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.

Tuesday, March 21, 4:30 - 6 PM, SZB 556, Tea with the Dean. There will be refreshments and it will be a great time to share what's on your mind. Just want to remind you that there is fun stuff to come back to when you are done with your vacation! For more information, please contact Cara.

ADDED EVENT. Tuesday, March 21, 6-7 PM, Gregory Gym, Games Room, Dr Gregory Vincent, Campus Conversations. Student Government and Dr. Gregory Vincent, UT's Vice Provost of Inclusion and Cross Cultural Effectiveness will hold a "Campus Conversation" to discuss the inclusiveness and diversity at The University of Texas. This is an opportunity for all students to be heard by their elected Student Representatives and UT Administration. This will be an informal discussion in which any member of the University community can attend and speak about personal experiences and University policies. This session will be used to gather student feedback to help develop initiatives addressing issues and solutions to student concerns and suggestions. Students are asked to provide feedback on any topic including current University Diversity Initiatives, University support of students of color, LGBTQ students, and students with disabilities, and any other topic that is discussed. For more information about Dr. Vincent contact Enrique Romo in the
Office of the Provost and for more information about Student Government
contact Becky Carreon.

Thursday, March 23, 12-1 PM, SZB 556, ALA+TLA Brownbag. Just wanted to give a heads up that ALA+TLA is planning another brown bag get together on Thursday after spring break. It'll be a chance to regroup and discuss what fabulous adventures we had during our much needed time off. As always, drinks will be provided. Hope to see everyone there. Lunch will possibly be shared by a faculty candidate. For more information please contact Melissa Keenan .

Thursday, March 23, 12-1 PM, SZB 556, Student Discussion with Joan Bessman Taylor, This is a brown bag lunch. Joan is a Doctoral Candidate at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a prospective faculty member. Drinks and cookies will be provided. For more information, please contact Dr. Immroth.

Thursday, March 23, 3:30-5 PM, SZB 468, Joan Bessman Taylor, What Book Groups Can Tell Us about Contemporary Reading Practices. This is an iForum event. Amidst claims such as those made by the National Endowment for the Arts report, "Reading at Risk" (2004) that, "Literature reading is fading as a meaningful activity" and "America can no longer take active and engaged literacy for granted", groups devoted to the combined acts of reading and discussion are proliferating. This presentation will describe an ongoing research project investigating collective reading practices in face-to-face, open-to-the-public settings. Based on four years of participant observation in six adult book discussion groups (commonly referred to as 'book groups' or 'book clubs') committed to the reading of science fiction, the Great Books, mysteries, works by African-Americans, and literary fiction, this study widens the view of contemporary book groups to include more than the private, white, middle-class women's groups currently represented in the academic literature. The study addresses the following research questions: How does book discussion affect the act of reading? How do book groups talk about their reading? What emerges from the discussion of shared works? What role does the text play in such discussion? And, what does book discussion reveal about the interests, habits and needs of readers? Joan is a Doctoral Candidate at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a prospective faculty member. Drinks and cookies will be provided. For more information, please contact Dr. Immroth.

Thursday, March 23, 7-8 PM, HRHRC, Dr. Henry Petroski, Bookshelves, Pencils, and Paper Clips. Dr. Petroski is a Professor at Duke University and author of The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance. This lecture is co-sponsored by the College of Engineering at UT. For more information please visit the HRHRC Programs Website .

Friday, March 24, Noon-1 PM, SZB 468, SAA Meeting. We'll be discussing plans for a couple of exciting events we having coming up soon. Hope to see you there! For more informtion please contact Sarah Quigley , UT SAA President.

Friday, March 24, 7-9 PM, CAL 100, Jim Reid-Cunningham, Book Artist Lecture. This is the first annual; Mim Watson-- book artist lecture. Jim is the head Conservator at the Boston Athenaeum , as well as an internationally shown book artist. He will discuss how book conservation and book art intertwine in his work. This series is generously funded by Mr. Kim Watson in honor of his now deceased wife Mim, who was a book artist in the Dallas area. There will be an informal reception following the presentation. For more information, please contact Chela Metzger.

