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.

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Announcements

Hooray!

Maria Gonzalez Successfully Completed Her
Qualifying Ezamination October 17

Bethany Letalien's
Was Accepted on October 10:
Developing a Reading Room and Activities Center
in the Favela of Rocinha, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Congratulate them both when you see them.

Recurring Symposia

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.

Activities for this Week

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:  

• How to identify recurring matters in your organization,
• Establishing a process for applying destruction holds,
• Using your retention schedule to identify potentially responsive Individuals and departments, and
• acting as a records custodian for the document production.

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.

Tuesday, Oct 18, 5:30-6 PM, SZB 556, Gabriel R. Rios, Experiences in Librarianship. This is an Alumni Speaker Series Event. Gabriel R. Ríos is a 1994 graduate of the MLIS program and the Associate Director for Public Services at the Briscoe Library, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. Gabe will discuss his experiences in librarianship and provide some insights into medical librarianship at an academic institution. Additionally, he will discuss what he sees as important for graduates to know as they apply for professional positions upon graduation. This talk will benefit new students by informing them of one option available upon graduation and will benefit both new students and students nearing graduation by providing helpful hints for the job search, resume, and interview processes. For more information, please contact Ron Pollock, Director of Career Services, via email or phone, 471-2623.

Tuesday, Oct 18, 5-6:30 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.

ADDED EVENT. Wednesday, Oct 19, FAC, 11AM - 2 PM, Wellfest. Wellfest 2005 offers health-related information, demonstrations join University Health Services and more than 20 health-related campus and community organizations on the porch of the Flawn Academic Center. Watch the University of Texas Police Department's Rape Aggression Defense class demonstrations, take a simulated field sobriety test using fatal vision goggles, relax with a free chair massage, have your body composition measured or pick up health information on topics ranging from sleep disorders to stress. For a complete list of Wellfest 2005 participants and the topics they'll represent, go to the Spotlights section of the University Health Services Website.

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:

• Organizational Change Management
• Practical Organizational Standards
• Appropriate Software Tools
• Practical Deployment, Implementation and Ongoing Maintenance

The UT, J. J. Pickle Research Campus, Commons Center is located at 10100 Burnet Rd. For more information please visit the event Website. See also the follow-on State of Texas Enterprise Content Management (ECM) Conference on Friday.

ADDED EVENT. Thursday, October 20, 12 N - 1:30 PM, SCB 556, Dr. Paul Marty, discussions with students. Paul Marty is an Assistant Professor, Florida State University College of Information and a candidate for the UT iSchool faculty. This is an important session and very much a two-way street, giving us all the chance to evaluate them (and likely learn some things) and them the chance to evaluate us (and likely learn some things). Let's do it a little differently this time. If you RSVP by 9:30 AM, Oct 20, he'll get some lunch there for you.  So, plan to come by, and let me know.  (Most serious food aversions will be joyfully accommodated.) We hope you learn a lot, hope you appreciate and embrace the chance to be involved in the process -- we are fortunate to be in a program when it is in a hiring mode.  It adds to the vitality and the diversity of ideas that wend their way through our hallways. The Search Committee hopes you will attend the candidate sessions on Thursday and Friday, and give us your feedback on the quality of their candidacy for a faculty position in the iSchool. Don Hamerly and Jennifer Lindley are your reps on the Search Committee, but you should feel free to express your thoughts to them or anyone on the Committee (Efron, Galloway, Bias). To RSVP or for more information please contact Dr. Bias, via email or phone, 471-7046.

ADDED EVENT. Thursday, October 20, 4-6 PM., UTC 4.110. Dr. Paul Marty, The Changing Nature of Information Work in Museums. Information professionals working in museums today face many challenges, as information resources become more technically-complex, and the users of those resources become more information-savvy.  Meeting the changing needs and expectations of today's museum users presents challenges for many museum professionals. This talk presents results from twenty-one semi-structured interviews conducted to determine the challenges museum information professionals face on the job, as well as the strategies or coping mechanisms they use to operate successfully in the face of changing capabilities, needs, and expectations. It explores how museum information professionals cope with the changing nature of information work in museums and adapt to meet the needs and expectations of all museum users. .Paul Marty is an Assistant Professor, Florida State University College of Information and a candidate for the UT iSchool faculty. For more information please contact Dr. Bias, via email or phone, 471-7046.

