the Big Island, students expressed concerns and requests specific to their individual sites (e.g., a better HITS classroom on Maui, impact of the closing of the Maui Community College Library for the remainder of the calendar year, working more closely with the Hilo HITS tech staff on weekend service). We will be addressing each of these matters with the appropriate neighbor island coordinators and informing you about the outcomes.

Once again, thank you for your input. Please continue to contact us by e-mail or using the Neighbor Island Student blog space at http://neighborislander.blogspot.com/

Sincerely,
Andrew Wertheimerand Violet Harada

31 March 2008

Attention Maui Students

Elizabeth Knight kindly warned us that the MCC library is scheduled to close around May 16, 2008 for about 7 months of renovation. "We expect the entire collection to be boxed and sealed until at least January 2009."

During that time, I think you will have to use public Libraries in Hana, Kahului Public Library, Kihei, Lahaina, Makawao, Wailuku or UH online resources. Please let me know if there is anything we can do for you on this.

More on Wireless for West Hawai'i

Benjamin Tucker asked me to pass on "West Hawaii has it on at least some parts of campus (including where the HITS classes take place). It is password protected, so students will have to ask for instruction their first setup."

17 March 2008

LIS 602 in Fall 08 Saturdays with LIS 615

SCHEDULE CHANGES: LIS 602
I am pleased to announce that we've made a final change to the Fall 2008 schedule.


Our last change is to move LIS 602: Introduction to Multimedia Technology & Resources from Wednesday nights to Saturday morning 9:00-11:40 on alternating Saturdays via HITS. It will share that time slot with my LIS 615, so people can take both classes. There will be additional online exercises and projects to make up for the reduced class time. We are doing this so we can have another class available for neighbor island students and people working full time.

You can learn more about Carol Kellett and her class at her website. Carol is Systems Librarian at UHM and is a Past President of the Hawaii Library Association.

In case you wanted to plan your weekends, it will be:
  • LIS 602: AUG 30, SEP 13, 27, OCT 11, 25, NOV. 8, 23.
  • LIS 615: SEP 6, 20, OCT 4, 18, NOV 1, 16, DEC 6.

ADVISING
Continuing students should make an appointment to meet with their faculty advisor to discuss classes for Fall 08 and Summer 08. You need to get approval from your adviser in order to register. Enrolled students have the first chance to sign up for classes, and then are opened to unclassified students.

ADVISING-SUMMER
Summer registration begins on 1 April.
This year, please note that our summer courses are offered through SUMMER EXTENSION.
You still need to pre-register with your advisor. Courses are listed on the schedule, and more descriptions are available online as well.

Please remember:
* If you are a full time student, but do not take courses during summer you do not need to file a leave of absence form.

* Remember, we do not offer internships/ practica, directed readings or thesis credits during the summer.


ADVISING-FALL
(Please see above regarding the fall schedule). Fall registration begins on 30 April.

13 March 2008

Update from the Chair (Spring 2008)

Aloha Neighbor Islanders. I want to update you on a few things:

Thank You
Thank you for taking time to talk with Dr. Harada as part of our survey of neighbor island students. The faculty are reviewing your comments.

Schedules
The Fall and Summer 2008 schedules are now online. I also added some more information here. This summer's we'll have:

Summer 2008
[LIS 601]: Introduction to Reference & Information Services [HITS] Kamiya
[LIS 689]: Asian American Materials for Children and Youth [HITS] Fujii-Baab
[LIS 694]: Special Topics in Information Technology: Visual Information Science Ma (online)

Fall 2008
[LIS 615]: Collection Management [HITS] Wertheimer (Saturdays) (no intensive weekend)
[LIS 610]: The Information Environment / Intro. to LIS [HITS] Asato (Tuesdays) (no intensive weekend)
We're still trying to get another course for Saturday (splitting Saturday)

Spring 2009 Tentative Plan
LIS 605: Basic Cataloging & Classification
LIS 647: Systems Analysis for Information Management
LIS 686: Information Literacy & Learning Resources

Fall 2009 Tentative Plan
LIS 663: Basic Database Searching
LIS 683: Services for Libraries
LIS 684: Administration of School Library Media Centers

Spring 2010 Tentative Plan
LIS 601: Introduction to Reference & Information Services
LIS 650: Management of Libraries & Information Centers
LIS 671: Digital Librarianship

Have a friend who wants to apply to LIS?
If you know anyone who wants to apply for the Program, please let them know the fall and summer deadline for admissions is 1 April 2008. After that people can apply for a semester as an unclassified student via Outreach College.

Thanks Friends of the Library of Hilo
The Friends of the Library of Hilo are kindly funding two scholarships this time.

Wifi HITS Sites
Catherine Kawada informed me that these HITS sites have wireless internet connection in their ITV classrooms:
  • Maui CC (recently installed)
  • UH Hilo
  • Kapiolani CC
  • Leeward CC
  • Kauai CC
  • UC West Hawaii - available hopefully by summer or fall 2008
  • MCC Education Centers (Molokai, Lanai, Hana, Lahaina) - starting Fall 2008
Students should check with their site techs if they have any questions in regards to configuring their laptops for wireless connection.

About the Blog
Let me know what you think of this blog. Do you want to become an editor too? Just let me know if you have a Blogger account.

News: The ALA-SC Basement Blotter
The ALA Student Chapter publishes a newsletter called the Basement Blotter. download a copy today. The editors would love to hear from you too.

LIS Program Video on iTunesU
The LIS Program is new streaming video on iTunesU. We videotapes and uploaded two presentations by visiting speakers (Michael Stephens and Loriene Roy) and the Oral Exam Orientation, and the LIS 690 Internship Orientation. We'll try to keep adding more if you like that. We hope that the orientation videos can replace the mandatory meetings on Oahu of the past. We hope that the online brownbag talks help to share the sense of Ohana in LIS.

Expanding Online Options?
Dr. Harada and I are exploring possibilities for offering some quality online courses. We will report if we have any success.

LIS 690 Internships on Neighbor Islands
The LIS 690 website lists one neighbor island internship at the moment (UH Hilo), but also includes FAQ information on how to propose new internships. The supervisor needs to have an MLS/MLIS/MLISc, but we encourage you to work with librarians on your island to create an internship that meets your needs.

12 March 2008

Aloha



Aloha. I'm creating this blog as a reference space and communication forum for students of the UH Manoa LIS Program who live on neighbor islands.

Feel free to post questions and comments here. This is not an official LIS space, but is a place to share tips, ideas, questions, comments, and to help create a sense of community for our students in all parts of Hawai'i.