Tuesday. March 28, 3:30-5 PM, iForum, Frank Shipman, Designing Systems to Support Document Triage. Document triage is the activity of rapidly evaluating documents for later access and use, such as selecting documents from search results during a literature review. Document triage involves a combination of reading / skimming, collecting and organizing documents. As such, multiple applications are involved in the triage activity: access tools for document repositories, document reading and viewing applications, and document collecting and organizing applications. This presentation will discuss a series of system development and evaluation efforts during our investigation into how to better support document triage. Dr. Shipman is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Associate Director of the Center for the Study of Digital Libraries Texas A&M University. If you are frustrated by the complexity of using automated tools to gather and manage research materials (or if you dream of doing something about it; or if you are interested in user-centered system development), by all means put another iForum on your calendar. For more information, please contact Dr. Galloway.

Friday, March 31, 2-6 PM, Gregory Gym Pool, Splash Bash. RecSports invites everyone to join us for Splash Bash a Texas-size celebration highlighting the completion of the Gregory Gym Aquatic Complex. The event will feature food, activities, music and a dive-in movie. This is the facility requested by us and paid for through increased student fees. Children are welcome beginning at 5 PM, when Children’s Hours begin. For more information please visit the UT RecSports Website or contact Rhonda Cox, RecSports, via email or phone 471-6370.

Friday, March 31, Noon-1 PM, SZB 468, SAA Meeting. Curriculum Forum. Now that the core requirements have changed, the structure of the courses related to archival enterprise will have to change as well. Dr. Gracy and Dr. Galloway would like to take this opportunity to hear from the students on this issue. What are your concerns and what shape you would like the archival curriculum to take? This meeting will specifically address the organization requirement and Organization of Records Information vs. Organizing and Providing Access to Information. Bring your lunch and offer your opinions. We'll provide dessert! Hope to see you there! For more information please contact Sarah Quigley , UT SAA President.

Saturday, April 1, 2-4 PM, CDL, Fourth Annual Austin Edible Book Festival. Book artists created the Edible Book Fest in 1999. The concept behind the Edible Book Fest is to create books out of edible materials in clever and fun ways. This year we invite anybody interested to make their own edible books for the fest, come see what others have made and then have the chance to buy what catches your fancy. Visitors and participants can vote on the books based on a few categories: Most Creative, Wittiest, Tastiest, and Most Inedible. Winners receive prizes from local sponsors such as Book People, Waterloo Records, etc. There is also the opportunity to buy cool T-shirts for only $10! If you are entering a book, please bring it by 1:45 pm on the 1st. For further information and great book ideas, please check out the event Website or contact. Melissa .

Tuesday, April 4, 10 AM - 4 PM, UNB, OGS/GSA/SCC/UC, Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Research Showcase. As part of National Graduate and Professional Student Appreciation Week, we welcome graduate students in all departments and schools to participate in UT's first Graduate Student Research Showcase: "Interdisciplinary Perspectives." The goals of this event are to share graduate student research with the entire University community, provide graduate students with an informal forum in which to present their work, and build graduate student community across departmental boundaries. This half-day event is cosponsored by the Graduate Student Assembly (GSA), the University Co-op, the Office of Graduate Studies, and the Senate of College Councils. It will be held in the Texas Union (UNB). Lunch will be provided to all participants and attendees. We invite presentations in a variety of formats-- from round tables, to individual paper presentations, to poster sessions. If you would like to participate in this event, please email a one-paragraph proposal describing your research and stating the format in which you would like to present it to utgradresearch@yahoo.com by 5 pm, Friday, March10. Please also include your name, department, and contact information. The GSA will then put together a schedule and notify presenters of their time slot by Tuesday, March 21. For more information please visit the GSA Website or contact UT Grad Research.