Thursday, Oct 20, 4:30-6 PM, TCC Auditorium, Dr. Shelley E. Taylor, Why do Women Tend and Befrend under Stress? Professor Taylor teaches at the Psychology Department of UCLA, is the author of The Tending Instinct: Women, Men, and the Biology of Relationships, and a founder and leader in health psychology, the field that identifies psychosocial influences on the practice of health habits, use of services, course of illness and recovery, and health policy. Taylor's current work explores how social relationships regulate biological stress responses. She is the architect of the tend-and-befriend model of women's responses to stress, finding that women commonly respond to stress through social means. This lecture is the Keynote address of the of the Gender, Relationships, and Health Conference sponsored by the Center for Women's and Gender Studies taking place October 20 & 21st. All events are free and open to the public. There is no registration required. Thompson Conference Center, is located directly north of the LBJ Library For more information please visit the event Website or contact, Alma Jackie Salcedo, Graduate Coordinator, Center for Women's and Gender Studies via email or phone, 475-7858.

Thursday, Oct 20, El Chile Café and Cantina, 6-8 PM, SLA Dinner. We will meet for dinner at El This should be a great opportunity to relax and enjoy some good food and good company (and some prickly pear margaritas, perhaps) as we discuss the world of special libraries. The Chile Café and Cantina is located at 1809 Manor Road, near the Chicon intersection. For more information please contact Heather Coleman. If you plan to attend, or for more information, please e-mail Heather Coleman. For more information, please visit the SLA Website or contact Heather Coleman.

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:

• Increase your ability to consolidate, access, distribute, and track relevant information
• Improve efficiency via the creation of streamlined business processes
• Support and enforce records management and archiving policies

You'll hear how:

• - Missouri Public Service used ECM to save over $2.5M a year
• -- Virginia Tax doubled returns processed per hour and reduced storage space by 50%
• -- Miami Dade Courts increased fine payments 60% with ECM

You'll see technology demonstrations in real context:

• Enterprise Content Management and Business Process Management
• ECM for Government Mobility
• Records Management in Order to Enforce Policies and Reduce Risk

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.

Friday, Oct-21, 8:45 AM - 4:15 PM, UNB, Eastwoods, Center for Women's and Gender Studies, Gender, Relationships, and Health Conference.

• Session I: Gender and Health: the Role of Relationships (8:45-10:15 am)
• Session II: Relationships, Risky Behavior and Health (10:15-11:30 am)
• Lunch address: Gail Wyatt (UCLA Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences), Does Ethnicity Contribute to Gender and Health Disparities? (11:30 AM - 12:50 PM)
• Session III: Relationships and Body Weight/Obesity (12:50-2:20 pm)
• Session IV: Practice and Public Policy (2:30-4 pm)
• Closing Comments : Gender and Health: Public Sociology (4-4:15 pm)

All events are free and open to the public. There is no registration required. For more information please visit the event Website or contact, Alma Jackie Salcedo, Graduate Coordinator, Center for Women's and Gender Studies.

ADDED EVENT. Friday, October 21st, 11:15 AM - 12:45 PM, SZB 464 Dr. Michelle M. Kazmer, discussions with students.Michelle Kazmer is an Assistant Professor, Florida State University College of Information and a candidate for the UT iSchool faculty. This is an important session and very much a two-way street, giving us all the chance to evaluate them (and likely learn some things) and them the chance to evaluate us (and likely learn some things). Let's do it a little differently this time. If you RSVP by 9:30 AM, Oct 21, Dr. Bias will get some lunch there for you.  So, plan to come by, and let him know.  (Most serious food aversions will be joyfully accommodated.) We hope you learn a lot, hope you appreciate and embrace the chance to be involved in the process -- we are fortunate to be in a program when it is in a hiring mode.  It adds to the vitality and the diversity of ideas that wend their way through our hallways. The Search Committee hopes you will attend the candidate sessions on Thursday and Friday, and give us your feedback on the quality of their candidacy for a faculty position in the iSchool. Don Hamerly and Jennifer Lindley are your reps on the Search Committee, but you should feel free to express your thoughts to them or anyone on the Committee (Efron, Galloway, Bias). To RSVP or for more information please contact Dr. Bias, via email or phone, 471-7046.

