SLIS News Feed

SLIS Welcomes New Faculty Member: Staša Milojević

Staša Milojević joins the School of Library and Information Science faculty this month. She will be teaching SLIS-S503 Representation and Organization in the Fall 2009 semester.

She comes to SLIS having recently completed her Ph.D. Information Studies degree from the University of California, Los Angeles (2009). Her dissertation was titled: Big science, nano science? Mapping the evolution and socio-cognitive structure of nanoscience/nanotechnology using mixed methods. Dr. Milojević also holds a Master of Library and Information Science from Kent State University in Ohio, and a Bachelor of Arts in English Language and Literature from the University of Belgrade in Serbia.

Approach to Teaching:

"I have always enjoyed the instructional opportunities that I have had. During my doctoral studies at UCLA (2003-2009) I was a special reader for graduate courses in Information Structures (3 times), Descriptive Cataloging, and Introduction to Information Technology. My main responsibilities included grading student assignments and assisting students fulfill course requirements. I also greatly enjoyed giving guest lectures in several graduate classes... In addition to teaching at the university, instruction has also been an important activity in my professional career. At the Santa Monica Public Library (2003-2007) I have designed training manuals and provided individual training for technical services staff... to help with the migration to a new cataloging system. At this point, I feel prepared to teach SLIS courses such as: Representation and Organization; Cataloging; Advanced Cataloging; Metadata and Introduction to Research.

In addition to my research experience, I also have over 13 years of library work in Serbia and in the United States. I have worked both as a reference librarian and as a cataloger in many types of libraries: small academic, special government, special corporate and public libraries. I provided in-person, telephone and e-mail reference services using a combination of commercial databases (e.g. LexisNexis, Factiva, ProQuest, EBSCO and Dialog), Internet and print resources. I also performed original and copy cataloging, classification, and authority work, for materials in all formats, using AACR2r, MARC, LCSH, and DDC. My professional experience in a variety of settings will be a valuable asset in my course preparation."

Dr. Milojević has presented guest lectures on Metadata; Scientific Records and OAIS Model; Collaboration and Co-authorship; and on Jesse Shera: A Historian of Librarianship. Her library experience (in addition to the Santa Monica Public Library) includes the Nationwide Insurance Library in Ohio, the USIS American Center Library at the American Embassy in Belgrade [Serbia], and the University of Belgrade Library of the Department of English Language.

New Executive Director - ASCLA and RUSA

SLIS alumna Susan Hornung (MLS '76) will become the new executive director of the Association of Specialized and Cooperative Library Agencies (ASCLA) and the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA). Below are excerpts from the American Library Association (ALA) press release.

American Library Association
For Immediate Release
June 16, 2009
Contact: Steve Zalusky, ALA

Hornung named ASCLA/RUSA executive director

"CHICAGO — Susan Hornung will take over as the new executive director of the Association of Specialized and Cooperative Library Agencies (ASCLA) and the Reference and User Services Association, the American Library Association (ALA) announced today.

Hornung will attend the 2009 ALA Annual Conference, held July 9-15 in Chicago, as executive director designate and will officially join ALA on July 27.

She is currently the director of knowledge management and the Severson Center at the Alliance for Children and Families, in Milwaukee, Wis., a position she has held since 1986. The Alliance for Children and Families is a national membership association whose members are family- and child-serving nonprofit organizations...

She is a graduate of Indiana University in Bloomington, Ind., both A.B. (major in English and minor in French) and M.L.S. (1976). She is currently enrolled in the Alliance for Children and Families' Executive Leadership Institute, a two-year nonprofit management certification program sponsored and held at the University of Michigan.

In addition, she is presently the president-elect of the Wisconsin chapter of the Special Libraries Association (SLA) and a member of the Executive Board of the Library Council of Metropolitan Milwaukee..."

Ph.D. Graduate - University of Indonesia

"Information is a key factor to advance in everything." [Dr. Hasibuan]

Dr. Zainal Hasibuan graduated from SLIS with a Ph.D. in Library and Information Science in 1995. He now lives in Jakarta, Indonesia and was recently visited by Roger Beckman and Andrea Singer.

Roger Beckman (MLS'76) is the Director of the SLIS Chemical Information Specializations, and is the Head of the IU Life Sciences and Chemistry Libraries. His spouse, Andrea Singer is also a Librarian at IU Bloomington. She is the Foreign Documents Librarian and Bibliographer for India and Tibetan Studies, Government Information and Kent Cooper Services.

Dr. Hasibuan responded to questions in an email interview:

Job/Title: Faculty member — Computer Science, University of Indonesia, and the Vice Executive Chairman, Indonesian National ICT Council
Town/Country: Jakarta, Indonesia
Favorite aspects of your work: Resource sharing and building competitiveness through ICT
Advice for SLIS students: Managing information as the results of the convergence of media, computer, and telecommunication is one of the challenges for SLIS students
Anything else you would like to say: SLIS can be a leading education institution, because she teaches students on how to create, process, store, manage, retrieve, and disseminate information. Information is a key factor to advance in everything.

Search for MIS Jobs - SLIS Website

What can I do with a SLIS degree? What are the careers? Where are the jobs? These are basic questions asked by all prospective students.

Howard Rosenbaum, SLIS Associate Dean and MIS Program Director, encourages students to read job ads — early and often. Reviewing job ads can help students refine their academic planning. What are employers seeking? Which SLIS courses will strengthen your chances for a certain career niche?

