Issue Intro: Building Community in the 21st Century

Welcome to the second edition of BiblioTech for Fall 2005. It has been an exciting semester here at SIRLS, with the first Graduate Library Student Symposium as well as numerous brown-bag lunch lectures and social events. These events and others like them help to cultivate a sense of community at our school, something which will prove invaluable once current students head out into the wider world of LibraryLand. Remember to make these connections with your peers and faculty while you're here; libraries are about nothing if not community (and the networking perks will come in handy when looking for a job).

This issue truly represents diverse interests of the SIRLS community. Dorothy Hemmo addresses issues related to RFID technology in libraries. We have the latest installment of School Tools from Bruce Fulton, where you can learn about RefWorks, a program many graduate students will find indispensable. Diana J. Daleo gives us an overview of access to government documents at the University of Arizona. Michelle Ganz takes a look at the politics of literacy and its implications for marginalized populations. And finally, Nancy Bronte-Matheny shares with us the new age of librarianship in the Sultanate of Oman.

With such an interesting issue of BiblioTech coming out at the same time as LSO elections are about to happen, I want to make a personal plea to you all to continue getting involved. My semester as social coordinator has been fun and fulfilling, and helping Nancy with BiblioTech has been a blast. I now know someone who lives in Oman! That never could have happened without SIRLS and this publication. (Just one more example of the unique aspects of our school, our virtual education opportunities, and building connections?)

This semester we have built up momentum at SIRLS, working toward holding more professional development and networking events, and succeeding in fostering a great feeling of connected community. The topics in this BiblioTech may be quite different from each other, but they have one thing in common: all were written by your peers at SIRLS. That single aspect of our lives draws us all together, and it is my hope that we can continue weaving the web of connections that will help us get the most out of SIRLS, during our education and beyond.

Monica Bafetti