ADDED EVENT. Friday, October 21st, 1:30-3 PM., UTC 4.132, Dr. Michelle M. Kazmer, Research Collaborations: Fostering Future Work Through Successful Endings. Research collaborations among different institutions are often tied to specific projects. When a project is complete, researchers may continue to work together; they may dismantle the group but work together later; or they may decide not to collaborate further. Examining the departure and dismantling processes of distributed groups is important to the future of research collaborations, since successfully dismantling a distributed group may give researchers more opportunities for future collaboration. However, most (but not all) research about the functions of distributed groups focuses on the formation and maintenance of successful working relationships and group dynamics. This talk presents interview data collected from the members of a distributed research project team and analyzed according to a model of online group dismantling created in an earlier study with online communities of adult distance learners. The resulting analysis illuminates the dismantling of distributed groups in general and suggests ways researchers can dismantle distributed project teams to improve their ability to collaborate in the future. Michelle Kazmer is an Assistant Professor, Florida State University College of Information and a candidate for the UT iSchool faculty. For more information please contact Dr. Bias, via email or phone, 471-7046.

ADDED EVENT. Saturday, October 22, 4-7 PM, Alamo Drafthouse South, SASI Movie Night. SASI is going to see Wallace and Gromit this Saturday and we'd like you to join us. We're heading to the Alamo Drafthouse at South Lamar for the 4:35 PM. If you would like to attend please purchase tickets online at http://www.originalalamo.com/lamar/frames.asp and meet in front of the Alamo at 4:00 so we can get seats together. Family, children, friends, significant others are welcome. For more information please contact Cara Johnston, Rob Yazzie, Maggie Gallup. or Carie McGinnis, Student Association Co-Directors.

Future Events - Mark Your Calendar

Tuesday, Oct 25, 3-4 PM, SZB 556, IT "Town Hall" meeting.This event repeats on October 27 and 31. Please help us put your IT Fee money to work in ways that will improve instruction, IT projects, and your educational experience at the iSchool. Last year the IT Team initiated convening annual Town Hall meetings to solicit suggestions and to collect ideas for inclusion in our annual IT Vision Plan.  The IT Vision Plan is submitted each year to the University Information Technology and Assessment Committee (ITAC), a committee comprised of university faculty, students, and administrators.  The ITAC committee develops evaluation criteria to review the plans, and then recommends funding allocations from the university-wide IT Fee for each College and School. All funds collected from IT fees are used in the support of student computing and instructional needs. For more information, please contact Dr. Rice-Lively, Associate Dean, via email or phone, 471-2371.

Tuesday, Oct 25, 4-6 PM, SZB 556, Tea with Dean Dillon. Come and share Tea with the Dean. This is a wonderful opportunity to learn more about the iSchool and its programs and to share your concerns with the Dean. For more information please contact one of the association Co Directors: Maggie Gallup, d Johnston, Carie McGinnis, or Rob Yazzie.

Wednesday, Oct 26, ACE 2.302, 4-5 PM, Dr. Bradley Jensen, Mobile Devices and Mobile Application Development. This talk is oriented towards those interested in a high level overview of the Microsoft .NET Compact Framework and developing for mobile devices.  An introduction to the basic concepts of the .NET Compact Framework will be presented and it will be shown how the standard .NET Compact Framework integrates with mobile devices and supports mobile application development. Attendees will learn the basics of working with compact user interfaces, how to store and retrieve data on the compact device, and how to deploy mobile applications. This talk will be of interest to those working in embedded. Dr. Jensen received his Ph.D. in Business Computer
> Information Systems from the University of North Texas (UNT), with majors in Business Computer Information Systems and Computer Science.  He is a Microsoft Corporation Academic Relationship Manager responsible for Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana. Prior to Microsoft, he was an Assistant Professor in Information Technology and Decision Sciences and Assistant Director of the Information Systems Research Center at UNT, and was also President of JMC Consulting Services, an executive management consulting firm which provides strategic and tactical IT consulting services.  His research interests include privacy and security, networking, human factors, e-commerce, and document management.  Dr. Jensen has been an executive and consultant with more than 20 years of sales, marketing, and IT experience with several Fortune 100 companies.Dor more information, please contact Dr. Turnbull.

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.

