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Alumni E-News / December 2008
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Issue 20 - December 2008
Dean's WordGreetings iSchoolers. Dear Friends, let me extend my warmest wishes to you all for the holiday season and thank you for your continued support of the iSchool. As we end 2008, we take satisfaction in the many accomplishments of the extended school family: students, faculty, staff and alumni. There are many indices for assessing a school, and while rankings garner the most attention, I prefer to assess quality in more human terms. We continue to attract excellent students to Austin, and each semester the admission process becomes more difficult. At the other end, our graduates continue to be in high demand, the best evidence there is of the value of an iSchool education. Our faculty research productivity, measured in terms of publications or grant support, is the highest it has been since I arrived. We have an excellent and growing staff, with (at long last) a full time development operation. And of course, we are putting the final touches on renovation plans for our new space. Taken together, I feel the School of Information is in excellent shape and is now poised for even greater success in the years ahead. You will no doubt have heard of the funding problems facing higher education, and as we note in this issue, state funding for UT has diminished significantly over the last few decades. This shows no signs of changing, and thus there is increased pressure on all of us to fund the school's operations from other sources. I cannot overstate how important those gifts which you make are to the school. We do not have the large alumni pool of many other programs, and many of our graduates enjoy modest salaries in comparison to graduates in other disciplines. But our graduates are loyal, and many of you recognize the transformative effect your years in our program had on your lives. LIS programs rarely make the headlines, but we all understand the importance of professional education in the information realm to the proper functioning of a civil society. As we end the year, let me reiterate how powerful the gift of education is and encourage you all to take stock of its importance in your own lives. Stay connected! Andrew iSchool Faculty New Grants$452,000 GrantDr. Randolph Bias (PI), Associate Professor, in collaboration with Professor Dewayne Perry, UT Electrical and Computing Engineering have been awarded a $452,000 grant distributed over three years to study the documentation needs of designers and to model maintenance engineers interactions with legacy system records. Dr Gary Geisler, with Michael Holleran of the School of Architecture, received the 2009 Mike Hogg Urban Scholars Grant for a project called "Wiki Participation in Preservation Planning." Grant amount is $11,500, which matches similar funding from the City of Austin. The goal of this project is to develop a system that will make the City of Austin's historic landmark survey process more transparent and participatory by enabling the community to contribute data, corrections, and supplementary information about City landmark properties and neighborhoods. This grant results from a special gathering of faculty in both schools organized by Deans Dillon and Steiner in Spring 2008. Drs. Megan Winget, Assistant Professor, and Mary Lynn Rice-Lively, Associate Dean, each received a $7,500 grant (for a total of $22,500) from IMLS to support attendance at the Digital Curation Conference in December in Edinburgh, Scotland. Dr. Winget will attend the conference with PhD students Sarah Kim and Paul Aumer-Ryan, both IMLS fellowship recipients. Faculty NewsYou can find details of the latest faculty publications on our website, including full text of many papers, at publications. This is shaping up to be a great year for faculty research publications with work appearing in many leading journals. Visit publications. Dean Dillon Delivers Inaugural LectureDean Dillon gave the inaugural Johnson Memorial Lecture in Library and Information Studies at the School of Library, Archival and Information Studies in the University of British Columbia in September. The prestigious lectureship was established by the Johnson's son, Stephen Searle Johnson, in honor and memory of Stephen and Marion Johnson's many contributions to librarianship and to UBC.
Harmon and Westbrook Receive Award for PaperA paper titled "Unconscious Cognition in the Genesis of Reference Queries," authored by Glynn Harmon, Professor, with the assistance of Lynn Westbrook, Assistant Professor received the Top Conference Paper Award at the Reference and User Services Association Conference held August 4-5 in Denver, Colorado. Over 100 refereed papers were received for the Conference, according to Conference Coordinator Professor Marie Radford of Rutgers University.
