IS News
SIS receives Mellon Grant
The School of Information Sciences has received
a five-year, $782,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support
the development of a graduate research program designed to understand and
influence the emergence of digital communication and research in academia,
known as cyberscholarship. The grant also provides resources to hire a professor
who will work within SIS and Pitt’s University Library System to explore
how disciplines are re-examining scholarly priorities, reshaping methodologies,
and redefining evidence bases as a result of new media and new tools, according
to SIS dean and professor Ronald L. Larsen, who will lead the program. Learn
more about this grant.
ARO Funded Research Project
SIS faculty are part of a research
project funded by the Army Research Office’s
Multi-University Research Initiative. Prashant Krishnamurthy and David
Tipper will collaborate on research on how to construct robust and secure
mobile ad hoc networks. "ARSENAL: A cross layer ARchitecture for SEcure
resilieNt tacticAL mobile
ad hoc networks” is a joint effort of 12 professors at 7 institutions:
University of California, Davis; University of California, Santa Cruz; University
of California, Riverside; Brigham Young University; University of Utah; University
of Pittsburgh; and the Pennsylvania State University. The Army Research Office
funded this innovative project for a five-year period at $6.25 million. The
goal of this project is to develop a cross layer architecture that provides
comprehensive security and resilience for mobile ad hoc networks. The resulting
architecture will be able to adaptively provide the appropriate trade-offs
between performance, security and fault-resilience. Krishanmurthy and
Tipper are associate professors in the School of information Sciences at
the University of Pittsburgh.
SIS To Host Two International Conferences
SIS will host two international
conferences in June: JCDL 2008 (Joint Conference
on Digital Libraries) and Hypertext 2008 (ACM Conference on Hypertext and
Hypermedia). The
School is pleased to have the opportunity to welcome more than 400 faculty,
researchers, students and industry professionals from all over the world
to Pittsburgh. JCDL
will take place June 16-20; Hypertext will commence on June 19 and conclude
on June 20. Most conference events will take place at the Omni William
Penn Hotel in downtown Pittsburgh.
JCDL is the major international forum focused on digital libraries and associated technical, practical, and social issues. The Conference is being chaired by Dean Ronald Larsen. The conference draws from a broad array of disciplines including computer science, information science, librarianship, archival science and practice, museum studies and practice, technology, medicine, social sciences, and humanities. Topics of the sessions and workshops will cover such aspects of digital libraries as infrastructure; institutions; metadata; content; services; digital preservation; system design; implementation; interface design; human-computer interaction; evaluation of performance; evaluation of usability; collection development; intellectual property; privacy; electronic publishing; document genres; multimedia; social, institutional, and policy issues; user communities; and associated theoretical topics. For more details, visit www.jcdl2008.org.
Hypertext is the acknowledged venue for high quality peer-reviewed research on linking. The Hypertext Conference provides the forum for research that considers links, their semantics, their presentation, the applications they have been put to, the knowledge that can be derived from their analysis and their effect on society. Professionals from academia, industry and the media will examine the incredibly diverse range of research areas linking people, places, and information. These research areas will be highlighted through a series of tracks: Information Linking & Organization; Social Linking; Applications of Hypertext; and Hypertext, Culture, & Communication. For more information, visit www.ht2008.org.
Pitt Highly-Ranked for Papers in Library and Information Science
Pitt was ranked third as a “Most Prolific Institution, 2002-2006” in
a survey of papers in the field of Library & Information Science. Of
U.S. institutions, SIS faculty contributed the third greatest number of papers
to the field of library & information science over a recent five-year period. The
survey was based on each institution's percentage of the 8,995 papers published
in Thomson Scientific-indexed library-science journals between 2002 and 2006. For
more information, please visit http://in-cites.com/research/2007/november_26_2007-1.html.
Alums recognized as "Mover and Shakers, 2008" by
Library Journal
Three graduates – Alexia Hudson, Mark Vrabel, and Karen Brooks-Reese
-- of the Library and Information Science program are honored in Library
Journal. Each year, the magazine selects 50 individuals from the hundreds
nominated who contribute greatly to transforming the library profession.
Alexia Hudson was a motivating force when she was a student in the FastTrack MLIS program (MLIS 2005) here at SIS. Now, she’s being recognized nationally as a "Mover and Shaker, 2008" by Library Journal magazine. Alexia was honored, as part of the "Marketer" category, for her efforts to help "students reenvision libraries as a place for continuous professional development with emerging technologies." As the Assistant Librarian/Reference Librarian at Penn State Great Valley School of Graduate Professional Studies, Alexia focuses on graduate student orientation, training, and developing the virtual campus in the Second Life Penn State Virtual Worlds project.