Tuesday, April 4, 2:30-3:30 PM, CDL 001C, iSchool forum on recommended changes to UT undergraduate curriculum. Each school, college, and major department on campus has been asked by the Faculty Council to convene a forum to discuss the major recommendations of the Report of the Task Force on Curricular Reform, based on the recommendations of the Commission of 125. These efforts are focused on the undergraduate curriculum at UT, especially an undergraduate core. Even though we are mostly a graduate school, it appears, as Andrew made clear, politic and useful to convene our own forum. All faculty members, all PhD students, and all staff members, especially those who teach undergrads, are invited and encouraged to participate. it appears that we might be joined by representatives of the Faculty Council and/or Task Force -- I'm still waiting to hear from the chair of the Educational Policy Committee. The meeting, however, will still be driven by our interests, reactions, and concerns. This may be a rare opportunity for us and our discipline to take a more central role in undergraduate education, the real engine of things 'round here.

Dean Dillon has stressed that this is an important initiative that deserves our attention. He asks that we read the task force report if we haven't already, use the template provided by the Faculty Council to help structure our reaction to it, and to prepare to participate in the discussion. For more information, please contact Dr. Doty via email or phone, 471-3746.

Tuesday, April 4, 5-6:30 PM. CDL, Kilgarlin Center Open House. Conservator and Preservation Administrator students will have treatment and projects on display in the Center's conservation labs. Please join us for refreshments and good conversation. We look forward to visiting with you! For more information, please visit the Kilgarlin Center Events Calendar or contact Ellen Cunningham-Kruppa, the Center Director via email of phone, 471-8287.

Tuesday, April 4, 7:30-9 PM, UNB Ballroom, Paul Begala. Paul was advisor to President Clinton and co-host of CNN's Crossfire. He received his BA in government and his law degree from The University of Texas at Austin, where he also served as student body president. Begala first gained national prominence as a partner in the political consulting firm of Carville & Begala. He later became senior strategist for the Clinton-Gore Presidential Campaign in 1992. As counselor to President Clinton, Begala helped define and defend the administration's agenda, from the State of the Union Address to the economic, domestic and international issues the White House faces each day. Begala and Carville went on to co-host CNN's political debate show, Crossfire. In addition to his current post as research professor at Georgetown University's Public Policy Institute, Mr. Begala has taught at The University of Texas at Austin and Oxford University in England. He helped his friend John F. Kennedy, Jr. launch the political magazine George and has written for Esquire magazine and The Washington Monthly. Mr. Begala is the author of several New York Times best-selling books including "Is Our Children Learning? The Case Against George W. Bush". Admission to the Paul Begala lecture is free. A pass is required for admission but does not guarantee admission to the event. UT students, faculty, and staff may now obtain passes from the Texas Union Student Events Center Ticket Office (UNB 4.300) by presenting a valid UT ID. (pass distribution: weekdays 8am-5pm). This event is sponsored by the Texas Union Student Events Center Distinguished Speakers Committee (DSC). DSC is an organization that is funded primarily by the Texas Union Fee paid by all students. For more information, please visit the event Website or contact the TU PMO at via email or phone, 475-7338.

Wednesday, April 5, 9-11 AM, Erwin Center, School District Job Fair. iSchool Students and Alumni: Meet representatives at least 134 school districts from Texas and throughout the United States to let them know you are available to fill their librarian and/or technology needs. iSchool students and alumni are invited to participate in the College of Education Job Fair. It is open to the public, so everyone is welcomed to visit the representatives of the various school districts and discuss opportunities they may have. During the past fairs, when I describe our program to the HR representatives, many have told me they would love to talk to our students and graduates. So, if you are about to graduate, or if you are thinking of changing school districts, the College of Education Job Fair will provide you an opportunity to visit with a great many districts in one place. For more information, please contact Ron Pollock via email or phone, 471-2623.

Thursday, April 6, 7-8 PM, HRHRC, Dr. Janine Barchas, Technologies of Innovation: The Visual Exuberance of Eighteenth-Century Print Culture. Dr. Barchas is a professor of English at UT. For more information please visit the HRHRC Programs Website .

