The Newsletter of the Association of
Library and Information Science Students
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[Formerly the Sojourner]
January/February 1997
Contents
Update on Everything Ken
Thompson
As you may recall from the last Silverfish, there were many
pending changes
about to occur around GSLIS. Here's what's up:
Relocation:
Instead of GSLIS moving temporarily to Bagley and then back to Suzzallo
after renovations are completed, it now appears likely that GSLIS will
never move back to Suzzallo, instead finding a new home in Mary Gates Hall
(directly south of Suzzallo). Whether the temporary move to Bagley will
still occur is still up in the air.
Futures Committee Report:
The report came out, and most faculty and students seemed to be largely in
favor of the recommendations. As I write this, we are waiting for the UW
Provost to make some kind of decision about whether the recommendations
should be implemented or not. (If yes, the report then needs the approval
of the President.)
Hiring:
All hiring of new faculty is still on hold pending the Provost's action on
the Futures Report. After the decision comes in, hiring will commence
apace, I have been assured. Other plans have been suggested to make sure
that a lack of full-time faculty doesn't lead to reduced course offerings.
Return to Contents
The Glory of Metacrawler
Darla Linville
On Tuesday, February 4, Erik Selberg came to speak before a
rather
populous colloquium crowd about the beauty and glory of Metacrawler
(http://www.metacrawler.com), a
Web search service he designed with Oren
Etioni and that was created here at the University of Washington. To the
delight of the crowd, he made a thorough demonstration of what Web search
services do, what metasearch services do and what are the problems and
pitfalls involved with their maintenance and operation.
Metacrawler is a metasearch tool, which means that it uses the
search capacity of several search services at one time to do a more
thorough search for the client. This gives them better recall than most
services have, a highly desired boast in the search engine world.
Metacrawler also filters the responses it gets back by checking them
against the query. This gives them better precision, and voila, a better
search service than you can get with any of the single search services
themselves.
Selberg spoke also of a future vision that they have at
Metacrawler, to incorporate relevance feedback into their service. This
would involve a user/service dialogue to determine if the desired
information was found and suggestions of other search terms. This would
make the service more helpful to inexperienced users. They are also in
the process of creating a UW search service called HuskySearch which can
be found at http://huskysearch.cs.washington.edu.
Return to Contents
Great Classes in Other Departments
There are many classes outside the Graduate School of Library and
Information Science that can be of great benefit, both philosophically and
practically, for our education and career preparation. Librarianship is
very much a "real world" profession, in that we will be interacting with
people from all walks of life and have to be prepared for almost any
situation. Following are some tips from GSLIS students on places to look
for broader educational horizons.
Elements of User Interface Design (IE 455/TC
455)
Heidi E.K. Senior
During Spring Quarter of 1996, Karen Eliason (Access Librarian at the
Undergraduate Library) came to my User Education class to talk about the
graduate work she was doing in Technical Communications. She made it sound
so interesting that I looked up Fall 1996 offerings in the time schedule. I
sent e-mail to the instructors of two Technical Communications courses and
received positive responses from both of them.
"Elements of User Interface Design" is a required class in the Industrial
Engineering department, but don't let that scare you. It's considered a
"human factors" course - no math - and since it's user oriented, it's
right up our
alley. The professor, Tom Furness (head of the Human-Interface Technology
Lab), considers the class to be an introduction to creative thinking and to
the process of designing an interface. He had a broad definition for
"interface." We had a half-dozen "pop quizzes" where Dr. Furness asked us to
design a one-armed wheelbarrow, or a clock with no hands, or a stove for a
blind person. There was a short-paper assignment on evaluating a video game
in an arcade, and a huge team project on designing an interface. My team
designed the screens for a handheld system that would tell a traveler where
certain attractions were located and provide maps as well as instructions
for the taxi driver in the local language. We performed user tests and gave
a presentation of our results at the end of the term.
If you would like to know more about Technical Communications courses, I'm
sure Karen Eliasen would be happy to help you: eliasen@u.washington.edu.
Public Management: Personnel
(PB AF 523)
Julie Tanner
This 3-credit class is an interesting and valuable one for
librarians, as most of us will be working for local, county, state, or
federal government. Topics covered are the history and politics of public
personnel management, the "spoils" system, human resources planning, equal
employment opportunity and affirmative action, comparable worth, labor
relations, training personnel and performance appraisal. Of interest and
great worth was learning what questions an employer may legally ask a
prospective employee, and what questions are off-limits. This is helpful
if you are the one applying for the job, then you know which questions you
don't have to answer. Also, valuable information concerning ADA
(Americans with Disabilities Act).
This course was made up not only of students from the School of Public
Affairs, but there was one student from the School of Education, a woman
who worked for the UW police department, and a woman who worked part-time
for the fire department in Kirkland. It was enlightening to hear how
other professions handle labor disputes, etc. The course is taught by
Ernie Miller (and yes, everyone calls him Ernie), a very approachable and
well-liked professor. The course requires an entry code that you can get
from the secretary of Public Affairs.
