SLIS News Feed

Indiana Library Federation: Small & Medium Libraries Conference

The 2008 Indiana Library Federation (ILF) - Small and Medium Libraries Conference will be held August 21-22 at the New Castle-Henry County Public Library. The theme of the Conference is Beyond the Walls: Small and Medium Sized Libraries Reach Out.

The role of this ILF Division is to "help small libraries provide better service to their communities by providing a network for the discussion of common problems and their solutions. The division also helps small and medium size libraries keep abreast of current information and ideas in library management." [SAMS website]

This year's Conference presenters have a number of connections with the Indiana University School of Library and Information Science - (both the Indianapolis and the Bloomington campuses). There are SLIS adjunct faculty members, alumni, and even a current student.

Below are excerpts from the Conference Program that highlight lots of SLIS connections:

Wifi & Other Computer Security Policies

As a central place in most communities to obtain access to the Internet, public libraries have become more essential in the lives of their patrons. By providing this access, however, libraries could be opening themselves and their patrons up to a number of potential technological threats. There are ways for libraries to adopt policies to protect their resources and their patrons. Travis Markley of ENA and Wendy Knapp of the Indiana State Library will discuss some security essentials that should be a part of every policy.

Wendy Knapp is the supervisor of the Professional Development Office at the Indiana State Library. Wendy began her professional career as a reference librarian at the Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library. Wendy also teaches the Computer-Based Information Tools course for the School of Library and Information Science at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.

Changes in technology require libraries to remain cognizant of trends in order to maintain effi ciency and to meet customer needs. INCOLSA's Jeff Humphrey will have information to help you look ahead.

Jeff Humphrey is currently Digital Services Librarian at INCOLSA Indianapolis. Previously he held the position of Internet Training Specialist at INCOLSA where he developed and delivered classes on Internet Searching, Web Page Development, Reference, Legal Resources... He received his MLS from Indiana University Bloomington.

Programming for Adults, Children & YA

Join us for a two-session focus on public programming. Our first session will be an hour-long panel discussion, featuring experts in children's, teen and adult library programming. Join us for an open discussion on innovative programming ideas, marketing, and outreach. Then stay with us for break-out sessions in the second hour, and the opportunity to exchange ideas, brainstorm, and collaborate with colleagues. Break-out sessions will be lead by our very capable panelists, Beth Meyer, Ray Ranier, Anne Guthrie and Linda Oldham. This session will be facilitated by Jennifer Beach, Regional Coordinator with the Indiana State Library.

Beth Meyer: Beth Meyer: Currently the Manager of the Lapel Branch of the Anderson Public Library, Beth also teaches S572: Youth Services at SLIS/IUPUI. She has worked with youth in public libraries for ten years, starting at the Main Library at Allen County Public Library. Ray Ranier: Ray Ranier is the Adult Department Librarian with the Peabody Public Library in Columbia City, IN. He has a B.A. in History from the University of Michigan and carries a Masters of Library Science (MLS) from Indiana University.

Indiana Business Builder

Howard Trace of INCOLSA will showcase this end user resource to help you better assist the businesses in your community. Come see how Indiana Business Builder (IBB) can help your library become a vital part of economic development in Indiana. From employee training opportunities to identifying potential customers or partners, IBB provides important resources to move Indiana forward. IBB also allows public and academic libraries to participate in a cooperative subscription to ReferenceUSA, the best source of information on businesses and people for researchers, students, and job seekers.

Howard Trace received his BA from Purdue, his MLS from IU, and an MS in Space Studies from the University of North Dakota. He has worked in both public and academic libraries, and has worked for INCOLSA for 8 years. His library experience includes: ILL, reference, gov docs, serials, and electronic resources.

Blogs & Wikis?

What is a Blog? A Wiki? Why are they popular? Why should you be interested? How can libraries use wikis and blogs? You will find the answers to these and other questions about wikis and blogs. Co-presenters for this session are Alicia LaPrelle and Jennifer Beach.

Alicia LaPrelle is currently working as the Reference Assistant at the West Lafayette Public Library. She graduated from the University of Evansville in 2005 with a degree in History and a minor in Russian Studies. She will be finishing up her Master's in Library Science from IUPUI in December of this year. Before working in a library, Alicia worked at Barnes & Noble Booksellers, as everything from a cashier to the Community Relations Manager.

Koha-Zoom

Becki Whitaker of INCOLSA will present an overview of Koha Zoom, LibLime's web-based integrated library system built on open source software.

Becki Whitaker is currently Director, Professional Development and Digital Services Group of INCOLSA Indianapolis. Before coming to INCOLSA Becki was Librarian and Assistant Professor at Western Michigan University and Reference/Bibliographic Instruction Librarian at Downers Grove (IL) South High School. She has spoken at numerous national and state conferences including ALA, National Online, Online, PLA, IOLUG and ILF. She received her MLS from Indiana University.

Indiana Receives $1 Million Grant for Librarian Diversity Initiative

"This is a fabulous opening for Indiana libraries to become more diverse," said Dr. Marilyn Irwin, Associate Dean, School of Library and Information Science, Indiana University, Indianapolis. "This grant creates great opportunities for members of diverse communities who have been historically underrepresented in the profession." [see below]

SLIS Indianapolis and SLIS Bloomington students may be considered for fellowships (which include 36 credit hours of tuition - and a stipend). Details can be found on the Indiana State Library Website: http://in.webjunction.org/663/articles/content/4617125

Press Release:	Indiana State Library
Posted:	June 20, 2008
Contact:	Drew Griffis

Indiana Receives $1 Million Grant for Librarian Diversity Initiative

Grant provides scholarships and professional opportunities to racially and ethnically diverse students.

