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Alumni E-News / July 2007
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Issue 17 - July 2007Welcome! In this issue:
Dean's WordWelcome to the summer 2007 edition of the e-news. I am delighted to note that with this newsletter we have passed the 1000 subscribers mark. Since our last edition, there have been many positive developments at the school. I mentioned in spring our COA/ALA accreditation efforts, and I am delighted to tell you the process was a complete success (see below). On top of this, the school has been promised new space in the university's recently acquired building at 1616 Guadalupe which will be renovated to house various groups over the next few years. For us this will mean one large space to house us all and we shall keep you updated on progress towards our new home as we move forward. I am also delighted to note that the recent salary survey conducted of our 2006 graduates showed record high salaries for iSchool alumni. Starting salaries passed $46,000, not only a significant increase over previous years but well above the national average. Our Career Services Office has a full report available on our web site. Of course, our progress is being made at a time of tremendous difficulty for the university. It will likely surprise many of you to learn that state funding for The University of Texas at Austin now provides only 16% of the operating budget, requiring us all to find other means of covering our costs and initiatives. At the same time, the School of Information, one of the top-ranked programs in the nation, charges one of the lowest tuition rates of all our competitors. In fact, our non-resident rates are lower than the in-state resident rates charged by any of the top five schools. Clearly, this puts us at a real disadvantage, and the news that we have to take another 2% budget cut in 2007 means that the school is increasingly unable to update, never mind innovate. This is not a sustainable position and we are examining our options which now must include reviewing our tuition costs and placing greater emphasis on philanthropy. As always, we are all extremely grateful for the continued support of our alumni; we simply cannot make progress without you. Please stay connected. MSIS Program Re-Accredited by COA/ALAThe School of Information's Master of Science in Information Studies has been accredited for seven more years by the ALA Committee on Accreditation. This decision followed an extensive review, including a site visit by external examiners in April. The decision was based on "the totality of accomplishment and environment for learning" at our school. Our master's degree program has been continually accredited by ALA since 1951, and the next review will be in 2014. iSchool Among Top Grad Programs at UTU.S. News & World Report magazine has published its annual ranking of graduate programs. The magazine ranks programs using both quantitative and qualitative measures. The University's programs in accounting, archives and preservation, Latin American history, and petroleum engineering were ranked No. 1 in the surveys. Our program in law librarianship was ranked 3rd, and the School as a whole maintained its rank of 7th in the nation. The rankings were in the April 9, 2007 edition of U.S. News & World Report magazine. See the full story here. School of Information Gets Major Gift Commitment from Former Texas Supreme Court JusticeFormer Supreme Court of Texas Justice William Wayne Kilgarlin has made a major planned gift commitment to endow the teaching of conservation and preservation at the School of Information. Kilgarlin's gift will supplement a previous $1 million gift commitment he made in 2004 to establish the William and Margaret Kilgarlin Center for Preservation of the Cultural Record. The official press release can be found here. Loriene Roy Inaugurated ALA PresidentOur own Professor Loriene Roy began her term as 2007-2008 president of the American Library Association (ALA) on June 28, 2007. As ALA president, Dr. Roy is the chief elected officer of the oldest and largest library organization in the world. See the full story here. An Honor Dance for Dr. Roy was held Friday at the National Museum of the American Indian. The dance featured a Piscataway opening prayer and blessing, a procession of women dancers, a male drum group, and a circle dance that included members of Loriene's family and members of the audience. The Austin American-Statesman also featured an article on Dr. Roy in honor of the inauguration. See the full article here. Barbara Immroth Wins Beta Phi Mu AwardDr. Barbara Immroth was named the 2007 Beta Phi Mu Award winner by ALA this week. The award is given in recognition for her lifetime commitment to education for librarianship. See the official announcement here. Austin Selected as Site for 2009 Joint Conference on Digital LibrariesDuring the 2007 Joint Conference on Digital Libraries (JCDL) the conference steering committee approved a proposal submitted by the iSchool and the Center for the Study of Digital Libraries (Texas A&M) to host the 2009 JCDL. The preliminary conference planning committee includes Fred Heath, Vice Provost for Libraries (Conference Co-Chair), Mary Lynn Rice-Lively, Associate Dean (Conference Co-Chair), Richard Furuta, Professor Texas A&M (Program Co-Chair), Luis Francisco-Revilla, Assistant Professor (Program Co-Chair), and Gary Geisler, Assistant Professor (Program Co-Chair). JCDL is jointly sponsored by the ACM and IEEE Computer Society. Alumni NewsJohn Frederic Powell, age 56, passed away on Tuesday, June 12, 2007, in San Antonio, TX, after