New pub, accolades for Dr. Nahon's Network Theory work

Friday, April 22, 2011

Associate professor Karine Nahon's recent work continues to garner attention from luminaries in the field of Network Theory and has been included in a special section of the International Journal of Communication. First presented at a February 2010 workshop held by the University of Southern California Annenberg School of Communication, Nahon's paper — titled "Network Fuzziness of Inclusion/Exclusion" — explores the dynamic relationship between network gatekeepers and the people they gate. Her exploration of the concept of fuzziness suggests that network inclusion and ex

Provost: UW iSchool to remain independent

Friday, April 22, 2011

UW Provost Mary Lidstrom announced in a letter to the entire iSchool community that the iSchool will remain an independent unit on the UW Campus, citing the iSchool's ability to continue to provide the highest levels of student access and program quality in spite of an extremely difficult economic climate in the state and on the UW campus. The text of the letter, which iSchool Dean and Professor Harry Bruce received today: --- To all members of the Information School: In February, in response to requests from several legislators, Interim President Phyllis Wise outlined some of the

PC World applauds AIM research group's mouse cursor control systems

Monday, April 18, 2011

PC World recently profiled the work of the University of Washington's AIM Reserch Group in improving mouse control for users with disabilities. The Pointing Magnifier makes clicking on an onscreen object faster and more accurate. The Angle Mouse adjusts the velocity of the cursor to manage the users' cursor positioning input even when they have trouble maintaining smooth hand movement. PC World reviewer Mark Gibbs gave the AIM Research Group and their software a rating of 5 out of 5. Read more here. The AIM Research Group, led by iSchool Assistant Professor Jacob O. Wobbrock, is co

PIL looks at use of Facebook, Google

Thursday, April 7, 2011

So have Facebook and Google become the bibles for college students? Do young people rely on social media and search engines for all or nearly all answers needed in their daily lives? According to a new research paper by Project Information Literacy researchers, students use online information for decisions in their personal lives, but rely almost as much on family and friends nearly as much. Read "How College Students Use the Web to Conduct Everyday Life Research" in this month's issue of First Monday, an international journal about Internet research. Project Information Literacy (PIL

iSchool honored for access to justice leadership

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

The State of Washington Access to Justice Board named the University of Washington Information School as the 2011 recipient of the ATJ Community Leadership Award. The award is given in recognition of an individual or organization outside of the legal community that has "played a strategic, significant and courageous leadership role in improving access to the justice system for those who face economic or other significant barriers." In a letter to Dean Harry Bruce about the iSchool's selection, Access to Justice Board Chair-elect Kirsten Barron wrote, "[W]hat the Information School is and do

Boiko seeks to unify information mgmt field

Monday, April 4, 2011

Senior Lecturer Bob Boiko expects a lot of his students: the desire and ability to make information work across the terrain of creation, storage, presentation and use. "In return, I offer insights into today's buzz-worthy topics based on fundamentals that have been in play forever," he said. "Skills students can use on day one of a career and understanding they can use until the last day of their careers." His interest in the fundamentals of Information management led Boiko to create The Information Management Foundation with Erik M. Hartman, president of Hartman Communicatie in The Netherl

Alumna achieves Bracket Perfection

Friday, April 1, 2011

This year's NCAA men's basketball tourney has left reason and innumerable busted brackets in its wake. But MLIS alumna Diana Inch -- a school librarian at Jefferson High School outside Salem, Oregon -- was the only Yahoo! user out of nearly three million to identify the last four teams standing. Her secret? A reliance on favorite letters, the numbers 7 and 11, and a passion for the underdog, which allowed her to accurately predict the last four teams -- Virginia Commonwealth University, Butler University, the University of Connecticut and the University of Kentucky. "I like the numbers 7 an

Sosulski '04 biz librarian of the year

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

UW iSchool alumna Nicolette Warisse Sosulski, business librarian at Portage (Mich.) District Library, is the winner of the 2011 Gale Cengage Learning Award for Excellence in Business Librarianship -- an annual honor administered by the Business Reference & Services Section (BRASS) of the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) and sponsored by Gale Cengage Learning. In a press release announcing the award, the Reference and User Services Association pointed to Sosulski's strengths "[...] leveraging her connections, resources and technology to meet a vast array of patron needs, in

Is exhaustive student research a quaint memory?