To help, Dr. Rosenbaum posts a variety of jobs to the SLIS Search Jobs database. He posts jobs of interest to both MIS and MLS students. In addition, employers are invited to Post Jobs for free.

A new feature added to the database this month is the ability to search the job ads by keyword (using state names, job attributes, etc.). Students may also select the View All Jobs feature to see job in a list by most recent posting.

SLIS Director of Information Technology Mark Napier (MIS'2000) highlighted the importance of the MIS degree in today's job market. He pointed out an article posted on CNN.com/living- CareerBuilder.com titled, "Ten Promising Jobs for Class of 2009" [April 13, 2009 - by Anthony Balderrama.] The articles shows two job trends with growth potential where MIS graduates will be valued: Database Administrators, and Network Systems/Data Communications Analysts.

Mark Napier commented in an email interview about the MIS degree program: "A number of SLIS courses offer students an outstanding opportunity to acquire skills that will be in high demand in the coming years. Students have the freedom to choose class projects that lend themselves to extensive use of various technologies including database design and development and the design and evaluation of data retrieval systems and user interfaces.

In addition, SLIS faculty manage very active research programs which make extensive use of these same technologies. Working closely with faculty on research projects is an outstanding way to gain experience with technology that employers will need to implement in the coming years. Given that SLIS faculty consistently rank at the top of the field in terms of research output, there is no better place for a student to hone these skills.

Graduates of the SLIS MIS program have gone on to careers with titles such as Web Developers, IT Directors, and CEO."

Follow SLIS on Facebook

SLIS has launched a Facebook page:
School of Library and Information Science @ Indiana University

Keep up with SLIS News.
Check out pictures from SLIS and around Campus.
Connect with old friends.

At this point in time our main feature will be SLIS News stories. While these stories are also available on the SLIS website, Facebook offers a new way of viewing them.

The SLIS Facebook page has been developed for three key reasons:

to gain visibility with prospective students,
to keep current students updated, and
to help alumni stay connected.

A special thanks to Dale Wray (SLIS Manager of Web Services) for developing the page.

Answer Quality on the Wikipedia Reference Desk

SLIS faculty member Pnina Shachaf gave a presentation at the 4th International Conference on Communities and Technologies held at Penn State University, University Park, PA (June 25-27, 2009). Her talk was on the opening day (Thursday, June 25th) - see abstract below.

Abstract:
Answer Quality on the Wikipedia Reference Desk

"This study aims to examine answers' quality on the Wikipedia Reference Desk. A sample of answers from the Wikipedia Reference Desk was analyzed along three SERVQUAL quality variables: reliability (accuracy, completeness, verifiability), responsiveness, and assurance. The study reports that on all three SERVQUAL measures quality of answers produced by the Wikipedia Reference Desk is comparable with that of library reference services. The collaborative social reference model of the Wikipedia facilitated the provision of services that matched or outperformed those provided by librarians. This study extends research on Wikipedia quality, reference, and answer quality on Q&A sites."

About C&T:

"In an increasingly networked world, the concept of community has taken on new meanings and inspired the development of a wide range of technologies aimed at forging connections, improving communication, and enabling coordination among groups of people. Today, such terms as virtual community, blogging, podcasting, and smart mobs have become commonplace, yet each represents a complex system of hardware, software, and people, shaped by perceptions, norms, rules, and habits, and occurring within varied social and cultural settings.

The Communities and Technologies biennial international conference serves as a forum for stimulating and disseminating research on the complex connections between communities - both physical and virtual - and information and communication technologies..."

NSF/JSMF Workshop Held at SLIS-Bloomington

The National Science Foundation/James S. McDonnell Foundation (NSF/JSMF) Workshop on Mapping the History and Philosophy of Science was held at SLIS, Wells Library, Room 001 on June 17-18, 2009. The workshop was co-organized by SLIS faculty member Katy Börner and colleague Colin Allen (IU Professor of History and Philosophy of Science, and Cognitive Science.)

Participants included the President of the James S. McDonnell Foundation, a Science Analyst from SciTech Strategies, Inc., faculty members from France - the Netherlands - and Brazil, scholars from U.S. universities including Stanford, George Washington, University of Evansville, San Diego State, and more.

•Photos from the Workshop

Workshop Goal and Agenda:

"This is a small-scale workshop that brings together History and Philosophy of Science (HPS) researchers that like to dig in data and science map makers that model and map the landscape of science - see http://scimaps.org for sample maps. The goal of the workshop is to explore synergies between these two research areas in terms of

Demonstration of existing approaches, tools, and techniques and discussion of synergies.
Discussion of different conceptualizations, existing datasets and tools.
Identification of opportunities and challenges.

This is a 1½ day workshop. Given the diverse backgrounds of the attendees and the goals of the workshop, we will use the first ½ day for brief self introductions of the participants, followed by three 30 min overview talks that set the stage for the workshop. The day concludes with a discussion of challenges and opportunities and a shared dinner. The second full day features brainstorming and discussion sessions in different team sizes and combinations. "

Related News:
Earlier the same week (June 14-16, 2009), Börner presented at the North American Conference on Computing and Philosophy. The conference was titled: NA-CAP@IU 2009: Networks and Their Philosophical Implications.

Citation Analysis - Lokman Meho Presents at SLA

SLIS faculty member Lokman Meho gave two presentations at the 2009 Special Libraries Association (SLA) Conference.