a long illness. A graduate of Maryville College, TN, he received master's degrees in journalism, history and library information science from various universities and had almost completed the doctoral program in library information science at The University of Texas. He started as a journalist in Houston, then moved to San Antonio to pursue his library career. John had a profound appreciation for both the arts and science and will be remembered for his love of learning. Sandra Littletree, '06, was appointed to this year's NCSU Libraries Fellows. Sandy is the first Texas grad admitted into the program since 1999, when Sebastian Hierl was appointed in the inaugural group. http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/news/libraries.php?p=4185&more=1 Lorely Ambriz, '04, is a graduate of our former El Paso program. She is now the Information & Knowledge Management Center Librarian for the Pan American Health Organization, A Regional Office of the World Health Organization United States-Mexico Border Field Office. Library Journal recognized her as one of the "2007 Movers & Shakers," and also featured an article on her outstanding work. The full articles are available at: Kyung-Sun "Sunny" Kim, '98, received promotion to associate professor with tenure at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Library and Information Studies during the spring 2007 semester. Kim focuses on information seeking in digital environments. Kim joined the faculty in 2001 after a sojourn at the University of Missouri-Columbia. She is currently the recipient of the Lazerow Research Award. Mary J. Moore, '95, will be leaving her position on August 31 as director of the Briscoe Library at UT-HSC in San Antonio to head the medical library with the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. Susan Yancey, '73, grad and director of firm libraries for Vincent & Elkins in Houston, was interviewed by the Houston Chronicle; see the article here. There was a tremendous social gathering of alumni, faculty, staff and friends of the iSchool at ALA this June. On Saturday, June 23rd, over 60 of us gathered at Loriene Roy's Presidential Suite in the Grand Hyatt. If you have pictures, let us see them! Faculty NewsSchool of Information Awarded $1.3 MillionThe School of Information at The University of Texas at Austin has been awarded two grants totaling more than $1.3 million from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The school was awarded $911,928 to develop faculty leaders in preservation education and to produce high-level administrators for major cultural repositories who are educated in preservation. The doctoral program will be led by principal investigator Ellen Cunningham-Kruppa, director of the William and Margaret Kilgarlin Center for the Preservation of the Cultural Record. Cunningham-Kruppa, with associate professors Philip Doty and Patricia Galloway, will recruit and mentor five doctoral students in academic programs focusing on preservation of digital objects, conservation and preservation administration. The four-year effort will result in five students forming a cohort, to be identified as doctoral preservation fellows. A master's level program, "Stepping Up: Library Leaders for the 21st Century," received $407,780 from the IMLS. The program is designed to increase the number of professional librarians prepared for leadership positions and to support a series of management workshops for the library community. Eleven librarians interested in earning a master's degree in library and information science will receive tuition, a small stipend and a laptop and will be matched with program mentors. The program, led by principal investigator Lynn Westbrook, assistant professor, includes support from Loriene Roy, professor; Quinn Stewart, manager of computer services; and Ron Pollock, director of career services. The university will partner with four academic and four public libraries for the project. See the UP Press release at: http://www.utexas.edu/opa/news/2007/07/information10.html. ACM/IEEE Joint ConferenceThere was a strong iSchool presence at the ACM/IEEE Joint Conference on Digital Libraries this summer in Vancouver. Papers and presentations were made by Assistant Professors Gary Geisler, Megan Winget, Luis Francisco-Revilla and by computer specialist Quinn Stewart. For an updated listing of faculty research papers, presentations and monographs, see: http://www.ischool.utexas.edu/research/publications.php Dr. Gary Geisler, assistant professor, is co-PI on a three-year, $450,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health/National Library of Medicine to develop a digital library for the teaching of infectious diseases called "eMicrobes." With the growing number of emerging infectious diseases and global threats such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and bio-terrorism, a firm understanding of infectious diseases and microbiology is critical for all healthcare professionals. However, gaining this knowledge is difficult given the vast amount of information in the field and the limited training resources available to trainees and practicing physicians. Working with a collaborative team of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School-based physicians, medical librarians, and medical education specialists, Gary will help develop the eMicrobes digital library to be an extensive and easily searchable digital library of interactive case studies and images that strengthens and facilitates the teaching of infectious diseases and microbiology to health care providers. Features of the digital library will include dynamic integration