Hi Everyone,
I think it is amazing how quickly time flies when you are in your second year of the program. I honestly cannot believe that I will be presenting/defending my issue paper in a couple of weeks and that soon, I will be thrown out into the real world. As weird as it may sound, I am actually going to miss being a student here. It really is amazing how many leadership opportunities that our program provides to students. For me, this has manifested in leading the ALA for the 2013-14 year. Over the past year, ALA has helped formed relationships between first-year and second-year students through a mentor/mentee program, introduced students to academic librarians on campus, sat in on planning meetings of and volunteered at a library-themed event organized by Powell, learned about Open Access, and has even met the City Librarian for all of Los Angeles! Despite all of these events, I think am most proud of being able to help and interact with my fellow students. Despite what we all may think, the people sitting next to you in Management and Ethics will be your future colleagues...so get to know your classmates!

On February 21, UCLA’s ALA student chapter received an insider’s tour of LAPL’s Central Library.  Our wonderful guide was Sylva Manoogian--a UCLA MLIS alumna and retired former manager of the International Languages Department at Central Library.

Greetings MLIS Students, Professors, Alumni, and Information Professionals,

I have said, from Day 1, that my goal as president was to bring back the ALA Student Chapter at UCLA. From that foundation, our future students could once again make us into Student Chapter of the Year. Part of my master plan includes revamping our image and web presence. While our former blog and website have served past student chapters well, they could no longer keep us properly connected to our students and fulfill our mission of being a resource to future librarians. As students of information science, it seemed silly that while our classes constantly reiterated the fact that our world is becoming increasingly interconnected (a lot of the time via technology that fits into the palms of our hands), our old official site could only be updated within the GSE&IS building and none of these updates would be shared on our Facebook and Twitter pages. Hopefully with this new website, ALA can do a much better job interacting with and aiding UCLA's MLIS students and serve as a model for other student chapters. I cannot wait for all of the changes and events that are planned for the winter quarter.

Nick Auricchio
ALA President