Ph.D. Student News

Welcome to the Ph.D. News Website. This Website contains items of interest to iSchool Ph.D. students at University of Texas at Austin. The home page "Announcements," "Activities for this Week," and "Future Events" are normally updated each Sunday. Additions and changes to the current week as well as special announcements are noted in red (or other appropriate color) . Significant future calendar events are posted as they are received and time permits. Suggested additions, corrections, and other comments are always appreciated. Email me or grab me in room SZB 463 or in the hall.

Developing a Reading Room and Activities Center
in the Favela of Rocinha, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Each Monday, 5:30-7:30 PM, Crown and Anchor Pub, Unofficial iSchool Happy Hour. Everyone--students, faculty, and staff--is invited. Domestic is $1.50 a pint so all can afford to participate. Hope to see you there. The Crown and Anchor is located at 2911 San Jacinto just north of campus. For more information, please contact Courtney Chartier.

Each Friday, 5-7 PM, Scholz Garten, Traditional iSchool Happy Hour. The Student, Faculty , Staff , Friends, and Family Happy hour. initiated by Dean Dillon. Come when you can and leave when you want. When it is cold or hot we are inside where it is crowded and noisy. When it is comfortable we are outside in the garden where it is quieter. Scholz Garten is located two blocks from campus at 1607 San Jacinto Boulevard. For more information, please contact Dean Dillon.

Tuesday, Sep 20, Application due for free registration to the ASIST Conference October 30 - November 3, 2005, Charleston, NC. To help ASIS&T student members who might not otherwise be able to participate in ASIS&T meetings, ASIST provides a limited number of positions on a first come/first served basis, to attend the sessions and network with other members in exchange for assisting us in running the meeting. Students who have participated in our program have found the experience "terrific." Here is how the program works:

In exchange for complimentary registration, we'll ask you to help us run the conference. You'll serve as a room monitor for about three sessions each day for three days. In addition, you'll help out either at our registration desk or placement headquarters for a 4-hour period on one day of the conference. We've listed below the activities that you are expected to perform as part of the program.

1. Monitoring Sessions: We'll solicit your choices of sessions, by time period, and try to schedule you into the sessions you prefer wherever possible. Monitoring involves assisting the speakers and moderators, checking for name tags at the door, ensuring that the necessary AV equipment is on hand, encouraging participants to complete evaluation forms, and generally helping makes the session go smoothly. (Additionally, you will be expected to SMILE AND BE FRIENDLY!)

2. Registration: Registration assistance involves facilitating the registration process, keeping a record of registrants, handing out materials, etc.

3. Placement: Placement assistance involves registering employers and employees, updating placement books, and keeping track of interview room usage.

How to Participate: If you would like to be considered for this program for the 2005 Annual, to be held October 30 - November 3, 2005 in Charlotte, NC Please forward your name, address, phone, fax and e-mail numbers to:

American Society for Information Science & Technology
ATTN.: ASIS&T 2005 Annual Scholarships
1320 Fenwick Lane, Suite 510
Silver Spring, MD 20910
FAX: (301) 495-0810
e-mail: vfoss@asis.org

Tuesday, Sep 20, Last day of registration for the STS, Civic Forum on the Societal Implications of Nanotechnology, scheduled for Saturday, Oct 1, 8:30 AM – 3:30 PM, UTC 2.112. The UT STS (Science, Technology & Society) Program is hosting the world's largest Civic Forum to enable scientists, the public, academics and policy makers to come together to begin to actively participate in mediating the revolutionary transformations coming down the pipeline from nanoscience (new ways of manipulating materials on an atomic or molecular scale). With the usual cast of highly creative UT Austin students, staff and professors, we have designed this day of civic engagement (Oct 1) to include information-getting, movie watching, and role playing. Mayor Wynn and President Faulkner will introduce the event, and we have had international and national attention. We hope you will join us. Registration is free but you must register online . For more information please visit the forum Website or contact Dr. Leslie H. Jarmon .

