Message from the Dean

Dear iSchool students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends,

Harry BruceI’d like to take time to reflect on an exceptional year for the University of Washington Information School, and to celebrate with you some of the accomplishments of UW iSchool faculty, students and researchers. Three stories in particular capture the potential of the Information School movement of which we are a part.

The U.S. Impact study, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and IMLS, released its findings in March, entitled Opportunity for All: How the American Public Benefits from Internet Access at U.S. Libraries (Becker, Samantha, Michael D. Crandall, Karen E. Fisher, Bo Kinney, Carol Landry, and Anita Rocha). This is the first large-scale study of the who, why, and how of public computing and Internet use. Among the findings:

  • Nearly one third of Americans 14 and older — 77 million people — used a public library to access the Internet in the past year
  • Approximately 30 million people used library resources to address career and employment needs
  • 32.5 million people used libraries to help with education and training needs
  • 28 million people used libraries to access health and wellness information

This has helped library systems provide a rationale for further and continuing financial support. The team’s findings are based on nearly 50,000 surveys from patrons of more than 400 public libraries across the country.

The leadership of UW iSchool researchers was also on display at this year’s CHI conference, where the UW iSchool was part of 15 note and paper presentations. Leah Findlater, a postdoctoral fellow here, won a CHI Best Paper Award for a paper co-authored with Jon Froehlich and James Landay, "The Design of Eco-Feedback Technology." Assistant Professor Andrew J. Ko and iSchool Ph.D. candidate Parmit Chilana received a best paper nomination for “How Power Users Help and Hinder Open Bug Reporting.” Associate Professor Wanda Pratt’s team had four papers accepted and presented an entire session during the conference.

Finally, three junior faculty in the UW iSchool garnered recognition that places them at the forefront of areas as diverse as interface design, software development, and children’s developmental health. For their early contributions, assistant professors Julie Kientz, Andrew J. Ko and Jacob O. Wobbrock were all honored with National Science Foundation CAREER awards, — the NSF's prestigious awards in support of early career-development activities of teacher-scholars. Their ability to bring together the cultures of social scientists, of designers and engineers, and of faculty from the humanities reflects the best qualities of the Information School movement they are shaping.

These are all shining examples of the work the UW iSchool is doing to advance the information field. I look forward to hosting those of you who can attend iConference 2011 in February in Seattle.

Best wishes and warm regards,

Harry Bruce
Professor and Dean
The Information School