Recent activites and events of EDI Scholars (photos taken by the EDI Scholars):

Monique Lloyd attended the Society of American Archivists 2008 Annual Conference, Archival R/Evolution and Identities , held August 26-30 in San Francisco . Many of the sessions she attended focused on the issues of diversity, technology, and ethics. One session, chaired by John Fleckner, past president of SAA , and author of Native American Archives: An Introduction , discussed core values, professional identity, and the spiritual impact of what archivists do. Monique also attended sessions on the impact of technology on ethics; looking at the Protocols for Native American Archival Materials from different perspectives, and another on archival ethics and social justice. Some of the section and roundtable meetings she attended included College and University Archives, Archives and Archivists of Color, and Native American Archivists.

In between attending sessions and meetings, she took advantage of the services offered by the Career Center , met with Mary Jo Pugh, editor of the American Archivist, to discuss several ideas for possible journal articles, and attended poster sessions. She was delighted to reconnect with people she'd met at conferences she's previously attended as well as having the opportunity to meet many new people from around the United States . She also took some time to explore San Francisco .

A personal highlight was attending the Awards Ceremony and acknowledged as one of two recipients of the 2008 Howard T. Pinkett Minority Student Award . This award “recognizes minority graduate students who manifest an interest in becoming professional archivists and active members of SAA , and do so through scholastic achievement”. It provides for full complimentary registration to the SAA Annual Meeting, as well as related expenses for hotel and travel for attending the SAA Annual Meeting. Monique would like to thank Erika Castano, Tiah Edmunson-Morton, and Mary Jo Pugh for nominating her for this award.

Erika Castano (Curator for the Oregon Multicultural Archives, Oregon State University); Monique; Tiah Edmunson-Morton, (Reference Archivist, Oregon State University and Monique’s EDI workplace mentor). Additional photographs are available on flickr (screen name: Monique2008).

Silvia Calzada and Terrilyn Chun presented a poster session about the EDI program during the ALA Conference in Anaheim, California, June 26 - July 2.

Photo provided by Terrilyn Chun

Monique Lloyd, was recently part of a panel discussion entitled Breaking the Ice: Protocols for Native American Archival Materials and Archivists in the Northwest at the Northwest Archivist Conference: New Frontiers in Archives and Records Management. It will be held in Anchorage, Alaska from May 28-31, 2008. The EDI scholar's participation in this conference was funded by a scholarship awarded by the Oregon Library Association. Below are some pictures of the conference, one of the Anchorage Library and the other of Monique presenting at the conference.

Photos provided by Monique Lloyd.

Paul Mascareñas attended theNational Library Legislative Day held in Washington, DC May 13th &14th. On
National Library Legislative Day, hundreds of librarians converge in Washington to speak with their legislatures on behalf of
libraries; advocating on topics such as federal funding for libraries, Internet availability in rural communities, privacy and the Patriot Act,
copyright law. Those who cannot make it to Washington DC, are also encouraged to participate virtually by visiting: National Library Legislative Day. Here are Paul's thoughts about the experience along with some of his photos:

I arrived in Washington , D.C. on May 12 in order to attend advocacy training. It helped first timers learn background information concerning expectations and how to lobby our representatives for libraries on relevant issues. Stephanie Vance, American Library Association's Capitol Hill Advocacy Guru, presented Lobby Day Training. The session was well attended and covered how to talk to legislators and their staff. Ms. Vance mentioned that getting the chance to speak with our actual representatives was slim. However, speaking to their legislative staff is just as important. They, in turn, relay messages to your representative. It is important to remain focused, considering the limited time, when speakign with our representatives or their staff. We wanted to insure and instill in our legislatures that it was important they continue to support or begin supporting libraries.

The issue that I was to speak about was the continued funding of the Library Services and Technology Act. We were told that representatives do like to hear how legislative issues affect their constituents. It was important that we let our representatives know that what they do in Washington directly affects how we serve our communities. Since our library was recently awarded an LSTA grant, the group I traveled with felt it would serve our purpose to allow me to speak on behalf of this issue.

