I always look at January as my month to tie up all the loose ends dangling in the wake of last semester and to catch up on School news. Knowing how to stay informed regarding all the School’s news and events is critical to managing your involvement in an online program. Here’s what I recommend for starting off 2013 in the know.

SLISAlert (which used to be called SLISAdmin , in case you hear veteran students referring to that), is an email notification system used by the School to alert you to critical School news as well as local or regional events specific to your zip code, like library tours, conference receptions, and professional events. You’ll also get notifications about changes in class schedules that have been posted on the SLIS21 blog (see below). As a newly admitted student, you are automatically subscribed to this notification system. All students are required to remain on SLISAlert, so don’t even consider delegating it to your Spam folder. And on that note, make sure to allow e-mail from the following address through your Spam/Junk filter:  slisalert-group@sjsu.edu

SLIS21 Blog: The SLIS21 is a blog written by SLIS Associate Director Linda Main to alert students to class changes, enrollment information, new course offerings, and more. Dr. Main is great about responding to comments right away, so if you have questions about enrollment this is a good place to get answers. Typically, if the blog post mentions information about class changes, enrollment deadlines, or registration issues, a link to the post will be sent to your inbox via SLISAlert (see above). However, SLIS21 is certainly worth visiting on its own, particularly around enrollment time. You can sign up for the RSS feed, too. (NOTE: You can get many RSS feeds for other SLIS blogs on our Social Web & RSS Feed page.)

SLIS homepage: To stay abreast of general SLIS news, webinars, events, and other offerings, visit our SLIS homepage frequently. This page is bursting with news, starting with the obvious “News” section mid-page. You’ll see our top stories right there on the homepage, but if you click on the word “News”, you’ll get sent to our news landing page, which keeps track of all our news announcements – just click on the titles to get the full story. Next to “News” on the homepage, you’ll see “Events” which lists upcoming person-to-person gatherings and virtual webinars. Click on Events and – you guessed it – you’ll be transported to our Community Profiles, which I also write. These profiles feature outstanding students and alum who are doing some pretty cool things in the field of Library & Information Science. We post a new profile every week, and they are packed with great advice from students and alum, including references to favorite LIS blogs, influential classes, and tech tips.

Facebook & Twitter: Following our School on Facebook involves a simple click for direct interaction with other SLIS students, alum, and faculty. School news and events, links to SLIS webinars and videos, and news feeds are all accessible here. On SLIS Twitter, you’ll get the same great news updates, job tips, event updates in quick bites!

Upcoming Events:

As you’re loading up on news, here are two events worth getting on your calendar right away. If you can’t make them, I’ll blog a summary and post a link to the recording in a future posting. Stay tuned, and post any comments or questions about this update in the Comments section below!

January 22, 2013: New Student Orientation

January 10, 2013: American Libraries (ALA) Live Episode 2 Landing Your Ideal Library Job: Our own Jill Klees, SJSU’s Career Center Liaison to SLIS, will be discussing how to navigate the current information services job market along with David Connolly, who manages ALA’s JobList site.