We have a strong need for volunteers to help us run the event - escorting and guiding attendees, assisting with registration, working with an on-site video crew, and many other activities. The day's event will take place from 7:00am through 4:00pm (including set-up and clean-up activities), and we are hoping for a couple dozen hardy volunteers who can commit to the whole day. If you can't commit to the entire day, that's okay too - we'll happily accept all the help you are able to give. If you can't make it Saturday (or are feeling particularly enthusiastic!) we also need volunteers on Friday, September 30th to help with pre-event preparation of the forum space. All-day volunteers on Saturday will get a free lunch and will be entered into the raffle for one of the forum prizes, which include a Samsung 50" TV and an custom Lance Armstrong laptop from AMD (maybe even an iPod nano!). If you have time to donate to STS and the Civic Forum on October 1st please contact me [Lance Hayden] at lhayden@ischool.utexas.edu. Let me know if you can help us out on Friday, Saturday, or both; if you can commit to the entire day on Saturday; and if there are any particular volunteer activities you'd like to do, or any that you can't or wouldn't like to do (such as hanging signs or moving tables, etc.) We'll do our best to connect you with a fun job for the day and of course you'll have our sincere appreciation for being a big part of making the Civic Forum a success.

Tuesday, Sep 20, 4-5:30 PM, SSB, G1.310 (Glenn Mahony Room), GSA meeting. All graduate students are invited to attend Graduate Student Assembly meetings. The Student Services Building is on Dean Keaton (north campus). If you want to see how GSA operates you might want to attend. For more information please contact Don Drumtra, 2005-6 ischool Ph.D. rep.

Tuesday, Sep 20,18:30-20:30 PM, Room 1S15, Building C, National Instruments, Don Shafer, Blogs to Books. Computer science impacts more and more of everyone’s daily life: from the code that activates your car air bags, the iPod playing 10,000 songs hanging from your belt, to the SPAM in your mail box. As professionals; scientists, engineers, academicians, programmers, managers; we have more tools available to us for research, product development and teaching than ever before. We can take graduate students into the deep recesses of Bayesian theory and formal proofs. At the stroke of a few keys we can bring the most advanced super computer to a stop with our models of the upper atmosphere. But, we are ignoring the critical areas of ethics and system correctness. We are looking to build the next, great piece of technology but pushing aside imparting the ethics of not “stealing” through copying intellectual property or developing a new “Denial of Service” attack. We are pushing slick technology but ignoring the work of pushing the process of building working systems that get requirements correct and don’t fail to understand the same units of measure. In many ways we are ignoring the engineering and management of technology. Professional societies – IEEE, ACM – seem to focus on academia, the public sector and research while commercial and private sector users need more attention. As professional technologists and technology managers, it is incumbent on us to share our knowledge, experiences and best practices. Publishing is still the best way to share that knowledge. This discussion will lead you through the publishing opportunities available today – from blogs to books. There are a wealth of paid and unpaid opportunities from your IEEE to your local business journal to the blogosphere. John Shafer is the Chief Technical Officer of the Athens Group. This meeting is a joint Meeting with Engineering Management, Women in Engineering, and the Computer Society - Austin. National Instruments is at 1105 North Mopac Expressway, See Website for directions. For reservations, RSVP to sjgillespie@ieee.org or lmartinich@ieee.org.

Tuesday Sep 20, 5-6 PM, SZB 556, UT ALA Meeting. Are you currently a member of ALA or TLA? Would you like to find out more about these organizations? Are you planning for a library career in public, academic, or special libraries? Please join us for the first meeting of the new school year. We invite all interested students and faculty to attend. We have some exciting events in the planning stages, but would love to have your input and energy. If you cannot attend this organizational meeting but are interested in participating in the group, please contact Melissa Keenan, so she can send you an overview of what was discussed.

Thursday, Sep 22, Tarrytown United Methodist Church, Austin String Quartet, Recital. The church is very proud to announce their new concert series, "Music at Tarrytown." The opening concert will feature the Austin String Quartet. Richard Kilmer and Elise Winters, violins, violist Bruce Williams and cellist, Douglas Harvey. They will be performing Beethoven's String Quartet in C Minor, Op. 18, No. 4 and Brahms' Clarinet Quintet in B Minor, Op. 115. They will be joined by fellow Austin Symphony member, Steve Girko on clarinet. The concert is free and open to the public. Tarrytown Methodist Church is located at 2601 Exposition. For additional, please contact Elaine Dykstra or call 472-3111.