The conference was held from June 14 — 17, 2009 in Washington, D.C., and it celebrated 100 years (1909 to 2009) as an association. SLIS alumna Sharon Lenius (MLS'65) was the Local Arrangements Chairperson. General Colin Powell was the Keynote Speaker at the Opening General Session:

"General Colin L. Powell, USA (Ret.) became the 65th Secretary of State on January 20, 2001... He brought extensive experience with him to his office. Before becoming Secretary of State, Colin Powell served as a key aide to the Secretary of Defense and as National Security Advisor to President Reagan. He also served 35 years in the United States Army, rising to the rank of Four-Star General and serving as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1989-1993)..."

Below are excerpts from the SLA Conference Program about Dr. Meho's presentations. His presentation on Monday ("h-index explained") was attended by over 165 people — and the one on Tuesday 7:00 a.m. ("Which citation database: Web of Science, Scopus, or Google Scholar?") by at least 75 people.

Special Libraries Association, Chemistry Division

A Measures Toolkit for Librarians
Presentation on state of the art in citation-based indicators (June 15, 2009)

"In this session, librarians will share practical techniques and tools for evaluating their collections and measuring the impact of their parent organizations. In a world of shrinking budgets, it becomes ever more critical for organizations to measure their impact and demonstrate their value. Metrics explored will include the h-index, impact factors, eigenfactor, SCImago, and others."

Moderated by: Susan Makar, National Institute of Standards and Technology

Speakers:

Dana Roth, California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
Jo Ann Remshard, Knowledge Management Librarian, National Institute of Standards and Technology
Lokman Meho, Indiana University
Gail Ehrlich, National Institute of Standards and Technology

Special Libraries Association, Science-Technology Division

Citation Tracking Tools: Evaluation & Vendor Update
Presentation on citation databases (June 16, 2009)

"Citation Tracking and Analysis will include the pros and cons of the big three citation indexes and benefits of the lesser known sources for citation searching as well as other special topics. The second part is a vendor update that will allow the audience to question users and vendors alike."

Moderated by: Carol Lucke, Physical Sciences Reference Librarian/eJournals Specialist, Naval Research Laboratory

Speakers:

Ann Kushmerick, Thomson Reuter's Global Sales Support Group
Lokman Meho, Indiana University

CIC IT Accessibility and Usability Group - 2009 Conference

SLIS Associate Dean Howard Rosenbaum gave the keynote address for the CIC IT Accessibility and Usability Working Group - Annual Summer Conference - on Monday, June 15, 2009. His talk was titled "The importance of accessibility and usability now and in the future."

This year's meeting was held at the Alumni Hall, Indiana Memorial Union, Indiana University Bloomington (June 14-16, 2009.)

Margaret Londergan, Manager of the UITS Adaptive Technology and Accessibility Centers, Indiana University is the Chair-Elect of this Working Group.

Londergan has supervised a number of SLIS students in volunteer and paid hourly roles at the UITS Adaptive Technology and Accessibility Center (ATC) at IU Bloomington. SLIS students are welcome to contact Londergan about the Center.

"What We Do: The UITS Adaptive Technology Centers serve individuals with disabilities and specializes in assistive technologies that help with reading, writing, studying, and information access. We provide services for students, faculty, and staff with the following disabilities: vision (blindness and low vision), mobility impairment, learning (dyslexia, ADHD, and others), and hearing loss..." [ATC website]

The conference was a CIC (Committee on Institutional Cooperation) event. There are twelve member universities (see list below) - the Big Ten schools plus the University of Chicago. Representatives meet to find collective ways to address a variety of issues. A news item (posted May 15, 2009) highlights the strength of the organization.

"The most recent edition of Higher Education Consortia magazine highlights high- impact CIC collaborations in its cover article, Building Trust and Innovation: Voluntary Collaboration in the Committee on Institutional Cooperation.

The article offers insights into how the CIC developed a culture of collaboration which encourages peers to envision shared projects that transcend single- institution limitations... The article captures how the CIC is striving toward its vision to be the national model for effective and voluntary collaboration among top tier research universities."

University of Chicago

University of Illinois

Indiana University

University of Iowa

University of Michigan

Michigan State University

University of Minnesota

Northwestern University

Ohio State University

Pennsylvania State University

Purdue University

University of Wisconsin-Madison

In addition to the CIC attendees, representatives from Ivy Tech Community College attended the conference.

Collaboration with Andrea Scharnhorst, Virtual Knowledge Studio, The Netherlands

SLIS faculty member Katy Börner welcomed colleague Andrea Scharnhorst to work at SLIS Bloomington during the month of June 2009. They have worked together as the Guest Editors for an upcoming Special Issue of the Journal of Informetrics. Volume 3, Issue 3 is scheduled for publication by Elsevier in June/July 2009. The theme of this Special Issue is Science of Science: Conceptualizations and Models of Science. It includes seven invited papers, a special overview of the historical movement into Scientometrics from Eugene Garfield, and the Guest Editor's introduction.

Andrea Scharnhorst is a Senior Research Fellow and Founding Member of the Virtual Knowledge Studio (VKS) for the Humanities and Social Sciences in Amsterdam, an institute of the Royal Netherlands Academy for Arts and Sciences. At the VKS, she leads a collaboratory on modeling and simulation in the humanities and social sciences.

