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MIM Students: Who Are They?
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The power and quality of resilience
In this article, Andy Molinsky, a professor at the Brandeis International Business School, discusses the importance of personal resilience. Resilience is generally defined as the ability to recover readily from illness, depression, adversity, or the like; buoyancy. Resilience gives us the inner strength to persevere, and to fight through our fears and insecurities. Molinksy highlights three main considerations:
- We’re more flexible than we give ourselves credit for.
- We’re braver than we think.
- The situation we’re worried about probably isn’t as bad as we think.
- We have more resources than we think.
Molinksy adds: Don’t underestimate how flexible, brave, and capable you actually are. Give it a go, and chances are, you’ll probably end up surprising yourself.
Raed Abdel Sater discusses his experiences in the MIM program
Raed Abdel Sater, Information Management Officer at Unicef, discusses how the Master of Information Management program is helping his career: http://bit.ly/2jTFFuo
Thirty essential tips for succeeding in graduate school
Brown University professor Matthew Pratt Guterl has compiled the following tips for graduate students. His top ten are listed below:
- Remember: there are no non-professional interactions.
- Fundamentals matter. Practice your talks until they flow. Do some editorial work. Volunteer. Wear clean clothes. Update your software. Eat. Sleep. Take showers. Laugh. Love. Don’t obsess over the university—explore your city or town. Make friends everywhere. Eat cupcakes.
- Figure out what you stand for politically. Be prepared to speak up.
- Value loyalty over cool or influence. Make friends with people who care about your ideas and your well-being. Bleed for your friends and allies.
- Do not work with anyone whose first desire is to burn things down. Eventually, they will.
- Try not to get lost in departmental/teaching politics.
- Always say “thank you.” And always be “nice.” Until, of course, it is time not to be nice. Insisting on politeness—at least at first—isn’t about suppressing dissent. It is about recognizing that no one wins in the long term when everyone starts every conversation by shouting. Anger only nets short-term gain and inhibits long-term goals.
- From the moment you arrive, start thinking about the book you are going to write. No matter how daunting it seems, mess around with titles, and tables of contents, and story-lines. Think about archives and methods. Get in the habit of talking about it. Don’t be worried if, at first, you don’t know what you are doing. Choose a book that you can research and write well within five to six years. Don’t choose a topic so obscure that only a handful of people care about it. Don’t choose a topic so broad that it can’t be finished. Search for something that appeals to you and that connects with bigger issues. So choose wisely and be excited.
- Learn how to say “no” politely and firmly. And do so often. But also learn how to say “yes.” Learn how to recognize when someone has gone the extra mile to extend an invitation to you, to introduce you to someone, and say “yes” as a sign of respect.
- Take teaching seriously. Watch great teachers in the classroom. Ask them questions. Ask them to explain. Audit an undergraduate class. Draft syllabi, but don’t be weird about it. Talk to your comrades about what you’ve seen work in the classroom. Treat the discussion of teaching with as much seriousness as you do the discussion of the latest, coolest essay or book you’ve all read.
Do you have any other tips you would like to share?
World Paper Free Day, November 4.
As a member of AIIM, I am following a number of highlights that celebrate paperless work environments. World Paper Free Day (November 4) encourages us to explore how we can conduct our daily lives – with an emphasis on the work environment – without the use of paper. The question of whether paper free is, in fact, environmentally friendly, must be considered. Digital technologies create a large carbon footprint, when you consider the manufacturing process, not to mention the disposal of our various devices. Trees, on the other hand, are renewable resources. Then again, paper generates its own waste, and not all paper products are recycled, not to mention the fossil fuels needed to recycle paper. This brochure describes the benefit of paper. This article discusses the question of whether digital products are, in fact, greener than paper. Don Carli discusses the environmental impact of digital technology in this article; although it’s a little dated, it still raises interesting points. This article compares the carbon footprint of reading items in paper or digital format.
It’s no secret to those who know me, that I prefer digital to print. I prefer to read e-books, and have been doing so since 1998. I am motivated primarily by the wish to have a connected digital trail, and to reduce clutter. I much prefer to carry an e-reader that can contain thousands of books, and which is light and portable, than carry a heavy print book. I prefer to keep my life organized (I know, you’re shocked) via integrated calendars and to-do lists that can be accessible from any mobile device. I keep a digital journal that I can access anywhere. I store all my documents on the cloud, and have done so for over a decade, because this environment allows for instant backup and saving, collaborative editing, and convenience of access. Do I dislike paper? Absolutely not, but I find that digital works better for me. I do realize the environmental impact of all my devices, so I try to balance this impact by leading a zero-waste life in other areas to the best of my abilities.
I think it’s important that we all evaluate critically the carbon footprint of all media that we use, rather than jump on bandwagons too quickly, and fall prey to “greenwashing”. As information professionals, I think that we can bring our collective research abilities to help the organizations in which we work make informed and evidence-based decisions about which media formats work best for them, and to balance this with minimizing their carbon footprints to the best of their abilities.
SIM alumnus Duane Jones featured as one of Halifax’s instagrammers to watch
Duane Jones, an alumnus of our Master of Information Management program, has been chosen by Narcity as one of twelve instagrammers in Halifax that one should follow. Not surprisingly, Duane was chosen in the Fashion category, due to his successful line of clothing, Art Pays Me. Follow Duane on Instagram @artpaysme.
Master of Information Information Sessions in Ontario
Please spread the news about our upcoming information sessions about the Master of Information Management program. The sessions will be held in Richmond Hill (October 19) and Toronto (October 20).