Thursday, Sep 22, application due for the ALISE award to attend the 2006 ALISE Conference, From Research to Practice: The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in LIS Education , Jan 16-19, in San Antonio, Texas. The ALISE Board of Directors seeks nominations from institutional members for the Doctoral Students to apply for the ALISE Award. The award supports the attendance of one or more promising LIS doctoral students at the ALISE Annual Conference, which will be held in San Antonio, TX, January 16-19, 2006. The winner will gain an understanding of how ALISE serves its members through undertaking conference assignments and participating fully in conference programs. One or two awards will be given. Each winner will receive a stipend of $400 that may be used to defray lodging and meal expenses during the conference. A complimentary registration is included. The sending school is asked to help the student with transportation costs. Up to two awards may be given. If you would like to apply, please contact your advisor and Dr. Harmon, the iSchool Ph.D. Coordinator. Details for submission are available at the above link. The annual conference of Library and Information Science Educators is near by this year--we should all be participating in this event. See related items on Oct 1 and Oct 31.

Friday, Sep 23, Deadline for the submission of abstracts for the TLA 2006 Annual Conference Libraries: Igniting the Passion, Houston, April 25-28. Papers should reflect the theme of the conference. However, papers will be accepted on any topic. For more information, go to the conference Website. While we are on the topic, there is still room in the inn! The 2006 TLA Conference in will be here before you know it, so make sure you reserve your hotel room if you have not already done so. Online housing is available at the TLA website. For more information, please contact TLA or Kathy Pustejovsky, conference manager, via email or phone 328-1518, ext. 14.

Friday-Sunday, Sep 23-25, Zilker Park, Austin City Limits Music Festival. As the festival is already well on its way to a sell out, single day tickets are limited in number, and 3 day tickets are also still available. Details on tickets are available at austincitylimits.com

ADDED EVENT. Friday, Sep 23, 3:30-5:00 PM, UT SLA Tour, Texas Legislative Reference Library. The UT Chapter of the Special Libraries Association invites us to join them in a tour of the LRL. Everyone is welcome. We plan to meet at 3:15 p.m. in the 4th floor lounge area (next to the iSchool lab) to walk over to the Capitol together. The LRL will kindly provide information packets to augment the tour. To reserve one, RSVP to Heather Colvin, by Wednesday, 9/21. Also, contact Heather for more information. After the tour, join us at Scholz's for the Friday happy hour.

Saturday, Sep 24 - Saturday, Oct 1, Banned Books Week. Cosponsored by the ALA, >the American Booksellers Association and others. Look for emails about events from The-Insider, the iSchool student association elist.

Sunday, Sep 25, 3 - 4:30 PM, Bates Recital Hall, Bruce Neswick, Recital--Great Organ Series. Bruce Neswick, Canon for Music at the Cathedral of St. Philip, Atlanta, GA will present the first recital in this season's Great Organ Series. The recital includes works by J.S. Bach, David Hurd, Olivier Messiaen, Larry King, and Nicolaus Hasse. Mr. Neswick will conclude the recital with an improvisation on a submitted theme.Bruce Neswick is a graduate of the Yale School of Music and Institute of Sacred Music. He won 1st prizes in improvisation at competitions in Boston, San Anselmo and Geneva. He is also in great demand as a choral clinician with the Royal School of Church Music and has frequently been commissioned to compose for various performers and churches. Tickets at the door, $10.

Tuesday, Sep 27, 11:30 AM - 1 PM, Goodwill Temporary Services, Sandy Broady-Rudd, Marketing your Records Management Program. What does marketing have to do with Records Management?What is a Marketing Plan? How do I align my Records Management goals with the strategic goals of my company? If you want to learn how you can develop a Marketing Plan for your Records Management Program, Sandy will open your mind to limitless possibilities. She will explore the Marketing Plan she developed for Republic Bank and impart how you can develop your own plan. All you will need is a small amount of time, mixed with some genuine creativity and you too can realize your records management objectives. Sandy is a Certified Record Manager with the Texas Municipal Retirement System and has significant experience in government, corrections, and financial services industry, demonstrated expertise in streamlining records operations, managing people, and providing exceptional internal and external customer service. Strong ability to turn around struggling operations. Recognized as a subject matter expert and often selected to speak at local and international information management conferences. This is ARMA-Austin's September meeting. Goodwill is located at 1015 Norwood Park Blvd. A light lunch will be provided. The lunch is free to ARMA members and first time guests. The cost for non-members is $5.00.For more information please contact Virginia Stephens.

