Welcome to our ALA Student Chapter blog. Visit this site to find out what's happening in UCLA's Department of Information Studies and for the latest news and events about libraries, archives, and information management.

Monday, September 23, 2013

A Word From Your New President

Greetings New MLIS Students,
My name is Nick Auricchio and I will be ALA president for the 2013-14 academic year. I would first like to welcome you all to the program and congratulate you on devoting your lives to fighting the good fight...for information equality. I think that once you get to know me a little better, you'll understand why I say this...but seriously, librarians are superheroes!  Unfortunately, our student chapter was inactive last year and as a result, I am really scrambling to get everything prepared for the coming year. That's where you all come in! Though we may not have a model on which to run this club, I know that this can only work to our advantage. I am open to listening to new ideas and to trying a number of new things. My dream is to make ALA into the fun, yet professional, student organization of the MLIS program.

As you will quickly learn, the field of librarianship is currently trying to redefine itself as the nature of information, as well as the ways in which people access/interact with it, is rapidly changing. Things that may have worked in the past, may no longer work in the libraries of the future and it is up to venture into the unknown. Despite the explosion of Google and other search engines, you will see that librarians are still the superior source of navigating through the forever-expanding amounts of information, locating the quality sources, and MAKING them available to the masses. In times when more and more groups are challenging the content of reading materials, librarians are leading the charge against organizations that infringe on the first amendment rights of others. As you can see, we are on our way to becoming superheroes.

Because we are almost starting over, the new crop of students will have the opportunity to really shape the course of the ALA student group and build it into a fun, informative, and, most importantly, professional resource for future students. We were once the "Student Chapter of the Year" and I am hoping that we can once again claim the title...but none of that will be possible without the help of new students like yourselves. I look forward to working with and getting to know you all better.

Wishing you all the best,
Nick