UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN - MILWAUKEE, SCHOOL OF INFORMATION STUDIES
PhD Information Studies
PhD Newsletter Vol. 01 | No. 02
February 2012
A Note from our Director... In this issue:
1 2 3 4
Note from the PhD Program Director, Dr. Iris Xie Student Milestones
Student Spotlight: Suyu Lin Conference Experiences: Tina Jayroe Jennifer Thiele
Student Spotlight: Marta Magnuson Conference Experiences: Jihee Beak Nick Proferes
Graduate Spotlight: Dr. Krystyna Matusiak Conference Experiences Important Dates Recent Scholarship
At the beginning of 2012, I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who contributes to the development and enhancement of the SOIS PhD program. The first and second issues of our newsletter show the successes of our students. Based on the feedback I received from faculty, our doctoral students received great comments for their Project Assistant/Teaching Assistant (PA/TA) work last semester. When we celebrate the achievements of our students, it is also the time to think about the enhancement of the program. Please share your ideas and suggestions with me about how to improve our program. Here are some of the PhD program updates: • The Doctoral Program Committee (DPC) is in the process of reviewing policies and guidelines of the program ranging from PA/TA criteria to course offerings. At the same time, the DPC is in the process of reviewing and admitting new students for Fall 2012. • We started to offer workshops to our doctoral students based on students’ feedback. Thanks to Professor Moyer and Professor Zimmer for their excellent presentations on Dissertation Proposal workshop. In spring semester, we are offering Grant Writing, Prelim Exam and Dissertation writing workshops. • Four doctoral students (Chunsheng Huang, Soohyung Joo, Kun Lu and Carol Sabbar) received the SOIS Doctoral Research Award Grant Opportunity (DRAGO) last year. It was created to support small equipment purchases, supplies, travel in relation to conducting research, and participant recruitment in order to make research activities possible. The deadline for submission this year is May 1st. • Professor Wolfram, will continue organizing the Overcoming Barriers to Information Access (B2A) colloquium presented by SOIS faculty members once per month during the spring semester. • Our doctoral students actively presented at school, national, and international conferences last semester including SOIS research symposium, ASIST, AoIR, etc. Please send your comments and suggestions regarding our program to me (hiris@uwm.edu). We are in touch and you are in touch.
Student Milestones
School of Information Studies 2025 E Newport | NWQB 3rd Floor Milwaukee, WI 53211
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Suyu Lin started a new position as a Scholarly Communications Librarian at University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee Libraries. Dalal Al-budaiwi, Melodie Joy Fox, and Anthony Hoffmann successfully passed their preliminary exams.
STUDENT SPOTLIGHT Suyu Lin I am now working as an Open
CONFERENCE
S O I S S C H O L A R S M A K E T H E IR
Tina Jayroe
ASIST 2011: New Orleans
Access Librarian in UWM Libraries. My major responsibilities in this job includes: work with the Library Director and the campus Open Access Taskforce to formulate policies on open access; work directly with faculty to help them submit digital publications; work closely with the Graduate School to establish procedures for the transfer to ETD and train other staff in use of institutional repository system.
How did your experience as a PhD student prepare you for your work? I started researching Open Access in the second year of my PhD study. My research started out by tracing the philosophical roots of the campaign in the areas of information ethics, intellectual freedom and social justice. Thus this had led me to see the bigger picture of the whole movement and crisis in scholarly communication. In addition, by knowing the insights and behind the scenes, I can affirm myself that this is the right thing to do and the right direction to move forward.
What were the challenges in making the transition from student to professional pursuits? For me, it was an easy transition since I had already worked for ten years prior to pursuing my PhD study. I have always enjoyed being a librarian and working in the academic unit. But there is one thing I believe that is important in any job, and that is Passion. I feel that it is necessary to have a passion for the work you are doing so you can draw strength to accomplish the task. For people in this profession, keeping the passion toward the work they do is sometimes a big challenge. I am glad I found an area that I have a passion for!
What advice would you offer current SOIS PhD students? Never give up and look forward to the opportunities. Sometimes learning can be a painful process and confusion comes up from time to time. Stand strong during those moments. Don’t worry too much about am I doing the “right” research? Is the topic hot enough for me to find a good job? Find the one that really interests you and work on it and the opportunities will come.