of relevant information from medical on-line resources such as PubMed to enrich case information, and customizable options for storing and viewing the data so that health care practitioners and trainees can access digital library resources on a local computer or hand-held device when not connected to the Internet, which will make the tool more useful in underserved areas. Dr. Oliver Chen has left Austin to join the faculty at the University of Missouri. We all wish Oliver great success in his new position. Ms. Bonnie Grobar died in Austin on April 1, 2007. Bonnie Grobar was an esteemed Austin librarian who worked at the Texas State Library and Archives and taught classes on government publications as an adjunct faculty member at the iSchool. She also worked at Sul Ross State University, the Dallas Public Library, and the McDonald Observatory. She was active in professional organizations, including the Texas Library Association, the TLA Government Documents Round Table, and the TLA Interlibrary Loan Round Table. She was also a founding member of the State Agency Libraries of Texas. back to topStudent NewsJohn Powell, a doctoral candidate, passed away on June 12th. John was the manager of Forest Hills Library and a long-time librarian for the Boerne Public Library. He was in the process of completing his dissertation proposal. We all send our deepest sympathies to his wife Elzbieta and family. Master's student, Jacki Takach, passed away on February 13th. Jacki entered the master's program in January 2004 following a career in the US Army and Army Reserve. She withdrew from school during the fall semester. During her studies her interests were varied and wide-ranging with a recent more focused specialization in digital libraries. Our thoughts and sympathy are with her family.
Lorrie Dong, who is studying for her MSIS and CAS in Preservation Administration, has been awarded the prestigious Rovelstad Scholarship by the Council on Library and Information Resources. This highly competitive scholarship supports a student of library and information science to attend the World Library and Information Congress of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA). The scholarship is intended to encourage students who have an interest in international library work and enable them to participate in IFLA early in their careers. Lorrie will attend the 2007 IFLA annual meeting takes place in Durban, South Africa, in August. Career Services Office BulletinsChange to Alumni Careers Web SiteA new feature is available on the Alumni Careers Web Site: http://www.ischool.utexas.edu/careers/alumni_careers.php. The listing of alumni has been in alphabetical order, with groupings by geographical location. The new addition provides a list of alumni by city and/or state/country in which they are employed. There is a link to the geographical list on the alphabetical listing, or you may go directly to the geographic list at http://www.ischool.utexas.edu/careers/alumni_careers_state.php. To add your name to our lists of distinguished alumni, or to update your information already on the lists, please send the following information to careers@ischool.utexas.edu with "Alumni Success" as the subject: We would love to hear from our alumni employed outside of the United States. This is especially important for our new international students, as the list of alumni provides valuable information about the kinds of jobs available after graduation. Library Journal Salary Survey of 2006 Graduates UnderwayThe School of Information is currently contacting 2006 (May, August, December) graduates to encourage them to participate in the Library Journal Salary Survey of 2006 Graduates. Last year, the survey was expanded to insure graduates who enter non-library positions can provide information that illustrates their career direction. If you are a 2006 graduate and have not received the salary survey information via e-mail or regular mail, please contact Ron Pollock (rpollock@ischool.utexas.edu) for the survey URL and password. If you are not a 2006 graduate, but are in communication with anyone who graduated in 2006, please pass this information along to them. Previous results of the Library Journal Salary Surveys can be viewed at: http://www.ischool.utexas.edu/careers/salary_surveys.php Supporting the iSchoolJulie Hallmark Endowed Graduate FellowshipCreated in honor of Professor Julie Hallmark who retired in 2004 after more than 30 years of service to the School and UT, this endowment will provide support for graduate students working in the area of special libraries. Have your gift to the Hallmark Fellowship matched 2:1 by a fellow iSchool alum. Make your gift online today. Bonnie Grobar Memorial Student Excellence AwardThe iSchool is accepting donations for a one-time student award in memory of Bonnie Grobar, an esteemed Austin librarian who worked at the Texas State Library and Archives and taught classes on government publications at the iSchool. Honor the memory of Bonnie by making your gift online today. Contact UsOver 1000 subscribers received this newsletter. If you know someone who has graduated from our program and is not receiving this, please forward a copy and point them to the subscription page on our site at http://www.ischool.utexas.edu/mailman/listinfo/alums. Moving? Need to update your alumni records? An "Information for Alumni" page has been set up with various links to help make it convenient for you to make changes. Go to: http://www.ischool.utexas.edu/people/alumni.php to learn more. Alumni Mailing List Last Modified: July 22 2007 19:22:01. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