Scharnhorst gave a presentation on Friday, June 12, 2009 at SLIS, Wells Library, Room 011 - as a part of Börner's summer talk series. The talk was titled: "Why modeling science?" She also responded to email questions about her research, and her summer work plans:

"The Virtual Knowledge Studio for Humanities and Social Sciences at the Royal Netherlands Academy for Arts and Sciences tries to understand paradigmatic changes in the humanities and social sciences due to digitization and computational methods. We support in collaboratories the emergence and diffusion of innovative methods inside humanities and social sciences in close collaboration with in-field experts. With expertise in areas such as virtual ethnography, web archiving and innovation models we conduct various e-research project but we also aim to be an inspiring and catalytic meeting place for front research projects at the interfaces between arts, humanities, social sciences and natural as well as computer sciences.

I'm a senior research fellow at the VKS and responsible for the simulation collaboratory. I'm interested in the use of mathematical models to better understand the dynamics of knowledge processes in science and beyond. Complexity theory has developed its own visual language for dynamic processes such as path-dependent trajectories or attractor landscapes. Visualization of information spaces, in particular evolving ones, provide rich empirical material and challenging question for dynamic models.

In an on-going collaboration with Katy Börner we try to build a link between dynamic visualizations of complex information processes and mathematical models for explanation, exploration and forecast. I'm curious to learn more about the tools developed at the Cyberinfrastructure for Network Science Center and the burning question which type of insights, support and service the new information science can deliver to the various academic disciplines including digital humanities and social sciences."

Watch for upcoming notices about a Workshop in Amsterdam on October 6-9, 2009. Both Andrea Scharnhorst and Katy Börner are part of the Programme Committee. The Workshop is being "organized by the Science System Assessment group at the Rathenau Institute of the KNAW in collaboration with the Virtual Knowledge Studio (KNAW) and the Cyberinfrastructure for Network Science Center (Indiana University)." To read more:
• Workshop: "Modelling Science - Understanding, Forecasting, and Communicating the Science System"

FALL ORIENTATION

Thursday, August 27, 2009
*and more August 28, 2009

10:30-11:30 a.m.	General Session - Room 033 (SLIS Auditorium) Please arrive a little early due to tight seating.
11:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m.	Lunch & Break - Room 001 and Courtyard Continuing students, staff, and faculty are invited to attend.
1:00-1:55 p.m.	MIS/MLS Welcome Session - Howard Rosenbaum and Lokman Meho, Program Directors (Room 033)
2:00-4:00 p.m.	SLIS Faculty Sessions - Select from the topics below.

Watch for updates: http://www.slis.indiana.edu/admissions/guide.html

2:00-2:25
• Social and Academic Life at SLIS: Pnina Shachaf (Room 033)
OR
• Presentation on Knowledge Representation: Elin Jacob (Room 001)
OR
• Children and Young Adult Services: Dana Backs (Room 036)
OR
• MLS Electives: Alice Robbin (Room 030)

2:30-2:55
• Electives for MLS students and School Media Certification: Noriko Hara (Room 033)
OR
• Manuscripts: Cherry Williams (Room 031)
OR
• Reference and Humanities Information Courses: Ron Day (Room 001)
OR
• Digital Humanities and Digital Libraries: John Walsh (Room 030)

3:00-3:25
• Rare Books and Special Collections: Joel Silver (Room 001)
OR
• Archives and Records Management: Philip Bantin (Room 030)

3:30-3:55
• Elective Courses - Semantic Web and Information Retrieval: Ying Ding (Room 001)
OR
• Human-Computer Interaction (HCI): Hamid Ekbia (Room 031)

FRIDAY, AUGUST 28

SLIS - Information Technology Sessions
Friday, August 28: 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m.
- Room 002A, SLIS Information Commons Lab
- Mark Napier, SLIS Director of Technology

SLIS - Library Orientation Sessions
Friday, August 28: 11:00 a.m.
- start in Room 001
- Anne Haynes, IU Subject Librarian for Library and Information Science

Student Groups - and - Events:

SLIS Student Chapters of Professional Associations
The six SLIS student groups host a variety of events. New students are encouraged to participate. These groups help with getting to know each other, but also about how professional associations work (which is important in your job search and career goals.) They will advertise events on our listservs (SLIS-L and SLIS-Students-L), on the bulletin boards, and on their websites:

(ACM) Association for Computing Machinery
(PLG) Progressive Librarians Guild
(ALA) American Library Association
(SAA) Society of American Archivists
(ASIST) American Society for Information Science and Technology
(SLA) Special Libraries Association

IU GPSO (Graduate and Professional Student Organization)
These events provide a great way to meet graduate students from other departments. SLIS has a representative on the GPSO. Watch for their orientation events. Last year they hosted a cookout, a wine and cheese reception, and an orientation session.

SLIS Listservs:
Be sure to subscribe to both listservs (SLIS-L) and (SLIS-Students-L).

Questions:
If you have any questions, feel free to contact Rhonda or Jill in the SLIS Office (812.855.2018 or tollfree 888.335.7547). Email: slis@indiana.edu

2009 Dates to Note:

*Fall Classes Begin	Monday, August 31, 2009
*Labor Day (classes DO meet)	Monday, September 7, 2009

Need to change your Fall Schedule?
Go online through the first week of classes: http://onestart.iu.edu

Refund Schedule

100% Fri., Sept. 4
75% Fri., Sept. 11
50% Fri., Sept. 18
25% Fri., Sept. 25

SLIS Fall Reception

Monday, September 21
at FARM Restaurant (watch for details) 7:00 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.

Last day to Withdraw with an automatic "W" grade	Wed., Oct. 28
Thanksgiving Break	Tues., Nov. 24 after class Resumes Nov. 30
Final Exam Week	Week of Mon., Dec. 14 - Dec. 18
Spring 2010 Classes Begin	January 10, 2010

Need Future Dates?