Tuesday, Sep 27, 5-6 PM, SZB 556., Student Organization, Banned Book Week Discussion SASI is holding a book discussion group for Banned Books Week. We would love for all of you to join us. If you are interested in participating please visit either of the following web sites and pick a book to read: http://forbiddenlibrary.com or http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedbooksweek/challengedbanned/challengedbanned.htm. Then join SASI to share your thoughts on why the book you selected was banned or challenged and if you think this decision was warranted. Snacks will be provided.

Saturday, Oct 1, Submissions due for the 2006 ALISE Conference, From Research to Practice: The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in LIS Education , Jan 16-19, in San Antonio, Texas. Information on the conference is available at the Conference Website. Two poster sessions offer doctoral students an opportunity to share their research pursuits with the larger LIS community and to obtain feedback in an informal setting. The Doctoral Student Research Poster Session provides a venue for Ph.D. students who are in the candidacy stage of their research. Participation is limited to 60 posters. Awards will be given for top posters. The Work-In-Progress Poster Session provides a venue for faculty doctoral student research at the formative or pre-candidacy stage of their research If you would like to participate, please contact your advisor and Dr. Harmon, the iSchool Ph.D. Coordinator. Details for submission are available at the links above. The annual conference of Library and Information Science Educators is near by this year--we should all be participating in this event. See related items on Sep 22 and Oct 31.

Saturday, Oct 1, 8:30 AM – 3:30 PM, UTC 2.112, STS, Civic Forum on the Societal Implications of Nanotechnology. The UT STS (Science, Technology & Society) Program is hosting the world's largest Civic Forum to enable scientists, the public, academics and policy makers to come together to begin to actively participate in mediating the revolutionary transformations coming down the pipeline from nanoscience (new ways of manipulating materials on an atomic or molecular scale). With the usual cast of highly creative UT Austin students, staff and professors, we have designed this day of civic engagement (Oct 1) to include information-getting, movie watching, and role playing. Mayor Wynn and President Faulkner will introduce the event, and we have had international and national attention. We hope you will join us. Registration is free but you must register online . For more information please visit the forum Website or contact Dr. Leslie H. Jarmon .

Sunday, Oct 2, 7-9 PM, St. Martin's Luthern Church, Music School, Katrina Benefit Concert. Many graduate students have asked about opportunities to help the hurricane relief efforts. Members of UT's Music Department have put together a benefit concert for Katrina victims on Sunday, October 2nd at 7:00pm at St. Martin s Lutheran Church. Tickets are $5 and all proceeds go to the American Red Cross. For more information, see the concert flyer, or contact Amy, GSA Executive Committee.

Monday, Oct 3, 4:30-6:30 PM, SZB 238, Capstone Project Fair. The fourth annual Project Fair is provided for the convenience of the many ISchool students who will be graduating in the Spring semester and who will be looking for projects; however, this is a good opportunity for all students to network with information professionals about volunteer opportunities and permanent employment. For a list of attendees, please visit the Attendee Webpage or contact Lee Lacy via email or phone, 471-0170 for more information on the fair.

Tuesday, Oct 4, 4:30-5:30 PM, SZB 468, SAA Meeting. We invite all interested parties to attend. Atop the agenda is the early disclosure of Archives Week 2005 events and upcoming fundraising. Afterwards, the floor turns to the chapter members and open discussion. So bring questions, comments, and requests and let your SAA board know what’s on your mind! See you there.

Thursday-Friday, Oct 6-7, Thompson CC, LBJ School of Public Afairs, Ethics in Government: Earning the Public Trust. The LBJ School of Public Affairs is pleased to announce this conference presented in co-sponsorship with the Texas Ethics Commission.
We have an excellent line-up of speakers and topics, including:

Registration is #225 but discounts are available for faculty staff and students. Please contact the Office of Conferences and Training at 471-0820 for more information. Also for more informationi on the conference please visit the cnference Website.

Thursday, October 6, 4:30-6:00 PM, SZB 556, Sonja Reid, Research on the Properties of Invisible Ink and Observations and Tips for AIC Poster Sessions, and Vivian Spoliansky. Join us for the third forum of the Kilgarlin Center Fall Forum series. All are Welcome. For more information, please see the Kilgarlin Center Events Calendar or contact Ellen Cunningham-Kruppa, Director, The Kilgarlin Center for Preservation of the Cultural Record.

