Summer 2006 - University of Michigan School of Information

SI@umich
Issue 30 • Summer 2006
Q u o t a b l e … Alumni Reunion Slated for October
“We’re working with the 14 partners to form
virtual teams and relationships around the
many facets of the IPL.”
— Maurita Holland
Describing the new consortium of information
schools that has agreed to fund and manage the
Internet Public Library. For more, see page 7.
N o t a b l e …
Showing Initiative: Public Spirit in Action
Four master’s students — acting on their own — organized a weeklong winter break trip to New Orleans to
help archivists recovering from the devastation left by
Hurricane Katrina.
“Recovery Project: New Orleans” was organized by
Rachel Pooley, Kyle Conner, Carl Collins, and Rebecca
Carter. Their primary mission was to help the Newcomb
College Center for Research on Women at Tulane University
get back on its feet. The archive had 16 inches of water
inside following the
storm. “When the
staff returned, they
found fish swimming
in the library,” Conner said.
The Newcomb
College archive was
still recovering by the
time the SI student
Rachel Pooley, Kyle Conner,
team arrived. The
Carl Collins, and Rebecca Carter students helped
restore and clean
soaked assets and move them to a second-story room. In
all, the four students handled 258 linear feet of archival
materials.
The students wanted to make their trip in fall 2005,
but the archives couldn’t accommodate them. “Everyone
was overwhelmed with the destruction,” Carter said.
When the students did go, about half of the city’s private
and public archives were open again, but usually not at
full strength.
Pooley said a secondary project involved interviewing
archivists to collect their personal stories. Many did not
want to write about the disaster themselves for fear that
others in the field would see them as unprepared.
The students, advised by Associate Professor Elizabeth
Yakel, obtained funding from the Michigan Student Assembly, the Rackham Student Government, fellow SI students
and staff, an anonymous donor, the student chapter of the
Society of American Archivists, and the Ginsberg Center
for Service and Learning at the U-M.
Event Part of ixChange Series of Lectures, Fun
It’s an information exchange of major proportions, and alumni are invited to head back
to Ann Arbor to be part of it.
focus on alumni events. The meeting, open to
all alumni, will be in the Ehrlicher Room, 411
West Hall.
The School of Information is presenting
the i xChange, an ambitious series of events
from Friday, October 13 through Tuesday, October 17:
➤ Saturday, October 14 — Community
Information Corps alumni gather to update each
other on their jobs and best practices.
➤ Friday, October 13 — The third John
Seely Brown Symposium on Technology and Society features author Steven Johnson (Everything
Bad is Good for You: How Today’s Popular
Culture is Actually Making Us Smarter).
➤ Saturday, October 14 — The Alumni
Society Board meeting at 10 a.m. begins a daylong
➤ Saturday, October 14 — Members of the
1996-2006 graduating classes take center stage at
a gala 10th Anniversary Celebration reunion.
Believe it or not, we’ll even have a “prom.”
➤ Sunday, October 15 — The second
i-Conference of the iSchools Project begins and
continues through Tuesday, October 17.
Continued on page 3
SI Changes Leadership
Leadership changes at the School
of Information have been made, following the promotion of Dean John
L. King on June 1 to vice provost
for academic information for the
University.
King had served as professor and
dean since January 2000. In his new
position, King is involved directly in the
governance of many of U-M’s primary
information technology operations,
including Information Technology
Central Services, the IT Commons,
and the Digital Media Commons.
He also works closely with
the University Library in its leadership role within the University and
beyond. A key part of his responsibility is mobilizing the U-M to serve as a
model of the transformation of higher
education enabled by information
infrastructure.
The following appointments
have also been made:
➤ C. Olivia Frost, professor
and associate dean for academic
affairs, as interim dean. She has
been a faculty member at Michigan
since 1977. During Frost’s tenure as
associate dean, she has been part of
the creation of the new School of
Information and has worked with
the school to help realize its vision
to bring together multidisciplinary
faculty and students with a common
commitment to provide leadership in
professional education and research
related to information. She served as
acting dean in 2005.
➤ Thomas Finholt, research
associate professor, as associate dean
for research and innovation. Finholt also
serves as director of the Collaboratory
for Research on Electronic Work and
the Center for Information Technology
Integration, and is in charge of several
SI-based enterprises for the University,
including M-GRID and the Connection
Project. Finholt has played important
roles in major national collaboratory
efforts, such as the National Science
Foundation’s George E. Brown, Jr.,
Network for Earthquake Engineering
Simulation.
➤ Judith S. Olson, Richard W.
Pew Collegiate Professor of Human
Computer Interaction, as associate
dean for academic affairs. Originally
joining U-M as a faculty member in
business and psychology, she became
a member of the SI faculty in 1996 and
has served as director of the doctoral
program. Her scholarship and contributions to the field of human-computer
interaction were recognized in March
with the CHI Lifetime Achievement
Award from the Association of Computing Machinery.
An advisory committee has been
appointed by the Office of the Provost
to assist in a national search for a new
dean. The committee will deliver an
unranked slate of final candidates
to Provost Teresa Sullivan early in
the winter term of 2007. See letter to
alumni on the back cover for more
on the dean search process. •
John L. King
C. Olivia Frost
Thomas Finholt
Judy S. Olson
profiles
Randy Horton
Achievers
Arnold M. Rzepecki (AMLS ’54) is
SI and Some Self-Exploration Lead to Success
For a guy who didn’t know where he was going,
Randy Horton (MILS ’96) appears to have found the
roadmap to success.
He’s now the director of information technology
business development for NORC at the University of
Chicago. NORC is a nonprofit national organization for
research and computing with approximately $100 million
in annual revenue.
• S I @ u m i c h • S u m m e r 2 0 0 6
Getting there took some doing, of course. Previously, he was a project manager for Lante Corporation
(an E-commerce consulting firm), a staff consultant for
Computer Sciences Corp. in the Consulting & Systems
Integration Division (a commercial consulting firm), and
an information architect for Argus Associates, an Ann
Arbor firm founded by SI alumni Louis Rosenfeld (MILS
’90) and Peter Morville (MILS ’93).