I worked as co-organizer and submissions judge for the SIG DL Panel Digital Liaisons: Student Perspectives on Curating the Information Life Cycle. While the majority of the work was done by SIG DL’s Webmaster, Eugenia Kim, I assisted her quite a bit. It was a unique session for several reasons: first, it was meant to exhibit the work of master’s and undergraduate students either through rou ough gh posters pos oste ters rs or or presentapres pr esen enta ta tions; second, the students were able to submit their work without having to attend the conference (many could not afford to attend ASIST so we hung up their posters for them); and third, the student speakers were very knowledgeable and their topics were quite fascinating, diverse, and relevant to digital curation. The best part, however, was being able to meet the people whose submissions I had read. Several of them came to our SIG DL annual dinner and our annual business meeting so we really got to know them. Spending a longer amount of time with them was nicer than a one-off meet-and-greet. SIG DL is planning to submit a similar panel proposal again this year plus provide funding so more students can attend in-person.
Jennifer Thiele
BOBCATSSS 2012: Amsterdam
T This was my first experience with the B BOBCATSSS conference. I hadn’t yet presented at a conference, much less had the oppore ttunity to attend sessions outside the country. When the programs began, I found myself takW iing copious notes as the topics were so timely and interesting. The initial key note speakers a were of great interest to me, as my PhD studw iies currently focus on information policy and issues issu is sues es such suc uch h as privacy, pri riva vacy cy both bo focal points of the beginning speakers. The diversity of the sessions was really maintained for all levels of interest on both days. I found the sessions about librarian leadership and student representation very timely and important. As for my own presentation, I was thrilled to have some very interesting dialogue with individuals who had questions. I was pleased that we had a great turnout for this event, and such a lively audience. Overall, the conference was an unforgettable and incredible opportunity. The country, the culture, the venue, the speakers and the social programs all came together to make a wonderful experience for someone who had never travelled to Europe and never attended an international conference. I feel very fortunate to have had this opportunity, and to be able to take part in such a wonderful event.
EXPERIENCES
R MARK IN THE PROFESSION
Jihee Beak ALISE 2012: Dallas I attended the ALISE conference with a poster in the “Works in Progress” section. The poster’s title is “LCSH vs. Tags from LibraryThing in fiction genres.” The conference was in Dallas, TX during January 17-20. I participated in the conference with IOrg student conference support. It was my first time presenting a poster at ALISE. The experience from ALISE is very helpful for both academic and professional purposes. I met many scholars and doctoral students from other universities. Not only did people at the conference give me valuable feedback about my research, but also I could expand my research interest by looking at others’ posters. In addition, it was a great opportunity to understand job markets in the LIS field. Due to the nature of ALISE conference, I could see doctoral candidates’ resumes and job announcements. Although I have more time to look for jobs, this experience helps me understand what kinds of qualifications I need to build up for the rest of my doctoral program. Again, I appreciate IOrg that financially supports me to have this great chance.
Nick Proferes AOIR 2011: Seattle I gave an IGNITE presentation at the Association of Internet Researchers conference in Seattle Washington this past fall. IGNITE presentations are an unusual format: you have exactly five minutes for your presentation, you have to have exactly twenty slides in your presentation, and your slides are advanced every fifteen seconds automatically—your slides are not under your control. Funny or creative presentation styles are encouraged in this format. It was my first presentation at an academic conference, and I gave the whole talk in a Dr. Seuss style rhyme. It was a tremendously fun and mildly stressful presentation that was well received. I think that alternatively styled presentations, where there’s a restriction on how you present, force you to be a little more creative with how you communicate information and can be an interesting alternative to traditional formats.
STUDENT SPOTLIGHT Marta Magnuson I am currently working at Carthage College as an instructional technologist. I work with faculty to help them better implement technology into their teaching. In this role, I plan sessions on using specific technologies we support at Carthage and also sessions around themes related to educational best practices. For example, this month there will be a session on using technology to support group work. Wikis, Google Docs, and discussion boards will all be discussed. I also work to stay on top of new educational technologies. This is the fun part of the job because I get to spend time playing around with technology. As for research, I am trying to finish my dissertation this semester!
How did your experience as a PhD student prepare you for your work? First, I was given a lot of opportunities to teach. Having the experience of teaching both onsite and online has been a huge help to me and an experience that most faculty working a small liberal arts colleges have never had. Going to conferences and having the opportunity to discuss and share my work made me a more confident public speaker. I am now able to talk to a variety of people both inside and outside my discipline. (A very valuable tool for someone in my position.) On a more general level, all of the courses and research papers prepared me to be able to intelligently explain and backup my opinions on issues related to educational technology.