Introduction to Museology
(MUS 480/ANTH 480)
Julie Tanner
For anyone interested in museum work, this 3-credit class is a must!
Taught by the curator of Asian and Pacific Ethnology at the Thomas Burke
Museum, this is an introductory class into museums of all kinds; art,
cultural, natural history, science and technology, historical, aquariums,
zoos. Areas discussed are the history, funding, role of the director in
the museum; conservation, perservation and restoration of exhibits,
architecture, design and building of museums, repatriation with a focus on
the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, exhibit
design, and careers in museums with invaluable information about salary in
this kind of work (it's lousy). We had several guest speakers including
the director of the Seattle Children's Museum and the Education Director
at Woodland Park Zoo.
This class also requires an entry code and if you really want to take
this course, talk to Miriam Kahn, the instructor, whose office is in the
Burke Museum. It is popular and fills up fast. Only offered fall
quarter.
Writing, Designing, and Desktop
Publishing (URBDP 498B)
Larry Krasner
Last summer quarter I finally ventured into electives territory--and came
out smiling. "Writing, Designing, and Desktop Publishing" (URBDP 498B)
has been a recurrent skills class offered at the College of Architecture
and Urban Planning (Gould Hall). A 4-credit, credit/no credit class, the
course is an intensive immersion in Word and PageMaker, with practice in
scanning, Photoshop, and Excel charting. Mac is the favored platform, but
Windows is used as well.
Dena Assaf, the instructor, really delivered: she engaged the eleven of us
with a deft mix of graphic design concepts and plenty of hands-on
exercises and projects. A doctoral candidate in Urban Planning, she
consults in desktop publishing and related computer applications. She
really cared about our progress and gave each of us plenty of personal
attention as we worked through our projects in the labs.
By the end of a full summer term, each of us produced our own newsletter,
reformatted a document using Word's many bells and whistles, and got a
brief grounding in the basics of email and the Internet. This course would
be especially valuable for those of us planning to write a thesis; Dena
offered advice and copies of the University's style manual. A great
course, I highly recommend it!
Return to Contents
SLA Chapter Presents Sylvia Piggot
Raney Newman
I attended the presentation by Sylvia Piggot, president of the Special
Libraries Association, on January 16. It was seething with un-library
school looking-types, in ties and with steely eyes. It looked like a good
networking opportunity. And that's what she emphasized in her talk. She
had the nicest accent that was a mix of Canadian, British and Jamaican. I
was trying to decipher which country each vowel came from as she talked
about the need for continual self-education and self-evaluation, to make
sure you are staying on target with your goals. I gleaned the idea that in
special libraries, we need to take charge of our own development. The
presentation sometimes seemed a bit esoteric, and I would have liked more
real-world examples, but some of her little maxims were interesting. She
said: don't stay in a job you don't like, don't hang around negative
people, congratulate yourself for trying with every job application, even
if you aren't hired.
She also had some intriguing ideas with regard to library schools,
which is relevant in this time of transition in this school. She
suggested that there should be a mingling of ideas by the business,
education, computer science and library school departments. This needn't
be limited to only those departments. Having lunch with her and my fellow
SLA officers, she told about her student days, crusading to reform the
library school. One of her tactics which was brutal but effective was to
threaten to report the poor teaching quality to the student newspaper if
there weren't changes made. It ended with several of the faculty going on
sabbatical, and new faculty being hired. I thought they might have had
some grudges but the school hired her as an administrator when she
graduated.
With regard to the kinds of jobs we can do, she mentioned that people
other than librarians will be coming into the field of what has usually
been done by the special librarians; however, new kinds of work will
simultaneously be opening to us. Some of the job titles she listed were
Client-server Network Administrator, Knowledge Management Officer, Systems
Librarian, Intranet Consultant or Designer. I got a feeling that we could
create our own job title, depending on which areas of skill we develop.
To prepare ourselves for a self-created role, taking charge of our
education is vital. She listed some of the useful skills: web development,
intranet, database design, public relations (for proving to someone why
they need our services), installing CDs, and teaching skills (to
facilitate user self-sufficiency).
Altogether, I came away from this inspirational talk and
meeting with a clearer idea of what awaits after
library school.
Return to Contents
Special Libraries Association UW Chapter -
Introduction
Raney Newman, vice-chair, SLA student group
Hello Everyone! I'd like to introduce the officers of the GSLIS SLA
Student Group, and mention some of our upcoming events.
Aaron Oesting (e-mail aoesting@u.washington.edu) is
our beloved president. He's pretty easygoing, as long as you spell his
name right. He has been living in Seattle for years after a long stint
overseas and was most recently employed at a software company. Tiffany
Tuttle (e-mail absences@u.washington.edu) is
our Secretary. She is a recent graduate of Emory University in Atlanta,
Georgia. She is also an officer in ALISS. She has really nice, boingy,
curly hair which I envy, in case you want to spot her in Sam Oh's class,
cataloging or various other mindboggler classes. Steve Weil (e-mail sweil@u.washington.edu) is the
Treasurer, and has been around Seattle for several years. He has been a
social worker, and now, I believe has his own web-related business. He is
also student rep for the SLA Student and Academic Relations Committee.