INDIANAPOLIS - The Indiana State Library and the Indiana University School of Library and Information Science (SLIS) Indianapolis were awarded a $1 million federal grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) for the "Librarians Leading in Diversity (LLID)" project. The grant was given as part of the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program. Additionally, the project is supported by the Indiana State Library's Diversity Advisory Council, Academic Libraries of Indiana, Administrators of Large Public Libraries in Indiana, the Indiana Black Librarians Network, the Indiana Library Federation, and the Indiana Special Libraries Association.

In particular, African-Americans and Latinos are most underrepresented in the Indiana library profession. An original goal of the State Library's Diversity Advisory Council was to increase the level of ethnic diversity in all types of libraries so that library staff reflects the communities they serve. Ultimately, by increasing diversity in the library profession it is the Council's belief that state literacy levels will increase by role modeling through libraries and library staff.

The project will work toward accomplishing the State Library's Diversity Advisory Council's goals by providing scholarships for 30 Master's of Library Science students from racially and ethnically diverse backgrounds. Scholarship recipients will then commit to work in an Indiana library for at least two years. Recipients will also benefit from participation in state and regional library associations, as well as other supplementary activities including special orientation meetings in various types of library settings, meetings with library directors, diversity and ethics workshops, transition to work programs, online and face-to-face support networks, and other special projects.

"This project will advance Indiana's library profession as a whole," said Indiana State Librarian, Roberta L. Brooker. "Not only will these scholarships help racial and ethnic minorities receive a solid library science education, they will also give them a foot in the door professionally and keep them in Indiana."

In all, the IMLS awarded 31 institutions grants totaling $20.3 million as part of the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program. This year's grantees will provide educational opportunities to library students and staff to strengthen Gulf Coast libraries; support school library media programs; increase the number of librarians, archivists, and library and information science professors; increase diversity in the library workforce; and strengthen that workforce to better meet the needs of users of all types of libraries.

First Lady Laura Bush announced the President's multimillion dollar support of an initiative to help bolster the library profession in 2002. Since then, IMLS has helped fund the education of 3,220 master's degree students, 186 doctoral students, 1,256 pre-professional students, and 26,186 continuing education students.

To view the IMLS's news release and a list of awardees and descriptions of how they intend to use their grants, visit http://www.imls.gov/news/2008/061708.shtm.

Except from IMLS News Release:

Indiana State Library - Indianapolis, IN
Grant Category: Masters Level Programs
Award Amount: $999,991; Matching Amount: $50,878

Contact: Ms. Marcia Smith-Woodard
Special Services Consultant
(317)232-3719; mwoodard@library.IN.gov

Project Title: "Librarians Leading in Diversity (LLID)"

The Indiana State Library will increase the level of ethnic diversity in all types of libraries across the state by recruiting and providing scholarships for 30 master’s of library science students from racially and ethnically diverse backgrounds, who will then commit to work in an Indiana library for at least two years. Scholarship recipients will also benefit from participation in state and regional library associations, as well as other supplementary activities including special orientation meetings in various types of library settings, meetings with library directors, diversity and ethics workshops, transition to work programs, online and face-to-face support networks, and other special projects.

SLIS Welcomes New Faculty Member: Ying Ding

My teaching philosophy is to teach students on how to learn in order to make them to know how to think; to combine theory and practice together and use practice to better understand theory; to integrate teaching and research together to achieve joint benefits.

Dr. Ying Ding joined the SLIS Faculty on August 1, 2008 as an Assistant Professor of Information Science. She comes to SLIS from a position as a Senior Researcher (Unit Leader) in the Digital Enterprise Research Institute in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Innsbruck, Austria. Ding received her Ph.D. in Information Science in 2001 from the Information Studies Division, School of Computer Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. She also has a Masters Information Science from the Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China that she received in 1996.

Her research interests include semantic web and its application, social networks analysis (such as social tagging in popular community websites), webometrics (using web resources to evaluate people. organization, research areas and content), knowledge engineering (knowledge acquisition, knowledge modeling, and knowledge representation), and information retrieval. .

In her current position, she leads the Semantic Web Application Research Unit in the Digital Enterprise Research Institute with 7 members (Senior researcher, PhD students, Master students and Exchange students). The Unit investigates and manages projects related to Semantic Web Applications. She also chairs an eTourism working group in DERI and coordinates the related projects in eTourism, including the pursuit of external funding. Dr. Ding has been a principal investigator on 11 EU and Austrian funded projects.

She has been a co-author of a 2002 book entitled "Intelligent Information Integration in B2B Electronic Commerce" and has co-edited a set of conference proceedings in 2004 entitled "Proceedings of the ECAI 2004 Workshop on Application of Semantic Web Technologies to Web Communities." She has co—authored 7 book chapters and presented many papers at international conferences.

She has taught classes at the Free University of Amsterdam and the University of Innsbruck (Next Web Generation, Semantic Web, and Knowledge Engineering and Management) and supervised PhD. Masters, and Bachelor theses.

Ying Ding is teaching SLIS-S636 Semantic Web during the Fall 2008 semester.

Information & Communication Behavior at a Political Moment

"Information & Communication Behavior at a Political Moment: The Iraq War, March 2003" was the title of a talk given by SLIS faculty member, Alice Robbin, in Paris, France this summer. Robbin reported on research she carried out with SLIS doctoral student Wayne Buente. The research seminar presentation was given at the Institut Francilien d'Ingénierie des Services (IFIS) — Val d'Europe — of the Université Paris-Est (Marne-la-Vallée). Discussions were also held with the director of IFIS about future cooperation in teaching and research of social informatics.

