Our2025 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
Wednesday, March 5, 2025
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.
Wednesday, May 8, 2024
The 2024 Beta Phi Mu Initiation will be held on Friday May 10, starting at 2 PM
Where: Pratt Manhattan Center
Program:
Dessert Reception and Initiation
Introduction:Anthony Cocciolo, Dean, School of Information
RSVP a Must. For further information call the office at: 212-647-7682
or email us at betaphimutheta@gmail.com
Tuesday, April 26, 2022
Join us for the Beta Phi Mu Initiation. Come and meet the Initiates and network with friends.
The meeting is hybrid, RSVP on or before May 6 is a must. For further information email us at betaphimutheta@gmail.com
WHEN: Friday May 13, 2022, beginning at 2:30
WHAT: Beta Phi Mu Spring Initiation
Introduction:Anthony Cocciolo, Dean, School of Information
Guest speaker:Deimosa Webber-Bey, Director of Information Services and Cultural Insight at Scholastic Inc., where she supervises the library and archive.
Wednesday, September 18, 2019
How can the Blind and Visually Impaired take advantage of Library Service?
Jill Rothstein, Chief Librarian of the Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Book Library and Pratt Grad will speak about library accessibility, technologies and her career path. She has presented at the National Library Service for the Blind and Print and Print Disabled conference, Metro library Conference, American Library Association, and Harvard’s World Heritage Strategy Forum. Jill is a founding member of the New York Public Library’s Accessibility Working Group, and a founding member and mentor with the Innovation project which supports staff at any level in bringing to life unusual and creative projects.
When: Thursday, October 10, 2019 Time: Program begins at 5:30 pm Where: Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Book Library 40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011
Please RSVP to Betaphimutheta@gmail.com by October 8, space is limited.
Vinette Thomas, Michelle Lee, and Anthony Cocciolo
This year's chapter initiation was held on May 16, 2019 at PMC.
We had 8 initiates this year; 3 were initiated in-absentia. The Dean of the School of Information addressed the group, and the featured speaker was Coral Salomón, Digital Strategies Librarian at the University of Pennsylvania, and Beta Phi Mu member.
Welcome from the Dean
Anthony Cocciolo, Dean of the School of Information gave us an update on what will be going on at Pratt Manhattan in the coming year.
Especially exciting is the upcoming redesign and construction at PMC. Although construction is expected to continue through 2020, there should be minimal disruption to 6th floor operations.
Featured Speaker
Coral Salomón, a Beta Phi Mu member, was our featured speaker at the 2019 Initiation. She talked about her professional positions, what they entailed, how she got the positions and often how course/professors at Pratt helped her along the way.
Coral is the Digital Strategies Librarian at the University of Pennsylvania, where she implements and manages all aspects of Penn Libraries first web archiving program while also initiating and maintaining collaborative professional relationships and establishing training programs.
Prior to that was The National Digital Stewardship Resident in Art Information, which was a yearlong initiative at Penn to provide recommendations and best practices on acquisition, discovery and preservation or digital art-related assets.
Coral, who is from Puerto Rico, spoke about how heartened she was by all the volunteering efforts by many Philadelphia organizations, residents and students to help people on the island in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria by collecting emergency supplies and assisting hurricane evacuees who fled to the City of Brotherly Love.
Coral talked about her own experience with co-organizing a Puerto Rico disaster relief digital community mapping event at the University of Pennsylvania in November 2017; volunteers digitized a 350 square mile region for the American Red Cross and updated maps used by aid workers and emergency responders.
More recently, Coral worked with other members of the Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York (ART), the Art Libraries Society of North America New York Chapter (ARLIS-NY), and the Puerto Rican archivists consortium La Red de Archivos de Puerto Rico (ArchiRED) on a successful fundraising campaign to preserve Puerto Rican cultural heritage collections by creating Spanish-language programs and instructional materials related to preservation, disaster relief and recovery, and grant-writing.
In the Beta Phi Mu initiation, it states: " ... professionals demonstrate a willingness to use their talents in service to that society. In accepting membership in Beta Phi Mu, you commit yourselves and your talents to the promotion of the best in scholarship and service." Coral embodies this quality of service.
On March 26th Beta Phi Mu Theta Chapter, SLA's Professional Development and Diversity Committee and Pratt SI, held a joint event - Career Stories: Interesting Opportunities for Librarians and Info Pros.
Five speakers shared their career histories and their passion for their current roles. We enjoyed light refreshments and an opportunity to tour the Pratt Gallery exhibit before the presentations; networking followed.