Horton graduated with a bachelor’s degree in history
from the University of Michigan, and then the question
popped up: what next? “My friends told me that I should
do something where I could ‘organize things and people’
and utilize my creativity, but I didn’t quite know what to
do with that advice,” he says.
“At that time, the University of Michigan was on the
cutting edge of developing many aspects of the Internet,
which was just beginning to move into the American
mainstream. I found myself spending a lot of time exploring the Internet, especially after I stumbled upon the first
release of the Mosaic browser. After someone told me
that SI was doing some cool things related to the Internet,
I stopped in to check out the School.”
The myriad of
experiences at SI
proved valuable. “I
had the privilege
to be a part of the
original SI seminar that
created the Internet
Public Library,” he says.
“The IPL was really a
pioneering project that
in many ways still sets
the bar for me when I try to ensure that my deliverables
are easy to navigate and add significant value to the information and data that they present to their users.”
While working his way up in his career, Horton has
— during just the past 10 years in the field — provided
support to a pharmaceutical contracting system, managed a PeopleSoft data conversion team for the human
resources/payroll systems merger of two major banks,
developed a wireless E-commerce prototype for one of
the nation’s largest owners of shopping malls, managed
an IT team supporting survey data collection for a study of
Air Force Veterans exposed to Agent Orange in Vietnam,
assisted the government of Qatar in the Persian Gulf in
creating an agency to collect and disseminate data related
to a national education reform, and coordinated federal
grant portfolios related to federal initiatives in the areas
of patient safety/medical error and health information
technology.
Presumably he stopped for lunch once in a while.
You can write to him at rhorton @ umich.edu. •
retired. He had been library director for
the Archdiocese of Detroit.
rzepeckim @ aol .com
Duane A. Johnson (AMLS ’61)
has retired as director of Command
Libraries for the United States Air Force
Civil Service and is living in Windcrest,
Texas. He’s now volunteering his time
at the Alamo Heights United Methodist
Church Library, a 20,000-volume collection, in San Antonio.
clj -58- daj @ satxrr .com
Judy R. Williams (AMLS ’64) is director of four school library/media centers
for 2,200 K-12 students at the American
School (Colegio Americano de Quito)
in Quito, Ecuador. She had been the
school library media consultant for the
Indiana Department of Education.
williamsjudyr @ hotmail .com
Frances Pratt Pope (AMLS ’70) is a
librarian for the King County (Washington) Library System. Her novelette, Full
Circle, has been published.
Mitchell Turitz (AMLS ’76) is serials
librarian for the San Francisco State
University Library. His advice: “It is
better to move to where you want to
live and look for a job than to move to
where you have a job but hate to live.”
turitz @ sfsu.edu
Heather B. Arroyo (AMLS ’80) is
library media specialist for Grass Lake
Elementary School in Lake Zurich,
Illinois. She writes that she would like
to hear from other elementary school
librarians about community/parent
outreach ideas.
hmaheavyreader @ hotmail .com
Susanna Davidsen (AMLS ’82)
Fang-Yu Lin
Museums Showcase HCI Grad’s Art Talents
Fang-Yu (Frank) Lin (MSI ’01), in addition to being an interaction designer/artist for R/GA, a multimedia
advertising agency in New York City, is the creator of
work on display in two museums.
“My new Net art project commissioned by the Tate
(UK) and Whitney Museum (New York) has been launched,”
he says. Links to his exhibit are available from his Web
site at www.compustition.com.
Lin has a background in media, having earned a
bachelor’s degree in advertising before coming to SI. After
earning his MSI with a specialization in Human-Computer
Interaction, Lin went on to complete an MFA in design
and technology from the Parsons School of Design.
All About Us:
SI@umich is published periodically by the
University of Michigan School of Information
for alumni, faculty, students, and friends.
Correspondence may be sent to:
SI@umich
School of Information
The University of Michigan
304 West Hall
1085 South University Avenue
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1107
Phone: (734) 763-2285
Fax: (734) 764-2475
In his job at R/GA, Lin is breaking new ground. “Interaction design
— also called experience design — is a
crucial discipline for the new wave of
marketing/advertising/design firms. Interactive agencies
or boutiques, or the old guards attempting to transform,
are aggressively pursuing candidates who possess a
thorough understanding of user behaviors and are able
to apply that knowledge to formulating and executing
communication objectives,” Lin says.
His preparation at SI, with courses in information
visualization, interface design, and programming, helped
him advance quickly in his career. Friends may write to
him at frank@ compustition.com. •
Publications Office
Phone: (734) 763-0074
Fax: (734) 764-2475
E-mail: [email protected]
Interim Dean:
C. Olivia Frost
Communications Manager:
Frank DeSanto
Editor:
Jay Jackson
Director of Development:
Shelley MacMillan
Development and Alumni Relations Officer:
Karen Jordan (AMLS ’75)
The Regents of the University of Michigan
David A. Brandon, Ann Arbor
Laurence B. Deitch, Bingham Farms
Olivia P. Maynard, Goodrich
Rebecca McGowan, Ann Arbor
Andrea Fischer Newman, Ann Arbor
Andrew C. Richner, Grosse Pointe Park
S. Martin Taylor, Grosse Pointe Farms
Katherine E. White, Ann Arbor
Mary Sue Coleman, ex officio
Non-Discrimination Statement
The University of Michigan, as an equal
opportunity/affirmative action employer, complies
with all applicable federal and state laws regarding
non-discrimination and affirmative action,
including Title IX of the Education Amendments
is Michigan eLibrary coordinator for
the Library of Michigan. Among her
responsibilities are the public relations
and marketing of the Michigan eLibrary,
both within the library community and
the general public. Davidsen worked
for the Michigan eLibrary when it was
known as the Michigan Electronic
Library and was part of the University
of Michigan. Most recently she was on
the staff at the School of Information
and taught courses related to government documents.