The paper discussed at the Paris seminar is forthcoming in the Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (JASIST).

Abstract: This article explores the Internet as a resource for political information and communication in March 2003, when American troops were first sent to Iraq, offering us a unique setting of political context, information use, and technology. Employing a national survey conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life project, we classify the political information behavior of Internet respondents through factor analysis; examine the use of online political information and communication behavior of supporters and dissenters; and explore the effects of personal demography and political attitudes, traditional and new media use, and technology on online behavior through multiple regression analysis. The factor analysis reveals four factors: activism, support, information seeking, and communication. The regression analysis indicates that gender, political attitudes and beliefs, motivation, traditional media consumption, perceptions of bias in the media, and computer experience and use predict online political information behavior, although the effects of these variables differ for the four factors. We conclude with a brief discussion of the value of interdisciplinary poaching for advancing the study of Internet information practices.

Building international connections is important in the field of library and information science. Robbin made additional presentations in Europe this summer. These connections enrich her research and teaching (see SLIS Fall 2008 classes below).

She attended meetings with colleagues at The London School of Economics and Political Science in London, England from June 23-25, 2008 and discussed future collaborative research. She also gave a keynote address at the ICTs and Society Network Launch Meeting at the University of Salzburg (Austria) in June, 2008.

Fall 2008 SLIS Courses with Alice Robbin:

eIFL.net - International Meeting in Belgrade

Ann Snoeyenbos (MLS'91) attended the General Assembly of eIFL.net (Electronic Information for Libraries) in November 2007. This international meeting was held in Belgrade (the capital city of Serbia). Shortly after the meeting, Ann Snoeyenbos wrote, "I just got back from a meeting in Serbia where I found three other IU SLIS alums: Mariana Harjevschi, Moldova; Diana Sayej-Naser (MLS'83), Palestine; Arnold Hirshon (MLS'74), US. You can't imagine the thrill for these women to find fellow IU SLIS alums at this meeting in Belgrade. It is one thing to bring the US alumnae together but for the international librarians there is major bonding."

Ann Snoeyenbos is the Coordinator for International Sales and Special Markets, Project MUSE/JHU Press, Baltimore, Maryland. Mariana Harjevschi is the Director, Biblioteca Publica de Drept, Chisinau, Moldova. Diana Sayej-Naser is the Director, Yusuf Ahmed Alghanim Library,Birzeit University, Birzeit, Palestine. And, Arnold Hirshon (MLS'74) is the Executive Director, NELINET, Inc., Southborough, Massachusetts.

"eIFL.net is a not for profit organisation that supports and advocates for the wide availability of electronic resources by library users in transitional and developing countries." [eIFL.net website]

See related SLIS News Story:
•SLIS Alumnae Meet at the IFLA World Library and Information Congress

ICTs and Society Network Launch Meeting - Austria

SLIS faculty member Alice Robbin gave a keynote address at the ICTs and Society Network Launch Meeting - University of Salzburg (Austria) held June 20-21, 2008. Excerpts are included below. Robbin is also the Director of the Rob Kling Center for Social Informatics at Indiana University.

The location was the Schwerpunkt ICT&S (Center for Advanced Studies and Research in Information and Communication Technologies & Society). "Hi-Tech in a Historic Place" is the website description of the Center. It is a "more than 500-year-old building... the premises of a former printing business which has been converted into a modern and transparent science loft in the heart of the city of Salzburg."

In addition to the keynote, she participated in the International ICTs and Society Ph.D. Students' Workshop as a faculty respondent in Panel 2: e-Culture. This session focused on "how culture as a whole way of life is enacted and transformed online. Topics included social ties, personal blogging, identity formation, and language in cyberspace." [panel website]

Excerpts - Keynote Address by Alice Robbin

The outpouring of interest in international collaboration and in creating a vibrant collegial and student network is most gratifying.
Nearly two years ago, in September 2006, in Maribor, Slovenia, at the seventh international conference of Human Choice and Computers sponsored by IFIP, a remembrance of the contributions of Rob Kling to Social Informatics, the conference organizers asked me to reflect briefly on the conference in my concluding remarks. I made a few remarks about what we had accomplished at the conference, but then turned my attention to collaboration, issues of theory and method; human values; about the virtual, the symbolic, the material, and the lived experience; about the role of history; embeddedness and emergence; the dynamics of systems, contingency, and unpredictability; the need to attend more explicitly to concepts of complexity, chaos, and disorder, to uncertainty and to breakdown; about research problems that deserved attention; and about the difficulty we have had in persuading engineering and computer science students to become engaged in a study of socio-technical systems. It was, I confess, a gloss on where we needed to go in our work. But I am convinced that these issues and themes remain relevant to us as we go about our deliberations over the next two days...
Perhaps the most recent influence on my thinking and also reflecting the diversity of research topics that scholars of ICTs and Society attend to, are my own collaborations with some of my doctoral students and with students whom I teach. I enumerate their projects only to demonstrate the rich subject matter— the wide array and commonality of interests in ICTs and Society, the drawing on perspectives that represent different cultural and intellectual traditions, of those among us, our students, our future scholars and colleagues, who are engaged in studying ICTs and society. Their interests embody one significant dilemma that we face: how to make interdisciplinarity succeed...
I believe that we who study ICTs and society are, by necessity, engaged in and enriched by interdisciplinary research. Yet, to do so, we must confront both within and across disciplines: competing philosophies, theories, perspectives, methods, and accounts/narratives for interpreting the unfolding of complex events, phenomena, relations, structures, processes, and systems that are undergoing change induced by socio-technical systems...