IU Office of the Registrar's Calendar:

Event Calendar Links (SLIS Website)
http://www.slis.indiana.edu/students/events_calendars.html

Surveying Users: Important Points to Consider (ILF District 4 Conference)

The Indiana Library Federation (ILF) supports libraries and librarians in the state of Indiana. In addition to hosting an annual conference, they sponsor meetings to support the eight Districts. District 4 includes Boone, Hamilton, Hancock, Shelby, Morgan, Johnson, Marion, and Hendricks counties (Central Indiana).

SLIS faculty member Rachel Applegate presented at the Indiana Library Federation District 4 Conference held on Thursday, May 21, 2009 at the Indiana State Library. The talk abstract is below:

• Surveying Users: Important Points to Consider (1 LEU)

This session will briefly cover important considerations when a library thinks about listening to its users via a survey. Who will get the survey, which may seem like the last step, will determine much about what the survey will cover, how it will be distributed and received, and what kinds of data you can find out from it. Steps•not specifics.

See Related SLIS News Story:
• Association of College & Research Libraries 2009 Conference

Mikhail Koulikov - New York Law Institute

SLIS graduate Mikhail Koulikov (MLS '08) has been recently employed at law library of the New York Law Institute. In an email interview he gave details about his new job and tips for students (see below).

In addition, Koulikov was a winner of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) Call for Papers contest. Mikhail's paper — which he will present at this years' AALL Conference (July 2009 in Washington, D.C.) — won in the "new members" category. His paper will also be published in a forthcoming issue of the Law Library Journal. He noted: "The paper was originally written for Prof. Steven Sowell's "Evaluation of Resources and Services" [SLIS-S505] class in the fall of 2008. It draws on both class readings and my own interests to conduct a preliminary study of the extent to which law reviews (legal journals) are accessible through general, non-legal academic databases."

Email Interview:

1. What are your key job duties?
My key duties include providing advanced document retrieval assistance (locating books, sections of books, and articles on particular, highly specific legal topics, finding old/obsolete federal and state laws, compiling legislative histories), as well as answering various reference questions that come in by e-mail, by phone, and occasionally, from walk-in patrons, and conducting in-depth research. I am also beginning to be involved in marketing NYLI to potential members by developing presentations on our capabilities. Our staff is very small, only six full-time employees, and since we have a combined circulation and reference desk, my duties also involve basic library administrative/maintenance activities. In addition, currently, I am supervising a project to prepare several thousand volumes of old New York State court records for digitization by Google.

2. What do you like the most about your job?
Our work is extremely fast-paced, with dozens of requests per day, and we are usually the resource that libraries turn to when their own collections do not carry the requested items. Because of this, and because we serve several different types of clients, I am always faced with new challenges, and always learning about new materials and resources. At the same time, I like that we operate on a fee basis, and charge for some of our services (such as scanning and delivering documents by e-mail). This gives me a unique perspective on the role of a library as a business whose product is access to information.

3. Do you have any advice for current students?
Even if you have an idea of what you want to do as a librarian, try to take advantage of the wide range of classes SLIS offers. I would strongly recommend taking both reference and cataloging, to get a good idea of the two faces of library service, and at least one of the advanced reference classes such as government documents, social science materials, or law librarianship. At the same time, SLIS's unique strength is the number of highly theoretical classes the program offers - and taking those will give you a more complete understanding of the role of librarians and information professionals, both in libraries specifically, and in the world-place in general.

Also, if at all possible, try to secure a summer internship. And finally, figure out what your comfort zone is - and then go outside that, because chances are, when you are looking for your first professional job as a librarian, you will apply not to the job you think is ideal, but rather, to the job that is available.

4. Any other comments?
As I begin my career as a professional librarian, I would like to thank several of my SLIS professors for passing their own knowledge on to me, and giving me an opportunity to be where I am. Those who I think were particularly helpful include Pnina Shachaf, Ron Day, Carol Choksy, and Keith Buckley and Linda Fariss, at the Indiana University Law School Library.

Wiggins-Roth Award for Outstanding Service Established

SLIS alumnus Gary Wiggins (MLS '71 and Ph.D. '85) was recently honored by the Chemistry Division of the Special Libraries Association. An announcement was included in the Indiana University Libraries IUL News on June 5, 2009 (Volume 36, Issue 22).

"The Special Libraries Association Chemistry Division has honored Gary Wiggins, former head of IU's Chemistry Library, by naming an award in his honor.

The Wiggins-Roth Award for Outstanding Service is named in honor of Gary Wiggins and Dana Roth, two individuals who are well-known and highly regarded for their tremendous contributions to the field of chemical information and their enthusiasm for sharing their expertise with others in the profession.

The award recognizes outstanding contributions to the field of chemical information. The first call for nominations will be issued in August 2009."

Submitted by: Eric Bartheld, Director of Communications, IUB Libraries

A 2007 related SLIS News story gave highlights of his career. At that time he was the Director of the IU Chemical Informatics program. He had been the advisor to the SLIS Chemical Information Specialization for many years, and had been the head of the IU Chemistry Library for 27 years.

• Special Libraries Association Hall of Fame Award: Gary Wiggins

Wiggins was also the 2001 recipient of the SLIS Distinguished Alumni Award. The abstract from his presentation talk (October 31, 2001) is included here:

gobElins and gMelin's:
European Influences on an American Chemistry Librarian
The path to a career is sometimes circuitous and may be influenced by factors far removed from the geographical location that marked the start of the journey. In a career that careened from chemistry to Slavic and East European studies, then eventually settled into chemistry librarianship, the European influences were many. This talk covers the last 30 years, with particular attention to the major role that European chemistry publishers have played on the development of the current chemical information environment.