davidsens @ michigan.gov
Sandra Smith (AMLS ’82) works in
human resources at the Denver (Colorado) Public Library.
ssmith @ denver .lib.co.us
Deborah Evans (AMLS ’83) has been
admitted to the Master of Divinity program at Ecumenical Theology Seminary
in Detroit. deborahaevans @ sbcglobal.net
of 1972 and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation
Act of 1973. The University of Michigan is
committed to a policy of nondiscrimination and
equal opportunity for all persons regardless of
race, sex (including gender identity and gender
expression), color, religion, creed, national
origin or ancestry, age, marital status, sexual
orientation, disability, or Vietnam-era veteran
status in employment, educational programs and
activities, and admissions. Inquiries or complaints
may be addressed to the University’s Director
of Affirmative Action and Title IX/Section 504
Coordinator, Office for a Multicultural Community,
2072 Administrative Services Building, Ann Arbor,
Michigan 48109-1432, (734) 763-0235; TTY/TDD
(734) 647-1388. For other University of Michigan
information call: (734) 764-1817.
relationships
Reunion Time
Alumni Invited to Ann Arbor to Celebrate Past 10 Years
Continued from page 1
Here’s an indepth look at what’s on tap for the events surrounding i xChange.
CIC Grads to Swap Info, Adventure Stories
Plans are in the works for the CIC gathering that will
run both Saturday and Sunday, October 14-15. CIC participants
are, of course, invited to the general School celebration. This
year’s focus for the CIC program is ICT4D (Internet and communications technologies for development). On Sunday, CIC
alumni can participate in a community informatics forum
featuring leading researchers from the U.S. and Canada.
Prominent Author to Speak on Gaming
Bring Wrinkle Cream: Your Friends Will Be Here
The Anniversary Celebration promises to be big, with a
2 p.m. Saturday, October 14 program featuring previous deans,
recognition of the graduating classes of the past decade, the
announcement of major gifts to the School, and a reception.
All alumni are invited to share in the event and hear about
the growth of the School of Information.
At 8 p.m. at the Michigan Union Kuenzel Room, the spirit of “proms”
past will be resurrected for returning alumni for socializing with friends.
You can RSVP online at si.umich.edu / reunion and check for reunion
room locations. You’re also welcome to write to karenjordan @ umich.edu
if you have questions about any of the events.
SI to Host National Conference of iSchools
The i-Conference will draw representatives of the 19 North
American college and university programs in the information school
movement. The public is invited to hear four speakers at no charge:
U-M Co-Interim University Librarian John Wilkin, speaking on
the U-M/Google digitization project, at 1 p.m. Sunday, October 15,
John Seely Brown at 7 p.m. Sunday, October 15, Chris Anderson
of Wired magazine at 9 a.m. Monday, October 16, and Christine
Borgman of UCLA at 9 a.m. Tuesday, October 17. Details are at
iconference.si.umich.edu.
To find details and contact information about these and all other SI
events for alumni, visit si.umich.edu / events. •
Everywhere You Go at CHI,
You Find Someone from SI
The School of Information was well-represented at the largest-ever
world-wide gathering of
researchers, educators,
Professor Gary
M. Olson at CHI
(photo by master’s
student Andrea
Wiggins)
dents, and and professionals from the field
of human-computer
interaction during
the Association for
Computing Machinery
CHI Conference in
Montreal.
The April event
was chaired by Gary
M. Olson, Paul M. Fitts
Collegiate Professor of
Human-Computer Interaction. He and Judy S.
Olson, Richard W. Pew
Collegiate Professor
of Human Computer
Improvements Made to iTrack
SI’s premier online recruitment system, iTrack,
has a new look. SI Career Services has upgraded
iTrack (si.umich.edu /careers) to provide employers and job-seekers with enhanced functionality,
including a faster, easier-to-navigate interface.
The service is valuable for alumni seeking a job
or recruiting SI students.
If you’re a first-time user, contact jckroll@
to set up your iTrack account. •
umich.edu
stu-
Interaction, received the
CHI Lifetime Achievement Award. She is
also associate dean for
academic affairs.
In addition, four
then-master’s students
took third place in an
international design
competition that showcased skills in humancomputer interaction.
Noor Ali-Hasan, Matthew Raw, Diana
Gavales, and Andrew
Peterson presented
Fitster, a course project
for SI 649: “Information
Visualization.” The four
won in a competition
that started with entries
from 48 college and
university programs.
Detai ls about
SI participation at
the conference are
available at si.umich.
edu / news. •
Margaret
Taylor,
Benjamin
Bunnell,
and Ruth J.
Person
SI Cites Alumni at Dinner
Three alumni were honored by faculty and guests in April for their
contributions to the School, to fellow alumni, and to the information professions in general.
Margaret T. Taylor (Ph.D. ’82) was cited with the Distinguished Alumni
Service Award, Ruth J. Person (AMLS ’69, Ph.D. ’80) received the Distinguished Alumni Award, and Benjamin Bunnell (MSI ’98) was presented the
Outstanding Recent Graduate Award.
They were honored at a dinner the evening preceding spring commencement and were publicly recognized at the graduation ceremonies.
Alumni at the dinner were Connie Rinehart (AMLS ’48), Josie Parker
(MILS ’96), and Evelyn Freeman (AMLS ’74). Dean Emeritus Robert M. Warner
and his wife Jane were in attendance, as were current faculty members John
L. King, C. Olivia Frost, Margaret Hedstrom, and Michael Cohen. •
Make Plans for the Football Tailgate — and Party with the SI Contingent
Need tickets to the U-M homecoming football game with
Northwestern University on Saturday, October 28? You’re in
luck, because we have some. While you’re here, you can also
attend the U-M Alumni Association’s 30th annual pre-game
Tailgate at Elbel Field. This year SI will have its own area for
alumni to meet and mingle. Call Kelly at (734) 763-2281 to
reserve your game ticket now, and go to alumni.umich.edu/
events to sign up for the Tailgate party. Please let Kelly know
if you plan to attend the Tailgate (to help us with planning)
by dropping her a line at kkrzyzan @ umich.edu. •
• S I @ u m i c h • S u m m e r 2 0 0 6
The free John Seely Brown Symposium will be at 2 p.m.
