LISNews: Librarian News

In order to combat the alleged shortage of librarians, a library school in Missouri is getting over $600,000 in Federal grant money to train people not to be librarians. Read the entire blog entry at the Annoyed Librarian.

One more bit from the ongoing saga over at SUNY Buffalo. This one, from Satish K. Tripathi, Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs.

Dear School of Informatics Community,

The purpose of my letter is to ensure that there is a clear understanding of the recent decision to realign the School of Informatics’ constituent departments – the Department of Communication and the Department of Library and Information Studies – and the reasons for this decision. Before I begin, I would like to reassure our faculty, students, staff, and alumni that undergraduate and graduate courses and academic degree programs, including the programs in Informatics, that have been offered in the School will continue to be offered in their new administrative homes. -- Read More

I just got this Statement below via email, originally written by W. David Penniman, PhD Dean, School of Informatics. It ends with his stong Opinion Statement:

"What appears above are the facts as I have documented them during their occurrence. As to my opinion, any dean serves at the pleasure of a provost, but serves first the faculty. I believe I have done that. A provost may fire a dean for reason or not, but he must not be allowed to fire a school. I will continue to object publicly to this administration’s motives and means regarding the School as well as their end objectives. This administration has failed to act in the collegial manner expected by the faculty and has taken dramatic action when most university faculty are away for the summer. They have misused their power and have discredited an innovative school, the university, and me. This entire debacle brings real doubt as to the credibility of the collegial process supposedly underlying their administration, including the UB2020 process. Shame on them."
The entire statement is below... -- Read More

Business First of Buffalo has a report on The UB School of Informatics. The School of Informatics was originally conceived as a place to bring together four departments, including the departments of computer science and engineering, media study and communication and the school of information and library studies. Computer science and engineering and media study never joined the school, however. Tripathi contends the dissolution of the school aligns with the principles of the UB 2020 planning process, which calls for providing the best academic support for students and making changes that would allow programs to flourish.