SLIS Alumna to be Dean of IU-Kokomo Library

Rhonda Armstrong (MLS '91) will become the Dean of the Indiana University - Kokomo Library starting July 1, 2009.

She wrote to SLIS faculty member Debora Shaw about the new position. She stated, "I was in some of your classes back in 1990-91 and you were my advisor. I'm just letting you know that my degree from IU has served me well all these years, and also that I'm coming back to Indiana..." Armstrong is currently the Director of the Carnegie-Vincent Library at Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tennessee.

We asked her for any tips for current students in an email interview. She responded:

"If you know what type of library (e.g., academic, public, special, etc.) that interests you the most, then be sure to take classes with content that is applicable to the needs of that setting, take some classes taught professors who've had experience in that type library, and continue learning all you can after you obtain a job in your chosen area.

However, since the current economy may require you to take a position that might not be in your ideal area, be willing to learn everything you can about the environment in which you find yourself. Some wonderful aspects of the library profession are the opportunities to learn new things wherever you land and the opportunities to meet and learn from other librarians who are generally so gracious about mentoring new librarians.

I've most of all liked meeting the people who work in libraries and who use libraries. Also, it has been rewarding to feel that I've contributed to creating better working environments for employees and more user friendly services and spaces in my roles during the last several years in managerial positions. One dislike has been dealing with my email way too much!"

International Council for Scientific and Technical Information

SLIS faculty member Katy Börner presented research at the International Council for Scientific and Technical Information (ICSTI) 2009 Conference in Ottawa, Canada on June 9 - 10. The conference was titled "Managing Data for Science."

Börner's talk, entitled "Computational Scientometrics to Inform Science Policy," was related to her work with the Cyberinfrastructure for Network Science Center at SLIS (see abstract below).

Abstract:

"Through its "Cyberinfrastructure for Network Science" center, the School of Library and Information Science at the Indiana University is providing computational resources for scientists and policy-makers who seek to understand the flow of knowledge. By providing unified access to data sets of scientific publications, the center acts as a hub for scientometrics. The group is also conducting a needs analysis of sciencepolicy-makers in academia and government to define what 'science of science' tools they require. The resulting recommendations for macroscope of science will be presented. Dr. Börner will introduce this suite of cyberinfrastructure applications and discuss how the sharing, analysis and visualization of published knowledge can inform science policy."

About the Conference:

"The one and a half (1.5) day conference program includes presentations on issues facing those who create and manage massive amounts of research data, as well as specific examples of how eScience is enhancing scientific discovery.

The program material originates with authors or organizations not subject to the Government of Canada's Official Languages Act. Presentations are available in the language in which they were written. Speakers' presentations will be posted on-line after the conference."

About ICSTI:

"ICSTI, The International Council for Scientific and Technical Information, offers a unique forum for interaction between organizations that create, disseminate and use scientific and technical information. ICSTI's mission cuts across scientific and technical disciplines, as well as international borders, to give member organizations the benefit of a truly global community."

SLIS Alumni Board Letter by Jerome Conley, President

Alumni Board News - Letter from Jerome Conley
SLIS Network (the SLIS Alumni Newsletter), Vol. 47 No. 1, Spring 2009

As you know, our nation, communities, university and profession are in the midst of a budget crisis of unseen proportions which has led to the closing of libraries, the reduction of staff or the elimination of library services across the nation. Times are tough.

However, it is important to keep in mind that this crisis doesn't have to define who we are and what we do. We must remember the immortal words of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in his first inaugural address to the nation, "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself".

SLIS alumni are willing and poised to confront these challenges head-on without fear. Our profession has weathered other tough times in the past and yet we've always maintained the same level of excellence that is expected of us by patrons. The key part of this excellence is the invaluable work of the alumni in our august ranks such as you, the professionals who deal day in and day out with people who have come to expect outstanding service from us, whether said patron is a student, staff, faculty or community member, trustee or corporate colleague. We are a noble and proud profession.

So, while some of you might be discouraged right now by what's happening with the country, and rightly so, it is important to know that your fellow SLIS alumni "have your back". We are all part of the Hoosier family. We must use this difficult time to show empathy and sympathy to our colleagues who are adversely affected by the current economic conditions of the nation. We can't leave anyone behind, and each of us needs to play our own big role. Yogi Berra once said "When you're part of a team, you stand up for your teammates. Your loyalty is to them. You protect them through good and bad, because they'd do the same for you". As your SLIS president, I want you to know that these words ring especially true for your SLIS Alumni Board's vision for this organization. We will use our upcoming Executive Board meeting to identify possible ways to help out those alumni colleagues impacted by the current conditions and set a course that affords us with ways to weather this climate.

Now, I can't be completely optimistic and sunny. We still have some difficulties ahead. We will undoubtedly face unprecedented challenges, in an evolving environment that we will have to adapt ourselves to. However, this will also give us an opportunity to do new things, become more flexible, viewing these events as situations that will make us better rather than threats that will hurt us. We will come to a time when what we do may not be enough, when we have to go the extra mile to make our patrons' experience even more memorable, more enriching, more unforgettable. You are a special group of people because you are Hoosiers… and I know that you can do this without any problems.
Finally, it has been my pleasure to serve as your president. I wish the new president and her Executive Board only the best in the coming year.