Friday, October 13 in the auditorium of the new Biomedical Science
Research Building on Central Campus (Huron and Glen). The theme
of this year’s symposium is “Gaming and Learning.” Johnson will address the broader significance of electronic games, the gaming culture,
and how the principles of creating games that people want to play
over and over can apply to the learning process in general.
connect
Achievers
Archival Expert Paul Conway Joins SI Faculty
Steven Kaye (MILS ’93) is a knowledge management specialist in the
research area of Accenture.
skaye @ umich.edu
Paul Conway (Ph.D. ’91), who has extensive teaching and administrative experience
in the archives and preservation professions,
will join the School of Information faculty
this fall as an associate professor.
Kristen Garlock (MILS ’94) is associate director of support services for
JSTOR, the Journal Storage project, in
Ann Arbor. kristen.garlock@ jstor.org
Jennifer Lentz (MILS ’94) is a reference librarian and head of collection
development at the University of California-Los Angeles Law Library.
lentz @ law.ucla .edu
Christopher Farnum (MILS ’95)
is a senior information architect for
Enlighten in Ann Arbor. Previously
he was an information architect and
usability design product manager at
ProQuest, where he helped manage
and redesign the ProQuest search
platform for databases.
crfarnum @ yahoo.com
Elizabeth Bodenmiller (MILS ’97)
• SI@umich • Summer 2006
is a librarian at the Caroline Kennedy
Library in Dearborn Heights, Michigan.
nynaeve @ umich.edu
Rebecca Conner (MILS ’97) works
for ASRC Management Services and
lives in Roswell, Georgia, contracting to the federal government in
records management by creating and
establishing records management
audits, serving as lead consultant on
electronic records issues, and developing records retention schedules.
rebeccaconner @ gmail .com
Alysse Jordan (MILS ’97) is a social
work librarian at the Columbia University School of Social Work.
aj204@ columbia .edu
Brian Sheppard (MSI ’97) is a digital
library systems analyst in the Digital
Collections Center at the University of
Wisconsin. bboru @ umich.edu
Lorri Mon (MILS ’98) has earned her
doctoral degree from the University of
Washington. She has accepted a faculty position at Florida State University.
Eva Davis (MSI ’98) is branch
services manager for the Ann Arbor
District Library. evadavis @ comcast.net
Cara List (MILS ’98) is art and
architecture reference librarian for the
University of Oregon Architecture and
Allied Arts Library. clist @ uoregon.edu
Kate Boyd (MSI ’99) is a digital collections librarian at the Thomas Cooper
Library at the University of South
Carolina. boydkf @ gwm.sc.edu
Charis Kaskiris (MSI ’99) is a senior
contractor for PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP in the company’s Center for
Advanced Research in San Jose, California. kaskiris @ sims.berkeley.edu
Christina Wainwright (MSI ’99) is
manager of the Logan Heights Branch
of the San Diego (California) Public
Library. “Since it is a very small branch,
I’d say that I do a bit of everything
— reference, managing staff and the
facility, collection development in English and Spanish, working the circulation desk, coordinating volunteers, and
occasionally painting over graffiti,” she
says. cwainwright @ sandiego.gov
and seminars on information technology
issues.
Conway has made major contributions
over the past 30 years to the literature on
archival users and use, preservation manFor the past five years, Conway has
agement, and digital imaging technologies.
served as director for information technology
Prior to his appointment at Duke, Conway
services and director for digital asset initiaheaded the Preservation Department at Yale
tives at Duke University. Conway also holds a
University Library for nine years. He is an
master’s in history (1980) from the U-M.
accomplished leader in the fields of archives
and preservation and has held positions at the
Conway is an experienced educator
National Archives and Records AdministraPaul
Conway
whose courses will strengthen and extend SI’s
tion and the Society of American Archivists.
nationally ranked specialization in Archives
He began his career as an archivist at the Gerald R. Ford
and Records Management. He joins Associate Professor
Library on the U-M North Campus.
Margaret Hedstrom, Associate Professor Elizabeth
Yakel, Professor Francis X. Blouin, and Lecturer David
The new faculty member recently completed the
Wallace (also returning to the faculty this year) to make
first Research Libraries Leadership Fellowship program,
up the core instructors in the ARM specialization. Blouin
developed by the Association of Research Libraries. In
is also director of the Bentley Historical Library on the
2005, Conway received the American Library Association’s
U-M North Campus.
Paul Banks and Carolyn Harris Preservation Award for
his contributions to the preservation field. He currently
Over the past decade, Conway has developed and
serves on the Editorial Board of American Archivist and
taught courses on preservation management, archival
on the Preservation Advisory Committee of the Council
approaches to digital content management, and digital
on Library and Information Resources. •
preservation, as well as dozens of specialized workshops
Spring Grads Ready to Make Their Mark
School of Information degree candidates were
recognized before faculty, friends, and family at spring
commencement ceremonies on Friday, April 28 at the
Mendelssohn Theatre.
John L. King spoke for the final time as dean, noting
that many came to the School with questions about just
what such a constantly evolving institution had to offer.
The answer, he said, was graduates who are ready to go out
and change the world in the information professions.
The event also included the presentation of awards
to students and alumni. Erin Matas received the Edmon
Low Award. The award recognizes a student who embodies dedicated service to the information professions,
empathy for people, the ability to inspire confidence and
trust, industry, political shrewdness, responsibility, and
a good sense of humor.
Also receiving awards were Maurice Solomon and
Erika Doyle. They shared the Margaret Mann Award,
which was established in 1938 by the University of Michigan Library Science Alumni Society in honor of Associate
Professor Margaret Mann upon her retirement.
The School made a surprise award, to Sylvie Williams, who received a certificate from Professor C. Olivia
Frost in recognition of her numerous contributions to
the betterment of student life at SI and her leadership
within the student association.
