Life in a Professional School

Fall 2010

How/when did it all start?

• 1876– ALA– Library Journal– Dewey Decimal

Classification System

• 1883– Columbia and later

Albany in 1888 Melvil Dewey

How/when did it start in NC?• 1904: Wilson began offering summer courses

in librarianship– “A library school is needed, where

librarians, like lawyers and doctors

and teachers, may secure expert

professional training… to tap the

vast reservoir of human knowledge.”

• 1931: School of Library Science opened, with the first class graduating in 1932

• 1950: MSLS began to be offered• 1980: First PhD graduate

Louis Round Wilson

And what about information science?

Bush, Vannevar. “As We May Think." Atlantic Monthly, 176(1):101-108, 1945

Information explosion during and after WWII

Solution: The MEMEX

The MEMEX

• Coping with the growing amount of data

• Personal information repository

• Random access, extensibility, ability to add new data

A walk through history

• ASIS&T founded in 1937 as the American Documentation Institute

• 1950s & 60s – Transition to information science

• 1980s – Library schools become ILS schools

• 1992 – The Web is born

Today and tomorrow…

• Digital libraries• User-centered

design• Human-computer

interaction• Information

architecture • Social media

• Information retrieval• Knowledge

management • Personal

information management

• Digital curation

What about the day after tomorrow???

For the future, we need ILS professionals• But what do we mean by:

– A professional?– An ILS professional?

The professional…

• Is an expert problem solver

The professional…

• Occupies a position of TRUST

The professional…

• Builds community

The professional…

• Is a change agent

ILS professions include…

• Librarians of all types

ILS professions include…

• Archivists & Records Managers

ILS professions include…

• Information/Knowledge Managers

ILS professionals include…

• Systems Analysts

ILS professionals include…

• Web designers• Database designers

Becoming a professional involves…

• Formal education

Information(content, artifacts)

People(authors,

info seekers,readers)

Tools/technologies

Managementissues

Educationin ILS

Policyissues

Contexts

Human-Information Interaction

Information organization,

representation

Human-Computer Interaction

Becoming a professional involves…

• Commitment to lifelong learning

Becoming a professional involves…

• Active participation in professional associations

Student organizations at SILS• ILSSA – ILS Student Association• IS Undergraduates Empowered

(ISSUE)• Doctoral Student Association

(DSA)• Art & Museum Professionals

(AMLISS)• Information Science &

Technology (ASIS&T)• Librarians (ALA)• Archivists (SCOSAA)• Special Librarians (SLA)

Your formal education at SILS

Function/Requirement MSIS MSLS

Organization 520, Org of Information 521, Org of Materials I

Collection/Retrieval 509, Info Retrieval 501, Info Res & Serv513, Resource Select & Eval

Information Behaviors 500, Human Info Interactions 500, Human Info Interactions

Design/Evaluation 582, Systems Analysis780, Research Methods

780, Research Methods

Management 585, Mgmt for Info Professionals

585, Mgmt for Info Professionals

Master’s Paper 992, Master’s Paper 992, Master’s Paper

Information Technology 461, Info Tools 461, Info Tools

…Plus 8 electives

Another view of the program

Organization Collection/Retrieval Info Behaviors Design ManagementInfo Tech

520/521 509/501/513 500 582 585461

Electives

780

Evaluation

992

MS Paper

THE FOUNDATION

890490

Some core values at SILS

• Collegiality, collaboration, and teamwork• Academic integrity• Social responsibility

Collegiality, collaboration, teamwork

• Team assignments in classes• Use of resources in the School:

library, lab• Sharing what you already know

Academic integrity

• UNC Honor Code/system, http://honor.unc.edu/ • Using others’ work: plagiarism

– Online tutorial available: http://www.lib.unc.edu/instruct/plagiarism/

• Re-using your own work:

self-plagiarism,

“double-dipping”

Social responsibility

• Service learning at UNC: http://www.unc.edu/apples/

• Volunteer efforts– Project Homestart– Habitat for Humanity

• Devoting your professional efforts to work that is “worthwhile”

Project Homestart, Chapel Hill, NC

Habitat for Humanity,Orange County, NC

If you don’t know, ASK!

• One another– Individually or via listserv

• Your instructors• Your advisor• The office staff

– Lara Bailey– Wake Harper

• Me– 210 Manning Hall– wildemuth@unc.edu