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Tune in and hear the interview with Project Information Literacy's Alison Head on NPR's Seattle affiliate, KPLU. Head discusses findings from PIL's 2010 study of over 8,000 students on 25 different U.S. campuses. The study found most college students have trouble just getting started on research assignments. Head says, "the idea of exhaustive research is really a quaint memory." Project Information Literacy (PIL) is an ongoing research study in the Information School, co-directed by Head and Michael Eisenberg, Dean Emeritus and Professor. This year, PIL is generously supported with funds fr

More geeks under attack in cybersecurity contest

Friday, March 18, 2011

SEATTLE - On March 19 - 20, the University of Washington will present the fourth annual Pacific Rim Regional Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (PRCCDC), also known as "Geeks Under Attack!" The competition asks teams of aspiring cybersecurity professionals to demonstrate their skill at protecting an enterprise network infrastructure and business information systems. Date: March 19-20, 2011 Location: Highline Community College, Building 30 By the de-brief session on Saturday afternoon competing students will have gained insight into the challenges cybersecurity professionals encounte

Dr. Dresang interview in Publisher's Weekly

Monday, February 28, 2011

Eliza Dresang, the iSchool's Beverly Cleary professor for children and youth services, is interviewed in the Feb. 21 Publisher's Weekly for an article about the growing use of e-books among teens. The article, which can be accessed on the Publisher's Weekly website, features interviews with researchers, teens and e-book club members. Dr. Dresang has deep research roots in library services for children and youth. Her book Radical Change examines the changing nature of books for youth in the digital age.

Dr. Janes: Internet makes us lost and found

Monday, February 14, 2011

In his regular column for American Libraries, "The Internet Librarian," associate professor Joe Janes asks, in a culture of self-broadcasting by tweets and status updates and blogs and Foursquare badges and smartphones with GPS functionality, is it difficult to imagine being invisible, unfindable? And has this increased ease of access to information about people changed our relationships? To read the entire column, visit the American Libraries website.

Dr. Friedman, colleagues win Multidisciplinary Privacy award

Thursday, February 3, 2011

UW Information School professor Batya Friedman is part of a team that won the first Multidisciplinary Paper in Privacy Award. The award was presented at the Computers, Privacy & Data Protection conference, held January 25-27 in Brussels, Belgium. The award was created to highlight the importance of multidisciplinary research in privacy. Dr. Friedman won the award for "Parenting from the pocket: Value tensions and technical directions for secure and private parent-teen mobile safety," which she co-authored with six others. The full paper is available on the Value-Sensitive Design Research L

How smart phones can help you sleep better

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

UW Information School assistant professor Julie A. Kientz and Jared Bauer, an iSchool PhD. student, are part of a team of faculty and students who recently launched ShutEye, an application for Android-powered mobile phones that can make people more aware of what the research team is calling "healthy sleep hygiene." Sponsored by Intel Labs, the research project has identified practices that may promote improved quality of sleep. The ShutEye application, which was used in a 4-week field study, tells users when it is and isn't the right time for activities that affect sleep, such as napping, j

Article examines privacy, digital libraries

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

In a new article, PhD candidate Elisabeth Jones and associate professor Joe Janes look at reader privacy in the age of digital book collections like Google Book. Jones and Janes' analysis of the topic is a response to reasonable concerns about whether Google, with its well-documented struggles with user privacy issues, can rise to the challenges surrounding intellectual freedom in the way public libraries have -- namely with a well-developed set of standards, norms and laws. "Anonymity in a World of Digital Books: Google Books, Privacy, and the Freedom to Read" specifically asks: (1) How