Two students earned the Doctor of Information:
Clifford Lampe, now an assistant professor in the Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies & Media
at Michigan State University, and Jahna Otterbacher, a
visiting professor at the University of Cyprus.
Many of the students obtained jobs before graduation.
Among the positions accepted that have been reported
to SI Career Services: youth services librarian, Ann Arbor
District Library; user-experience researcher, Microsoft;
archivist, Keweenaw National Historical Park; information policy analyst, Presidential Management Fellow, U.S.
Office of Management & Budget; quantitative programmer,
Bear Stearns Asset Management; media specialist, Grand
Blanc (Michigan)
Community Schools;
information scientist, Procter &
Gamble; usability
engineer, Deloitte
Consulting; librarian, Thousand Oaks
(California) Public
Library; Library Orientation Exchange
director, Eastern
Michigan University Eric Frierson checks out a
Library; informa- digital photo with his fan club.
tion architect, Blenderbox, Inc.; and collections manager,
Internet Archive.
Master of Science in Information candidates were:
MSI: Archives and Records Management
Richard Adler, Ursula Arnold, Andrew Bangert, Andrew
Besuden, Robert Bolton, Suzanne Chapman, Andrea Gietzen,
Glenda Insua, Nancy Jacobson, Ashley Koebel, Craig Kussmaul,
David Lacrone, Jeremiah Mason, Erin Matas, Julie Pepera, Christie Peterson, Ivan Runac, and Ki Won Yoon
MSI: Human-Computer Interaction
Noor Ali-Hasan, Yung-Hui Chien, David Choi, Moises Curiel,
Erika Doyle, Michelle Gerry, Jing Guo, Steve Harrow, Marwan
Issa, Jonathan James, Swapnaa Jayaraman, Youn ah Kang,
Narayan Kansal, Rasika Ramesh, Christopher Petersen, Matthew Raw, Kavitha Reddy, Yang Shi, and Sylvie Williams,
MSI: Information Economics, Management and Policy
Mark Bard, Rodger Burns, Alejandro C De Baca, Aaron Dombrowski, Fengfeng He, Thomas Mobley, Shaton Sanderson, and
Maurice Solomon
MSI: Library and Information Services
Amy Anderson, Edith Burney, Nicole Cho, Sarah Cookingham, Kristy Cooper, Shevon Desai, Eric Frierson, Jody Harnish
(August), Chessa Hickox, Jennifer Hill, Autumn Kladder, Richard
Kong, Cynthia Matthias, Devon Persing, Georgia Portuondo
(August), Christina Postema (August), Amanda Raklovits,
Tamara Richardson, Elizabeth Schneider, Kathleen Schroeder,
Lindsey Scott, Beth St. Jean, Sarah Stone, Allison Zaleski
MSI: Tailored
Renata Ewing, Diana Gavales, Tracey Hughes, Prashanth
Nooguri, Andrew Peterson, Brad Sietz, Aiko Takazawa, Jenna
Zieman
Google Searches, Finds Ann Arbor
Achievers
Opportunities for School of Information students
and graduates at Google, Inc., are sure to grow as the
online search firm expands into Ann Arbor.
place graduates. This past summer alone, three students
worked at Google as interns: two in usability and design
and one in the Google Library Book Search Group.
Google has announced it will create up to 1,000
jobs in Ann Arbor as it develops an office for its AdWords
business unit. AdWords are “pay-per-click” ads activated
at the time a Google user searches for key words. The
average salary for new hires is expected to be $47,000
a year, according to news reports.
“Just as our national level recruitment relationship
with Google had begun to build momentum, we heard
the exciting news about Google setting up shop right
here in Ann Arbor,” says Joanna Kroll, associate director of career services. “We hope to ‘engage’ Google for
the SI Practical Engagement Program by coordinating a
steady stream of SI students into Google for credit-based
field work.”
Christine Di Bella (MSI ’00) is an
archivist and project director for the
PACSCL Consortial Survey Initiative at
the Historical Society of Pennsylvania
in Philadelphia. PACSCL is the Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections Libraries. [email protected]
Another 1,200 jobs related to Google’s presence
could spring up in the Ann Arbor area, Ann Arbor civic
leaders have predicted, making Ann Arbor the epicenter
of Michigan’s new economy.
SI is a natural fit for Google. Already recent graduates,
including David Choi (MSI ’06) and Ben Bunnell (MSI
’98), work for Google in its California offices. In addition,
the School’s Center for Information Technology Integration (CITI) has a history of involvement with Google.
CITI staff and students have given talks at Google and
have served internships there, and students who have
been involved with the CITI initiative have moved on to
full-time jobs at Google.
SI’s Office of Academic and Career Services is actively
developing internship opportunities at Google and will
continue to strengthen relationships with Google to help
A Look at Faculty Activities
Assistant Professors Lada Adamic and Suresh Bhavnani received a grant from Microsoft Research to build
a tool that will visualize the online search process. The
Microsoft grant was one of only 12 awarded out of a
pool of 182 proposals from 36 countries.
The funded project brings together Adamic’s research on
networks with Bhavnani’s research on information scatter in the Web environment. “The exciting part of the
grant is that Microsoft recognizes that both have to come
together in important ways,” says Bhavnani.
The researchers will develop an online tool that will analyze a select subset of 15 million queries from the MSN
search engine and will create a visualization that shows
1) the behavior of users as they search for information
about a topic, 2) the scatter or distribution of information about that topic, and 3) the results the search
engine provides for the topic.
Bhavnani points out that the tool will “graphically
represent relationships between people (in terms of user
search behavior), information (in terms of information
scatter), and technology (in terms of results returned
from the search engine) — three key dimensions of interest to iSchools.”
Adamic and Bhavnani hope such a tool will contribute to
a better understanding of information-seeking behavior
and will help search engine developers and Web site
designers pinpoint the difficulties users have in finding
comprehensive information. The researchers expect to
make the visualization tool available online in mid-2007.