Pat Galloway in Inside Higher Ed MagazineDr. Pat Galloway, Associate Professor, was interviewed by Inside Higher Ed magazine for an article on open access. The recent American Anthropological Association policy to provide greater access to their research has created a lot of discussion and Pat gives her views. To read the article visit the website at article. David Gracy, Professor, traveled to Gakushuin University in Japan in October to deliver lectures to and meet with students in the inaugural class of the first graduate program in archival education in the country. Dr. Gracy has also been elected to the Member-at-Large seat on the executive board of ALA's Library History Round Table.
Megan Winget, Assistant Professor, was interviewed by Library Journal and BBC regarding her research on the preservation of online games, was interviewed by both Library Journal Online and the BBC. To read the article, visit the website at article. iSchooler's Have Strong Presence at ASIST 2008iSchool faculty and doctoral students were present in strength at this years ASIST conference in Columbus OH, this fall. Over ten faculty and students made presentations during this year's conference. For a full list of papers and posters visit the website at ASIST posters In MemoriamSally Muehlberger (MLS '75) died on October 28, 2008. To read her complete obituary, visit the website at obituary. Judy Pearce (MLIS '96) died on March 31, 2008. She retired from Austin Independent School District in 2007 after 26 years of service. For the last 14 of those years she served as the AISD Acquisitions Librarian. To read her complete obituary, visit the website at obituary. D. Devin Zimmerman (MSIS '01) died on October 14, 2008. Devin was an instructor and librarian at Northeast Lakeview College in San Antonio, Texas. To read complete web memorial, visit the website at memorial. Alumni NewsTwo recent iSchool preservation/conservation alumni, Shannon Phillips and Tish Brewer, now have their own studio in Dallas. They were recently profiled in "D" magazine. To read the article visit the website at article. Then visit their blog that contains information about creative classes offered at their studio. To read the blog visit the web site at article. Dr. Carol Simpson has joined the Austin the law firm of Schwartz and Eichelbaum, Wardell, Mehl, and Hansen. The firm specializes in work with public school districts. Students NewsJoe Sanchez, iSchool PhD student was featured on ABC News On Campus. "Attending Class in Cyberspace explores how Joe conducts his popular class in a 3-D virtual world: Second Life," was aired on 10/20/2008 on ABC News on Campus featuring Joe Sanchez, PhD student in the iSchool. To read the article, visit the website at article. Sanchez also received a grant from The Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Partnership Foundation. The grant is the first Carter Academic Service Entrepreneur (CASE) grant program for an online virtual world project that serves the community and contributes to student learning. This competition will seek to find the most innovative way for students to serve the community online in the virtual world Second Life. Class and Student Projects Benefit CommunityBusiness Information (INF 382N). Students in the fall 2008 section of Claudia Chidester's (MLS '86) Business Information class conducted research for a local company that helps services organizations more effectively manage the complexities of delivering professional services profitably. The company CEO offered high praise for the sophistication of the data collected and the skills of the students. Managing Information Organizations and Services (INF 387C). Students in the fall 2008 section of Mary Lynn Rice-Lively's (PhD '96) management class worked with the executive staff of the Texas Library Association to draft a strategic plan to chart the course of a newly conceived professional organization of the 21st century that would appeal to and involve a new generation of information specialists. Capstone Projects Fall 2008. More than ten of our graduating master's students worked on wide range of projects to fulfill the iSchool Capstone course requirement. Projects conducted included usability and information architecture for host organizations such as Susan G. Komen for the Cure Austin Affiliate and the Texas Oral History Project. Other students focused on digitization projects at the Society of Folk Dance Historians and the Texas Natural Science Center. Finally, libraries, including the Perry-Castaneda Library on UT's campus and Houston Public Library, hosted several students who conducted programming and collection development projects. The culmination of the capstone semester is, of course, the poster session, which was held on Friday 5 December. Joining the capstone project students this semester were several conservation and preservation administration students who