'Supercharged Storytimes': Ph.D. students offer practical advice in book

Friday, August 12, 2016

Storytime may be fun for kids, but it’s also a chance to put their developing brains to work. Using the right techniques, providers can promote early literacy without turning storytime into a chore. But how do you know which techniques are effective? Information School Ph.D. candidates Kathleen Campana and J. Elizabeth Mills have teamed up with early literacy consultant Saroj Nadkarni Ghoting to answer that question. Their new book, “Supercharged Storytimes: An Early Literacy Planning and Assessment Guide,” offers research-based effective practices to storytime providers. The book rec

The global impact of recent high-profile risk events

Friday, August 12, 2016

“Turning and turning in the widening gyre the falcon cannot hear the falconer; things fall apart; the centre cannot hold.” William Butler Yeats, The Second Coming (1919) These first three lines of a poem that Yeats wrote after the first world war resonate with us today and have been referenced in American political debate – and perhaps also around the Brexit vote as well. Going it alone or going it together with other countries appears at least to be the question as discord and violence present themselves more regularly, in no&

iSchool MLIS student named ARL diversity scholar

Monday, August 8, 2016

Nicola Andrews, a Master of Library and Information Science student at the University of Washington Information School, has been named a diversity scholar by the Association of Research Libraries. Andrews is one of 15 MLIS students in North America chosen to participate in ARL’s 2016-18 Initiative to Recruit a Diverse Workforce. “I am honored to be included in the newest cohort of ARL Diversity Scholars, and value the support that the Association of Research Libraries has given me as I begin the final year of my degree,” Andrews said.  As part of the program, the diversity

Susan Hildreth joins iSchool as professor of practice

Monday, August 1, 2016

It was 2010, and Susan Hildreth had just put down roots. She was enjoying her second year directing the Seattle Public Library and was planning to stay for a long time. Then the White House called. The Institute of Museum and Library Services – the main source of federal funding for museums and libraries in the United States – needed a director, and it was an opportunity she couldn’t pass up. As hard as it was to leave Seattle, she was off to Washington, D.C. Her term ended in 2015, and as fate would have it, Hildreth would soon welcome a chance to ret

Why indigenous knowledge is an iSchool priority

Monday, August 1, 2016

As a boy growing up in Narrandera, Australia, a little town several hours’ drive from a big city, I shared playgrounds and classrooms with Aboriginal children. Many of them were my friends and peers in primary school, yet by the time I reached the first years of high school, few remained. When my class reached graduation, no Aboriginal students were among us. Poverty and institutional racism pushed them to the fringes of society and denied them the educational opportunities that I had. In all my educational experiences, K-12, undergraduate and graduate, I was never taught by an Aboriginal in

iSchool faculty, students help expose Native girls to tech

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

In difficult conversations about diversity within the tech industry, one group is often left out of the discussion: American Indians. In most company demographic breakdowns, they are relegated to the category “Other.” When they are listed, the numbers are a blip. Intel’s diversity report released earlier this year showed American Indians representing 0.5 percent of its more than 100,000-member workforce. Combined with the overall imbalance of women in the industry – men still hold 75 percent of all computing workforce jobs in the country – it’s no surprise that the few American

Jin Ha Lee on Pokémon Go: How to stay safe and play to win

Friday, July 15, 2016

Assistant Professor Jin Ha Lee leads the GAMER research group at the University of Washington Information School and is an avid player of augmented reality games, including the recent phenomenon of Pokémon Go. We talked with her about how to enjoy the game, how to stay safe, and how to play to win. Q: You’ve recently been studying Ingress (an augmented reality predecessor to Pokémon Go). What aspects of it have you been studying and how do they apply to Pokémon Go? A: We’re trying to understand, by studying Ingress as a case study, the information behavior of people in augment

Ph.D. alumna becomes director of Florida State iSchool

Monday, July 11, 2016

Lorri Mon, who earned her Ph.D. at the University of Washington Information School in 2006, recently became director of Florida State University’s School of Information. Mon took the helm on June 1. She previously had been an associate professor and associate director of FSU’s iSchool. At the UW iSchool, she was the second person to graduate from the Ph.D. program, completing her dissertation, “User Perceptions of Digital Reference Services,” under committee chair Joe Janes. Her research since then has focused on how organizations use emerging technologies in information services