Friday, Oct 7, 2-4 PM, UNB Ballroom, Annual Fellowship Fair. For more information including a list of Scholarship Organizations participating in the Graduate Fellowship/Scholarship Fair, please see the Scholarship Bulletin Board outside the iSchool Administrative Office (SZB 564) or contact Marian Schieck.

Friday, Oct 7, 2:30 - 4 PM, UNB Quadrangle Room, NSF Graduate Fellowship Workshop. If you have less than 20 hours of graduate work, you should participate in this event. For more information including a list of Scholarship Organizations participating in the Graduate Fellowship/Scholarship Fair, please see the Scholarship Bulletin Board outside the iSchool Administrative Office (SZB 564) or contact Marian Schieck.

Saturday, Oct 8, 6-9 PM, TSHM, Oktober Under the Star. Join us for Music Under the Star, German-style! Our special Oktober Under the Star will feature a FREE concert on the Museum's Plaza by the Bohemian Dutchmen from New Braunfels and free exhibits, including the new Face of Texas temporary exhibit, from 6-9pm. (Regular admission charges apply for the IMAX® Theatre.) The Story of Texas Cafe will be open and a cash bar will be available on the Plaza. Bring your camp chairs and blankets, as seating is limited, but please do not bring coolers and outside refreshments. For more information please visit the Texas State History Museum event Website.

Monday, Oct 10, 9:30-11:30 AM, SZB 556, Beth Letalien, Developing a Reading Room and Activities Center in the Favela of Rocinha, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Beth proposes a participatory action research study in the field in Rochina, a major favela ("squatter settlement") in Rio de Janeiro. Her committee includes Drs, Phil Doty, chair, Pat Galloway, Lynn Westbrook, and Joe Straubhaar (Amon G. Carter Sr. Centennial Professor of Communication, a faculty member in RTF, and director of the Brazil Center). Here is the Sep 23 version of the abstract:

how to serve the underprivileged;
how to reimagine information agencies and spaces, especially reading rooms;
how to conceptualize the roles that entertainment and fiction can play in such institutions; and
how to understand the production of information resources by their users.

We hope to see you there for this important milestone in Bethany's scholarly progress. Doctoral students in all phases of their own programs, master's students with interests in doctoral studies, and anyone interested in localized information centers are especially encouraged to attend. Please contact Dr. Doty via email or phone, 471, 3746.

Wednesday, Oct 12, 12 N - 1 PM, SZB 556, Capstone Brown Bag event. This Capstone event is and the one scheduled for the following Wednesday, Oct 19, are set up for your convenience -- in theory, you can find a project and a supervisor at the Fair, go through an interview process, get your questions answered at the Brown Bag lunches, and be ready with the paperwork to preregister for Spring in late October, leaving yourself free to concentrate on finals and enjoy the holidays. For more information please read the Capstone FAQ List or contact Lee Ann Lacy, Capstone Experience Office, via email or phone., 471-0170.

Tuesday, Oct 18, 11:30-3 PM, ASH, Cafe, Kathy Glasgow-Sparks, Litigation Response Plans. ARMA Lecture, 11:30-1 PM, followed by a workshop on the litigation response process including the Sedona Principles and producing electronic records. Few organizations are staff-rich these days. So, when a subpoena or open records request shows up at your organization’s door it can become a crisis to respond thoroughly and accurately to meet the document production deadline. Kathy is a certified record manager. She will discuss ways to prepare organizations to respond when litigation looms its ugly head. Kathy will address:

The meeting is in the conference rooms adjoining the Nifty-Fifty Café at the Austin State Hospital, 4110 Guadalupe St. The lunch lecture is free to ARMA members, students, and first time guests and $5 for non-members. The workshop is $10 for everyone. For more information, please visit the ARMA Austin Website or contact Vickie Stephens.

Wednesday, Oct 19, 12 N - 1 PM, SZB 556, Capstone Brown Bag event. This Capstone event is and the previous one the preceding wednesday, are set up for your convenience -- in theory, you can find a project and a supervisor at the Fair, go through an interview process, get your questions answered at the Brown Bag lunches, and be ready with the paperwork to preregister for Spring in late October, leaving yourself free to concentrate on finals and enjoy the holidays. For more information please read the Capstone FAQ List or contact Lee Ann Lacy, Capstone Experience Office, via email or phone., 471-0170.