Thursday Oct 27, 2-4 PM, SRH lobby. UT ALA/TLA Tour of the Benson Latin American Collection.Sid Richardson Hall is located off of Manor Road. There is some C parking on the corner of Clyde Littlefield and Red River, or you can take the FA bus which stops alongside Gregory Gym (across Jester). That bus stops at the Music or art Buildings and then a short hike up the hill to Sid Richardson Hall, Unit 1, first floor. The group will plan to meet in the lobby at 2:00. Hope to see you there! Please RSVP to me if you are definitely planning to make it so we can give Margo an idea of how many will be on the tour, but you are still welcome even without responding. To RSVP or for more information, please contact Melissa Keenan .

Thursday, Oct 27, 3-4 PM, SZB 556, IT "Town Hall" meeting.This event repeats on October 31. Please help us put your IT Fee money to work in ways that will improve instruction, IT projects, and your educational experience at the iSchool. Last year the IT Team initiated convening annual Town Hall meetings to solicit suggestions and to collect ideas for inclusion in our annual IT Vision Plan.  The IT Vision Plan is submitted each year to the University Information Technology and Assessment Committee (ITAC), a committee comprised of university faculty, students, and administrators.  The ITAC committee develops evaluation criteria to review the plans, and then recommends funding allocations from the university-wide IT Fee for each College and School. All funds collected from IT fees are used in the support of student computing and instructional needs. For more information, please contact Dr. Rice-Lively, Associate Dean, via email or phone, 471-2371.

Thursday, Oct 27, 4:30-6 PM, SZB 556, Amy Baker, Preservation Activities at the Catholic Archives of Texas, and Kate Mullen, General Conservation Survey at the Austin History Center. Amy is a 1st year conservator student and Kate is a 3rd year conservator student. All are Welcome. Kevin is a 3rd Year Conservation Student at the iSchool. 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.

Thursday, Oct 27, 5-7 PM, Dog & Duck, GSA Colloquium. All graduate students invited.

Thursday, Oct 27, 5:30-6:30 PM, City Hall, Mayor Will Wynn, Procamation of Archives Week. The Society of American Archivists University of Texas Student Chapter (SAA-UT) is pleased to announce that on October 27^th Austin Mayor Will Wynn will proclaim October 31^st – November 5^th, 2005 officially ARCHIVES WEEK! (cheers and applause.) Everyone is welcomed to attend the proclamation presentation which will be made at the new City Hall, 301 W. 2nd St. at 5:30 p.m. Here's a map to City Hall: http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/cityhall/map.htm.  Free parking is available in the underground parking garage.  For more information please contact April Noris, UT SAA President.

Thursday, Oct 27, 6-8 PM, Vivo Cocina, UT ASIST Happy Hour. Back by popular demand--please join UT ASIS&T for happy hour at Vivo Cocina. This is a unique opportunity for students, faculty, and professionals to network and share ideas. We hope to see you there!  Vivo Cochina is located at 2015 Manor Road, east of campus. For more information, please visit the UT ASIST events Webpage or contact Valery Gomez.

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.

Friday, Oct 28, 8 AM - 1 PM, SRH 3.103, The NEA at 40: Cultural Policy and American Democracy Student Summit. This is a student summit dedicated to issues of cultural policy that includes discussion of the following topics: What is Cultural Policy? How do we articulate the role of cultural policy and its goals? What are the current and future career paths for arts policy advocates? What other policy fields does it relate to? The student summit is in conjunction with the NEA at 40: Cultural Policy and American Democracy Symposium at the LBJ Library and Museum through a roundtable discussion, interactive group dialogue, and a series of presentations about diverse cultural policy and arts topics presented by students from different regions of the U.S. Agenda:                  8:00am ­ 9:00am        Welcome Breakfast & Introduction
9:00am ­ 12:00pm       Student Summit
12:00pm ­ 1:00pm       Lunch
Attendance is free but RSVP is required. To RSVP or for more information please contact pcoc@pcocarts.org.

Friday, Oct 28, 3:30 - 5 PM, Tarlton Library, SLA Tour. We have another tour happening! Jane O'Connell, head of student services at the Tarlton Law Library, will be taking us around to show us what our very own Law Library has to offer. Once again, the tour will be on a Friday at 3:30 p.m. Meet in the lobby area of the Law School, by the coffee cart, around 3:20. The library is on the north side of campus, across Dean Keeton from the Coop East. For more information, please visit the SLA Website or contact Heather Coleman.