Adjunct Lecturer Peter Morville (MILS ’93) gave a
presentation on his new book, Ambient Findability, published by O’Reilly, at the Library of Congress. The book is
“a safari of how people search for information, and how
they now find their way through a world of information
overload.” He is also president and founder of Semantic
Studios, a consulting firm.
The Google decision to locate in Ann Arbor is indicative of the respect business leaders have for the value of
U-M programs, including the School of Information, and
for the private businesses in the Ann Arbor area related
to technology and the Internet. A number of SI graduates
are employed by those businesses, too.
Faculty research under way at SI dovetails with the
kinds of information management issues facing Google.
For example:
• Associate Professor Dragomir Radev studies
natural language processing and has made presentations to Google officials.
Megan Kinney (MSI ’02) is a senior
librarian for the Denver (Colorado)
Public Library Ford-Warren Branch.
C. Andrew Larrick (MSI ’02) is
head of public services for the Arthur
W. Diamond Law Library at Columbia
University. alarri @ law.columbia.edu
Marcos Vera (MSI ’02) is a database
librarian for EW.com in Brooklyn, New
York. marc _ vera@ ew.com
Laura Barrett (MSI ’03) is undergraduate services librarian/psychology
librarian at the Odegaard Undergraduate Library at the University of Washington. barrettl@ u.washington.edu
• Thomas Finholt, associate dean for research and
innovation, is an expert on collaboratories and
increasing efficiency of workers in a dispersed
workforce.
Peter Bogaty (MSI ’03) is director of
usability services for Corporate eBusiness in Jersey City, New York. peter.
bogaty @ aig.com
• Professor Jeff MacKie-Mason studies the
economic implications of the Internet and the
information economy. The AdSense business
model of Google is a prime example of information economics in practice.
Bill Chang (MSI ’03) is the lead
• Managing large quantities of data is a challenge
for any organization, but especially so for one
with locations throughout the world. In that
regard, SI is positioned well with its program in
Archives and Records Management. Associate
Professors Margaret Hedstrom and Elizabeth
Yakel are experts on digitization and digital
preservation and have been involved in many of
the digital library initiatives at U-M that laid the
groundwork for the Google/U-M alliance.
Google has other relationships with the U-M already,
including an ambitious plan to add the seven million
volumes in the University of Michigan Library to the
Google search engine. That project came about in part
because of the work of alumnus Bunnell. SI continues
to develop opportunities for year-round, credit-based
fieldwork for students. •
SAA Cites SI Student Lanell James
Master’s student Lanell E. James received the Harold
T. Pinkett Minority Student Award in August from the
Society of American Archivists at its annual conference
in Washington, D.C.
James is the third winner from Michigan. Other
Michigan recipients were Kathryn M. Neal (MILS ’94),
the first recipient of the award itself, and Josue Hurtado
(MSI ’04).
The award honors archival pioneer Harold T.
Pinkett, the first African American to be appointed an
archivist at the National Archives, where he served for
more than 35 years. He was editor of American Archivist
from 1968-71. •
information technology human-factors
engineer for the Asia region for Intel
Corp. bill.c.chang @ intel.com
Carrie Hammerman (MSI ’03) is a
policy associate for the Corporation for
a Skilled Workforce in Ann Arbor.
cba @ umich.edu
Tom Vollaro (MSI ’03) is an interaction designer for Autodesk, Inc., in
Waltham, Massachusetts. He describes
it as his dream job, designing software
for architects. tom @ vollaro.com
Ashley Young (MSI ’03) is a school
media specialist in the Washington,
D.C., area. [email protected]
Julia Gardner (MSI ’04) reference/
instruction librarian at the University
of Chicago Library in the Special Collections Research Center.
juliag @ uchicago.edu
Mark Matienzo (MSI ’04) is an
assistant archivist for the American
Institute of Physics in College Park,
Maryland. Part of his job includes
responsibility for implementing
emerging collaborative technologies.
Previously he worked as a project archivist at the National Anthropological
Archives of the Smithsonian Institution
in Suitland, Maryland.
mmatienz @ aip.org
Sara Naab (MSI ’04) is a knowledge
manager for Freedom from Hunger
in Davis, California, an international
development organization that focuses
on learning and microfinances. She just
completed a year in Benin, working
for Catholic Relief Services. saranaab @
hotmail .com
• SI@umich • Summer 2006
According to the Detroit Free Press, David Fischer,
Google’s director of online sales and operations, said the
company’s focus is on hiring bright, motivated people.
“We worry less about experience than raw talent. We’ve
had tremendous success hiring people straight out of universities, with majors from engineering to art history.”
Margot J. Lyon (MSI ’01) is director of business development for the
American Theological Library Association in Chicago. mlyon @atla.com
connect
Achievers
Kelly Tyler (MSI ’04) is young adult
librarian at the year-old Westwood
Branch of the Los Angeles Public
Library. “As the young adult librarian,
I enjoy the challenges and rewards of
working with teens,” she writes. “I
never would have anticipated this
career when I came to SI, but I left
with the necessary tools to get a job
in nearly any kind of library or related
field.” ktyler @ lapl.org
Melanie Anderson (MSI ’05) is a
librarian for the Sunnyvale (California)
Public Library. melaniejoy@ gmail.com
Asif Baki (MSI ’05) is a usability
engineer with Microsoft Corporation.
