SLAIS SLA WCC Student Chapter Report

Robyn Wanner, UBC SLAIS

The past 2001 Fall semester at SLAIS, was a successful one for the SLAIS SLA WCC Student Chapter. Over three very busy months, the chapter was able to offer several events to its members, all of which were extremely well received and attended. The events which were offered included two special library tours to BC CTV and CBC, as well as two different noon hour lecture series featuring four different special librarians from the lower mainland. The semester ended with a student/special librarian pub night at Yaletown Brewing Company in early December.

All of the events which took place over this last semester provided SLAIS students with excellent opportunities to not only network with practicing special librarians, but also allowed students to gain more of an understanding of the work in which special librarians perform. Once of the most positive outcomes of these events has been the opportunity for students to interact with special librarians.

As anyone who has completed 'library school' can appreciate, often we are left with a feeling that we know a whole lot of theory, but are unsure of how we will be able to perform when it comes time to putting all of the learned theory into practice. Having the opportunity to speak with special librarians and learn about their own experiences beyond library school allows us students to appreciate that there is hope for us once we leave the confines of our classrooms and computer labs.

The upcoming 2002 winter semester looks like it will be a fun one here at SLAIS. Currently we are in the midst of planning a 'road trip' to Victoria. While there, we hope to visit a few of Victoria's special librarians and the libraries they work in. As April not only brings many SLAIS students to the end of their degree, but it also marks the beginning of the summer break, thus job hunt begins. In an effort to meet the needs of our members, the student chapter will look to host a few events around the job-hunting theme. Resume writing and interviewing will be two key areas we hope to highlight in our upcoming events. Finally we hope to again bring in more special librarians from the work world to speak in one of our noon-hour series, offering to students glimpses of the lives of 'real-life special librarians'.

The SLAIS SLA WCC Student Chapter would like to extend a big thank-you to all of the special librarians who offered up their valuable time to us this past semester. If you are interested in speaking to our SLA-Student Chapter this upcoming January-April semester, please contact me, Robyn Wanner rwsl@hotmail.com, so we can set up an appropriate time.

Happy New Year!

Robyn Wanner
UBC SLAIS
SLA Student Chapter Co-President