Building Manager Jeremy Shute Receives Student WAAL Scholarship

Jeremy Shute, who has served as one of the LRC's student building managers at the Main Checkout Desk for the past several years, was awarded a full scholarship to attend the Wisconsin Association of Academic Librarians (WAAL) conference last month.  Jeremy has done an excellent job over the years and has chosen librarianship as his career path.   The WAAL Professional Development Committee offered the scholarships to the 2005 WAAL conference, “Our Capitol Convergence,”  held at the Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center in Madison on April 20-21, 2005.  Jeremy was nominated by Andy Pech, the Librarian Objective in charge of Circulation, and Colleen Angel, Library Services Assistant Advanced in Interlibrary Loan and Reference. 

The following is Jeremy's write-up about the Conference:

WAAL Conference Report

I was surprised and honored to receive a scholarship to attend the WAAL conference in Madison in April. While I was nervous upon reaching Madison, any unease I might have felt went away when I arrived at the Monona Terrace.

After meeting my mentor, Alberto Herrera, I knew that I would enjoy the conference. Alberto’s openness and sense of humor set the tone for me. He introduced me to many people, and helped me to feel welcome at my first WAAL Conference.

The first session was keynote speaker Dr. Kevin Reilly, President of the University of Wisconsin System. It was interesting to hear what Dr. Reilly had to say about the future of the UW system. I also found some of his statistics on the achievements of the UW system fascinating. After his prepared speech concluded, he opened up the floor to questions, allowing the audience a chance voice concerns and get answers to library questions.

I found all of the sessions I attended, which followed the theme of convergence to be very interesting and informative. There were, however, three sessions that stood out to me. They represent the building of libraries, and the influences and difficulties encountered in designing them.

The first presentation, "Ubiquitous Computing in Academic Libraries," by Matt Brzeski, James Lowrey, and Robert Sessions, told of the influences of new technologies on libraries. The presenters represented three different libraries, Carthage College Library, Marquette University Library, and UW-Madison Steenbock, and each told of how their respective libraries have and will handle the continued combining of technology and libraries.

The next of these sessions was "Planning Collaborative Spaces for Learning in Libraries Architects Re-Thinking Libraries as Places to See and Be Seen" by Gene Engeldinger, and Jack Poling. This presentation covered the building of the Hedberg Library at Carthage College. Keeping with the convergence theme, one of the factors in designing the new library was making many different types of information readily available to students.

The last presentation I attended was "Converging the three health sciences libraries (or what were we thinking?)" by Terry Burton. This session was about the building of Ebling Library at UW-Madison, and all the difficulties that arose in merging three libraries into one.

The luncheons provided not only good food, but also enjoyable and informative speakers. The first was Jessica Doyle, who emphasized the importance of librarians and literacy. The second luncheon speaker was Jack Holzhueter, who spoke about Frank Lloyd Wright, and his influence on architecture both in the past and present.

I entered as an underclassmen with an interest in becoming a librarian. I left with a great appreciation of the work librarians do, and I feel I learned a lot. This experience left me more confident in this career path I have chosen. The entire conference was encouraging for me, and I was able to talk with many people within the field.

We congratulate Jeremy on his scholarship, and wish him all the best as he embarks on an exciting, ever-changing career!

There are three categories of application for a scholarship: 1). Library student assistant or undergraduate student; 2). Paraprofessional library staff member; or 3). Graduate student currently enrolled in a library/information science program.  To learn more about the scholarship program, visit the WAAL WAAL Professional Development Committee web site at http://www.wla.lib.wi.us/waal/committees/pdcomm.html.  For more on the 2005 WAAL Conference, visit the http://www.wla.lib.wi.us/waal/conferences/2005/.