Job Successes - April, May, June 2008

Congratulations to SLIS graduates! The list below is made of job successes posted to the SLIS website in April, May, and June 2008. SLIS graduates are finding interesting careers in a variety of settings.

Jennifer Daugherty	Director of Reference and Information Services	Laurel County Public Library, London, KY	MLS'07
Roberta Astroff	Head of Collection Development	University of Texas San Antonio, TX	MLS'98
Emily Symonds	Metadata Librarian	University of Louisville, KY	MLS'07
Emily Ford	Project Director - Oregon Heath Go Local	Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR	MIS/MLS'07
Eric Snajdr	Science Librarian	IUPUI, Indianapolis, IN	MLS'07
George Jensen	Information Architect	Tuitive - Indianapolis, IN	MIS'03
Benjamin Peck	Music Librarian	Mount Allison University, Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada	MLS'08
Barbara Hilderbrand	Metadata and Digital Collections Librarian	NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD	MLS'08
James Procell	Music Librarian	University of Louisville, KY	MLS'08
Kelly Evans	Business Information Specialist	Purdue University, W. Lafayette, IN	MLS'04
Ravi Pherwani	Software Engineer	Cerner Corporation, Kansas City, MO	MLS'07
Britta Gregor	Reference Librarian	West Palm Beach Public Library, FL	MIS/MLS'04
Jeff Kosokoff	Director, the Edwin Ginn Library and Information Technology	Tufts University - Fletcher School, Medford, MA	MLS'94
Sara Byrd	Technology Support Librarian, Owen Graduate School of Management	Vanderbilt University Nashville, TN	MLS'04
Yahya Melhem	Aga Khan Cataloger	MIT, Rotch Library, Cambridge, MA	MLS'07
Kristy Sutorius	Senior Librarian, Youth Services	Lee County Library System, Fort Myers, FL	MLS'05
Donna Holovack	Director	Information International Assoc., Inc. - Eglin AFB, USA	MLS'93
Lindley Shedd	Media Services Librarian	University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL	MIS'08
Elisabeth Seasonwein	Children's Librarian	Ela Area Public Library, Lake Zurich, IL	MLS'08
William F. Meehan III	Assistant Professor	Valdosta State University, GA	MLS'05
Sarah Jaramillo	Research Services Librarian	Rutgers - Newark School of Law Library, NJ	MLS'08

Library Evaluation Talk by Rachel Applegate, 8/1/08

On August 1, 2008, SLIS faculty member Rachel Applegate will present "Five Things Librarians Need to Know About Library Evaluation." The talk is a "Lunch & Learn" Forum Session organized by SLIS Indianapolis, and Steve Owens (CTELP Summer 2008 Resident). Details from the Invitation:

FRIDAY, AUGUST 1, 2008
12:00 - 12:45 PM
IUPUI UNIVERSITY LIBRARY, ROOM 1116

Feel free to bring your brown-bag lunch and beverage.
We hope you will join us for this brief, informative forum on August 1st! Please feel free to share this invitation with your SLIS friends and colleagues. RSVP and questions to Steve Owens [steowens@iuk.edu]

Talk Abstract:

"People already in the field and library school students can approach evaluation from different angles. Busy practitioners may want to know how the 'extra' work of evaluation can make their work, if not easier, better. Graduating students can think about what this skill might offer to an employing library. This talk tries (tried) to focus on the needs of those in attendance—which is also a feature of good evaluation. Good evaluation is not an abstract exercise in data-gathering, but a purposive activity, serving the needs of its users.

The five things that it would be useful for all librarians to know about "evaluation" are: what it is (and is not), how it helps link a library to its environment, the basic building blocks of evaluation, the need to summarize and target the gathered information, and the pervasive importance of considering one's audience.

A Dilbert cartoon shows an accounting 'troll' telling the pointy-haired manager that their information systems are so bad that anyone could 'manage randomly' and 'claim success.' The pointy-haired manager is thrilled....but good librarians shouldn't be!"

"The CTELP - Career Transition Executive Leadership Program is a partnership between the Indiana University School of Library and Information Science at Indianapolis (SLIS), the Indiana Library Federation (ILF) and the Indiana State Library (ISL). Grant funding is by the Institute of Museum and Library Services. CTELP is designed to build capacity for identifying, recruiting, educating, and mentoring the next generation of library managers and leaders. It seeks to address the professions' need for highly qualified new MLS graduates who have the knowledge, attitudes, and skills to assume management and leadership roles in libraries and information centers. Through their engagement with professional mentors, on-site library residencies, projects, and coursework, CTELP students will gain experience and insights into the challenges of leading a complex information organization." [excerpt from earlier SLIS News Story: SLIS Indianapolis Faculty Receive 1.4 Million in Grants]

...You have a Stack of Surveys, Now What?

SLIS faculty member, Rachel Applegate, has given presentations at the Indiana Library Federation Annual Conference the past two years, and is scheduled to give another session this fall. The sessions have been on "Simple Surveys - and You have a Stack of Surveys, Now What?" Applegate gave details in a recent email interview:

"The content comes from my Evaluation [SLIS S505] class. Surveys are very common data-gathering tools, especially important not so often for evaluating the library as for, in a sense, evaluating its users: their needs and relations with the library.

Since I think libraries are going to do surveys anyway, and I believe that there are some quite simple tips and tricks that make the process better and easier (for survey respondents and survey analysts), why not share some of these with people who are already in the field?

On the other hand, 50 minutes is not really enough time, so: After the first one, I split off some content into an "Advanced" survey presentation (You have a Stack of Surveys, Now What?) and offered to work with any Indiana library....for free, but only as I have time.

