ALISS: Association of LIS Students

Who We Are

The Association of Library and Information Science Students (ALISS) is the student government for the UW Masters of Library and Information Science program. Students in this program are automatically members of ALISS; you don’t have to do anything else to join! We are also a registered student organization.

You can reach the officers by emailing aliss@uw.edu or using our contact form, which has an anonymous option. You can find also us on our Instagram account, which includes alumni as well as current students, or you can summon us in Teams channels using @aliss. We are also active in the MLIS student Discord. Contact us there using the #aliss channel, under the “school” category.

ALISS officers are elected in the spring each year. We also hold an additional election for the First-Year Representative and any other open positions during the fall quarter, so first-year students are encouraged and invited to join.

What We Do

The officers’ job is primarily to advocate for student needs. To that end, we send out surveys to monitor course quality throughout the year and hold a town hall event every quarter to relay student concerns to the administration.

We also host social events, both online and in person, and guest speakers on library-related topics.

ALISS does a variety of different things, including:

  • Maintaining close relationships with the department chair, IDEAS office, career services, and other iSchool administrative bodies, ensuring that students’ perspectives are heard.
  • Hosting quarterly town halls to solicit student feedback and raise questions and concerns with administrative staff.
  • Building connections between cohorts through both online and in-person events.
  • Uplifting resources and events that may be interesting to MLIS students.
  • Coordinating with other iOrgs to host events, including regular informal gatherings and more formal affairs!

If you’d like to learn more about our mission and duties, you can read our constitution, found here.

What You Can Do!

Come join us! We host elections at the beginning and the end of the year, but if you’re interested in supporting specific initiatives or have an idea that you’d like us to implement, reach out!

You could also:

  • Attend ALISS events!
  • Drop by office hours!
  • Attend town halls!
  • Read the emails we send!
  • Follow us on Instagram!
  • Volunteer for various events!
  • Share your ideas, feedback, questions, and concerns with us!

What’s with the antelope?

You’ll probably read Michael Buckland’s “What Is a Document?” in either 520 or 530. There’s a discussion of whether an antelope can be a document in some contexts.