List of Alumni Board members:

Christina Bennett-McNew, MLS '02
Jerome Conley, MLS '90
Patricia Court, MLS '77
Courtney Greene, MLS '00
Beverly Martin, MLS '70
Richard Steele, MLS '76
Lorelle Swader, MLS '86
James Wiser, MLS '02
Blanche Woolls, Ph.D. '73

SLIS alumni have recently been mailed the Spring 2009 issue of the alumni magazine (SLIS Network, Vol.47, No.1). The theme of this issue was "Faculty Excellence." If you did not receive a copy, you can update your alumni address by emailing us at (slisnews@indiana.edu).

An online version of the magazine is available on the Alumni page of the SLIS website:
• SLIS Network Archives

Phil Bantin – Waldo Gifford Leland Award Recipient

Waldo Gifford Leland Award: "Created in 1959, this prize encourages and rewards writing of superior excellence and usefulness in the field of archival history, theory, or practice." [SAA website]

The Society of American Archivists (SAA) established this award for "Publishing Excellence", and "in honor of Waldo Gifford Leland, who authored the landmark Guide to the Archives of the Government of the United States in Washington in 1904; was active in the organization of the Conference of Archivists in 1909; played a central role in the establishment of the U.S. National Archives; and served two terms as SAA President during the 1940s."

Phil Bantin will be honored at the Annual Meeting of the Society of American Archivists (August 12-14, 2009) in Austin, Texas as this year's recipient of the Waldo Gifford Leland Award. The award will be given in recognition of his book Understanding Data and Information Systems for Recordkeeping.

Bantin is the Director of the Indiana University - Office of University Archives and Records Management. He is also the Director of the SLIS Archives and Records Management Specialization (with the Master of Library Science degree).

The SAA Meeting is titled Sustainable Archives: AUSTIN 2009. It will be held as a Joint Annual Meeting of the Council of State Archivists and the Society of American Archivists.

See Related SLIS News Story:
• New Book By Phil Bantin: Understanding Data and Information Systems for Recordkeeping

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Library

Three SLIS graduates are working at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Library in Greenbelt, Maryland: Jose Reyes, Barbara (Yates) Hilderbrand, and Jeremy Gottwig. This story started with Jose Reyes writing to SLIS faculty member Elin Jacob about his job as a Digital Project Librarian. He noted that he was working with metadata issues that she had taught in class. Jacob was the SLIS-S634 Metadata instructor in Spring 2008. Both Reyes and Hildenbrand were in that class.

In an email interview, we asked these three graduates to respond to questions: "What do you like about this job?" - and - "Advice for SLIS students?" (see below).

About the Library
"The Goddard Space Flight Center Library is located at the main facility of the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, northeast of Washington, DC. Goddard is a federal Research and Development laboratory that comprises more than 30 major buildings on 1200 acres, and has a workforce of about 10,000, which includes federal civil servants and private industry contractors, both on-site and off-site. Goddard's primary role in NASA is to provide program and project management, engineering and scientific research for a variety of instruments and spacecraft for the scientific exploration of the Earth, Sun, Solar System, and the Universe beyond. Goddard also oversees the Wallops Flight Facility, and its Technical Library, near Chincoteague, Virginia. Wallops conducts a variety of suborbital rocket and low-Earth orbit space missions, as well as managing NASA's high altitude scientific balloon program in Palestine, Texas." [library website]

Jeremy Gottwig (MIS/MLS'07)

What do you like about this job? The atmosphere here is laid back but full of opportunities. Goddard is one of the most academic NASA centers, so it many ways, it feels like working at a university. There are frequent lectures on topics ranging from robotics to information visualization. As a library, we are currently engaged in a number of fascinating projects. Lately our focus has been working with the Fedora repository software.

Advice for SLIS students: If you're interested in working in the DC area, don't forget to check out contracting positions in addition to federal employment. About 75% of the people working at Goddard are contractors.

Barbara (Yates) Hildenbrand (MLS'08)

What do you like about the job? I like that I always have something new and different to work on; I rarely ever have the opportunity to be bored.

Advice for SLIS students? Don't overlook government positions, they're actually full of interesting and exciting opportunities.

Jose Reyes (MIS/MLS'09)

What do you like about this job? I would have to agree with Jeremy regarding the academic environment at GSFC. There isn't the usual bustling of students you would commonly see on other campus but you do hear of a lot of events occurring within the scientific community.

Also, I love the flexibility my job gives me at work, allowing me to be creative while constantly learning. I would have to agree with Jeremy that we are involved in a number of interesting tasks that will culminate into one project. Having the opportunity to contribute to the Goddard Space Flight Center Library's Fedora project is one of the more exciting aspects of this job.

Advice for SLIS students?
If digital libraries is what you want to focus on, definitely take advantage of the [MIS/MLS] dual-degree program. The experience and skill-set gained from SLIS can certainly distinguish you from other candidates.

Photo Credit: spike55151
Some rights reserved

5th Iteration of Places and Spaces - Debut at Stanford

Are you interested in seeing science from above? Curious to see what impact one single person or invention can have? Keen to find pockets of innovation? Desperate for better tools to manage the information flood? Or are you simply fascinated by maps? [Place & Spaces website]

The 5th iteration of the Places & Spaces: Mapping Science is now on display at Stanford University (Stanford, California). The exhibit includes 10 new maps a year, with a goal of a total of 100 maps by 2014.