The second day was filled with morning sessions and talks from ALA President- elect Camila Alire. ALA representatives also talked about the important challenges facing libraries as well as their experience on Capitol Hill. In the afternoon, our group of librarians from Colorado began to visit our representatives on Capitol Hill. Our group split up into various districts and spoke with the legislative office of Congresswoman Diana DeGette, Senator Wayne Allard, and Senator Ken Salazar. We were able to actually meet with Senator Ken Salazar to speak about issues concerning the library.

Wednesday, May 14th , the group from Colorado met with legislative assistants from the offices of Tom Tancredo, Marilyn Musgrave, Doug Lamborn, Ed Perlmutter, and Mark Udall. Shelley Walchak, John Wilkinson, Nancy Bolt, and I met with our Congressional District Representative John Salazar. He was kind enough to meet with us during his busy schedule. Shortly after our conversation, Congressman Salazar left us with his legislative assistant Alfonso Lopez who was attentive and listened to our concerns. We discussed LSTA funding and how important it was for libraries to continue serving underserved populations. We told him how dwindling funds are causing librarians to rely on support from various resources. We talked about how the money is used to fund programs such our virtual reference service Ask Colorado , our Colorado Historic Newspaper Collection, and the Colorado Talking Book Library and library services to children. The issues concerning libraries in the 21 st century are as diverse as are the public we serve. From literacy to internet connectivity, we covered numerous important issues with our representatives.

Library representatives from Colorado included: Rochelle Logan, Eugene Hainer, Shelley Walchak, Camila Alire, Elena Rosenfeld, John Wilkinson, Dee Vazquez, Nancy Bolt, Steven Strain, Carolyn Coulter, and Jody Howard. More pictures of the event can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/treebooks2001/sets/72157605278114471/

Paul Mascareñas recently attended the Colorado Library Consortium Spring Workshop in Pueblo, Colorado. Following is his report from the workshop: The only thing disappointing about the workshop was that there were too many informative sessions running concurrently. Director of the State Library Gene Hainer discussed how the Colorado State Library can be a useful resource on issues of advocacy, Colorado Newspaper Collection, Talking Book Library, increased funding for libraries and research resources. Debra Van Tassel explored all the useful government information available online. As government resources and access is all the more ubiquitous, librarians are encouraged to become “government information specialists.” Through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, Debra has centralized a large portion of this information via Web Junction. Pertinent resources about immigration, education, agriculture, crime & justice are all categorized in an easy to use format. This information is free and available at Web Junction. Sharon Morris from the Colorado State Library held a panel discussion with innovative librarians utilizing technology in their areas to reach the community of users and to engage librarians. First up was Carol Primus from Gunnison. She uses geocaching to attract patrons of all ages into her library. Nancy Trimm from Mesa County Public Library shared how she uses Web 2.0 technology and created a staff wiki to help inform and bring librarians that may be separated geographically, but with the use of these innovative applications, can remain connected. She also created a blog, Webolution 2.0, to help staff remain relevant with professional development exercises. Karen Pardue, from CSU-Pueblo also implemented a project wiki for her staff at Colorado State University. Karen shared her insight into what to expect when beginning a wiki and what resources are available for said project. Ultimately, this two-day workshop brought some of the best and brightest to Pueblo. Librarians shared ideas on how to reach our diverse community of learners, interact and learn from our colleagues and how to remain creative, inspired, and utilize resources from technology to each other in order to provide excellent service to our users. Photo provided by Paul Mascareñas.

