New student group profile: SLACYS

Information provided by group Chair Ruby Lavallee
SLACYS Logo
The Student Librarian Association for Children and Youth Services (SLACYS) at FIMS was founded in November 2012 and began operations in January 2013. SLACYS is a student group focusing on professional development workshops, seminars, and exercises for LIS students interested in working with children or young adults. During our first term we held multiple training workshops and seminars, with group meetings covering everything from Books for Babies program-building to creating vectors and promotional images.

SLACYS was founded to encourage dialogue and peer support between future children and youth services librarians with the end goal of promoting greater creativity, breadth of reach, and literacy/numeracy impacts in public and school library programming. We emphasize practical experiences and skills in order to increase the capabilities of our membership, acting as a supplement to children and youth services elective courses already offered by FIMS. Our role as a support to FIMS coursework is one of the reasons that SLACYS is open to recent alumni who wish to attend meetings – we believe student groups can offer professional development and practice to those transitioning to the workforce, even if their formal education with FIMS is complete.

SLACYS’ first term was a strong success, with increasing attendance at each meeting. By strengthening the experience of novice children and youth librarians, SLACYS hopes to continue supporting the FIMS MLIS program, and the continued success of its graduates.

Marley Lauro and Sarah Basinski