“Since graduating from SI, I’ve worked
on many products for the upcoming
Windows Vista operating system. You
can see some of my work in the latest
beta version of Windows Media Player
(11). I’m still growing and still learning
— using skills that I gained at SI every
day.” asifbaki @ umich.edu
Andrew (Michael) Beasley (MSI
’05) is a usability engineer for Compu-
• S I @ u m i c h • S u m m e r 2 0 0 6
ware in Detroit.
michaelbeasley @ michael- beasley.net
Amanda Carvell (MSI ’05) is a
librarian/archivist for the San Antonio
(Texas) Public Library Texana/Genealogy Department.
acarvell@ sanantonio.gov
Matthew Forsythe (MSI ’05) is
a financial resource management
analyst with Eli Lilly and Company in
Indianapolis, Indiana. This fall he will
begin studying toward his MBA at the
Stanford University Graduate School of
Business. matthew.forsythe @ gmail.com
Margrethe M. Hackett (MSI ’05) is
a project coordinator for Genentech,
Inc., in San Francisco. hackett @ gene.com
Leslie Knoblauch (MSI ’05) is an
assistant records manager for Catholic
University of America in Washington,
D.C. She is the first records manager
ever and has initiated the university’s
first records management program.
leslie _ knoblauch @ hotmail .com
Mellanye Lackey (MSI ’05) is an
associate fellow with the National
Library of Medicine.
mellanyej @ yahoo.com
Zahra Langford (MSI ’05) is a
user-interface designer for Xerox in
the Industrial Design/Human Interface
Department, in Rochester, New York.
zahrala @ gmail .com
Frank Lester (MSI ’05) is an electronic services librarian at the Institute
of Governmental Studies at the University of California-Berkeley.
fmlester @ gmail .com
The Road Beckons Ph.D. Student
It’s not a stretch to say that
Kevin Yamami is willing to go
to the ends of the world to help
others.
briefings for government officials,
offer guidance for business development, and even appear on television
to help educate citizens about the
value of technology.
Yamami, an SI doctoral student, is taking a year off from his
studies starting this fall to help
the people of Uzbekistan develop
information and communication
technologies.
“It’s a technology environment
that’s primitive by our standards,”
Yamami says. “But there’s much
more opportunity to affect any
given stage of development.”
The former Soviet republic is
growing rapidly in terms of technology, but is still far behind when
judged by the widespread nature of
cell phones, the Internet, and other
technologies considered common
in most developed countries.
Thanks to globalization and
educational exchanges, countries
like Uzbekistan can leapfrog to
new technology standards. “Ten
years ago, many parts of Uzbekistan
would have been 50 years behind
U.S. standards,” Yamami says.
Yamami has received a Boren
Graduate Fellowship from the National
Security Education Program that will
make his trip possible. The fellowship is awarded to approximately
100 students to allow them to study
language and culture.
The desire to travel and help
others is seemingly in Yamami’s
blood. He has packed in enough
adventure to satisfy most people
for a lifetime. He served a little
more than a year as a Peace Corps
business education and development volunteer during his first trip
to Tashkent, but that trip was cut
In his role in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Yamami will assist with policy
Yamami taught computer
information systems in Beijing in
2004, and then it was home for a
master’s degree at Carnegie Mellon
University.
Afterward, he accepted a
position in Bosnia-Herzegovina,
working with the United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees
as an information technology consultant intern. Finally, he came to
Ann Arbor.
Yamami isn’t sure what he
wants to do after he earns his
doctorate. “I know it will help
me in the development field, and
solidify what I want to do in the
field,” he says. •
Assistant Professor Gavin Clarkson testified
before the U.S. Senate Finance Committee this spring
as an expert witness on the regulation of tax-exempt
municipal bonds issued by Native American Indian
tribes.
This test not only unfairly limits which projects
can be funded by tax-exempt bonds, Clarkson said,
but also increases uncertainty around bonds that
are issued by an Indian tribe. Uncertainty breeds
higher interest rates.
Clarkson, who has faculty appointments in SI, the
Law School, and the Native American Studies Program,
spoke of the need to recast federal legislation that
severely restricts the tax-exempt status of municipal
bonds issued by Indian tribes as compared to those
issued by towns, cities, counties, and states.
“You have situations where tribes have to pay
more to do the exact same thing, even if they can
qualify for tax-exempt bonds,” Clarkson said, “because
it is uncertain whether their water treatment plant
will survive scrutiny by the IRS.”
“There’s $50 billion of unmet capital need that
goes unfunded each year in Indian Country,” Clarkson testified. As an example, he pointed to the fact
that 20 percent of Indian Country does not have
running water or plumbing facilities. He blamed
these unmet needs on a restriction in the U.S. tax
code that applies an “essential government function”
test to tribal applications for tax-exempt status for
their municipal bonds.
“The essential government function test … is a
test that only applies to tribes,” Clarkson testified.
Clarkson also referred to models he had created
that showed that removing the essential government
function test would result in a net increase in federal
revenue because of additional income taxes collected
from workers on new bond-financed projects on
Indian lands.
After Clarkson testified, a Senate bill, “Tribal
Government Tax-Exempt Bond Parity Act of 2006,” was
introduced by senators from Montana and Oregon. He
has also spoken to 12 Kumeyaay tribes about the issue
and the need for information empowerment. •
If it’s Tuesday, This Must be the Netherlands
T. Charles Yun (MSI ’99), a member of the
Alumni Society Board of Directors, and his wife
Kristine (Palmquist) Yun (MSI ’99) have packed
up and moved out.
Sharadindu Ramarao (MSI ’05) is
Out, as in out of the country and to the Netherlands, where they’ll work together with a group
of astrophysicists in Dwingeloo, a town east of
Amsterdam.
Cari Rottenberg (MSI ’05) is a
user-experience designer for Oracle
in Redwood Shores, California, in the
Server Technologies Department.
crottenberg @ gmail .com
Then in 2002, it was off to
Afghanistan as the country director
for the Project for Economic Reform
and Development in Central Asia.
Professor’s Testimony Aids Native American Tribes
Erin Podolsky (MSI ’05) is an information specialist with Thomson Gale in
Farmington Hills, Michigan.
oppsie @ gmail .com
a user-interface designer for eBay, the
online auction company, in San Jose,
California. sharadindu @ gmail.com
short following the 9/11 terrorist
attacks.
The scientists that Charles and Kristine will
work with have been part of the broader Internet2
community. Charles will lend his expertise in matters
related to security and Kristine will serve as public
outreach officer.