Thursday, Oct 20, 8 AM - 5 PM, UT Pickle Commons, TSLAC, A Practical Guide for Success in Managing Electronic Records: A Conference for Texas State Agencies and Universities. The Texas State Library and Archives Commission (TSLAC) and the Department of Information Resources (DIR) are pleased to announce a one-day conference for state government officials involved in the management of electronic records. This e-records conference seeks to provide a practical approach for effectively managing electronic records. This year's conference offers an in-depth tutorial that addresses four critical components for developing and implementing a successful electronic records management solution:

Friday, Oct 21, 8:30 AM - 3:30 PM, UT Pickle Commons, State of Texas Enterprise Content Management (ECM) Conference. This conference is hosted by the Director of FileNet, and CGI-AMS. Government Agencies today are looking for better ways to expand and control information while lowering costs and improving services. Citizen expectations are increasing and there is a need to do more with fewer resources. Enterprise Content Management, including Business Process Management and Records Management, is the next step to give agencies the ability to be more cost effective and deliver enhanced service on an anytime, anywhere basis.
Attend this conference created for Texas Government, and you will learn how ECM can:

Enterprise Content Management (ECM) Solutions are designed to give your agency the significant opportunity to reduce operating costs whenever there's a decision to be made. With the combination of content, process and full-spectrum connectivity, agencies are offered significant opportunities to heighten productivity, efficiency and speed reaction to critical events. Space is limited so register early. FOr more information please contact Joy Hall Bryant, Statewide Technology Education Analyst, Department of information Resources.

Thursday-Friday, Oct 27-28, Westin, Charlotte NC, Nurturing Culture, Innovation, and Technology. The second International Conference on Knowledge Management (ICKM2005), jointly organized by the Information and Knowledge Management Society (IKMS) & The American Society for Information Science & Technology (ASIS&T) will be held just before the ASIS&T Annual Meeting. The conference will bring together academics, researchers, developers, practitioners, and users in the areas of knowledge management and information processing. It will serve as a platform for networking, exchange of research ideas, practical applications and best practices. Authors are invited to submit original and unpublished work on all aspects of information and knowledge management. Registration for students is $150, or if you register for both ASIST and ICKM you will save $20.

Friday, Oct 28 - Wednesday, Nov 2, Westin, Charlotte NC, Sparking Synergies: Bringing Research and Practice Together. The 2005 annual ASIST meeting will focus on the diversity of perspectives and insights from all those participating in the information science and technology community, as they generate innovative ideas,define theoretical concepts or work out the nuts and bolts of implementing well-tested ideas in new ways and in new settings. A wide variety of plenary and invited speakers, moderated panels, poster sessions and refereed papers will explore this theme. ASIST member student registration is $160. If you plan to go it is best to become a student member at $55 than pay the non-member student rate of $215. You may register online.

Friday-Sunday, Oct 28-30, TX State Capital, Texas Book Festival: A Celebration of Words. The Texas Book Festival celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. Follow American history from the Revolutionary War to the Civil War with noted historians David McCullough, Doris Kearns Goodwin and Gary Wills; experience a series of Unfortunate Events with Lemony Snicket; aid Alexander McCall Smith in unraveling the next mystery at the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency. The festival benefits Texas public libraries. Please visit the festival Website for details.

Monday, Oct 31, Last day for early registration for the 2006 ALISE Conference, From Research to Practice: The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in LIS Education , Jan 16-19, in San Antonio, Texas. The annual conference of Library and Information Science Educators is near by this year--we should all be participating in this event. See related items on Sep 22 and Oct 31. If you are an ALISE member, log on to your member’s only page from the ALISE site and you will see an option to register for the conference. Remember that your user id is your email address. Registration is $90 for students. If you are not a member you may join ALISE as a student for $60. If you have any questions regarding registration, please contact Jeremy Unthank via email or phone, 1-865-425-0155.

Friday, Nov 3, 5:30-9:30, Red Oak Ballroom, ARMA's 25th Anniversary Celebration. ARMA Austin is celebrating it’s 25^th Anniversary Hawaiian style! Wear your Hawaiian shirt and we will provide dinner, cocktails, music, comedy, and Polynesian dancing! Red Oak Ballroom is located at 2525 W. Anderson Lane, Austin. Price: $15 per person. For more information, please contact Stephens.

Friday, Nov 11, 9-8 PM, Littlefield House, The Dean's Reception for iSchool award recipients. Attendance is by invitation.

