FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE November 4, 2002
CONTACT: Dan Roland (800) 552-4770
BY: Dan Roland

ESU celebrates 100 years of library education- EMPORIA, KS

The first library school west of the Mississippi will celebrate its centennial at an upcoming alumni reunion and conference. "From one-room schools to the World Wide Web, our School of Library and Information Management has met the challenges of a changing world for a hundred years," said ESU President Kay Schallenkamp. "We are proud of the school's accomplishments, and invite alumni and the community at-large to join us in our celebration," she said.

The conference begins with a panel presentation of retired SLIM faculty and SLIM alumni entitled "Celebrating a Century of Service." Two nationally-known speakers will address attendees later in the day. Samuel Betances, a nationally-known speaker on diversity and multiculturalism, will conduct a workshop the afternoon of Nov. 9. Betances is a motivational keynote speaker and consultant with major Fortune 500 companies such as AT&T, XEROX, McDonald's, Merrill Lynch and Coca Cola USA. He has appeared on the Phil Donahue Show and has served as a guest expert on Peter Jennings' special "Prejudice and Children." "Our mission is to make America stronger, healthier and freer than when we found her," said Betances.

Library advocate Diantha D. Schull will speak at a noon luncheon Nov. 9 on the theme "Framing a Future of Excellence. Schull is president of Libraries of the Future, a national organization which champions the role of libraries in American life. For 20 years, Schull has been a developer of educational programs, grant writer and administrator of cultural institutions.

The conference will also include tours of ESU's William Allen White Library and the ESU campus. Current SLIM students will present poster presentations of their graduate work, followed by a performance by ESU music students. Betances will give the keynote speech at a semi-formal banquet Saturday evening in the ESU Memorial Union ballroom.

Alumni will gather the night before at a reunion. "We have made a special effort to invite former SLIM students who graduated in 1997, with invitations also sent to alumni who graduated ten, 15, 20, etc, years ago," said event organizer Dan Roland. A web site at http://slim.emporia.edu/centennial.htm features documents, photographs and interviews charting the history of SLIM. "Alumni are welcome and encouraged to submit recollections, photographs and other materials that would help make the site a comprehensive history of the school," said Roland.

SLIM dean Robert Grover sees the centennial as a chance to celebrate the past while looking to the future. "We want to take this opportunity to celebrate with our alumni our mutual success and, at the same time, renew our commitment to the profession to provide excellent and innovative education for the librarians and information professionals of tomorrow," he said.

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