I mentioned the idea of (re)starting an alumni association in the “50 Ways To Improve FIMS” post a couple days ago. Someone wrote to let me know there is a group that exists online via Western's Purple Cirlces community portal. The MLIS one is called (in very logical fashion) MLIS Alumni Network.
I don't think you have to be a grad to join (or at least they didn't ask for proof when I requested access – maybe they check behind-the-scenes to confirm? But I would hope they would allow current students to join as well.)
There's not a lot of activity from the looks of things but at least it's a start. There's 205 alumni in the database they have online so it's a great networking (sorry, I think I've put that word on notice – “netsocialing”) tool.
One thing I suspect they don't do that I wish more online communities would – send out a yearly reminder asking people to update/confirm their contact information. I saw a couple people, even as I scrolled through quickly, who I suspect have incorrect information just because they probably never revisted the site after they first joined.
There's a Facebook group for MLIS grads too. (Someone on co-op at an academic library observed how Facebook has become the default location for students to communicate. “It's crazy – they check their e-mail first, Facebook second then go straight to MSN.”) So if you're not on Facebook, you should set-up an account and join the group! It had been limited to people with a University e-mail in the past but I think they opened up membership (but you may still need somebody on the inside to invite you – not sure.)
There's a LiveJournal forum dedicated to FIMS that gets some attention too.
Our cohort has a Yahoo! group but membership is limited to people who started in January 2006. But there may be other Yahoo groups out there related to FIMS.
Finally, Lauralee Gilmour set-up a forum that got some posts initially but never got that critical mass needed to make it viable (didn't help that I think it launched right around the time that the newly revised Student Council site went live as well.)
Any other online forums you check out for FIMS-related discussion?
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