The I-School Movement was discussed by a panel of five this morning, which included our very own Dean Michele Cloonan. They discussed various topics across the I-School movement, including whether or not it was a good idea, the benefits of the movement, and what it should be called or encompass. The moderator, Andrew Dillon, did a fantastic job of summarizing the various ideas behind the program and being sarcastic about the questions he was supplementing. The panelists, some of which seemed to feel more comfortable sitting in front of a group of peers than others, all had something to say, although they seemed to take different views on the answers to the various questions presented. Cloonan presented some of the historical information behind the movement and discussed it from a non I-School view.
Curiously enough, all of the panelists were relatively positive about the movement and seemed to think it was a great way to go, despite a few questions and set backs here and there. The audience seemed less inclined to agree, especially in regards to the idea of inter-departmental work and research groups. Overall everyone seemed to agree that I-Schools and LIS programs need to avoid being swallow and taken down by a perhaps dying, or at the least changing, university system. There also seems to be a need to state outright what it is that I-Schools want to do and to try and advertise this movement to people other than 17 year olds.
Posts in category Conferences
The I-School Movement (SIG/ED)
Volunteer services
Yesterday was my first day as a volunteer and I found the experience somewhat exhausting. I was positioned in the Placement Center directly under an air conditioning vent for four hours and was, at the end of the day convinced of two things: My eyes were dry and they did not advertise the Center in an efficient manner. Not many people seem to realize that it was there and several prospective employers were simply leaving their advertisements in the foyer instead of putting them in the binders where candidates could find them.
In the evening, after the placement center closed for the day and when I was at liberty to try and see what was going on in the public There are several incredible people here, all willing to talk as long as they are not involved in a deep discussion with a friend that they only see once a year. The experience so far has been fantastic, and although I had to take out a loan just to come, it has been worth the added interest so far.
ASIST (Candy) – Day Three
It was a very busy day. New England was well represented at the Chapter Assembly, run by Harvard’s Beata Panagopoulos, Chapter Asssembly Director. Caryn Anderson was the voting NEASIST chapter member, and accepted the annual Chapter Event of the Year award on behalf of the chapter. Caryn also helped to run the New Member brunch later that morning. The brunch is always a great deal of fun, and this year was no exception. Again, New England members were prominent, no more so than when outgoing NEASIST chair Beatrice Pulliam drew a raffle number for a book, and it turned out to be our own Alison Cody, vice-chair of the Student Chapter. Not to mention Michael Leach, current ASIST president, being a Simmons adjunct faculty and one of our doctoral students.
I have to admit that I played hookey for most of the afternoon, and went to the annual Austin Celtic festival, and so I missed the plenary, and will have to leave that reporting to others. I got back in time for SIG Rush, where all the special interest groups send representatives to recruit new members (and there’s a cash bar and snacks). I ran into a bunch of students, and found that the Dean and most of the rest of the faculty have arrived by now.
For the last event of the day, I hosted the annual students-only party in the presidential suite (thanks Michael). We had cheap wine and chips and a great time. Thanks to Alison, Jennifer, Ellen, Brittany, Sheila, and Rong for helping me set up (we had an especially tough time with very poor corkscrews).
It’s 1:15 am, and that’s it for the day. flick updates will have to wait until tomorrow.
ASIST (Candy) – Day Two
Today was Saturday – a day for workshops and committee stuff. I had a workshop at 8:30, so I headed out for a Starbuck’s at 7. There is a coffee place in the hotel, and it does serve Starbuck’s, but I figured I would have a bigger healthier choice of breakfast breads at a real one. Silly me. Austin’s hopping 6th Street is abandoned and a bit seedy in the glare of a sunny early morning. Nonetheless, I did find the Starbuck’s.
My workshop was called “Thesaurus to Ontology”, and was about extending thesaural and other relationships into two XML schema – OWL and SKOS – both of which lend themselves to Semantic Web activity. If you take Subject Analysis (or maybe Information Organization) with me you may hear more about this.
ASIST (Candy) – Day One
My friend Beata Panagopoulos (Harvard librarian) and I flew together from Boston to Dallas/Fort Worth to Austin on Friday. As an indication of the Texan friendliness to come, when Beata told the man sitting next to her that she was vegetarian, he proceeded to write down the names AND addresses of ten suitable restaurants in Austin. Several other passengers chimed in with recommendations for activities.
There wasn’t much ASIST activity on Friday night, though there were a lot of people wearing Texas Longhorn t-shirts (big game on Saturday). I did establish my Hilton Internet account ($10/day – outrageous) so I can do this and send photos to flickr. I spent the rest of Friday doing some schoolwork (yeah, yeah, I know – you have no sympathy.
Welcome to SAA
Greetings!
While I was at SAA last week, David Dwiggins and I discussed posting to this blog, and I’m happy to submit some thoughts as a guest blogger. Due to spotty internet access in DC, I saved my posting for the return to Boston. For the sake of organization (and just to confuse everyone, really), I’m going to backdate some of these posts so that they fall with the rest of David’s SAA posts.
A few words about me: I’m a GSLIS student, archives concentrator, and I started the program last fall. While I had some archives experience before coming to Simmons, I have gained a lot from both the internships and from the coursework, and I am really excited by the idea of joining the profession soon. I currently work part-time in the textual processing unit for the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, and I am the president of the Simmons student chapter of SAA (SCOSAA).
Because SCOSAA was selected for a graduate student poster presentation at the conference, I spent some time organizing the content and gathering photos of students and faculty for the display. The poster was large (28 x 44), and because it needed to be printed on a plotter, presented some difficulties. I definitely had an adventure during my grand tours of Boston and DC Kinkos stores– but it all worked out. I’ll post the finished product here, as well as in the GSLIS lounge if possible.
Our presentation slot was on Thursday evening, and many people stopped by to comment and ask questions about Simmons and the student group, including several prospective students. During that same time period, recent Simmons graduate Krista Ferrante presented her own poster session on Digital Object Identifiers, which was extremely interesting. She had quite a crowd, and Richard Pearce Moses (SAA President) even stopped by to talk with her!