Welcome to the Rutgers MLIS program! We look forward to meeting the Distance Education students on January 14th and the on-campus students on Tuesday, January 22nd, at 5:50 in the Student Lounge (Room 222) at SCILS for pizza [SCILS is short for School of Communication, Information and Library Studies]. At 6:00 we will have a brief welcome and announcement session. It will be a chance to meet faculty and staff, MLIS student association officers, and each other! The meetings constitute one part of the 501 course, the purpose of which is to give all entering students--both online and on-campus--a brief introduction to the field and to the Rutgers program, while reducing the amount of time spent on orientation matters. The rest of the 501 requirement is your perusal of this Web site, and a short commentary on it (see below).
Please note that this site may not be entirely updated at the time that you access it, but revision will continue and the site will always be available to you. You will not be able to absorb it all at once, so look in the table of contents for those parts that will be most helpful to you right away. It is my hope that you will refer to this site throughout the duration of your MLIS program. I also hope that you will make suggestions for changes and additions for future editions. You may send those to me any time they occur to you via e-mail (varlejs@scils.rutgers.edu).
Because we communicate with you through the Library and Information Science Student Association electronic list (scils_lissa@email.rutgers.edu), and because the University counts on contacting you through your Rutgers e-mail account, it is mandatory for you to set up accounts on the Rutgers University computer system as soon as possible. If you are planning to attend the technology workshops (as we urge you to do), you will be wise to have your account in place in advance. You also should activate your Rutgers Libraries account by then. Information about the SCILS technology workshops should have been sent to you as part of the admissions information and can be found at http://scils.rutgers.edu/~ruasis/bootcamps. Information about accounts and subscribing to the LISSA list is found on this 501 site under the heading "First Things on Your Agenda." Also under this heading is the list of technology skills that you must have at the time that you start in the program. The list should also be in the admissions packet sent to you by Faye Brown. I mention it here to remind you how important it is to take care of this requirement as soon as you can!
You are asked to write a brief commentary about this site to submit by January 28th at the latest. To turn in this assignment, you should go to rutgersonline.net, and use your Rutgers ID and eden account password to log in. Go to course 610:501 (section 01 for on-campus, section 90 for online), click on Dropbox, and then on Journal. Type your response into the space, or you can cut and paste from your word processor.
Again, welcome! I wish you success in your pursuit of the MLIS degree and a career in the library/information profession!
Jana Varlejs, Associate Professor
610:501 Course Coordinator
P.S. You may want to print a few of these pages to keep on hand for a while to help you find your way about, match faculty names and faces, and interpret the lingo! DO NOT attempt to print too much of it, however, as not everything will be immediately useful, and the information continues to change.
December 2007
varlejs' phone: 732-932-7500 x8225
e-mail: varlejs@scils.rutgers.edu