completed work in the summer at institutions such as the Midwest Conservation Center, Yale University Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, and New York University Library. Career ServicesLibrary Journal Salary Survey of 2007 GraduatesThe October 15, 2008, edition of Library Journal contains their salary survey of 2007 graduates of ALA-accredited LIS programs. Of the 117 graduates of the School of Information during 2007, only 33 responded to the survey; 27 women and 6 men. Of the 33 responses, 30 were employed, 1 was unemployed, and 2 continued as students. Of the 30 employed graduates, only 28 reported salary information. For 2007, the average of the salaries reported decreased by about 4.2% when compared to 2006 graduates' salaries. The average salary of 2007 iSchool graduates was $41,108, compared to $42,913 for 2006 graduates. Salaries of female graduates, when compared to male graduates were interesting. Average Salary Women: $41,023 Men: $41,417 Low Salary Women: $30,000 Men: $28,000 High Salary Women: $93,000 Men: $59,000 The survey results point out how important it is for our alumni to participate in our Library Journal Salary Surveys. For those of you who are 2008 graduates, we encourage you to participate in next year's survey that will be conducted during the June - August 2009 timeframe. Alumni Careers Listing Valuable to New and Current StudentsWith approximately 300 alumni providing current employment information to the alumni careers Web site (http://www.ischool.utexas.edu/careers/alumni_careers.php), both current and potential students are using the career information as a resource for determining the kinds of opportunities available to graduates of the iSchool. If we may publish your current career information on our Web site, please let us know. You may use the link in the Alumni Careers (URL listed above) or send an e-mail to: careers@ischool.utexas.edu, with "Alumni Success" in the subject line. Archives Week 2008Archives-oriented students and faculty executed another successful Archives Week October 22-November 1. Events included a fundraising concert, speakers, and an archives clinic. For details including photos, visit the website at archives. Work on New iSchool Facility ProgressesiSchool faculty and staff continue working with the Austin branch of Parsons, an engineering and construction firm, and UT Systems Office of Planning and Construction Services on the renovation of new space for the iSchool at 1616 Guadalupe. The new site for the school will provide 40,000 sf of newly renovated space that will more than double space allocated for classrooms, labs, research and student space, as well as faculty and staff offices. In addition to bringing all teaching and lab facilities of the school under one roof, 1616 Guadalupe will provide a much needed student lounge and kitchen as well as research and collaboration space for faculty and doctoral students. The new facility will have six classrooms and four seminar and conference rooms compared to four classrooms and one conference room at the Sanchez Building space. Follow the progress of the construction and renovation work on the 1616 Guadalupe construction blog. Mellon Foundation Visits iSchoolTwo program officers from the Mellon Foundation in New York City visited the iSchool in late October. The purpose of the visit was to learn more about the research and educational mission of the iSchool's preservation administration and conservation studies programs, as well as to better understand faculty and student involvement with the research, work, and services of UT libraries and special collections. As well as visiting with students and faculty, the Mellon representatives discussed the school's future plans with Dean Dillon and met with foundation relations staff at UT. Supporting the iSchoolWith state funds accounting for less than 18% of UT's operating budget, every gift to the School of Information helps our students in ways that otherwise would not be possible. Annual gifts are a vital source of funding that allows students to attend conferences and the school to host special programs and bring in distinguished speakers. Major gifts, planned gifts, and endowments provide the backbone of support for student scholarships and are essential for our ability to attract and retain the most competitive students and faculty members. Regardless of the amount or the designation, your gift is an investment that always pays a large return and has a long-term meaningful impact. To show your bid of confidence and support of the future of LIS education at UT, please visit Support. You can also contact our development officer, Luke Dunlap, directly at luked@ischool.utexas.edu or by phone at 512.471.8421. Contact UsFor more information, feel free to email us at info@ischool.utexas.edu. Last Modified: January 07 2009 15:18:51. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