Capstone film project captures the entrepreneurial 'Soul of Seattle'

Thursday, July 7, 2016

Change is the one constant in Seattle’s Central District. Gentrification has displaced many low-income families and small businesses. Median home prices have soared past a half-million dollars. African Americans, who made up more than 70 percent of the population in the 1970s, now only account for about 20 percent.  The changes are especially challenging for business owners, who are dealing with both a new demographic landscape and an evolving technological one. Their experiences were the inspiration for “Soul of Seattle,” a five-part documentary miniseries by Matthew Jack

Sarah Reis wins 2016 Borgeson award in law librarianship

Tuesday, July 5, 2016

MLIS law student Sarah Reis has earned the 2016 Earl Borgeson Research Award in Law Librarianship for her paper, “Deconstructing the Durham Statement: The Persistence of Print Prestige During the Age of Open Access.” Reis’s paper will be published in the journal Legal Reference Services Quarterly. The honor carries a $1,000 prize. In her winning paper, Reis focuses on open access in legal academia. She proposes to reform the publication process of law reviews and law journals by moving toward electronic-only publication and not basing a journal’s credibility on whether it is availab

Students present Web apps designed to avoid overload

Monday, June 20, 2016

Web applications do all sorts of fun and useful things, but they come with a problematic side-effect: the potential for overload. With each service we use and with each log-in we acquire, our stress levels rise, and the problem – known as information fragmentation – is only made worse by the advent of cloud storage and mobile devices. This spring, Research Associate Professor Emeritus William Jones of the University of Washington Information School challenged students to create Web applications with the potential to help alleviate the overload. The students’ creations hint at a fut

iSchool alumna Cindy Altick Aden appointed to lead state library

Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Cindy Altick Aden, an alumna of the University of Washington Information School, has been appointed as director of the Washington State Library, the Secretary of State’s Office announced June 13. Aden has an extensive background in public libraries and the private sector, including stints at Amazon, Corbis, and community newspapers. She earned her master’s degree in 1987 at what was then the UW Graduate School of Library and Information Science and is now the Information School. Aden said she was “honored and excited” to take the post. “It will be rewarding to once again put

2 iSchool MLIS students among ALA scholarship winners

Monday, June 6, 2016

Two University of Washington Information School students are among the 60 winners of the American Library Association’s 2016-17 Spectrum Scholarships, the ALA announced Friday. The winners include iSchool Master of Library and Information Science students Melody Leung and Erika Miller. Both were named ProQuest Scholars, with their awards funded by a gift from the Michigan-based information and technology company. Leung is finishing her first year in the iSchool's residential MLIS program, and Miller is finishing her second year of the online MLIS program. In a press release, the ALA sa

More than 300 students take part in Convocation

Monday, June 6, 2016

More than 300 graduating students took part in the University of Washington Information School’s annual Convocation ceremony on Saturday, June 4, at Hec Edmundson Pavilion on the UW campus. It was the first time the event has been held at Hec Ed, a testament to the iSchool’s growth in recent years. Participants included two students who are finishing their doctoral degrees. Rachel Ivy Clarke and Paul Li are scheduled to defend their dissertations this week. The graduating class also includes up to 382 students in the iSchool’s undergraduate Informatics program and graduate Master of L

Capstone showcases more than 300 students' work

Wednesday, June 1, 2016

The iSchool’s 2016 Capstone event was the largest yet, featuring 150 projects from more than 300 graduating students. Projects were judged for awards in several categories, including social impact, commercial potential, research, service, innovation/design, and diversity. Additionally, graduating students in each program awarded a Best in Class prize to their peers. (Winners are pictured.) Held annually, Capstone showcases the breadth of skills and expertise students develop in the B.S. in Informatics (INFO), M.S. in Information Management (MSIM) and the Master of Library and Information