Emily Toder, Processing Archivist at the New York Transit Museum described some of the many artifacts in the museum's collection. If you are looking for an item relating to the NY transit system will be sure to find it in this archive. Emily shared images of historical car cards, tunnel construction, graffiti covered subway cars, old uniforms, lanterns and tokens and a decommissioned car being dropped into the ocean to help create an artificial reef. For Emily working as an archivist is her ideal job. She gets to practice all the traditional elements of information management; processing, cataloging, reference and outreach and has also developed subject expertise. Work for her is never boring.
Stacey Calabrese, Manager of Research Services at the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A'S) described her team's very organized approach to running an extremely busy research service. Research is the most heavily used function of the Association, they receive 7000 custom requests from members a year. Working for mid sized advertising agencies means she never knows what she will be working on next, recently Stacey provided a company profile on Hagen Daz followed by an industry profile on chain saws. Other services her team provide include an insights newsletter, curating content for the online members' portal, monitoring developments in advertising and orientations.
Brynn White, Archivist at the American Kennel Club, accompanied her talk with a rolling display of dog photos from the Club's collection, and very cute they were too. She described how a series of intern positions and part time roles helped her to further her career in information, although it seems her love for her childhood pet, a rare breed of terrier, contributed towards her securing her current role, truly a dream job for a dog lover. With only one part time assistant Brynn's challenge is to manage the expectations of her stakeholders as to the services she can provide, a challenge that has increased since the Club opened the Museum of the Dog earlier this year and where part of the library collection is now housed. Her advise to anyone entering the library and information profession is to develop advocacy skills, the reality of today's workplace is that many of us have to advocate the value of our own jobs.
Deborah Goss, Director, Library at Mt Sinai Services/Queen Hospital Center described her love for medical librarianship. When she graduated in literature in 2009, at the height of an economic recession she had not been planning to follow a career in medical libraries. She started as an intern at the Queens Public Hospital and clearly found her niche. Deb provided a helpful overview of the opportunities available to medical librarians and the skills required. Apparently it is possible to become a clinical librarian who accompanies the physician on ward rounds. Today's challenges include the dramatic rise in available clinical studies over the last 20 years and how to research them effectively which must be a positive for her and her colleagues who have the skills required.
Sheryl Ramer, Director of Hospital Library, Elmhurst Hospital Center, Mount Sinai Services, also did not plan a career in medical libraries. After working in a number of different sectors she 'fell' into librarianship. Sheryl has extended her library service to everyone in the hospital from the physicians to the janitors. Recognizing the diverse cultures of the hospital workers she has developed language learning programs open to all. She has a pragmatic approach to budget management, buy what is requested, don't buy what is not and as a result she still manages a print collection. Challenges for Sheryl include working with colleagues who are protective of what they consider their areas of responsibility and regular hospital quality surveys. Sheryl gave a real sense of the satisfaction she gains from helping her hospital community.
The 2018 Beta Phi Mu scholarship season is now open. Applications will be accepted for all 2019 scholarships, except for the Sessa scholarships, from November 15, 2018 to March 15, 2019. 2019 scholarship winners will be announced at the ALA Annual Meeting in Washington, DC in June, 2019.
Need a Handbag or a Tie to Land Your First Job? Borrow One With a Library Card
Handbags, briefcases and ties can be checked out for up to three weeks at a time at the Riverside branch of the New York Public Library, as part of a pilot program dreamed up by Michelle Lee, a young adult librarian.CreditCreditGabriella Angotti-Jones/The New York Times
ByMelissa Gomez
Oct. 9, 2018
On the second floor of the New York Public Library’s Riverside branch last week, a handful of high school students were eager to hear Michelle Lee, a young adult librarian there, discuss tricks for finding employment.
“Who has a job?” Ms. Lee asked. (No hands went up.)
“Who wants a job?” she continued. (All hands went up.)
For the next hour and a half, as some students munched on snacks, Ms. Lee covered the dos and don’ts of interviewing and offered tips on how to produce a strong résumé, even using fictitious examples for Peter Parker and Kamala Khan to illustrate her point.
And off to one side of the room were the most unusual new additions to the library’s collection: neutral-colored handbags and briefcases, and purple, blue and striped neckties, all of which can be checked out like books for up to three weeks.
The staff at the Riverside branch, on the Upper West Side, started a new lending program in August after Ms. Lee proposed it, one of several programs meant to help jump-start the professional careers of young adults. As news of the program has trickled out through outreach and news coverage, members of the community have offered their own items for lending.
Ms. Lee said she got the idea during one of her twice-yearly job hunt talks for teenagers. When she spoke about how it was important that they wear their best outfit for interviews, one attendee said he didn’t have one.
