Our  2025 Beta Phi Mu Initiation and Dessert Reception will be held on Friday May 16th at Pratt Manhattan Center starting at 2 pm.

Dean Anthony Cicciolo will give an overview of the School of Information and our Guest Speaker, Loida Garcia-Febo will present on Balancing the Books and Yourself: Wellness Strategies for Future Librarians.  The Initiation Ceremony will follow.

About the talk: In the evolving world of librarianship, your most valuable resource is you. Loida Garcia-Febo brings a talk exploring practical ways Library and Information Science (LIS) students can maintain wellness, manage stress, and create healthy boundaries. Learn evidence-based strategies to support your mental, emotional, and physical well-being—both now as a student and later as a library professional. From daily habits to long-term work-life balance, you’ll leave with tools to help you thrive, not just survive, in your career. You can’t care for others or serve your community well if you’re burned out—prioritizing your own wellness is not a luxury, it’s a  professional necessity.

About Loida Garcia-Febo: Loida Garcia-Febo is a Puerto Rican American librarian and International Library Consultant expert in library services to diverse populations and human rights. President of the American Library Association 2018-2019. Garcia-Febo is worldwide known for her passion about diversity, communities, sustainability, digital transformation, library workers, library advocacy, wellness for library workers, and new librarians about which she has taught in 46 countries. In her job, she helps libraries, companies and organizations strategize programs, services and strategies in areas related to these topics and many others. Currently she also serves as the Health and Wellness Ambassador at the San Jose State University School of Information. Garcia-Febo has researched wellness for librarians for 25 years, she is the first Health and Wellness Ambassador at San Jose State University School of Information, and recently launched The Wellness Hub For You Podcast: https://thewellnesshubforyou.com/podcast/

If you have not received an invitation or have questions, please contact betaphimutheta@gmail.com

 

The Theta Chapter at Pratt Institute is playing catch up -- we have 2 initiations to report on.  At both initiations/dessert receptions, our dean Anthony Cocciolo reported on news and events from Pratt Institute as well as the School of Information.

On May 11, 2023, we inducted 7 initiates.  The speaker, and initiate, was Kelsey Gallagher Mambach.  She spoke on misinformation, disinformation , malinformation and fake news and discussed the differences between them.  Kelsey also discussed ChatGPT, what it is, the history and how it is being used by college students.  She covered the arguments for and against its use and what it is best used for.  Everyone was involved in the question and answer that followed. 

In 2023 we awarded a Rhoda Garoogian Scholarship to a SI student.  We also said goodbye to our Faculty Advisor Dr. Irene Lopatovska, with many thanks. 

 

On May 10, 2024, we inducted 6 initiates.  Our speaker this year was Lauren Bradley ’11.  Lauren works at SUNY Maritime and was the librarian on the training ship Empire State VII for over a month.    She gave us the history of SUNY Maritime as well as the history of the library on board, which dates back to 1874; the first ship’s librarian that there is a report on is in 1985.  The function of the librarian is to handle scheduling and programming on the ship and maintain communications.  The function of the library has changed over the years and it is now more of a recreational area for the students at sea. Lauren had the audience laughing at some of her sea tales and she provided a slide show of the early ships and library as well as the Empire State VII. 

This year we also welcomed our new Faculty Advisor Dr. Leanne Bowler and look forward to working with her.