Join SLUSH for May Happy Hour at

Tuesday, May 21 from 5-7pm

Voted “Best Downtown Bar” in 2012’s Best of Ithaca, Felicia’s Atomic Lounge has a full menu of cocktails, microbrews, snacks, and cupcakes!

Directions: Felicia’s is located at 508 West State Street in Ithaca, next to Gimme Coffee. Nearby street parking is free after 6PM!

SLUSH (Savvy Librarians Uniting for Social Hour) is a group of library professional, para-professional, students and other affiliated personnel that meet regularly over dinner to discuss anything in Library Land. There is no agenda or formal outline – just show up with your success stories, your woes, questions and, of course, your appetite!

Calling all Syracuse area information professionals and students:

Please join us for a Celebrate Spring  Social Hour!

Where: Drumlins Windows on the Green Bistro 800 Nottingham Road, Syracuse [directions]
When: Thursday, May 2, 5:00 – 7:00 p.m.
RSVP: Let us know you’re coming so we have enough appetizers.
http://www.doodle.com/6tcz9wvsrxw94w9k

Co-sponsored by:

• Eastern New York Association of College and Research Libraries (ENY/ACRL) chapter
• Pi Lambda Sigma chapter of Beta Phi Mu,  the international library and information studies honor society.
• Syracuse University ALA/SLA Student Chapter/LIS Student Assembly
• Upstate New York Chapter of the Special Libraries Association (UNYSLA)

This is great opportunity to meet members of these organizations and students entering the profession.

The next Special Collections Roundtable of Upstate New York is being hosted by the University of Rochester on Thursday, May 16. More information about the event, including an agenda, registration details, directions, can be found at http://clrc.org/event-registration-2/?action=evregister&event_id=104.

Does your library or information center…

• Have email accounts?
• Provide access to the internet?
• Store personal information such as addresses, birth dates, and ID numbers?

If you said yes to any of the above, your library has a stake in digital security. For example, email accounts can be hacked through malicious links or stolen passwords and used to send spam. Internet access provides opportunities for hackers to infiltrate your computer systems. And the very nature of circulation and integrated library systems requires at least some personal information to be stored.

A recent article from ACRL’s TechConnect Blog highlights common security issues faced by libraries including the value of MARC records to hackers, vendors blocking access to electronic resources because of strange internet activity at your location, and different ways staff and users can make your technology vulnerable to attacks.

Other examples of digital security vulnerabilities in libraries such as generic ILS passwords that have not changed in years can be found scattered throughout techsoup for libraries’ information guide to Networking and Security.

To learn more about current security threats and what you can do to address them, attend UNYSLA’s upcoming conference: Digital (In)security: Protecting our Libraries, Networks, and Identities.

Due to the temporary shut-down of all SLA websites this past week to allow for the launching of the new SLA website, UNYSLA will be extending its early bird registration rate for Digital (In)security: Protecting Our Libraries, Networks, and Identities until 5:00pm, Wednesday, 3 April.

Attention Albany area information professionals: Please join UNYSLA at Carabba’s on Thursday, 25 April, for our semi-annual networking dinner. All information professionals are welcome to attend this Dutch treat dinner even if you cannot attend our Digital (In)security conference the following day.

Date: Thursday, 25 April
Time: 6:00 pm
Location: Carabba’s Latham, NY (map)
Registration for the Digital (In)security is not required to attend the dinner, but in order to reserve a large enough table registration is helpful.

Tasks for the day: 1. Shower 2. Eat breakfast 3. Watch weather report. 4. Drive to work. 5. Punch-in.  6. Set-up computer network.  7. Check e-mails multiple times throughout the day and answer them. 8. Record at least four oral history tapes and transfer them to mp3 and CD. 9. Collect newspaper clippings about the organization. 10. Help translate Polish language documents. 11. Answer today’s research requests. 12. Sort medical files. 13. Organize photographs. 14. Work the reception/reference desk. 15. Go to lunch. 16. Organize storage room. 17. Work on writing an article. 18. Check-in with social media sites. 19. Drive home. 20. Prepare dinner. 21 Eat Dinner. 22. Watch one hour of T.V. 23. Do a yoga program. 24. Go grocery shopping. 25. Go to bed.

For most of us in this day and age a typical day consists of multiple tasks like the plan above and leaves us little time for relaxation and a moment to think let alone time for helping others. Many of you may be asking, “How can I become a mentor if I can’t even get everything I have to do in a day finished?”  I believe everyone can make an adjustment to their life if they truly want to even if it is just for an hour a day. Can you spare an hour of your day to become a mentor to a fellow informational professional just starting out or a student in library school?

Maybe you can record that favorite show you want to see and watch it later. Maybe you can call your friend on Saturday instead of tonight. Maybe you can share that task in the library you have to do with a mentee and teach them in the process. Hey, maybe that favorite show can be a ground breaker for meeting a mentee. Perhaps a mentee could offer insight into that article your writing.

If you could set aside one hour a day to teach somebody else you could make a big difference. With today’s technology we are more connected to each other than ever. We are also more disconnected. Now that we cannot always see those we deal with we have left a good number of people to their own devices (literally). Show someone that you care about their success and that they are not alone. Take the time become a mentor today! Visit http://uny.sla.org/students for more information.