In August of 2011, a group of my fellow SLISters (SLarchivists to be precise) and I journeyed to Chicago, Illinois for the 75th annual Society of American Archivists conference. Not only did we go to the conference - our primary purpose for attending was to represent LSU SLIS by presenting our poster "Student Chapters: Meeting Expectations and Providing High Quality Experiences" at the student poster session. Our research consisted of a 33 question survey which we sent out to every student and recent graduate of the 61 LIS programs in the United States and Canada. We asked students about why they did or did not join a student chapter of their professional association of choice, as well as what they hoped to gain from their membership and if those expectations were met. From our research, we gained a better understanding of how to better meet the needs of LIS students in student chapters, as well as how to recruit future students into student chapters. Our group included Lisa Juengling, Nicole Pye, Rebekah Laurent, Jimmy Williamson, and myself, accompanied by Felicia Thomas, fellow SLarchivist extraordinaire.
It was an amazing week in Chicago and at SAA! We stayed in a fantastic condo on the 47th floor of a brand new high-rise with a view of the city and Lake Michigan; we indulged in Chicago deep dish pizza (even though Mac Scarle scoffed at our restaurant choices); we visited the Art Institute of Chicago and the Field Museum, and we all got our first taste of presenting at a national professional conference.
To be honest, I came back from Chicago bragging most about the folks whose hands I got to shake, including several of the "high priests" of the archival profession - Mary Jo Pugh (author of Providing Reference Services for Archives and Manuscripts), Rand Jimerson (author of Archives Power, focusing on the archivists' role in preserving the collective memory), Gregory Hunter (Developing and Maintaining Practical Archives, a work also known by some as the Archivists' Bible), Julia Marks Young (remember Boles' and Young's Black Box Theory of archival appraisal?), among others!
Yep, it was a great experience, and I can't wait for SAA in NOLA next year!
I just wrote a LONG appraisal of this patch, and the computer tossed it! I give the patch a 5. Maybe I'll get inspired and redo at some point.
Posted by: Tony Davis | 08/27/2012 at 09:08 PM
So glad that the patch collector and her friends had the opportunity to go to Chicago to represent their university--a fine honor and experience.
Glad this patch exists so that the patch amasser has it to commemorate the experience. The graphics, however, on the patch, in my opinion, are either less than good or a little mysterious/cryptic. Stitching looks good, and I like the historical info on it, but all in all I give the patch a 5 of 10. The patch does not inspire.
Posted by: Tony Davis | 09/07/2012 at 01:51 AM