What were the challenges in making the transition from student to professional pursuits? Having the confidence to see oneself as a professional as opposed to a student. After being a student full time for 5 years, it can be difficult. I still sometimes feel like I should know more or that I’m not ready. However, many faculty members at SOIS do a great job of treating their students feel like peers. I appreciated that and tried not to let them down.
What advice would you offer current SOIS PhD students? Ask for what you want. There are so many opportunities but sometimes you have to let people know what you are interested. Also, get used to rejection. It happens to everyone and gets easier the more times it happens. This leads me to my final suggestion. Don’t make work your life. When you are stressed out and crying that book isn’t going to make you feel better - but your friends and family will.
Save the Date!
CONFERENCE EXPERIENCES
PHD WORKSHOPS NWQ B 3511 Lunch will be provided
“How to Prepare for Preliminary Exams” Presented by Dr. Dietmar presented at Soohyung Joose on ASIST Poster ssi
Wolfram & Dr. Iris Xie February 21 | 12:30 - 2:00pm
“How to Write a Grant Proposal.” Presented by Jeremy Simon, SOIS Grant Writer and Nick Proferes March 13 | 12:30 - 2:00pm
Kun Lu presen ted at ASIST Poster sess ion
Chunsheng Huang presented contributed paper at ASIST
“How to Write a Dissertation.” Presented by Dr. Tefko Saracevic, Rutgers University, School of Communication and Information April 17 | 12:30 - 2:00pm
B2A PRESENTATIONS Location: NWQB 3511
“Visualization of Health Subject Analysis Based on Query Term Co-occurrences.” Presented by Dr. Jin Zhang & Dr. Dietmar Wolfram. February 28 | 12:30–1:30pm
“Using 21st Century Learning Labs to Address Competency– Based Access Barriers.” Presented by Dr. Terrance Newell. March 27 | 12:30–1:30pm
“Seeds, Sovereignty, and Sustainability: Informing and Educating South African Subsistence Farmers.” Presented by Dr. Wilhelm Peekhaus. April 24 | 12:30–1:30pm
2025 E Newport Ave NWQB 3rd Floor Milwaukee, WI 53211
The Doctoral Student Organization promotes and facilitates a spirit of community among doctoral students. Spring social events include ice skating, enjoying ice cream, and lunch gatherings. Please share your ideas for future social, scholarly, and professional initiatives.
The SOIS PhD Newsletter is published twice a year by the SOIS PhD Student body. Contributions (articles, letters, photos, etc.) are welcomed. Please send updates to the PhD Program Director, Dr. Iris Xie (hiris@uwm.edu). EDITORIAL BOARD Adriana McCleer, PhD Student, Chief Editor Ed Benoit III, PhD Student, Editor Tina Jayroe, PhD Student, Editor
Jennifer Thiele, PhD Student, Editor Dr. Iris Xie, PhD Program Director
Art Direction & Design: Rebecca Hall & Gabriella Tato Photography: Natalie Puariea & UWM Photographic Services
Doctoral Committee - Spring 2012 Dr. Margaret Kipp (Chair) Dr. Iris Xie, PhD Director Dr. Wilhelm Peekhaus
Dr. Gwat-Yong Lie, Non-voting ex-officio Adriana McCleer, PhD Student Linda Barajas, Admissions Coordinator
G R A D UAT E SPOTLIGHT
Recent Scholarship Chapter & Monograph Publications
Dr. Krystyna Matusiak Dr. Krystyna Matusiak utilized her MLIS in reference and collections management and digital collections at UWM Libraries for over twelve years. In the interest of combining her practical experience with her studies, she
Joo, S. & Xie, I. (Forthcoming). Evaluation constructs and criteria for digital libraries: A document analysis. In C. Cool & K.B. Ng (Eds.), Recent Developments in the Design, Construction and Evaluation of Digital Libraries. Hershey, PA: IGI-Global. Olson, H. A. & Fox, M. J. (Forthcoming). Essentialism and care in a female-intensive profession. In R. Dean & P. Keilty (Eds.), Gender, Sexuality, Information: A Reader. Los Angeles: Library Juice Press.