Currently I have worked with Carmel Clay Public Library, Putnam County Public Library, Hancock County Public Library, and Hussey-Mayfield Memorial Public Library (Zionsville). Findings from the survey done by Carmel Clay Public Library will appear shortly in Public Library Quarterly, "Gender Differences in Patrons of a Public Library."

Thinking about the research (generalizable) uses of a local survey, and evaluation (local application) uses, sharpens my teaching of Research and of Evaluation, and gives me yet more examples to use in class."

Applegate's talk complements the theme of the 2008 Indiana Library Federation Annual Conference (November 18-20 in Indianapolis): Libraries Without Walls: Always Here, Virtually There. Evaluating resources and services is important aspect of planning.

ILF Conference Abstract: "As advances in technology continue to rapidly expand and connect the world of people and resources, our patrons depend on libraries to be "always here" for them when they need hands-on materials and services and "virtually there" whenever they seek quality online services and information. As libraries constantly expand beyond the physical space of their buildings, they must continue to be vital institutions for their community of users. By providing physical spaces for social networking, group interaction and community outreach, as well as virtual on-demand services 24/7, our libraries maintain a physical presence, yet can be virtually available to everyone... The ILF Conference will again unite all ILF Associations with an opportunity to join together to share the joys and challenges of our ever evolving roles. Exchanging ideas and connecting across all types of libraries and librarianship will strengthen our individual programs as we learn strategies to keep our libraries an essential and dynamic part of our Indiana physical and virtual communities." [ILF Website]

The Indiana Library Federation (ILF) is the Indiana Chapter of the American Library Association (ALA).

SLIS Alumna: Judaica and Hebraica Cataloger

Graduates are encouraged to post their job successes on the SLIS website. Prospective students (in particular) can view job successes to get ideas for career paths. Jasmin Nof (MLS'04) recently gave us details about her position, and about professional association work she is doing:

"Hello, I am a proud SLIS alumna from 2004. After graduation I was hired at the University of Maryland to serve as their Judaica and Hebraica Cataloger, a faculty and permanent-track position. I recently received my promotion from Librarian I to Librarian II and am supervising a staff of 2 Hebrew copy-catalogers and 2 student assistants. I am responsible for the cataloging of Hebrew materials in all formats; have contributed names, series, and subjects to national authorities files; and, with other colleagues, am exploring venues for digitizing our more fragile and unique Hebraica holdings. Nationally, I was just appointed as chair of the Association of Jewish Libraries' Cataloging Committee.

I owe a lot of my success to the solid foundation I received at SLIS. While taking classes there, I found that I most enjoyed the cataloging course. The instructor, Andrea Morrison, found a cataloging position for me in the then-Main (now Wells) Library, which was a tremendous learning opportunity. Further, though I was scheduled to graduate before the next offering of the advanced cataloging course, Taemin Park worked with me individually so I could be exposed to the more advanced cataloging concepts. I believe it was these experiences that gave me an edge in my job search.

As for tips for students: I would recommend they make the most of their time in SLIS and of the opportunities to interact with professionals in the field. If a student finds that s/he enjoys a particular class, s/he should convey that to the instructor. For one, the instructor may be able to help with that student's job hunt and networking; and even if not, at least the instructor will know that s/he is making difference."

•SLIS News Form Send us your news!

IU Faculty Podcasting Initiative

SLIS Associate Dean and Master of Information Science Program Director, Howard Rosenbaum - and SLIS Director of Information Technology, Mark Napier - received an IU Faculty Podcasting Initiative grant for their proposal: Creating a Student-Generated Podcast Knowledge Base for Information Literacy.

Excerpts from the IU news release [June 18, 2008]:

"The Indiana University Faculty Podcasting Initiative will support more than 60 innovative IU faculty members as they explore the potential of podcasting in higher education and student learning. Supported by Apple and AT&T with equipment and software — and with the guidance of the IU centers for teaching and learning — faculty projects will commence in the fall semester of 2008.

While podcasting is not new to IU, this initiative broadly expands the activity across the university and integrates multiple paths for faculty podcasters, offering a variety of ways users can choose to access IU content, and enabling instructors to accelerate their use of podcasting.

The Faculty Podcasting Initiative, administered by University Information Technology Services (UITS), will distribute funding for podcast recording equipment and computer software to encourage faculty to create and apply forward-thinking instructional and student learning opportunities using new media. Part-time and full-time faculty members and entire departments from a broad range of disciplines — and six of IU's eight campuses statewide — received hardware and software grants totaling more than $113,000. "

Institute of Information Scientists (IIS) - Celebrating 50 Years

Information Science as a professional discipline has some definable roots. "2008 is the 50th Anniversary of the founding of the Institute of Information Scientists in the UK, and many of the ideas of the earlier information scientists are not only still valid today, but became the foundations upon which later generations have built. Consequently, feeling that it might be worth the effort to capture some insights into advances made in the last 50 years, a number of pre-eminent information scientists were commissioned to write articles on a range of topics reflecting many facets of information science." [by Alan Gilchrist, Editorial, Journal of Information Science, 34(4)2008]

The Journal of Information Science, August 2008, Volume 34, Issue 4, was compiled to celebrate 50 years of the IIS referenced in Gilchrist's editorial. The Journal is available online through SageJournals. It has a total of 18 articles, including those by Eugene Garfield [Founder and Chairman Emeritus of the Institute for Scientific Information - now Thomson Scientific], and Elisabeth Davenport [Professor of Information Management, Napier University, Edinburgh - and SLIS Visiting Scholar].

SLIS Dean Blaise Cronin was also an invited contributor to the issue, providing an article titled "The Sociological Turn in Information Science" (pages 465-475). Abstract:

"This paper explores the history of `the social' in information science. It traces the influence of social scientific thinking on the development of the field's intellectual base. The continuing appropriation of both theoretical and methodological insights from domains such as social studies of science, science and technology studies, and socio-technical systems is discussed."