Me, I'm Raney Newman (e-mail pum@u.washington.edu), the
vice-chair person. I like fiddle music and theater, and the fact that they
actually trust us to use IOU slips (I only owe ten cents, really.) I bet
they don't do that in the hard-bitten world of special libraries, public
libraries maybe...
The SLA student chapter here hosts various events which provide valuable
insight into the world of special libraries, career-related but enjoyable
at the same time, like fat-free candy-bars. Watch for notices posted on
our board about speakers from special libraries in the area. And watch for
the dates for SLA student group meetings. We take any and all input on
what kind of speakers you want to hear. Sylvia Piggot, the president of
the Special Libraries Association, came to talk in Allen auditorium,
January 16th. February 6th, there was a talk from a representative of
Pathogenesis, who talked about reengineering library services. There will
be a tour of King County Law Library on Valentine's Day. Time to be
posted; we will meet at the library school and proceed to the buses.
Take advantage of the free admission to this summer's SLA conference if
you volunteer 8 hours at the hospitality desk. The April meeting of the
local chapter will emphasize how to make your conference experience
interesting and productive.
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News from SALA
Ginny Allemann
The new SALA (Student American Library Association) board is finally in
place! We are: Bonnie Parks (bonster@u), Chair; Deirdre
Miller (mdeirdre@u),
Vice-Chair; Ginny Allemann (valleman@u), Program Chair;
and Sarah Kielhack (sarahwk@u), Conference Chair.
Two other people, Cass Shettleroe (cshettle@u) and Julia Paulsen
(gringa@u) form the
"leadership group." We are excited about SALA, but just a little
overwhelmed as we head into the second half of the quarter.
Our mission, or goal (or is it an objective?) is to provide service and
educational opportunities as well as some fun activities for all students
of the GSLIS. Please watch for information about our general meeting
(sometime in the next month) and a social/fun gathering of some sort in
the near future. (I know I could use some fun -- not that my life hasn't
been infinitely enriched with Dialog searches and HTML pages!)
Though you probably already have a few things to do, you might consider
joining in on a 2-3 hour volunteer activity in February. It really can be
a way to get a little perspective. The two opportunities are:
- Wednesday, Feb. 19, 3:30 to 6:30 PM. Madrona Elementary School.
The
librarian has a large order of new children's books coming in and needs
help covering them. Only three to five people needed.
- Wednesday, Feb. 26, 3-6:30 PM. Franklin High School. The librarian
needs help weeding reference materials, as well as some cataloguing and
shelf reading. Other projects may be available too! I'm, oh, 80% sure
that she'll buy us some pizza too. As many people as want to come are
welcome.
Just sign up on the SALA board, or contact one of the people mentioned
above.
If neither of these works for you, but you'd still like to help out a
public school in need, contact Ginny for other options. We
can arrange small group volunteer activities with a number of Seattle
schools. Thanks for reading and watch the SALA board for more info.
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GPSS Update
Jon McConnel
Just a little update from your friendly GPSS Senators. There is a copy of
the minutes for the January meeting available for
viewing at http://www.grad.washington.edu/gpss/1996-7files/meetings.htm,
and also on the bulletin board outside the student lounge. This
is all so you can check up on us and see what we're up to!
The meeting was on Wed., Jan. 8 in the HUB. Nothing was
voted on, rather the meeting was for discussing policies
and positions that are still in the formative stage. Highlights that may
be of interest include:
- A GPSS proposal to the parking fees committee to keep
the burden of parking fees at the current ratio between employees and
students, instead of shifting the burden more toward students as the
faculty and parking committee have proposed.
- Discussion of the views of graduate students on a
system-wide policy concerning academic integrity and grievance procedures
(what happens when you're accused of cheating). Currently departments
have their own policies (or not, as the case may be), decisions of
which may be appealed to the Faculty Appeal Board (7 faculty members), and
then to the president of the university. Consensus of the Senate
seemed to be that there should be guidelines that departments must follow
in making their own policy, appealable to a committee of students and
faculty. A recommendation to be presented to the administration
(who requested our input) will be voted on at the next GPSS meeting, in
February.
Also brought up in the course of the discussion was the
procedure concerning academic dishonesty on the part of faculty.
Apparently intellectual property defaults to professors on this
campus, so it's not unknown for students to have their research stolen.
Would faculty agree to have appeals on these matters heard by a committee
of 7 graduate students? Interesting question....
If you have any questions, feel free to email Jon
(jonmc@u) or Britt (bfager@u).
Return to Contents
Edited by Kathleen E. Bennett (last updated
2/07/97)
Border background from Bordertown
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