Ms. Lee gave a job hunt talk for teenagers this month, in which she covered the dos and don’ts of interviewing and offered tips on how to produce a strong résumé.CreditGabriella Angotti-Jones/The New York Times
She said she began to think of ways to help him, and had an idea. Lending accessories like handbags and ties, she thought, would help those who cannot necessarily afford to buy them and offer an extra dose of confidence.
In 2016, she submitted a proposal to the New York Public Library’s Innovation Project, which allows individual library employees to pitch ideas that are then voted on by the whole staff. Ms. Lee’s suggestion consisted of two parts: first, “adulting” workshops, focused on learning life skills like how to pick professional attire or how to eat healthy on a budget; and second, the lending program, known as the “Grow Up Work Fashion Library.”
The program adds to the New York Public Library’s list of services for young adults, which includes a referral system at the Grand Central Library to an organization that offers business attire, Ms. Lee said. Staff members at some libraries are trained as advisers to offer help. At the Riverside branch, employees host college essay workshops and SAT practice sessions.
On Wednesday afternoon, Ms. Lee held her second job talk of the year. She intentionally scheduled it just before the holiday season, when retail businesses are looking for extra hands.
She used her own outfit — a simple black dress and white blazer — as an example of business casual. She then pointed out the table where the new items sat, and told the students that they could check out two at a time, but that they would have to pay if they lost an item. The bags, which she bought from Amazon, range in price from $40 to $121, and ties are $25 to replace.
Sonobia James, 16, sat in the back row with friends. She said she attended the presentation because she had tried looking for a job before, to no avail. “I thought this was a good opportunity, because maybe I did something wrong,” she said.
She learned about the lending program through the talk, and said she would consider checking out a black handbag “when the time comes” to interview for jobs.
The New York Public Library’s Riverside branch, where the staff started a new lending program to help young job seekers.CreditGabriella Angotti-Jones/The New York Times
“I always put things in my pockets,” she said, a habit that leads to her losing belongings. “A handbag could be useful.”
The program, while part of a larger project aimed at young adults, can be used by anyone, Ms. Lee said. She has had high school students and adults check out items since the pilot program began.
Angela Himmelberg, a senior at Pace University, said she heard about the program from her mother. Ms. Himmelberg, 21, was preparing for a multiday conference for young entrepreneurs hosted by Forbes in Boston, but as a college student without a disposable income, she said it was hard to invest in quality accessories.
On the day before her trip, Ms. Himmelberg found herself browsing a catalog of items at the library, and within a few minutes had checked out a black handbag that she took with her to Boston.
Instead of lugging around her school backpack, she said she felt at ease with the purse that completed her look. “It made me feel more confident,” Ms. Himmelberg said in a phone interview. “It just made me feel more professional.”
Because it is a pilot program, there are no plans to expand it to other libraries, Ms. Lee said, but the need for it has been clear.
“I’m just hoping that more people come in and use it,” she said, “and that this hopefully gets them started on their career, first job or first internship.”
A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A19 of the New York edition with the headline: Check Out That Tie. With a Library Card..
The audio recording is now available through SoundCloud for the Roundtable "Women in a Golden Age of Artists' Books".
This roundtable discussion included the following featured speakers:
Cynthia Marsh, Professor of Art, Founder of the Goldsmith Press & Rare Type Collection, Austin Peay State University (Clarksville, TN); Rebecca Michaels, Associate Professor of Photography, Tyler School of Art (Philadelphia, PA); Patty Smith, artist, printmaker, book artist, and professor of Fine Arts, Printmaking at The University of the Arts (Philadelphia, PA).
Moderated by Tony White, the Florence and Herbert Irving Associate Chief Librarian at the Thomas J. Watson Library, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, will serve as moderator.
Co-presented with the Center for Book Arts; the New York City Chapter of the American Printing History Association (APHA); Small Editions Artist's Books; and Theta Chapter, Beta Phi Mu Honor Society, Pratt Institute School of Information.
Beta Phi Mu Theta Chapter Membership Coordinator, Michelle Lee, recently presented as part of an author panel for "Support the Asian Pacific American Community: Librarians on Diversity, Inclusivity and Community Engagement" held at Pratt Institute.
Read more about it in American Libraries Magazine's blog!
From left: Janet Clarke, associate dean of research and user engagement
at Stony Brook (N.Y.) University Libraries; Arlene Yu, dance collections
manager at New York Public Library (NYPL); Michelle Lee, young adult
librarian at NYPL; and Miriam Tuliao, library marketing manager at
Penguin Random House, at the "Supporting the Asian Pacific American
Community: Librarians on Diversity, Inclusivity, and Civic Engagement"
panel on May 14. Photo by Haruko Yamauchi. Caption from American Libraries Magazine Blog.
