Silverfish Content Page

Letter From the Editor

Welcome to the 2003-2004 school year!

On behalf the Silverfish advisory board and the Association for Library and Information Science Students (ALISS), I would like to extend a hearty welcome to our new and returning iSchool students. Hopefully your summer was relaxing and restful—even if you spent it taking summer classes.

Our first issue for the new school year, this edition of the Silverfish was put together by a three-person advisory board over the last few weeks. Many thanks to our Web Editor Beverly Slabosky, ALISS Vice President SJ Alexander, and the authors who contributed stories for making this issue happen.

As the online newsletter of ALISS, the Silverfish is the mouthpiece of all of the students in the MLIS program. This year, however, we would like to expand our horizons to include articles by students in all of the iSchool programs. We would like to include the perspective of not just MLIS students, but also the folks in the MSIM cohort, the students in the PhD. program, and Informatics students. Any suggestions that you may have on how we can broaden our perspective are always welcome.

The purpose of the Silverfish is to publish material relevant to the experience of being a student at the iSchool—which could include anything from book reviews to bar reviews, and from interviews with faculty to reports on new technological gadgets. The Silverfish is not meant to be a scholarly publication, although we do publish student papers from time to time. We strive to keep this publication informal and fun—and hopefully to provide a welcome break from homework and classes (although students are discouraged from actually reading the Silverfish during class).

If you are interested in contributing to the Silverfish, we welcome article submissions at any time. Please contact Katy Shaw at katyshaw@u.washington.edu for more information.

Katy Shaw
Silverfish Senior Editor

Quick Links to This Issue:

Fiction for Felons

Everything You Wanted to Know About the Writing Center But Were Afraid to Ask!

Budgets and Blisters and SARS, Oh My:
Reasons to Attend Conferences in Spite of the Risks

Tom Rhoades' Summer Database Job

Jenn Carter's Advice On Advisors

Librarian Spotlight

Buns on the Run: Librarian Stereotypes

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About the Writing Center, but Were Afraid to Ask

by SJ Alexander and Kaijsa Calkins

As a new student, you may be pleased to learn that there is a resource to assist student writers in the Information School, the Engineering/iSchool Writing Center (EiWC). You may have questions about what the Writing Center is, and what it can do for you. We have compiled a helpful list of questions and answers to get you in the know.

Advice on Advisors for MLIS Students

by Jenn Carter

Advisors' styles vary. Some will initiate meetings with signup sheets. Some will expect you to come to them. Some will want you to pre-arrange meetings. Some won't mind if you just "stop by." Some will have individual meetings with all their advisees. Some will arrange group meetings. The important thing is that you develop a relationship with your advisor that works for you.

Read More...

Summer Fieldwork Experiences

Fiction for Felons: Directed Fieldwork at a Prison Library

By Robin Hewitt Rousu

What do you do with patrons’ interlibrary loan books when they are put into solitary confinement? This summer I did directed fieldwork at the library in the Washington State Reformatory in Monroe. I was surrounded by over 700 murderers, rapists, drug dealers, and other men who, as my supervisor put it, “are not here for singing too loudly in church”. One-third of the inmates are serving life sentences; the rest might live next door to you someday.

My Summer Database Job:
Using Your 540 ERDs and Conceptual Models in the Real World

By Tom Rhoades

This summer I worked as a database consultant to a mid-sized local telecommunications company. I was fortunate to be able to do something I always had an interest in, as well as to apply some of the skills and knowledge I gained from LIS 540 and courses from my undergrad days. While I had worked with databases in my previous work experience before the iSchool, this job gave me the most in-depth experience so far with databases and how they are used in the real world work environment. While I do not consider myself a full-fledged database ‘jockey’ quite yet, I did learn a lot this past summer and hope to use this article as a way of advising others who are in similar situations.