In iSchoolYou’s tenth episode,* special guests Cassie Alvarado, Director of Development and Alumni Relations for the iSchool and Dr. Andrew Dillon, Dean of the iSchool, join hosts Eric Cartier and Carin Yavorcik to champion a special cause– UT’s iGive campaign.  While other schools choose to raise funds from students, the iSchool chooses to focus student giving based on volunteer hours.  iSchool students have come up among the highest givers at the University.

To participate, students can report their hours from any type of volunteer work and community service.  Whether it be part of a practicum component for class, a way to gain experience in the field, or by participating with a non-information related organization, all those hours are eligible to count toward the campaign.  Hours contributed to work related to school organizations are also eligible.  The campaign hopes to get 150 students to donate two hours each.  That shouldn’t be too difficult.  Last year one student volunteered over 100 hours while the iSchool student body volunteered over 3000 hours!

Not only does the volunteer work enrich the iSchool community as a whole, but it also contributes to the school’s ranking while helping students become a part of the greater Austin community.  Dean Dillon adds that volunteering is a practical stepping stone to enrich students’ careers.  Through volunteering, students “develop certain skills which then become important parts of your own resume and portfolio, and you’ve helped also establish a network of people who know you, know about you, and might be able to open doors for you later on in your career.”

Hours should be submitted online by November 29th at.  Volunteer opportunities are also listed (including an opportunity to volunteer at the Carnival O’Pizza!).  All participants will be invited to a party on December 1st, hosted by the Dean.

*The iSchoolYou team wishes to thank everyone– team members, staff, faculty, the iSchool, and most importantly, its listeners– for supporting us through the past year.  This is our 10th episode, and we hope to make many more.  If you’re interested in joining the iSchoolYou team, please email us or contact us on our Facebook page.

Music heard in this episode composed and performed by Morgan Woolsey..

In iSchoolYou’s ninth episode, hosts Eric Cartier and Carin Yavorcik welcome T-Kay Sangwand from the UT Libraries’ Human Rights Documentation Initiative (HRDI). T-Kay, a UCLA MLIS graduate, joined the HRDI as its Human Rights Archivist in 2008.  She also participates with the Society of American Archivists Human Rights Archives Roundtable as its chairperson.

T-Kay tells Eric and Carin about the HRDI’s role in assisting organizations that document human rights abuses and struggles across the globe. HRDI employs a post-custodial partnership model in which HRDI takes on an advisory standpoint, offering technical and financial support, as well as expertise, allowing partner organizations to keep ownership of their collections and assisting them to act as empowered stewards of their “fragile and transient” materials.

One organization in particular, the Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre, has hundreds of testimonials and materials from survivors, rescuers, and perpetrators of the Rwandan Genocide, but the materials were not very accessible. The HRDI hoped to digitize, preserve, and host copies while allowing the Centre to keep the physical copies for their own educational use and ownership. In 2008, T-Kay and HRDI Project Manager, Christian Kelleher, traveled to Kigali to demonstrate a digital archives prototype using Glifos software. While there, they also reached out to other repositories and organizations and the project grew larger in scope, now called the Genocide Archive of Rwanda.

The Memorial Centre and HRDI’s other partner organizations face extraordinary issues, like possible and past hostile destruction of records and fear of retribution. Additionally, many people who work there are survivors, so the Centre tries to ensure that people are not working for prolonged periods of time. HRDI does not create metadata, so cultural understanding is also important. Thanks to T-Kay and the HRDI at the UT Libraries, these important materials and documents are preserved, and most importantly, shared with the world.

Thanks, T-Kay, for schooling iSchoolYou!

“Like” the HRDI on Facebook!

The below pictures are all courtesy of the HRDI, and the captions and titles are taken directly from the HDRI flickr album. There are many more worth viewing on the Human Rights Documentation Initiative Flickr page.

Music heard in this episode composed and performed by Morgan Woolsey.

In iSchoolYou’s fourth installment of the “A Day in the Life of An Information Professional” series, host Eric Cartier goes on location to the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library with Liza Talbot, the LBJ Library’s digital archivist. In each episode of this series, the iSchool You hosts spend time with an information professional in the community to discuss the specifics of their work to try to get a sense of what an average day is like for a professional in their field.