Summer Course: University of Mashhad, Iran

SLIS is fortunate to have a globally diverse faculty. Not only do the faculty present at conferences around the world, many were born in other countries and are bi-lingual. SLIS faculty members are from Japan, Israel, Germany, China, Lebanon, Korea, Ireland, and Iran.

Hamid Ekbia returned to Iran this summer to teach a Doctoral Seminar in Cognitive Science at the Computer Science Department, School of Engineering, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, July 5-17, 2008. He gave details in an email interview:

"This is an official course that I teach as a visiting professor every summer. I've done it for two years now (previously I taught a different course on Social Informatics for the same school). But they asked me to teach cognitive science to their doctoral students (most of whom are very bright and passionate, by the way). The intention is to turn this to a doctoral minor in cognitive science. We're still working on this aspect.

In addition to the doctoral students who are officially enrolled in the course, I usually get on the average of 20 other grad and undergrad students who just come and sit in. The fact that this happens in the middle of the summer when the university is closed shows the degree of interest and appreciation that these students have for the topic, and this is the main reason why I do this — I really enjoy interacting with these very motivated, thoughtful, and curious group of students.

Ferdowsi University is one of the largest and oldest institutions of higher education in Iran, named after the great epic Persian poet of the 10th century, Ferdowsi Toosi, who is also buried in Toos, near my hometown of Mashhad."

An excerpt from the epic poem The Shahnameh by Ferdowsi Toosi:

"Buildings of the city suffer deterioration
From the raindrop and the ray of sunlight."

"I founded a great palace of verse
That is impervious to the wind and the rain"

This Fall Semester, Dr. Ekbia will be teaching SLIS-S516 Human Computer Interaction at SLIS.

Visualization and Data Analysis 2009 - Call for Papers

SLIS faculty member Katy Börner is a Co-Chair for the Visualization and Data Analysis 2009 (EI108) Conference to be held January 18-22, 2009 at the San Jose Convention Center, California. The Conference is a part of the IS&T/SPIE 21st Annual Symposium on Electronic Imaging 2009.

"This conference covers all aspects of visualization and issues affecting successful visualizations. The conference has grown rapidly over the years and has attracted participants from throughout the world. Submissions are peer reviewed with an acceptance rate of ~50% making the quality of the conference and its publications extremely high. We invite you to contribute quality papers covering research results as well as works-in-progress.

The papers from this conference will be published in a bound Proceedings, and will be available from SPIE. Authors of the best papers in the conference will have the option of having extended versions of their papers reviewed for publication in the Journal of Electronic Imaging or a future special issue of the Journal of Electronic Imaging focusing on visualization." [website]

Onsite Proceedings Due Dates:

Full Paper for Review Due:	1 August 2008
Final Manuscript Due:	27 October 2008
Final Summary (200 words) Due:	17 November 2008

Conference Chairs:
Katy Börner, Indiana Univ.;
Jinah Park, Information and Communications Univ. (South Korea)

Conference Cochairs:
Matti T. Gröhn, Ctr. for Scientific Computing (Finland); Ming C. Hao, Hewlett-Packard Labs.; Jonathan C. Roberts, Bangor Univ. (United Kingdom); Pak C. Wong, Pacific Northwest National Lab.

Program Committee:
Uwe Brinkschulte, Univ. Karlsruhe (Germany); Paul Craig, Napier Univ. (United Kingdom); Steve Eick, Visual Insights; Robert F. Erbacher, Utah State Univ.; Zhanping Liu, Mississippi State Univ.; Joerg Meyer, Univ. of California/Irvine; Hans-Georg Pagendarm, Deutsches Zentrum Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. (Germany); Alex T. Pang, Univ. of California/Santa Cruz; Aaron J. Quigley, National Univ. of Ireland/Dublin (Ireland); Deborah E. Silver, Rutgers Univ.; Kalpathi R. Subramanian, The Univ. of North Carolina at Charlotte; Yinlong Sun, Purdue Univ.; J. Edward Swan II, Naval Research Lab.; Yingcai Xiao, Univ. of Akron; William J. Yurcik, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Photo Credit: ojbryne
Creative Commons; Attribution 2.0 Generic

Students Excel at SLIS

"Students at SLIS not only get excellent education by highly professional, widely published, and well-networked faculty, they also distinguish themselves by publishing in refereed and professional journals and applying for and winning major student awards both internal and external. Publishing and winning awards are among many other activities that SLIS students accomplish or get involved with in order to enhance their professional knowledge and skills and attract employers." [Lokman Meho]

SLIS MLS Program Director, Lokman Meho, has been working to compile a list of student publications. Many of the list below began as SLIS class projects. SLIS Student News has additional stories about awards and other student activities, including the projects of the six student chapters of professional associations.

