February - March 2003 Contents:

Mutual Unintelligibility: Finding an LIS job in the "real world", Part 1
Looking for a job after graduation? Start here!
Librarians Rally to Save America's Libraries at ALA Midwinter Convention
Field Report: Washington Branch Library is Truly a House of Knowledge
Faculty Profile: Jochen Scholl
Distance Students Enjoy Multnomah Library Tour
The Age of Sail through the Vacuum of Space: A Review of the Seafort Saga and Honor Harrington Series
Deconstructing "John Doe"
A Quick and Dirty Introduction to Science Fiction
Amendments to ALISS Bylaws

This article is the first of a three-part exploration of the LIS job market.

Since I'm going to be graduating this spring, I've been looking for a job in Information Architecture (IA). Rosenfeld and Morville, in the book that defined IA as a discipline (Information Architecture for the World Wide Web), describe Information Architecture as, among other things, "the structural design of an information space to facilitate task completion and intuitive access to content." Sounds perfect for a person with an MLIS, right?

IA, by that definition, is a fairly well understood concept amongst practitioners in Web Development, Library & Information Science, and Technical Communications. However, the term means something completely different - if anything at all - in the work world.

After countless hours of searching through Monster.com's job listings, I've found that the vocabulary of the industry varies widely from our language here at the UW Information School. In the minds of CTOs and software developers, Information Architecture is equivalent to System Architecture, which describes the structure of the hardware and software that make up computer networks and databases. To the rest of the corporate world, "Information Architecture", as a term, is practically meaningless. Equally meaningless to the sites I've searched are "Corporate Librarian", "Special Librarian", "Information Manager", and "Information Specialist" - all jobs most graduates of the Information School would kill to have. Unfortunately, our knowledge and expertise appears to be lost in the sea of mutual unintelligibility that is professional culture.

So what are we as information professionals to do? How can we find jobs that allow us to work our magic and make the world a better place?

Strategy 1: Find a similar job

One option is to find jobs that are similar enough to what we want and to change the system from the inside. For instance, Information Architecture in practice is similar to (but completely different in purpose than) Special Librarianship, Usability Engineering, Web Development, Graphic Design, Technical Writing, and Interface Design. Yet, because IA is basically a holistic systems approach to information management, it bears many similarities to Records Management, Customer Relations Management, Total Quality Management, and User Experience Design. Thus, searching the job lists for titles that are similar to the niche occupation of Information Architecture may return positions that are compatible with my interests and skill set. Once in that position, I could use my particular expertise to steer the position in the right direction and, after a few years, ask that my job title and description be changed to better fit what I do.

Strategy 2: Create a niche

Another possibility to finding that niche is to create that niche. As information professionals, we may just have to market ourselves to the organizations we want to work in. Countless career guidebooks stress the importance of the informational interview in finding a job that fits your interests. So, by making exploratory forays into the "real world", we can both learn more about the occupational landscape and plant the seed of LIS in the consciousness of professional culture. For instance, I wondered how the computer game industry dealt with their own information management issues -- and whether they knew that a person with an MLIS could help mitigate those problems. A friend of a friend hooked me up with a project manager at a local game development company, and I asked him a few questions about his work:

1. What's your job like? What's the culture like?
2. Where do you see areas for improvement in the way information is shared/managed in your work?
3. What kinds of jobs might exist for someone with my interests?
4. What sorts of skills/experience are desirable for such positions?

Surprisingly, the project manager was more than happy to provide answers. More surprisingly, he realized, perhaps after answering my leading questions, that a great need exists for information management in the world of game development.

The revolution

Since I don't have a job yet, I can't say that either of these two strategies will work. But these are the most promising paths available to me at the moment, and I believe that the combined force of hundreds of graduating MLIS, Informatics, and MSIM students insinuating themselves into the "real world" could have a profound effect on the way the industry views their information needs. Instead of waiting around for the industry to wake up and start hiring information professionals, we could chisel out our place in the world by marketing ourselves. We could change the system from the inside.