Monday-Thursday, Jan 16-19, Omni, San Antonio, 2006 ALISE Conference, From Research to Practice: The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in LIS Education. The annual conference of Library and Information Science Educators is near by this year--we should all be participating in this event. See related items on Sep 22, Oct 1, and Oct 31.

The information on the Ph.D. student Webpage is slowly growing. Names of all current Ph.D. students have been added. Your other information is needed to complete it . Please send Don a jpeg photo, information to post, and a link to your Website whenever you can. What is this Webpage? Well, as we agreed in spring semester, 2002, we wanted to have a summary page with a list of all Ph.D. students and links to more detailed information on each of us. The summary page consist of a photo, name, academic interest, contact information, and links to other pages. A detail page repeats the summary information and provides, education, a brief biography, and specialization. Students information should be linked to each student's individual Website with their vita, resume, and any other information they may wish to provide. If there is interest, we can also add Ph.D. alumni to this list. There is an input form that might work with your browser. Otherwise you can copy and paste.

Information on professional associations, student governance organizations, email lists and and other forums of interest to Information school Ph.D. students is provided through the Ph.D. Forums link on the left. Included is information on email lists, Blackboard, Websites and other forums.

The school of information sponsors weekly or fortnightly iForums (or iFora) of interest to School of Information Students and Faculty. Scholars from across the campus and occasionally from other universities are invited to present their work at a forum. From time to time, Ph.D. students are also invited to present their work to the forum. Each individual forum will be listed in the above schedule when details are known.

In 2001 and 2002 , Ph.D. students organized the Ph.D. students organized a colloquia to share their work in a friendly environment. The last series we had was the Fall 2002 Ph.D. Colloquia Series. Such a series could be reestablished if there was an interest. If you are interested in leading such a series, please contact Don Drumtra for his experience on leading the 2002 Colloquia

Disclaimer. The following information is compiled from various sources and is current as of the time it was written and the documents available. It is not official UT, Graduate School, or School of Information policy. It is offered to help Ph.D. students gain an overview of Ph.D. requirements. Please refer to official sources for current information before taking irreversible action.

General. UT Graduate School requirements for award of the Ph.D. degree are listed in the UT Graduate Catalog. Detailed requirements for the School of Information are listed the provided on the Doctor of Philosophy Webpage. Lisa Kleinman provided an unofficial summary of the requirements to the participants in the Fall 2004 Ph.D. Orientation.

Milestones. Program milestones consist of development and approval of a Program of Study, satisfactory completion of course work and a comprehensive doctoral examination including written, oral, and research components, presentation and approval of credentials to Graduate School (including a separate Program of Work), approval of a dissertation proposal, research and completion of a dissertation culminating in a final examination consisting of defense of the the dissertation and final presentation approval of the student's credentials to the Graduate School. Administrative progress through most of these milestones is described in the Checklist for the Doctoral Program (1993). Annual reviews are submitted to the students Advising Committee so that the committee may evaluate the student's progress. The student's Supervising Committee monitors the student's progress after the student reaches candidacy.

Graduate Studies Committee. Within the School of Information, the Graduate Studies Committee or GSC approves the students Program of Study and Annual review.

Qualifying Procedures. In order to qualify to apply for candidacy, the iSchool requires a written exam and oral defense (often called the comprehensive exam or "comps") and a research paper accepted by the student's committee. This committee (perhaps, it could be called the Examination Committee) ordinarily consists of three members of the iSchool faculty and one outside member. The three iSchool members could be your Advising Committee, potential members of your Supervising Committee, or any other three members who agree to serve.

Application for Candidacy. On June 1, 2004 the UT Office of Graduate Studies automated the application for candidacy and placed it online. Instructions for completion of and a link to the actual online form is provided in the application Webpage. Other candidacy requirements are also provided on that page including the requirement for the Program of Work.

Dissertation. Requirements for the content of your dissertation are developed between you and your Supervising Committee and the Graduate School sets guidelines for format. There are two format guidelines are provided by the Graduate School (Office of Graduate Studies or OGS), print guidelines and electronic submission guidelines. Even though you must submit your dissertation electronically, you would do well to meet both guidelines because someone might very well want to print your dissertation in the future. An a point of interest, the final authority on both the content and format of your dissertation is your Supervisory Committee--not the folks in the Office of Graduate Studies. However, the OGS folks can make life really difficult for you if you do not listen to them.