Mark Vrabel is a graduate of the MLIS degree program and has a Certificate of Advanced Study in Medical Librarianship/Informatics from the School. He serves as Information Resources Supervisor at the Oncology Nursing Society in Pittsburgh. Mark was selected as a "Mover and Shaker" in the "Problem Solver" category for his use of "ONS evidence-based practice initiatives by keeping nurses apprised of research on best practices in clinical treatment of cancer patients." Mark has also published in clinical practice journals.
Karen Brooks-Reese was included in this listing for her work in creating new programs for teens at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. Karen, who graduated from the MLIS program in 2005, serves as the Coordinator of Teen Services, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. Working with teens, she has created a number of programs including "Tell-a-Tale Theater" (teens bring popular children's books and activities to children at branch libraries); a video contest for teen-designed ads promoting the library; and "Behind the Book: Authors Talk to Teens." Karen is training teen specialists at 83 libraries and is fostering a leadership development program in the library system.
Congratulations to these outstanding alums, professionals who are shaping libraries of the future!
Dan Hickey, MLIS, Wins Travel Award
Dan Hickey, an MLIS student, has won the 2008 Business Reference
and Services Section (BRASS) Gale Cengage Learning Student Travel Award.
The award is given to a student who is focusing on a career in business librarianship
and who shows potential professional leadership. The honor is a $1000 cash
award to attend the annual ALA conference. Dan was selected
for this prestigous honor in part for “being selected for a competitive
joint internship with the Hillman Reference Department and the Business
Library and faculty liaison for the school's graduate organization (SISGO)
where he is a voting member of the School of Information Science's Council,” explains
Tina M. Adams, the award committee chair. Congratulations to Dan!
WISE Consortium Wins Award
The Wise Consortium, of which SIS is a member, was recently honored by the
American Distance Education Consortium (ADEC). ADEC offered its
Distance Education Award of Excellence to the Consortium, recognizing the
outstanding quality of this unique program. The Award of Excellence was
presented to WISE representatives at the All ADEC annual meeting, April
21-23, 2008, in Minneapolis, MN.
WISE is a collaborative distance education model that seeks to increase the
quality, access, and diversity of online education opportunities in Library
and Information Science. Through WISE, 15 leading library and information
science schools come together to broaden student and faculty educational
opportunities. Students at the WISE schools have access to courses shared
through the consortium, providing students with the opportunity to select
from an extensive list of online electives, and to take courses with faculty
who are highly regarded in their area of expertise. In addition, faculty
members at WISE schools have access to pedagogical resources and may participate
in educational programs focused on best practices in online pedagogy through
the WISE consortium.
Alum Wins Training Grant
Barb Folb, HSLS reference librarian and Graduate School of Public Health
(GSPH) library liaison, was awarded a two-year informationist training
grant from the National Library of Medicine (NLM) titled “Public
Health Informationist Training for Academic Public Health Practice.” The
grant will allow her to complete a Masters of Public Health in behavioral
and community health sciences with a special certification in evaluation. Folb
holds degrees from Carnegie Mellon University (BFA), Youngstown State University
(MM), and the University of Pittsburgh (MLS).
Faculty Edit Information Assurance Publication
James Joshi, Prashant Krishnamurthy,
and David Tipper have edited a volume on Information Assurance with Yi Qian
of the University of Puerto Rico. "Information
Assurance: Dependibility and Security in Networked Systems" was
published in November 2007 by Elsevier and is intended for use by researchers,
professionals and students in information security technology. The
publication is extremely timely in that society is increasingly dependent
upon network techologies – which come with new and complex threats
to the availability, integrity, and confidentiality of electronic information.
The book combines coverage of both security and survivability in a networked
information technology setting. Each chapter provides insights from
leading industry and academic researchers about state-of-the-art survivability
and security techniques; they further explain how these components interact
in providing information assurance. Topics covered include failsafe
design features, design for system and network survivability, integration
of dependability and security, monitoring and securing all-optical networks,
evaluation of the robustness of operating systems, and integrated fault
and security management. Joshi is an Assistant Professor; Krishanmurthy
and Tipper are associate professors here at the School.
Faculty Positions Open
The School of Information Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh is seeking
applications for a number of faculty positions within the School including
the Senior Scholar in Cyberscholarship and the endowed Doreen E. Boyce Chair. More
details are available at:
• Senior Scholar in Cyberscholarship
• Boyce Chair
• Assistant Professor
Interested candidates are urged to submit their application at their earliest
convenience. It is hoped to fill these positions for the Fall 2008
Semester.
Customize Education, Career Options
SIS offers students the chance to focus their studies on specific areas of
interest within the degree programs. Each specialization is designed to give
you a deeper understanding of a particular field or topic, and to make yourself
more marketable to employers who are looking for a specific set of skills. SIS,
in consultation with industry and academic leaders, created the concentrations
and specializations to better meet the needs of students and employers. More >
Anthony Debons Offers Course, Summer 2008
Anthony
Debons, leader in the Information Sciences discipline, will offer a course
in Summer 2008. More >