Thursday, April 13, 4-5 PM, SZB 468, Mark Duffy, Kris Toma, and Susan Eason, The Role of Religious Archives in the Archival Profession and Society at Large. Sponsored by SAA. Mark is with the Episcopal Archives; Kris is with the Presbyterian Seminary Archives; and Susan is with the Catholic Archives. They will be addressing questions of policy making and ensuring access and the Church's role in the running of their organizations. It promises to be an interesting and enlightening discussion. Refreshments will be provided. FOr more information please contact Sarah Quigley , UT SAA President.

Thursday, April 13, 5-6 PM, HRHRC, Dr. Denise Schmandt-Besserat, The Earliest Writing. Dr. Schmandt-Besserat is a Professor Emerita at UT.For more information please visit the HRHRC Programs Website .

Tuesday-Friday, 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.

Friday-Sunday, May 19-21, Syracuse, NY, Bringing Together Emerging Information Studies Researchers: A Doctoral Conference in Information Studies. Connections 2006, aka the 11th Annual Great Lakes Information Science Conference, is a forum for doctoral students in information studies to meet one another, exchange ideas, present research and attend workshops and panels in a collegial and receptive atmosphere. In keeping with a tradition of convening Connections in a city near the Great Lakes, Connections 2006 will be hosted by Syracuse University's School of Information Studies in Syracuse, New York, from May 19-21. Our goal is to attract doctoral students working in one of three broad areas:
* Library and information science (LIS)
* Information systems (IS) and management information systems (MIS)
* Information and telecommunications policy
Doctoral students working in these areas are invited to submit abstracts for presentations, workshops and panels. Students at all stages of their program, from first year through ABD, are encouraged to participate. For more information on how to join the conference listserv, for the conference schedule, for and more detail on submissions please visit the Connections 2006 Website or contact the Conference Chair, Joe Rubleske.

IMPORTANT DEADLINES & CONTACTS

* February 24: Deadline for submitting a proposal to participate as a presenter, as a workshop leader and/or as a panelist
* March 17: Notification of acceptance
* March 20: Registration period begins
* April 21: Deadline for shortened and revised abstracts
* April 28: Registration period ends
* May 19-21: Connections 2006 is convened

Saturday, May 20, 9-11 AM, Bass, Graduate School Convocation.

Thursday, June 1, 7-8 PM, HRHRC, Ed Nowotka, The Origins of Writing. Ed Nowotka, is a book critic and writer. He will host a panel discussion, An Ode to Typewriters, of writers who compose on typewriters. For more information please visit the HRHRC Programs Website .

Thursday, June 29, 7-8 PM, HRHRC, Dr. Barry Powell, Alphabetology. Dr. Powell is a Professor of Classics at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He will focus on the nature and origin of the Greek alphabet. For more information please visit the HRHRC Programs Website .

Thursday, July 27, 7-8 PM, HRHRC, Dr. Mark Van Stone, The Interaction of Pen, Paper, and Scribe: The Technical and Aesthetic Forces that Shape our Letterforms. For more information please visit the HRHRC Programs Website .

Friday-Thursday, Nov 3-9, Hilton Austin, ASIST Conference. The 2006 ASIST conference "Information Realities: Shaping the Digital Future for All" will be in Austin this year November 3-9 at the Hilton Austin. This is a unique opportunity you will not want to miss. ASIS&T 2006 challenges us to explore this moment in the history of information science as people seamlessly move between their physical and digital worlds to create information realities for themselves and others. Submissions by researchers and practitioners are solicited on a wide range of topics.

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 or "mini proposal" to be accepted by the student's committee. This committee (perhaps, it should 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. Ron Houston and Don Drumtra have volunteered to post their comps as two different examples of what was required. Their exams were open book and emailed to them on Monday at 8 AM with a response was due by Friday at 5 PM. But since the exams are student and committee dependent, another student's may be completely different. Ron and Don have volunteered to answer any questions you might have about their experiences.

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:

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.