Student Publications

Adamick, J. (accepted). Islam in Europe: A research guide. Reference & User Services Quarterly.
Badger, L. (accepted). Modern History of Liberia: A research guide. African Research and Documentation.
Betty, P. (2007). Haitian Americans: A research guide. Reference Services Review, 35(2), 230-248.
Bluemle, S. (accepted). Emily Dickinson: A research guide. Reference Services Review.
Braune, S. M. (2005). Islam as practiced by the Kazaks: A bibliography for scholars. MELA Notes, (78), 1-17.
Dwyer, T. (2008). Unitarian Universalism: A research guide. Reference & User Services Quarterly, 47(3): 210-214.
Gottschalk, L. J. (2007). Carol Gilligan: psychologist, feminist, educator, philosopher: A research guide. Behavioral & Social Sciences Librarian, 26(1), 65-90.
Higgins, S. M. (2007). Afro-Latinos: An annotated guide for collection building. Reference & User Services Quarterly, 47(1), 10-15.
Horowitz, S. (2006). The Kelmscott press and William Morris: A research guide. Art Documentation, 25(2), 60-65.
Meehan, W. F. III, & Murray, S. R. (2007). A pathfinder of reference sources for the sport of rowing. The Sport Journal, 10(4).
Monroe, A. (2008). American presidential power: A research guide. Reference & User Services Quarterly, 47(3).
Polacek, K. M. (2007). Euthanasia: A guide to resources. [Web sources] Medical Reference Services Quarterly, 26(2), 65-74.
Polacek, K. M. (2007). Euthanasia: A guide to sources. Reference & User Services Quarterly, 46(3), 13-19.
Schlosser, M. (2006). Fair use in the digital environment: A research guide. Reference & User Services Quarterly, 46(1), 11-17.
Swygart-Hobaugh, A. J. (2004). A citation analysis of the quantitative/qualitative methods debate's reflection in sociology research: Implications for library collection development. Library Collections, Acquisitions, and Technical Services, 28(3), 180-95.
Wadholm, G. M. (2008). Cultural diversity in Brazil: A guide to reference sources. Behavioral & Social Sciences Librarian, 27(1).
Waller, J. H. (2006). Evaluating scholarly communication at the subdisciplinary level: Citation patterns in economics. Collection Management, 30(2), 45-57.
Waller, J. H. (2005). True simplicity: An annotated bibliography on the Shakers. Journal of Religious & Theological Information, 7(2), 75-90.

Team X works on Accessibility Toolkit

Marilyn Irwin, Associate Dean - SLIS Indianapolis, was the mentor for one of the American Library Association (ALA) Emerging Leaders Teams - Team X. The team's project was to "assist ASCLA in planning and promoting the release of an 'accessibility toolkit' of fifteen pamphlets that provide information on different aspects of accessibility as well as an Electronic Accessibility Checklist. The subjects of the pamphlets included developmental disabilities, learning disabilities, service animals, vision, mental illness, physical disabilities, and more."

"Seven SLIS Grads Chosen as ALA 2008 Emerging Leaders" was the title of a recent SLIS News feature that included Michael Witt (Team X), as well as other recent graduates. Marilyn Irwin gave insights into this successful ALA program:

"Each of the teams was asked to set up a poster session for their projects. The posters were presented at a reception at the ALA Conference in Anaheim on Friday, June 27, 2008. I attended the reception and can say that the presentations were very professional and there was evidence of a lot of very hard work. My specific knowledge is of the work of Team X. They completed a phenomenal marketing plan project for some materials on accessibility developed by the Association of Specialized and Cooperative Library Agencies (ASCLA), a division of ALA. It is particularly noteworthy to add that this was not their original project. They signed on to assess the accessibility of the ALA website; however, a new site is under development and they couldn't get access to enough of the information to do a comprehensive assessment. The team quickly shifted gears and agreed to take on this new project. As one of the team members pointed out to me, that's the way it goes sometimes in reality, so it shows flexibility and the ability to change directions when needed."

Michael C. Witt (MLS'06) is now the Interdisciplinary Research Librarian, and Assistant Professor of Library Science at the Purdue University Libraries, West Lafayette, Indiana. He commented on the Team X experience via email, "The Emerging Leaders program was structured with real-world projects to give all of the participants opportunities to exert practical leadership skills. We all 'led' the project at different times and in different ways. It was an interesting group dynamic, to have five team members who were all 'leaders' in a situation that required us to self-organize in order to be successful." Witt also wrote: "The content of the leadership workshops was terrific, and the opportunity to network and bond with this year's cohort of leaders as well as our project team was invaluable. Our team worked with our mentor, Marilyn Irwin, and ASCLA's Barb Mates to help promote the upcoming ASCLA Accessibility Toolkit [2].

It is clear to me now that I belong to a greater professional community through ALA, and I feel much more engaged with it as a result of being an Emerging Leader. Thank you again for all of your hard work and also to the other ALA presidents for their support of the program. The future of our association will be bright if we continue to engage and cultivate its future leaders."

WikiProteins ("Calling on a Million Minds...")

SLIS faculty member Katy Börner is a contributor to "Calling on a Million Minds for Community Annotation in WikiProteins" (Genome Biology 2008, 9:R62). The article was published on April 21, 2008, and is available online. It is the first project of WikiProfessional ("Creating the Concept Web by Collaborative Intelligence) - of which Börner is both a contributing and a research partner.

Abstract
"WikiProteins enables Community Annotation in an Open Access, Wiki-based system. Extracts of major data sources have been fused into an editable environment with a link out to the original sources. Data from Community edits take place on automatic copies of the original data. Semantic technology captures concepts co-occurring in one sentence and thus potential factual statements. The concepts are selected from authoritative ontologies or databases. In addition, indirect associations via concept profile matching have been calculated. We here call on a 'million minds' to annotate a 'million concepts' and collect new facts from full text literature with the immediate reward of collaborative knowledge discovery."