Friday, Oct 28, 8-9:30 PM, UPC, Katrina Benefit: Third Annual Halloween Monster Organ Concert. The event benefits hurricane victims and will feature Austin favorites Scott McNulty, Jean Fuller, Eric Mellenbruch, Scott Davis, and Chris Oelkers. Come howl at spooky music, and hear the famous Bach Toccata and Fugue in D minor (aka Phantom of the Opera). 2203 San Antonio Street (corner of 22^nd Street). If you are in costume, admissioni is $5; if not it is $10. For more information please visit the UPC Website or contact the UPC Office by phone, 476-5321, Ext 208.

Monday, Oct 31, Halloween and the first day of spring registration.

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. 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.

Monday, Oct 31 - Saturday, Nov 5, Archives week., REEL PRESERVATION: Archives and the Preservation of Moving Images. Archives Week is a nationally recognized, locally sponsored and organized week-long celebration intended to promote archival issues and trends that are of interest to the local community. Our goals for Archives Week 2005 are similar to those of previous years: to raise awareness of archives and their function in society, to highlight current preservation efforts, and to foster a healthy dialogue on archival issues among multiple communities. We have organized numerous free events, including:

• A lecturer series with Ken Weissman, head of the LoC Motion Picture Conservation Center delivering the keynote address and Drs. Caroline Frick and David B. Gracy II of the University of Texas as invited speakers,
• a tour of the film production materials in the Southwestern Writer’s Collection at Texas State University,
• a film showing at the Alexander Architectural Archive, and
• an Archive Clinic workshop co-hosted by the Austin History Center.  

We welcome everyone to attend. As the events draw nigh, I will post more detailed reminders, but in the meantime I encourage a visit the SAA-UT website (http://www.ischool.utexas.edu/~saa/) to learn more. This year is the 7^th annual SAA-UT Archives Week and we look forward to it being the best! For more information please contact April Noris, UT SAA President.

Monday, Oct 31, 4-5 PM, SZB 556, IT "Town Hall" meeting. Please help us put your IT Fee money to work in ways that will improve instruction, IT projects, and your educational experience at the iSchool. Last year the IT Team initiated convening annual Town Hall meetings to solicit suggestions and to collect ideas for inclusion in our annual IT Vision Plan.  The IT Vision Plan is submitted each year to the University Information Technology and Assessment Committee (ITAC), a committee comprised of university faculty, students, and administrators.  The ITAC committee develops evaluation criteria to review the plans, and then recommends funding allocations from the university-wide IT Fee for each College and School. All funds collected from IT fees are used in the support of student computing and instructional needs. For more information, please contact Dr. Rice-Lively, Associate Dean, via email or phone, 471-2371.

Tuesday, Nov 1, 5-6:30 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, Nov 1, 5:30-7:30 PM, GSB 2.120, UT McCombs School of Business Web 2.0 Panel. Web 2.0: The Next Generation of Internet Applications and Business Models. The Next Generation Internet has Arrived (And Why Microsoft Just Reorganized). Mark your calendars for this one-of-a kind event.The Entrepreneur Society and Information Management Association will host a panel on Web 2.0 -- The next generation of internet applications, technologies and business models -- and why it's important to you. Find out why Microsoft just reorganized and what is driving the strategy of Yahoo!, Google and hundreds of smaller technology companies and startups around the country and around the world. We're hosting four major local players in the Web 2.0 space:

• Dave Panos: Founder and CEO of Pluck, one of Austin's hottest start-ups with the #1 browser-based RSS reader and the software behind the Austin American-Statesman's citizen journalism/blogging program. Pluck has raised $10 million from leading venture capital firms, including Austin Ventures and Mayfield and has received CNET and ZDNET Editor's Choice Awards.
• Alexander Muse: Entrepreneur and venture capitalist Alexander Muse created M | Ventures, which focuses almost exclusively on the  Web 2.0 space.
• Brian Oberkirch: CEO, Weblogs Work, a Dallas-based blog consultancy helping all types of companies get in on the new online conversation via do-it-yourself media tools. Brian's a reformed ad agency guy, applying the good stuff he learned launching national communication programs for clients like Pergo, PrimeCo, Nokia and others in a Web 2.0 world. Find him blogging at http:// www.weblogswork.com and http://www.lightbox5.com/likeitmatters/.
• Ben Brown: Editor of Austinist -- one of Austin's most widely  read and informative blogs -- and creator of the hipster dating site  Consumating.