Aaron Louie
ALISS Vice President

Looking for a job after graduation? Start here!
By Steve McCann

February is here, and that means many of us will be graduating soon and looking for employment. The American Library Associaton reports that there's currently a shortage of librarians in the profession. However, if you spend a little time on listservs like newlib-l you'll quickly get the impression that what this really means is that there's a shortage of experienced librarians... FULL STORY

Librarians Rally to Save America's Libraries at ALA Midwinter Convention
By Steve McCann

Librarians from around the country packed a ballroom a few weeks ago in Philadelphia to drum up support for libraries faced with accelerating budget cuts. As ALA President Mitch Freedman explained: "We are competing for money with programs ranging from basic service to combating terrorism, but libraries are fundamental to democracy and communities… We must join together to fight to save America's libraries!"... FULL STORY

Field Report: Washington Branch Library is Truly a House of Knowledge
By Sarah Bosarge

Have you made it over to the Burke Museum yet to see the current featured exhibit "Out of the Silence: The Enduring Power of Totem Poles"? Distance MLIS student Tomi Whalen has a special relationship to the exhibit and what it represents. Tomi is part of the staff of the Little Boston Branch of the Kitsap Regional Library located on the Port Gamble S'Klallam Reservation, right across from the carving shed where she observes tribal elders carrying on the artistic traditions of their culture... FULL STORY

Faculty Profile: Jochen Scholl
By Katy Shaw

The iSchool has a new faculty member this quarter-Jochen Scholl. The staff at the Silverfish decided to interview him so we could get the scoop on his research interests, the classes he's teaching and his life before the iSchool. Now's your chance to get to know Jochen and to find out why he came to Seattle... FULL STORY

Distance Students Enjoy Multnomah Library Tour
By Sarah Bosarge

Even though the busy quarter had already started and there was a paper due that weekend, some distance MLIS students and their "regular" iSchool peers found time to attend the SALA-sponsored tour of the Multnomah County Central Library in downtown Portland on January 18. For Pat Salas and Suzy Coleman, it was an opportunity to see North America's busiest downtown library in action and also a great time to network and socialize... FULL STORY

The Age of Sail through the Vacuum of Space: A Review of the Seafort Saga and Honor Harrington series
By John Buell

When CS Forester penned his famous saga of sea battles set in the Age of Sail, few anticipated that his series would spawn not one, but two major science fiction series... FULL STORY

Deconstructing "John Doe"
By Jerome Woody

A man awakes, naked, in a fetal position on an island somewhere. Disoriented, he finds himself walking off shore, then drifting through the ocean, to eventually be found by a fishermen's ship. The fishermen on the boat cover the shivering man up with a blanket and begin to ask him about his situation. They ask him where he thinks he is. He tells them that he is located off the coast of Seattle. They ask him what time and date it is. He tells them the month, day, year, hour, minute, and second of that current moment. Another thing: these fishermen are from China and the man finds himself giving them the answers in Cantonese... FULL STORY

A Quick and Dirty Introduction to Science Fiction
By Beverly Stuart

For a quick and dirty introduction to science fiction, I want to point out a few basic themes. The first one is the "playing God" theme, which I also call the "Golem theme." In an old Jewish folk story, a rabbi creates this man (the Golem) out of clay or mud to do the rabbi's bidding. But then the Golem gets out of control, or discovers that he has a mind of his own (I forget the exact details) and the plot thickens. Science fiction has lots of variations on this theme, where the scientist creates his/her own robot/cyber-person/genetically-engineered super person, then something goes wrong, etc.... FULL STORY

Two amendments to the ALISS Bylaws dealing with elections and executive officer protocol are being proposed. All members of ALISS (all MLIS students) should review the proposed amendments over the next month. Check out the following links on the ALISS home page for more details.

The proposed amendments: http://students.washington.edu/aliss/amendments.shtml

The ALISS Bylaws: http://students.washington.edu/aliss/bylaws.shtml

Voting on these amendments will take place sometime after March 6, 2003, so keep an eye out for the announcement!

Aaron Louie
ALISS Vice President

Are you interested in sharing your knowledge with the rest of the student body? Have you attended any conferences or taken an interesting or worthwhile class outside of the department? Would you care to review nearby bars for us? Send your Silverfish submissions to aliss@u.washington.edu.

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