Disclaimer: We had some problems with the sound in this episode, but the content is so good we still felt our audience would enjoy it. Please bear with us; it improves in the second half.

Liza gives Eric a behind the scenes tour while talking about the features of the LBJ Library and Museum, transparency and Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) issues, and the institution’s use of social media.  They first stop in the reading room, where researchers come from all over the world to conduct research on the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights Act, and other topics relevant to President Johnson’s administration.

Liza teaches iSchool You about the White House’s Office of Records Management, the White House Central Files, and the special cataloging system for what Liza calls a “physical type of database,” used to organize vast quantities of records before computer database systems existed. In addition to official documents from the Johnson administration and personal papers, LBJ Library’s holdings also include 99% of all the public mail the president received. Do you think you or a family member wrote to President Johnson? The LBJ Library might be able to find that letter for you!

The tour also takes us down to the basement level of the LBJ Library, where we meet Sarah Cunningham, LBJ Audio Archivist and UT iSchool part-time faculty member. Many of us know Sarah from her very popular class on Audio Preservation and Reformatting.

Liza leaves us with some helpful advice for aspiring archivists.  She says it is “important it is to find an institution that you fit– where you have the institutional values and institutional culture match what you’re coming out with.”

Thanks, Liza, for schooling iSchoolYou!

Music heard in this episode composed and performed by Morgan Woolsey.

In iSchoolYou’s third installment of “A Day in the Life of an Information Professional” series, host Eric Cartier speaks with Jim Malmros, an iSchool alum and current Manager of Application Development at Austin Community College.  In each episode of the series, the iSchool You hosts spend time with an information professional in the community to discuss the specifics of their work to try to get a sense of what an average day is like for a professional in their field.

In this episode, Jim tells Eric about the variety of work that he is responsible for at the IT Center at Austin Community College.  Although Jim tends to have a set list of duties, new surprises often come up, and he juggles these responsibilities by prioritizing and re-prioritizing.  Jim communicates with stakeholders and developers to fill in the processes, needs, and complexity of projects, which are often complicated by assumptions that are made by parties in envisioning a project.  Because many people use applications in diverse ways, some people think of methods and ideas that others do not.

Initially hired as a programmer at ACC, Jim says that his experience at the iSchool greatly helped his career by offering an eclectic degree with skills that he draws from continuously.  One, in particular, is the focus on usability.  Previously, he was concerned with applications looking “pretty,” but the iSchool helped him realize that “it’s more important that it’s easy to use” than its prettiness.  He tries to ensure that applications are created to allow users to have numerous ways to do any one thing in intuitive ways.  According to Jim, it’s all about balancing between making sure it works and that it works for the user.

Thanks, Jim, for schooling iSchoolYou!

Music heard in this episode composed and performed by Morgan Woolsey.
Riverbats photo courtesy of ACC.

In this episode of “A Day in the Life of a Professional”, host Eric Cartier speaks to Bonnie Brzozowski at the Austin Public Library.  Inspired by a professor to focus on the public, community aspect of the library, Bonnie became a reference librarian after attending graduate school.  She’s responsible for a huge portion of the reference services, ranging from knowing about all activities at all of the city’s branches (21 of them!), as well as phone, email, and chat reference service.  So, what does it take to be a reference librarian?  Bonnie says:  “Curiosity, Patience, and Flexibility!”

With the number of her activities, none of Bonnie’s days are the same.  Listen to the other types of work she does, such as collection development and weeding, teaching public classes, and writing the library’s blog.

Thanks, Bonnie, for schooling ischoolyou!

Interested in the Austin Public Library?  Check out the blog here and the official website here.

Music heard in this episode composed and performed by Morgan Woolsey.

Hosts Eric Cartier and Sarah Papania welcome all new students to the University of Texas School of Information in this special “Welcome Week” episode. Welcome Week is a new series of events for incoming and current students that will take place August 17-23. Listen in as Eric and Sarah discuss all of the Welcome Week activities from bats to portraiture to marching bands.

Feel free to contact SASI at sasi@utlists.utexas.edu with any questions and see their awesome tip page. The iSchool’s comprehensive orientation page is another useful guide.

Check back next Tuesday, August 16th, for iSchool You’s second installation of the “A Day In the Life” series.

