LISNews: Librarian News

LIS Online Career Fair
Are you a new library school graduate – or mid-career and looking for a change? Are you wondering how to improve your career skills or ready to try a certificate program? Looking to refresh your resume? We invite you to join us for the first annual LIS Online Career Fair. Join us online on Tuesday January 12, 2010 for an exciting day of learning how to start or to rejuvenate your library career in tough times! The day will kick off at 10 am central time/11 am Eastern/8 am Pacific and run through 4:30 pm central/5:30 pm Eastern. You will have your choice of a variety of informational and interactive programs which will assist you with your career no matter where you are. -- Read More

BUFFALO, NY--September 18, 2009 -- LISHost (http://lishost.org/), the leader in web hosting for librarians & libraries, announced today that Karen A. Coombs has joined LISHost as the Web Applications Specialist. In her role at LISHost, Coombs will work with libraries and librarians to identify and implemented open source web applications to meet their needs.

Coombs comes to LISHost from University of Houston Libraries where she served as the Head of Web Services. Karen has over 8 years experience in libraries. She began her career at the State University of New York at Cortland as the Information Technology and Instruction Librarian and then went on to serve as Electronic Services Librarian. Coombs has extensive experience implementing and customizing open source web applications such as Drupal, Wordpress and Mediawiki.

"I'm very excited that Karen has joined LISHost," says Blake Carver, LISHost's Founder. He continues, "Karen's experience with open source software and libraries is a natural fit for LISHost whose customers use open source software heavily." The addition of Ms. Coombs to the team will allow us to expand the variety of web applications we host and offer additional services to help our customers select, implement, and customize web applications that meet their needs.

The Web Advisory Committee (WAC) is a standing committee of the American Library Association (ALA). One key duty of the WAC is to advise the association on priorities and strategies that promote utilization and continued development of the ALA website.

In Spring 2009, ALA introduced ALA Connect, a new section of the ALA website. Fulfilling our mission of advising the ALA on website issues, the Web Advisory Committee strongly urges all ALA organized groups and ALA members to take advantage of the ALA Connect service. -- Read More

Ask-WA is pleased to announce the launch of Washington State's first online virtual reference portal. Connecting more than 60 libraries across the state, and backed by a worldwide cooperative, Ask-WA provides 24/7 reference service to the library users of Washington State.

Ask-WA is an essential resource for students looking for citations at three in the morning, for Washington residents doing personal research, for genealogists. Washington librarians are available to help you get started on that tough research project, investigate your family roots, or even just settle a bet.

Don't wait, ask us a question now at http://ask.wa.gov!