Abe Danaher
Abe Danaher is the communications assistant for the College of Information and Communications. A journalism minor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communications, Danaher is in his last semester at USC. He is from Syracuse, New York.
Posted October 29, 2018
By Abe Danaher, communications assistant
Under the mentorship of Dr. Sarah Keeling, three School of Library and Information Science students attended the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Library Alliance Conference in Atlanta Oct. 7-9. The conference offered the three students — Patrice Green, Jocelyn Pettigrew and Ashley Silvera — the opportunity to network with professionals in the field and speak in front of all the attendees.
“It was just a really good way to make connections,” said Keeling, a student services manager and adjunct faculty member in SLIS. “I was able to make connections for the school and the students were able to make connections. The more people you know, the bigger your network is and the better it is for everybody.”
These connections included students meeting Wanda Brown, the incoming president of the American Library Association and the first president of the association to graduate from a historically black college or university.
“It was wonderful and she had lots of good advice,” said Green, a master’s student pursuing a dual degree in public history and library and information science. “She mentioned that we need to network, of course. She mentioned that it’s important for us to reach out to all types of people.”
Outside of the conference providing an excellent opportunity for the students to network, it also allowed them to let their voices be heard.
Pettigrew, Green and Silvera were asked to speak about their experiences in the field of librarianship on a panel titled, “The New Faces of Librarianship: A Student Perspectives Panel.” On this panel, they were asked why they decided to enter the field, what internships they have completed and what their plans for the future are after graduation.
Green said that speaking on the panel was “a lot of fun” and that the opportunity made her feel a part of the larger academic community.
“The conference was for older people,” Green explained. “To get to tell them our millennial
perspective was helpful. I’ve never had the opportunity to explain myself in that
way.”