Dr. Harmon and eleven other UT advisors have published dissertation tips for doctoral students. It is posted on the UT Intellectual Entrepreneurship, Dissertation List-Serve and Resources Webpage. The Webpage also contains a dissertation writing bibliography, reflections of former graduate deans on dissertation completion, advice from UT alumni, and numerous other useful items for Ph.D. students.

Final Oral Exam (Defense of Dissertation. A satisfactory final oral examination is required for the approval of a dissertation. The Office of Graduate Studies publishes the time and place of this examination. The exam is open to all members of the University community and the public, unless attendance is restricted by the Graduate Studies Committee. Information is available in the Graduate Catalog and an application form are available from the Office of Graduate Studies.

Application for Graduation. There are lots of forms for graduation listed by the Office of Graduate Studies. You would be well advised to visit the office of Graduate Studies well before the deadlines to be sure you have the latest information and do not forget an essential form the absence of which might hold up your graduation.

Graduation. After all that work you won't want to miss the graduation celebration and fireworks at the end of the spring semester. UT introduced a new doctoral robe in 2001, which will be first available for graduating students in May, 2005. You can be one of the first scholars to wear one.

Additional Sources. The University of Texas and the UT Office of Graduate Studies provide the latest information on degree and administrative requirements requirements in three publications:

The iSchool PhD Methods Courses Webpage lists many research methods courses available in the university that may be suitable for meeting the iSchool Ph.D. research methods requirements listed on the iSchool Doctor of Philosophy Webpage. Lisa Kleinman has written an excellent summary that should be of particular interest. She describes her summary as follows, "yo, in case (like me) you were overwhelmed by the number of research methods courses that seemed available at UT, but were suspiciously vague in terms of description -- here is a list that I've compiled with/ course names & descriptions. the doctoral studies committee & your own advisor may be able to make further recommendations as to which would be specifically appropriate for you" (2003 Dec. 15, personal communications). Doctoral Committee recommendations will be posted on this Website as soon as they become available.

Research Methods in Information Systems, MIS 381N.26. Earlier, Lisa provided us this information on a this course. "The Information Systems department in the Business School is interested in having more iSchool folk taking their courses. In particular, Ph.D. students may want to consider taking “Research Methods in Information Systems” taught by Alina Chircu. I took this class last year, and it provides an excellent survey of the multitude of different research methods (both qualitative and quantitative) as applied to understanding the effects of information technology. Alina is very flexible about the core focus areas, so if a whole bunch of people want to “study X”, she'll find a way to incorporate it. If you’re a Masters student, you can take this course if you’re interested in subjecting yourself to reading a ga-zillion journal articles from the latest sexy issues of MIS Quarterly... which ain’t the “Miss Quarterly” that I was hoping for, let me tell you... The course is offered in spring 2004" (personal communications). Information provided by Lisa Kleinman. For more information about the course see the Course Webpage or contact Dr. Chircu" (2003 Oct. 31, ersonal communications).

Statistics Website. The Website, www.statpages.net, provides about 600 links and about 380 statistical calculators. It is now owned by AOL. Recently AOL has begun restricting its content to AOL members, so please let me know if this Website becomes inaccessible.

Graduate School Courses provide a unique opportunity for School of Information Ph.D. students because they provide a multidisciplinary atmosphere of learning. Students from across the campus attend these courses and share experiences and viewpoints form their own departments. Two courses of major interest to our programs are:

Advanced College Teaching Methods, GRS 390T, normally offered in the spring semester. This course, with your advisor's and teaching supervisor's permissions, can be used to meet the academic requirement for Supervised Teaching in Library and Information Science, LIS 398T. UT requires students to take department Supervised Teaching in order to become Assistant Instructors (AIs).

Check to Be Sure. Please do not forget however, that not all of the courses listed will be satisfactory to meet any particularly student's Ph.D. program requirements. "Since advancement to candidacy is contingent on faculty approval of a course of work, the student should consult regularly with their committee on matters of course selection" (School of Information, undated, Academic programs, Ph.D.).

Information on Qualitative Research Methods. In September 2004, Dr. Davis loaned a copy of the three-volume Sage Encyclopedia of Social Science Research Methods (2004) to the lab for our use. It not only provides excellent summaries of lots of issues and topics related to research methodology, but it provides reference sources under each topic to allow further exploration. A copy is also available is also at the PCL reference desk.