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News from the Department of Information Science (formerly SIM)

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Getting the most out of your MLIS experience!

Greetings, MLIS colleagues! This guest blog post is the first in a planned series at SIM, where fellow information professionals in the Halifax community and beyond will be invited to post some of their information management musings and to engage in the discussion these posts will generate. I’ll be keeping an eye on your comments for at least the next week (promise!) so feel free to respond and start some discussion!

As a recent grad of the program, and someone who has spent a considerable amount of the last year job hunting, I’d like to offer a key thought as you begin your first or second year of the program. Here it is: Get involved. Just going to your classes and doing a practicum is not going to differentiate you from our peers, whether they graduate from Western or UBC or San Jose State.

It’s pretty simple. I was involved in SIMSA (the School of Information Management Students’ Association), DJIM (the Dalhousie Journal of Interdisciplinary Management), and the SLA (Special Libraries Association) student chapter while studying for my MLIS. When it came time to apply for jobs and then to do job interviews, it wasn’t my coursework that potential employers were interested in. The time management skills I honed while working the publication process at DJIM, or the public speaking experience I gained as part of the SIMSA executive came up much more often in interviews.

If running for an elected position or volunteering for a committee doesn’t interest you, there are so many other ways you can add to your CV and make yourself more attractive to future employers. In the winter of my first year I threw together a poster for the IWB (Information without Borders) conference, even though I’d never done anything like it before. That spring I organized a quick Web 2.0 workshop for MLIS peers so we could share with each other which applications (Twitter, RSS feeds) we regularly use and love. It took very little planning and was a fun way to learn from my classmates. I was asked about all of these little details from my CV during job interviews this spring and summer.

It’s the start of a fresh school year and a great time to think about what you can do in coming months to make yourself stand out. Don’t miss this opportunity to find ways, whether large or small, to make yourself unique among MLIS grads. Feel free to comment about ideas you have for getting involved, or to discuss how you’re already setting yourself apart – simply by reading this blog and keeping in touch with SIM’s network of active professionals.

Lara (MLIS 2010) is a Research Assistant at the College of Pharmacy at Dalhousie University. She writes book and film reviews for PopMatters.com, here. She’s also on Twitter, here.

Exploring Information Interaction ‘Context’ with Tefko Saracevic at IIiX2010

I just came back from the ‘Information Interaction in Context Symposium‘ in New Brunswick (the one in New Jersey, not the one in Canada), the home of Rutgers University. And I would like to share some of the highlights from the keynote speaker while it’s still fresh in my mind.

This year the keynote speaker is Dr. Tefko Saracevic from the School of Communication & Information at Rutgers University. Dr. Saracevic is a well-known figure in the field of Information Behaviour. He was one of the first scholars in the field to recognize the importance and influence of context (e.g., social, cultural, cognitive, etc.) on user’s information seeking and searching behaviour (see Saracevic’s 1996/97 stratified model of Information Retrieval interaction).

Dr. Saracevic started with a great overview of the field from the theoretical perspective. He then outlined some of the shortcomings within current Human-Computer Interaction theories, specifically how HCI theories are not strong on ‘context’ and criticized that the majority of Information Retrieval (IR) tests rely too heavily on the ‘traditional’ recall/precision model (including TREC). As a solution, he proposed five axioms related to ‘context’ in information interaction. I especially like the first axiom “One cannot not have a context in information interaction” which was inspired by Paul Watzlawick ‘s axiom in the Communication field – “One Cannot Not Communicate”. ) You can find the other four axioms (which are also very insightful) on Saracevic’s website (in the abtract of the talk or presentation slides).

In sum, I agree with Dr. Saracevic that the understanding of ‘context’ is crucial; especially for designing effective IR systems. But understanding the importance of ‘context’ and actually capturing & being able to make use of the information is two different things. Nowadays it is very easy and cheap to capture different kinds of contextual information such as user’s geographic location (via GPS-enabled phones) or user’s social ‘location’ (via online social networking sites); the harder question is how to take full advantage of this information without actually overwhelming the user with a tsunami of data and/or compromising user’s privacy. Going forward, these are some of the concerns that the IR field will have to address.

[Cross-posted at http://anatoliygruzd.com]

Library vending machine

The Toronto Public Library is exploring the possibility of installing an automated kiosk to dispense library materials in Union station, which is the city’s busiest subway station. As someone who used to work close to Union station and never had a chance to see the light of day (due to the underground pedways), I can certainly appreciate the convenience of this device. I often have trouble getting to my branch library during the work week, especially since I rely on public transit, so this service would certainly increase my use of public library resources. The key point, as made by Ms. Bailey, is that these kiosks are just another level of service, rather than a replacement.

Future scenarios for academic libraries

The Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) has released this thought piece: “Futures thinking for academic librarians: Higher education in 2025.”  The document proposes the following future scenarios:

1. A college degree for every citizen
2. Academic niche networking
3. Activist seniors keep on working
4. Archives on demand
5. Breaking the textbook monopoly
6. Bridging the scholar/practitioner divide
8. Community over consumerism
9. Creative conscription
10. Design for disability
11. Everyone is a “non-traditional” student
12. I see what you see
13. Increasing threat of cyberwar, cybercrime, and cyberterrorism
14. Kinesthetic fluency
15. Longevity is the new wealth
16. Meet the new freshman class
17. Money makes the world go around
18. No need to search
19. [Libraries] Out of business
20. Pop-up campus (e-learning)
21. Renaissance redux
22. Right here with me
23. Scholarship stultifies
24. Sign on the dotted line (no tenure)
25. Think U
26. This class brought to you by…
27. Woven learning

Appendix A contains a very-well explained guideline for how academic librarians could address these possible scenarios.  It’s a fascinating document.

Navigation structure of university websites

This image has become cited in a number of places lately:

University Website

I must admit that this image does strike a cord, given the way many university and school websites are organized. As someone who is strongly interested in social media applications, particularly in library catalogues, I sometimes do wonder about the extent to which the addition of these applications hinders or facilitates people’s information needs. I would be interested in hearing any perspectives you might have about this matter, particularly with respect to how we can best organize SIM’s website.

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