Librarians Brooke Andrade, Mary Walsh and library assistant Paul Mascareñas will be presenting the Mobile Learning Center and Laptop Loan program at the upcoming Mountain Plains Library Association conference held in Salt Lake City, Utah. The conference dates are April 29th - May 2. The national conference is entitled, “Where Paths Meet: Connecting Libraries and our Communities.” Mountain Plains Library Association or MPLA is a twelve state librarian consortium including: Colorado, Kansas, Montana, New Mexico, North & South Dakota, Oklahoma. The librarians will be presenting on the recently implemented Mobile Learning Center and Laptop Loan program (MLC/LLP) that was part of an LSTA Grant written by Brooke Andrade and Paul Mascareñas. The MLC/LLP is a two-part project that reaches out to the community of the San Luis Valley through technology classes taught by the librarians and to provide laptops for the students, staff, and faculty to check out in the library.

Here are Paul's comments about the conference: Of the numerous sessions, one in particular was of great interest to me. The session entitled ROSSA: Reaching Out to Spanish Speaking Audiences was presented by recent ALA President Elect, Camilla Alire. Dr. Alire is Dean Emerita at the University of New Mexico and Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado. In her presentation, Dr. Alire spoke of our unique position as librarians to reach out to our underserved members of our community, more specifically, the Spanish speaking population with services derived from demographic information to analyze popular trends of our community. Also by providing equal access accompanied by equity of access will ensure that your patrons are given the best service. She gave examples of marketing your library services once they are developed. Alire outline steps to take in which we can make a difference in another persons life with bilingual resources; print and electronic. This was an opportunity for me and two Adams State College Librarians, Mary Walsh and Brooke Andrade to present on our Mobile Learning Center and Laptop Loan Program. Brooke who is a Reference and Instruction Librarian and Mary Walsh who is Nielsen Library’s Resource Sharing Librarian as well as my mentor for the Emporia Diversity presented how an academic library can reach out to its ever changing community of learners on and off campus. With the help from LSTA funding, Nielsen Library was able to purchase 10 Dell laptops for student checkout and for librarians to teach basic computing skills to our surrounding community. Since its implementation in January of 2008, we have reached over 400 community members from San Luis to Center, Colorado. Ultimately, there were over a dozen in attendance and I was able to visit with one of the librarians from Utah Public Library who also works to help libraries in Ethiopia. She shared her passion for wanting to start a program similar to this one in Ethiopia. As I learned from our visit funding is an ever present issue. Photo provided by Paul Mascareñas.

Max Macias, Toan Lam-Sullivan and Terrilyn Chun presented a poster session on library services to incarcerated youth at the OLA/WLA joint conference in Vancouver, WA on April 17, 2008.

EDI Scholars at the OLA/WLA joint conferences - photos taken by EDI scholars.

Three Kansas EDI students participated in the “Tomorrow’s agents of change” session at Kansas Library Conference on April 10, 2008. They presented their community analysis project promoting library and information services to an under-served group. Anthony Vu and Marina Vildoso presented their poster entitled “Public libraries and cultural diversity” and surveyed professional employees who work in their local libraries (KCK and Topeka) to point out the lack of diversity in our profession. Lisa Brien (with Cadie Mass and Shari Schawo) presented the poster entitled “Older Hispanic population analysis and service evaluation in Shawnee County.” Using various data collection methods, including interviews, observation, and surveys, they assessed the needs of the older adult Hispanic populations.

Photos of the EDI scholars at the Kansas Library Conference - photos taken by Annie Kim.

Monique Lloyd received one of six scholarships from the Institute for American Indian Research (IFAIR) to attend the Native American Graduate Students Research Conference: Planting the Seeds of Our Research and she will present a paper on the power of stories and how they can be used to introduce Native students to tribal archives. The conference be held at the University of New Mexico, April 3-4, 2008. The conference will include graduate students from the United States and Canada who are Indigenous/Indian/Native. The papers presented will cover all disciplines. Along with the research sessions, the conference will include keynote speaker Dr. Gerald Vizenor, student talking circles, an indigenous evening social and give away, and tours of research programs. Indigenous professors at the University of New Mexico will also comment on the papers presented in panels and sessions at the conference. For more information, you may view the IFAIR agenda. Below are photos from the IFAIR conference.