Web 2.0: The web as platform; data as the "Intel Inside"; network effects driven by an "architecture of participation"; innovation in  assembly of systems and sites composed by pulling together features from distributed, independent developers; lightweight business models enabled by content and service syndication; the end of the software adoption cycle ("the perpetual beta"); software above the level of a  single device; leveraging the power of "the Long Tail". For more information please visit the event Website.

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.

Thursday, November 10, 7-8:30 PM, UPC, G. F. Handel, Water Musick (complete). Performers will include the award winning LBJ High School Camerata Orchestra, with director Dr. David Davenport, organist Keith Womer, and harpsichordist Scott McNulty. Other music featured will be Handel’s Organ Concerto in Bb, Barber’s Adagio for Strings, and Elgar’s Sospiri. Admission is $7 ahd $5. For more information please visit the UPC Website or contact the UPC Office by phone, 476-5321, Ext 208.

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

•     Cranberry and lemon poppy seed breads
•     Spring salad with choice of ranch or raspberry vinaigrette dressings
•     Wassail (spiced, hot cider)
•     Meat entree:  Chicken breast stuffed with gouda cheese, pine nuts, spinach, and mushrooms
•     Vegetarian entree:  Eggplant Napoleon; eggplant layered with parmesan and mozzarella cheeses, and topped with marinara sauce
•     Chocolate chip bread pudding with warm whiskey sauce

Thursday-Sunday, Nov 24-27, Thanksgiving break

Friday, Dec 9, Last day of Fall Classes

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 Oct 1 and Oct 31.

April 25-28, TLA 2006 Annual Conference Libraries: Igniting the Passion, Houston, April 25-28. 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.

Who We Are Webpage

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.

Professional Associations, Email Lists, and other Forums

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.

Information School 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

Orientations

New students (and even old) might appreciate the following two Orientation Websites:

UT Graduate School: http://www.utexas.edu/ogs/orientation/
iSchool: http://www.ischool.utexas.edu/orientation/

Ph.D. Requirement Overview

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.

Doctoral Program of Study. The content of the Program of Study is provided in the Guidelines for Development of the Doctoral Program of Study (ca. 1993). Lisa Kleinman and Don Drumtra have posted examples of their approved programs on their Websites.

Annual Review. Required content of the Annual Reviews is provided in the Annual Review of GSLIS Doctoral Students (2002) and the Annual Review of Ph.D. Students (draft, 2003). Lisa Kleinman and Don Drumtra have posted examples of their approved Annual Reviews on their Websites.

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.

Program of Work. The Program of Work is a document submitted to the Graduate School upon application for candidacy. It is discussed under "Certification of Academic Credentials" on the Application for Doctoral Candidacy Webpage. It is the "list of courses taken toward the doctoral degree." Additional details about courses included in the Program of work are provided in the Graduate Catalog.

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 University of Texas at Austin, Handbook or Operating Procedures. The HOP provides basic policy and procedures on how the University of Texas at Austin operates. Probably of most interest would be "Chapter 1, Faculty Governance, Section II, The Graduate School" dealing with what the Graduate School and the Graduate Studies Committees do.
• The Graduate Catalog. This publication provides more update information than the HOP but not as much as the Policy Manual below. "Chapter 3. Degree Requirements" is probably the most interesting, but there are items of interest in other sections as well.
• Graduate School Policy Manual. This manual supplements the HOP and Graduate providing details on OGS administrative procedures not adequately covered in the two publications.
  
• In addition The University of Texas at Austin, Revised Handbook of Operating Procedures and the Original Policy Memoranda may provide curious details that could impact Ph.D. programs. Also, for anyone really interested, Texas Law and UT System Regent's Rules and Regulations provide the underlying basis for the UT Austin HOP and other rules impacting Ph.D. students. "Part one, Chapter5, Graduate Education in the University of Texas System" is the section that is probably of most interest to Ph.D. students, but other sections are not without interest.

Research Methods and Other Graduate Courses

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:

Academic and Professional Writing, GRS 390W, normally offered in the fall semester. This course meets the Ph.D. program writing requirement.

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).

Dissertation Courses and Other Information. In January or February of each year the Graduate School has a workshop on dissertations. The Graduate School Website also provide formats for dissertations, information on how to prepare digital dissertations, and various forms you will need for graduation.

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.

Content Manager: Don Drumtra 2005 October 22