enrolled in an interdisciplinary Professional Writing Program in the English Department— combining English, Information Studies, Education, and Psychology coursework and content and applying it toward research of the interdisciplinary nature of usability, information design, and digital libraries. In this interdisciplinary Ph.D. program, Dr. Spilka in English and Dr. Iris Xie in Information Studies, were extremely supportive. Dr. Matusiak completed her Ph.D. in Digital Information Design and Organization in August 2010. Dr. Matusiak accepted a position as a tenure track Assistant Professor in the Library & Information Science Program at the University of Denver in fall 2011 and is teaching in the area of digital libraries. She is teaching her students the development and evaluation of digital libraries and researching the role digitization plays in advancing and supporting humanities and social sciences, and the use of digitized resources in teaching and research. She is also examining how digital resources are used by faculty in teaching and research in social sciences.
What were the challenges in making the transition from student to professional pursuits? As an instructor of language for 10-12 years before her work in libraries, her research stemmed from these areas of experience and expertise. Dr. Matusiak worked full-time for UWM Libraries during the seven years of her PhD program, including the final two years (with reduced appointment at 70%) while conducting research and writing her dissertation. The transition from student to professional pursuits was not very challenging because she was working the entire time. After completing the coursework during summer, she took the entire semester to prepare for her preliminary exam.
What advice would you offer current SOIS PhD students? Becoming part of the scholarly community is important. You don’t have to wait for degree. It is a chance to explore the area you are interested in. By getting to know your future colleagues, you will develop professionally. On the other hand, be smart and do not overburden yourself with extra activities. Always find time to write. To function as a scholar is to write papers and articles. Although it is not always easy, find quiet time to focus on thinking about research ideas and writing. Work on this while you are a student. Schedule a day or two per week to write.
Zimmer, M. & Hoffmann, A. (2011). Privacy, context, and oversharing: Reputational challenges in a Web 2.0 world. In H. Masum & M. Tovey (Eds.), The Reputation Society: How Online Opinions are Reshaping the Offline World. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Journal Publications Jayroe, T. (Forthcoming). A humble servant: The work of Helen L. Brownson and the early years of information science research. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology. Joo, S., Lin, S. & Lu, K. (2011). A usability evaluation model for academic library websites: efficiency, effectiveness and learnability. Journal of Library and Information Studies, 9(2): 11-26. Lu, K. & Wolfram, D. (Forthcoming). Measuring author research relatedness: A comparison of word-based, topicbased and author co-citation approaches. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology. Moyer, J. E. & Thiele, J. (Forthcoming). Ebooks in public libraries: A literature review and case study. New Library World. Xie, I. & Joo, S. (2012). Factors affecting the selection of search tactics: Tasks, knowledge, process and systems. Information Processing & Management. 48(2):254-270.
Conference Proceedings Barry-Kessler, L. (2011). Net neutrality rules as barrier to access for the LGBTQ community. In Proceedings of the 2011 Great Lakes Connections Conference: 1. Beak, J. (2011). Do tags really provide more semantic concepts than LCSH does? In Proceedings of the 2011 Great Lakes Connections Conference: 2-3. Benoit, III, E. (2011). Sub-field visualization: A multidimensional analysis of Web 2.0 authors. In Proceedings of the 2011 Great Lakes Connections Conference: 17-26. Benoit, III, E. (Ed.) (2011). Proceedings of the 2011 Great Lakes Connections Conference.
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Continued on back...
PhD
Recent Scholarship Huang, C. & Xie, I. (2011). Help feature interactions in digital libraries: Influence of learning styles. In Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 48: 1–10. Huang, C. (2011). Identifying digital libraries author publication pattern using visualization clustering analysis. In Proceedings of the 2011 Great Lakes Connections Conference: 9-10. Joo, S. & Lee, J. (2011). Assessing effectiveness of query reformulations: Analysis of user-generated information retrieval diaries. In Proceedings of 74th ASIS&T Annual Meeting. Magnuson, M. (2011). Understanding how objectives transform into outcomes: Activity theory and its use in analyzing Web 2.0 assignments in an information literacy course. In Proceedings of the 2011 Great Lakes Connections Conference: 11. Tirilly, P., Lu, K. & Mu, X. (2011). Predicting modality from text queries for medical image retrieval. In Proceedings of the 2011 International ACM Workshop on Medical Multimedia Analysis and Retrieval (MMAR’11).