Photos provided by Monique Lloyd

Recent publications by EDI scholars:

• (Abstract). The Power of Stories: Using Constructivism and Sense-Making to Introduce Native American Students to Tribal Archives. Chapters and Loose Papers: SAA Newsletter for Student Archivists, 2 (2), Spring, 2008. (In press.)
• Sharing Our Stories: Part 1 Incorporating the Library Related Needs of American Indians into LIS Classwork and Discussions. American Indian Library Association Newsletter, Spring, 2008
• Sharing Our Stories: Part 2 Expanding LIS Coursework and Discussion About the Library Related Needs of American Indians into Articles and Conference Presentations. American Indian Library Association Newsletter, Summer, 2008. (In press.)

Past activites and events of EDI Scholars (photos taken by the EDI Scholars):

Northwest Archivists Conference, Dynamic Archives: Preserving the Past and Speaking to the Future, held from May 17 through May 19, 2007 in Moscow, Idaho.

Sessions attended included Describing Archives: A Content Standard; Building a National Archival Network: Roles of National and Regional Projects and Organizations; Point of Need Assistance: Incorporating Help pages and Tutorials into Online Archival Resources, and Research and Analysis in Archival Theory and Practice.

The highlights of the conference included attending the session on Archivists in a Web 2.0 World: How Can We Make Social Software Tools Work for Us?, which included presenters Tiah Edmunson-Morton and Anne-Marie Detering, and being presented the Northwest Archivists Student Scholarship at the conference banquet.

The 1,000+ mile drive to and back from the conference also gave me the opportunity to see Central and Eastern Oregon [see photos to the left], something I had never done before despite having lived in Oregon for more than 40 years. The EDI scholar's participation in this conference was funded by a scholarship awarded by the NW Archivists.

Rare Books and Manuscripts Section (RBMS) of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) and the 48th annual annual RBMS Preconference, From Here to Ephemerality: Fugitive Sources in Libraries, Archives, and Museums, which was held June 19 through June 22, 2007, in Baltimore, Maryland.

The keynote address, The Long-Term Significance of Printed Ephemera, presented by Michael Twyman, Emeritus Professor, Centre for Ephemera Studies, University of Reading provided an informative, and sometimes humorous, introduction to "ephermerology", Professor Twyman's word for the study of ephemera. I attended sessions on preservation, the scholarly uses of ephemera, cataloging and digitizing ephemera, and the use of scrapbooks for research. I also went on several tours including one of the Walters Art Museum, where we viewed Napoleon's memoirs, a first folio Shakespeare, as well as illuminated Islamic and medieval manuscripts, and a tour of the Baltimore Museum of Art where we viewed a selection of 19th- and 20th-century illustrated books. I supplemented these with tours I took on my own of the Mt. Vernon neighborhood area, the Enoch Pratt Free Library, the George Peabody Library, and the Maryland Historical Society. All of the sessions on the second day were held on The Johns Hopkins University campus, ending with a picnic at Evergreen House, an Italianate mansion built in 1857, and home to the John Work Garrett Library, part of the Sheridan Libraries Special Collections.

During the conference I was introduced to the Chairman of the Conference, Henry Raine from the New York Historical Society, chatted with Phyllis Payne, a Special Collections Cataloger from Boston University, spent some time with Kathleen Burns, at archivist at Yale University's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, who I first met through the American Indian Library Association list-serv, and also with Eli Guinenee, another scholarship winner and the editor of the Library Student Journal who shepherded my article "The underrepresented Native American student: Diversity in Library Science", published in February, 2007.

An article on the EDI scholar's experiences at this conference which will be published in the September issue of Easy Access, the Northwest Archivists newsletter. The EDI scholar's participation in this conference was funded by a partially by EDI grant funds and scholarships awarded to the EDI scholar by RBMS.