The opening reception on May 18, 2009 included a video Skype discussion with SLIS faculty member Katy Börner, and co-curator of the event and SLIS graphic designer Elisha Hardy. Extra [Event Photos] can be viewed.

Bonnie DeVarco (Co-Exhibit Advisor) was recently featured - along with the Exhibit:
• NextNow Collab Visualization Expert Bonnie DeVarco at Stanford Media X May 18, 2009

Below is the press release from Stanford University, re-posted with permission from Martha Russell (Co-Exhibit Advisor).

Stanford University Press Release
http://www.vizworld.com/2009/05/art-and-technology-of-science-visualizations-may-18th-stanford-university/
Contact: Martha Russell, Associate Director, Media X (http://mediax.stanford.edu) at Stanford University: martha.russell@stanford.edu

Art And Technology Of Science Visualizations Celebrated On May 18th At Wallenberg Hall By Media X At Stanford University

STANFORD, CALIFORNIA, May 8, 2009 — Media X at Stanford University is pleased to announce that the broadly praised international exhibition, Places & Spaces — Mapping Science, will be exhibited in Wallenberg Hall from April 20 to December 31, 2009 with a seminar, an opening reception, discussion and tour on Monday May 18th from 4 pm to 6:30 pm.

Places & Spaces highlights the rapidly growing genre of science maps based on large scale data sets. "The art, science and understanding of visualization technologies and their application have enabled new insights about complex issues to be shared with broad communities," states Media X Executive Director Charles House. "This new exhibit has turned Wallenberg Hall into a gallery setting that complements the world class visualization work on the Stanford campus in campus labs such as the Human Computer Interaction Lab (HCI) and the Spatial History Project." http://hci.stanford.edu/people/ http://spatialhistory.stanford.edu/

Curated by Dr. Katy Börner, director of the Cyberinfrastructure for Network Science Center at Indiana University and her colleague, Elisha F. Hardy, Places & Spaces was created to inspire cross-disciplinary discussion on how best to track and communicate human activity and scientific progress on a global scale. According to Börner "This exhibit introduces people to the power of maps to navigate physical spaces as well as abstract spaces of our collective scholarly knowledge."

The exhibition has two components. The physical component allows close visual inspection through high-quality prints. The online counterpart at http://scimaps.org/ provides links to a selected series of maps and their makers along with detailed explanations of why these maps work.

Each year 10 new maps are added, which will result in 100 maps total by 2014. Marking its fifth year traveling around the world, the 40 maps will be joined by the "Fifth Iteration" of the Places & Spaces exhibit. Media X at Stanford University is proud to sponsor and debut 10 new maps based on this year"s theme, "Science Maps for Science Policy Makers," on May 18.

Media X will host a reception and tour of the Places & Spaces exhibition in Wallenberg Hall from 5 pm to 6:30 pm, immediately following a seminar on Visualization Convergence for Collective, Connective and Distributed Intelligence by Bonnie DeVarco, Media X Distinguished Visiting Scholar. The seminar is part of the 2009 Media X Sun Microsystems Spring Seminar Series, http://mediax.stanford.edu/spring09_seminar_series.html Both the seminar and the reception are open to the Stanford academic community and the general public.

The reception will include a description by Stanford Computer Science Assistant Professor Jeffrey Heer of new visualization initiatives underway at Stanford, and his graduate students will present excerpts of their exciting new work in data visualization in a featured poster session.

Live teleconferences with Dr. Börner and several of the mapmakers themselves will introduce the new iteration, "Science Maps for Science Policy Makers." The physical exhibit is open to the public Monday through Friday from 8:00 am until 8:00 pm.

SLIS News Feed

SLIS Welcomes New Faculty Member: Staša Milojević

Approach to Teaching:

New Executive Director - ASCLA and RUSA

Hornung named ASCLA/RUSA executive director

Ph.D. Graduate - University of Indonesia

Search for MIS Jobs - SLIS Website

Follow SLIS on Facebook

Answer Quality on the Wikipedia Reference Desk

Abstract: Answer Quality on the Wikipedia Reference Desk

About C&T:

NSF/JSMF Workshop Held at SLIS-Bloomington

Workshop Goal and Agenda:

Citation Analysis - Lokman Meho Presents at SLA

Special Libraries Association, Chemistry Division

Speakers:

Special Libraries Association, Science-Technology Division

CIC IT Accessibility and Usability Group - 2009 Conference

Collaboration with Andrea Scharnhorst, Virtual Knowledge Studio, The Netherlands

FALL ORIENTATION

FRIDAY, AUGUST 28

Student Groups - and - Events:

2009 Dates to Note:

SLIS Fall Reception

Need Future Dates?

Surveying Users: Important Points to Consider (ILF District 4 Conference)

Mikhail Koulikov - New York Law Institute

Email Interview:

Wiggins-Roth Award for Outstanding Service Established

SLIS Alumna to be Dean of IU-Kokomo Library

International Council for Scientific and Technical Information

Abstract:

About the Conference:

About ICSTI:

SLIS Alumni Board Letter by Jerome Conley, President

Phil Bantin – Waldo Gifford Leland Award Recipient

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Library

Jeremy Gottwig (MIS/MLS'07)

Barbara (Yates) Hildenbrand (MLS'08)

Jose Reyes (MIS/MLS'09)

5th Iteration of Places and Spaces - Debut at Stanford

Stanford University Press Release

Art And Technology Of Science Visualizations Celebrated On May 18th At Wallenberg Hall By Media X At Stanford University

Abstract:
Answer Quality on the Wikipedia Reference Desk