Photo at top by Frank Gruber
Music heard in this episode is “Wait a Minute” by Eddie Ray and “Mystic” by OFS Unlimited, both provided courtesy of Numero Group.

iSchool You begins its four part “A Day in the Life” series with Libby Peterek, an iSchool alum and Director of Web Services at KLRU-TV. In each episode of the series, the iSchool You hosts spend time with an information professional in the community to discuss the specifics of their work to try to get a sense of what an average day is like for a professional in their field.

In this episode, host Eric Cartier is on location at KLRU-TV Studios to speak with Libby Peterek who discusses her position, the organization, and the type of services they provide.  KLRU is an Austin-based public television station that airs content from PBS and other member stations in addition to creating original programming such as Austin City Limits, Central Texas Gardener, and Texas Monthly Talks.  Libby helps create websites and an interactive web experience for KLRU using free tools like WordPress and by exchanging ideas within the PBS community. She explains the use of analytics and complications that arise from their use when employed on a site for a highly visible organization such as KLRU.  Libby talks about her experience at the iSchool and the wide range of classes she took that influence her work today.  Listen to find out why she explains her experience as “The Karate Kid!”

In her free time, Libby likes to “ride bikes, swim in swimming holes, and play yard games.” She participated in the Texas 4000 ride to Alaska while at the iSchool, which she says rounded out her education and experience outside of the classroom. KLRU’s website can be viewed at http://www.klru.org/. Flip through the photo gallery below to see samples of Libby’s work on the site.

Thanks, Libby, for schooling iSchoolYou!

Music heard in this episode is “Our Love Used To Be” by Royal Esquires and “Never Walk Out On You” by Mitch Mitchell-Gene King, both provided courtesy of Numero Group.

Dr. Gracy on the Texas Archives of 1842 and Today

In this summer episode, Dr. David B. Gracy, recently retired archives professor, joins iSchoolYou to tell us about the story behind the statue of Angelina Eberly on Congress Avenue in Austin.  Set up against the backdrop of the beginning of the Texas Republic, the Texas Archives War is the exciting true story of Sam Houston’s absconders attempting to move the records out of the new Capitol back to Houston.

Photo above by Todd Dwyer of Angelina Eberly Statue at 6th and Congress in Austin, Texas.

Craig Blaha on Social Media Privacy and Preservation

What is forever?  Some tend to think of their lives on the Internet as “public” in the sense that once the information is out there on the Internet, it’s “out there” forever. Our guest, Ph.D candidate Craig Blaha, questions our definitions of “forever” and discusses issues of digital preservation, changing definitions and expectations of privacy, and of viewing Facebook as possible historical records.

Our guest, Craig Blaha.

Craig is the Manager of Special Projects at The University of Texas at Austin. He holds a masters degree in education from Claremont Graduate University and a bachelor’s degree from Pomona College, as well as a GIAC leadership certification from the SANS Institute.

Keywords: internet privacy, social media, preservation, archives, copyright

In the iSchoolYou’s inaugural podcast at School of Information at The University of Texas, hosts Carin Yavorcik and Eric Cartier ask iSchoolers about what they do outside the classroom and the skills they learn from courses that apply to their jobs.

Shannon Daily, Information Systems Intern at Tokyo Electron, discusses the adoption and use of Sharepoint in the workplace to manage documents and workflows.

15:00: Bhavna Verma, User Experience Intern at Mutual Mobile, tells us about her summer experience designing wireframes and mobile apps according to client needs and wants– one about shoes!

23:42:  Anna Fidgeon, Graduate Research Assistant at the Perry-Casteneda Library at UT, teaches library skills and resources to freshman students as well as to general patrons, and sees her coursework lessons manifest in real situations at the library.

31:07: Bethany Scott, Exhibition Volunteer for the Tennessee Williams exhibit at the Harry Ransom Center, tells us about the selection process, labeling of materials, and getting the inside scoop of the life and multiple personas of Tennessee Williams– while falling in love with archival materials.

39:47: Events

Thank you to Quinn, Carlos, Shane, Sam and Dr. Doty!

Photo above of guest Shannon Daily with co-hosts Eric and Carin in the studio.

Want to try working on a podcast?: If you have any inclination to contribute to the podcast, we are always looking for new members for the iSchool You team! Email us at ischoolyou@utlists.utexas.edu to let us know you’re interested.