Contributors
Barend Mons, Michael Ashburner, Christine Chichester, Erik van Mulligen, Marc Weeber, Johan den Dunnen, Gert-Jan van Ommen, Mark Musen, Matthew Cockerill, Henning Hermjakob, Albert Mons, Abel Packer, Roberto Pacheco, Suzanna Lewis, Alfred Berkeley, William Melton, Nickolas Barris, Jimmy Wales, Gerard Meijssen, Erik Moeller, Peter Jan Roes, Katy Börner and Amos Bairoch

Related News:

First WikiProfessional Project, WikiProteins, Ready for Beta was published by ars technica (the art of technology) on May 27, 2008. The author, John Timmer, highlights this new project - excerpt below:

"I'd never expected to find Jimmy Wales' name in the author list of a scientific paper, much less a list that includes one of the deans of fly genetics, Michael Ashburner. But the two are among the two dozen authors of a paper that will be released this evening by Genome Biology. The group is writing to let the biology community know that the first WikiProfessional project, WikiProteins, is ready for beta testing.

A little over a year ago, we covered the announcement of this project, and the basic concept remains the same: wikis need contributors, but it's hard to attract contributors without any existing content to draw them in. WikiProteins solved this by importing a huge amount of data from existing databases, such as PubMed, Swiss-Prot, and the Gene Ontology database.

The new paper describes a major advantage to this approach. Traditionally, biological information has been divided between two approaches: data mining, which involves parsing existing information to identify semantic content and connections within it, and curating, which involves expert, manual analysis of data. By importing information from both types of sources, WikiProteins should theoretically contain the best properties of both types of data: reliable information supplied by experts and potential connections among data that haven't previously been explored."

Virtual Reference Service Evaluation

"This study evaluates the level to which virtual (e-mail) reference services adhere to professional guidelines. These professional guidelines are set up as standards to assure service quality. However, studies of virtual reference effectiveness rarely utilize these standards to measure reference success. This study evaluates and compares the level of adherence to two sets of professional guidelines published by the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) and the American Library Association (ALA) Reference and User Services Association (RUSA). Analysis of 324 transactions from 54 libraries showed: 1) low levels of adherence to both sets of guidelines; 2) varied levels of adherence based on request types and user names on both sets of guidelines; 3) variation in institutional rank according to different sets of guidelines; 4) no correlation between user satisfaction and adherence to either set of guidelines. This study has implications for future research and practice because it provides a systematic way to analyze transactions in light of the ideal professional standards. It also provides an empirical benchmark for evaluating virtual reference services." [Abstract]

The article is available online through ScienceDirect.

Shachaf, P., & Horowitz, S. (2008). Virtual reference service evaluation: Adherence to RUSA behavioral guidelines and IFLA digital reference guidelines. Library & Information Science Research, 30(2),122-137.

Pnina Shachaf is a SLIS faculty member, and Sarah Horowitz is a SLIS 2007 Master of Library Science graduate. They have worked on research in this area for several years, and have published related articles:

Katy Börner's Work Featured at IU's 10 year IT Strategic Plan Celebration

SLIS faculty member, Katy Börner, showcased her work at the IT Strategic Plan (ITSP) celebration held on May 20, 2008. This event was a joint effort between many different organizations within the campus community. Börner, director of the Cyberinfrastructure for Network Science Center and the Information Visualization Lab, collaborates with many colleagues on campus on related research.

In 1998, Indiana University set up a plan to be a "leader in absolute terms in the use and application of IT." The May 20 celebration commemorated IU's rise in national and international areas of IT, and formally announced progress on its next 2008 IT Strategic Plan. (Message from UITS News).

Photos of the Places & Spaces Exhibit at ITSP
Note: This exhibit design was made as a test-run for a new setup of Börner's Places & Spaces: Mapping Science exhibit.

Brief Video of Interactive Science Maps

More information about this event can be found both in UITS News and the Herald Times.

UITS News:
IU marks 10-year IT plan anniversary, embarks on next visionary IT plan
Herald Times:
Decade of effort has put IU in IT forefront
May 26, 2008 by James Boyd

NetSci and InfoVis Research Presented in Norwich and London

Russell Duhon will travel to England to present a workshop, two talks, and a tutorial (June 21 through July 12, 2008). Duhon is a Senior Software Developer, with the Cyberinfracstructure for Network Science Center. SLIS faculty member Katy Börner is the Director of the Center.

NetSci'08
NetSci 2008 is the fifth International Workshop and Conference on Network Science. Katy BÃ¶rner's research teams have been actively involved, and she has been a co-organizer of several of the conferences in the past. The conference was held at Indiana University in 2006, and at the New York Hall of Science in 2007. This year's event will be in Norwich, U.K.

Duhon will present a workshop/tutorial on the Network Workbench research on June 24, 2008, then will participate in other aspects of the conference.

IV'08
The 12th International Conference on Information Visualization will be held in London, England on July 8-12, 2008. Duhon will present a workshop/tutorial, and two papers. He will also work with Michael Batty's research group at the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, University College London - on possibilities of future collaboration.

Workshop Abstract: "Networks are all around us! This includes social networks, internet networks, biological networks, paper citation networks, and more. As these networks become more important in our daily lives the ability to understand their behavior will be more and more necessary. The Network Workbench (http://nwb.slis.indiana.edu) was designed to aid in exploring and understanding these networks. In this tutorial we will introduce the Network Workbench and demonstrate how to use it to analyze and visualize your own networks." [page 7, program]

Paper Abstract:
113 Years of Physical Review: Using Flow Maps to Show Temporal and Topical Citation Patterns - by Bruce W. Herr II, Russell J. Duhon, Katy Börner, Elisha F. Hardy, Shashikant Penumarthy, Cyberinfrastructure for Network Science Center School of Library and Information Science, Indiana University "We visualize 113 years of bibliographic data from the American Physical Society. The 389,899 documents are laid out in a two dimensional time-topic reference system. The citations from 2005 papers are overlaid as flow maps from each topic to the papers referenced by papers in the topic making intercitation patterns between topic areas visible. Paper locations of Nobel Prize predictions and winners are marked."