UPDATE: Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances, the April 22nd Colloquium has been cancelled. SJSU is hoping to reschedule it for sometime in the Fall semester.

 

The San José State University (SJSU) School of Information offers a host of free professional development opportunities to students, alumni, and working information professionals through its series of online colloquia. Seminar topics range from helpful job search strategies to reports from industry experts and have proved popular for both students and information professionals looking to enhance their knowledge of new opportunities, events, and technologies in the field of library and information science.

The next colloquium in the spring 2015 lineup is titled “Early Childhood Literacy and the Importance of Addressing the Whole Child through Multi-literacy Experiences” and will take place on April 22, 2015, from 2-3:00 p.m. PDT. The presentation will feature award-winning SJSU Lecturer Beth Wrenn-Estes and experienced early childhood education and literacy advocate and SJSU graduate student R. Lynn Baker. With the California State Library ELF 2.0 initiative bringing attention to early childhood literacy and the role of libraries in early childhood education, the colloquium could not be more timely.

Two recent colloquia have featured guest lecturers on the establishment of rural public libraries in Africa. Thomas Kasonde Mukonde presented an insider’s perspective on the establishment of rural public libraries in Zambia with the Lubuto Library Project on January 7, 2015. On February 18, 2015, Dr. Michael Kevane of Santa Clara University, founder of the non-profit Friends of African Village Libraries, gave a talk on the challenges faced by groups working to establish rural public libraries in Africa.

The SJSU School of Information’s Virtual Center for Archives and Records Administration (VCARA) on Second Life also hosts a series of free colloquia, the most recent taking place on February 10, 2015, and featuring John Jamison, creative director at ImagiLearning, Inc. Jamison discussed how Unity3D and Second Life can be used to create learning experiences that increase both motivation and learning.

Recordings of past iSchool colloquia are available on the iSchool’s YouTube channel and can be searched via topic or keyword on the colloquia blog.

The colloquia are presented via Blackboard Collaborate web conferencing. For those unfamiliar with Collaborate, please reference the online guides to using the web conferencing program.

This post was submitted by Nicole Purviance, Director of Marketing and Communications at San Jose State University’s School of Information.