Conference Presentations Alcorta, M., Gignac, D., McCleer, A., & Soltero, E. (2011). Nuestras raíces: Enriching lives and building community. Presented at REFORMA National Conference, Denver, Colorado. Benoit, III, E. (2011). Social tagging on the Commons on Flickr: Comparing the Library of Congress with the remaining institutions. Presented at the School of Information Studies Student Research Symposium, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Heck, T., Gwizdka, J., Kipp, M. E. I., Lu, K., Peters, I., Neal, D. & Spiteri, L. (2011). Social tagging and folksonomies: Indexing, retrieving … and beyond? Panel discussion at ASIST’2011, New Orleans, Louisiana. Jayroe, T. (2011). A humble servant: The work of Helen L. Brownson and the early years of information science research. Presented at the School of Information Studies Student Research Symposium, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Proferes, N. (2011). Oh the ethics you’ll know. Ignite presentation at Internet Research 12.0, Seattle, Washington.
Martinez-Avila, D., Fox, M. J., & Olson, H. A. (2011). Intersectionality in users of library knowledge organization systems: Lessons learned from the misrepresentation of Latina lesbians. Paper presented at the First Annual Conference of International Society for Knowledge Organization, Brazil Chapter, Brasilia, Brazil. Smith, T. S. (2011). Afrocentric ideology in Marilyn Shearer’s tales: Snow White in Africa? Presented at the School of Information Studies Student Research Symposium, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Moyer, J. E. & Thiele, J. (2012). Four case studies of ebook readers. Presented at the BOCATSSS Symposium, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Invited Speaker Hoffmann, A. (2011). “Mutual Connexions”: On obligation and the scope of justice in the information society. Presented at the Center for Information Policy Research Brown Bag Research Lunch, University of Wisconsin– Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Poster Sessions Beak, J. (2012). LCSH vs. tags from LibraryThing in fiction genres. Poster presented at the ALISE Annual Conference, Dallas, Texas. Lu, K. & Wolfram, D. (2011). Assessing author research focus using vector space modeling. Poster at Annual Meeting of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (ASIST’2011), New Orleans, Louisiana. Lu, K. (2012). Assessing systematic topical difficulty based on query and collection features. Poster at Annual Meeting of the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE’2012).
Teaching Hoffmann, A. (2011). University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee: Information Technology Ethics. Hoffmann, A. (2011). Quinnipiac University: Theories of Interactive Media. Lu, K. (2011). University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee: Database Information Retrieval Systems. Sabbar, C. (2011). Carthage College: Elementary French I.
Information Studies
Awards Huang, C. (2011). Novice users’ help-seeking behavior in getting started with digital libraries. Doctoral Research Award Grant Opportunity, SOIS. Jayroe, T. & Digital Libraries SIG (2011). ASIS&T SIG of the Year Award. Joo, S. (2011). Evaluating IR system support for user involvement in digital libraries: A multi-tiered interactive information retrieval evaluation framework. Doctoral Research Award Grant Opportunity, SOIS. Lu, K. (2011). Assessing systematic topic difficulty based on query and collection features. Doctoral Research Award Grant Opportunity, SOIS. Sabbar, C. (2011). Non-English research: How scholars find the sources they need. Doctoral Research Award Grant Opportunity, SOIS.
Professional Service Barry-Kessler, L.—PhD Representative, Academic Planning Committee, SOIS (2011). Beak, J.—Executive Officer, Doctoral Student Organization (2011). Benoit, III, E.—President, Doctoral Student Organization (2011), PhD Representative, Doctoral Program Committee, SOIS (2011), Chief Editor, SOIS PhD Newsletter, 1(1). Jayroe, T.—ASIST SIG DL Communications Officer (2011), Submissions judge and panel organizer for ASIST conference session: Digital Liaisons: Student Perspectives on Curating the Information Life Cycle (2011), PhD representative, Admissions & Records Policy Committee, University of WisconsinMilwaukee (2011). Kapusniak, R.—PhD representative, Research Committee, SOIS (2011), Executive Officer, Doctoral Student Organization, SOIS (2011). McCleer, A.—PhD representative, Diversity and Equity Committee, SOIS (2011), Executive Officer, Doctoral Student Organization, SOIS (2011), Co-Editor, National Newsletter, REFORMA (2011).