Until recently, Charles worked for the Internet2
consortium in Ann Arbor, a project headed by SI
Professor Douglas Van Houweling. Most recently,
Kristine has been an information and special projects manager for Small Times, a publication that
covers the micro- and nanotechnology industries.
tcharlesyun @ yahoo.com and kristine.yun @ gmail .com. •
IPL Enters into Cost-Sharing Consortium
Achievers
A consortium of 14 universities with academic programs in the
information professions will govern
the Internet Public Library (IPL),
one of the most popular sources of
authoritative information available
on the Web.
Aaron Stark (MSI ’05) is Web techni-
Joining Michigan in the consortium are Drexel University, Florida
State University, Penn State University,
Rutgers University, Syracuse University,
University of California-Irvine, University
of California-Los Angeles, University
of Illinois, University of Maryland,
University of Pittsburgh, University
of Texas, University of Toronto, and
University of Washington.
SLA
Cites
Field
Judith J. Field (AMLS ‘63) has
received the John Cotton Dana Award
from the Special Libraries Association
in recognition of her commitment
throughout her career to both the
SLA and the library and information
science profession. Field is a senior
lecturer on the Wayne State University
information science faculty. •
Faculty Take the Prize
Associate Professor Dragomir
Radev was one of the authors of a
paper awarded the Gosnell Prize for
Excellence in Political Methodology.
The annual prize from the Society for
Political Methodology recognizes the
best work in political methodology.
The Society for Political Methodology
is part of the American Political Science Association.
The winning paper was “An
Automated Method of Topic-Coding
Legislative Speech Over Time with
Application to the 105th-108th U.S.
Senate.”
Associate Professor Elizabeth
Yakel’s co-authored paper, “The
HANDS Project and Vision for Nursing Informatics,” received the Sharon
Coleman Memorial Scholarship Award
for being the “most influential” at the
Summer Institute for Nursing Informatics in Baltimore. •
“We’re working with the 14
partners to form virtual teams and
relationships around the many facets
of the IPL,” says Maurita Holland,
associate professor, assistant to the
dean for academic and strategic initiatives, and IPL executive director.
“We’ve targeted the User Services
and Reference area as the first functions of the IPL to become a broadly
consortial activity.”
The first faculty workshop aimed
at transitioning features of the IPL
to consortium institutions was held
August 1-2 in Ann Arbor.
Venture consortium partners
will have equal “ownership” in the
IPL. As the governing board of the IPL,
the consortium will decide matters
related to the library’s future, such as
cost-sharing and how new members
can be added.
The consortium was launched
with a total of $120,000 to support
the IPL. That includes a matching gift
of $50,000 from an anonymous donor
to the School of Information.
School of Information Interim
Dean C. Olivia Frost notes that this
next step for the IPL is an example
of higher education creating a public
good and giving the larger community
ownership.
“It’s possible that as the consortium grows, public and K-12 libraries could become members, either
through financial contributions or
contributions of in-kind services,”
she says.
The IPL consortium is the first
project of the new iSchools Project,
which consists of 19 college and
university programs related to the
information professions.
The purpose of the iSchools
Project is to raise awareness of “information” as a field of academic study,
much in the way law and medicine
are readily recognized.
The second national iSchools
Conference meeting will be held from
October 15-17 in Ann Arbor. •
STIET Program Wows ’em at ACM Conference
The Socio-Technical Infrastructure for Electronic Transactions (STIET)
Program hosted the seventh ACM Conference on Electronic Commerce
(EC ’06) in June.
STIET is a multidisciplinary doctoral training program that includes the
School of Information. SI Professor Jeff MacKie-Mason heads STIET and will
be the general chair of next year’s conference.
Since 1999 the ACM Special Interest Group on Electronic Commerce
(SIGECOM) has sponsored the leading scientific conference on advances in
theory, systems, and applications for electronic commerce. This year, 174
registrants attended from 11 countries, more than double previous years.
Sharon Smith (MSI ’05) is an
office/program manager for First Voice
International in Silver Spring, Maryland.
sharonks @ umich.edu
cal coordinator with the U-M Michigan
Administrative Information Services.
aaronsta @ gmail .com
Rebecca Tremaglio (MSI ’05) is
a user-interaction professional for
Hewlett-Packard in the Knowledge &
Intranet Management Group.
trebecca @ umich.edu
Allison Walker (MSI ’05) is a humanfactors engineer for Lexmark International in Lexington, Kentucky. “Our
team evaluates various aspects of the
products based on usability principles
(i.e., competitive evaluations, heuristic
evaluations, usability tests). We are
also involved in the development of
the user-interface (e.g., menus, hardware, firmware) for new and existing
products,” she writes.
alliwalk @ umich.edu
Joshua Wilson (MSI ’05) is librarian
at North Carolina State University.
_ wilson @ ncsu.edu
josh
Noor Ali-Hasan (MSI ’06) is a userexperience researcher for Microsoft TV.
nooraz @ umich.edu
David Choi (MSI ’06) is a user-experience researcher for Google, Inc., in
Mountain View, California.
choidh @ umich.edu
Eric Frierson (MSI ’06) is an
instructional technology librarian at
the Hatcher Graduate Library at the
University of Michigan.
efrierson @ umich.edu
Kelly Garrett (Ph.D. ’06) received
the Gerald R. Miller Outstanding
Doctoral Dissertation Award from the
National Communication Association,
the oldest and largest national scholarly society that promotes communication scholarship and education.
The most popular sessions included workshops on the Economics of Networked Systems (NetEcon) and Alternative Solution Concepts for Mechanism
Design. Drew Fudenberg from Harvard University gave a keynote address on
“Superstition and Multi-Agent Learning” and Hal Varian from the University of
California-Berkeley gave an address on “Online Ad Auctions.”
Diana Gavales (MSI ’06) is a humanfactors design engineer at St. Jude
Medical, Inc., in Los Angeles. The
company specializes in medical device
technology and services. She had been
a high-tech anthropologist for Menlo
Innovations in Ann Arbor.
dgavales @ umich.edu
The well-attended conference banquet took place in the U-M Exhibit
Museum surrounded by exhibits on prehistoric life, including the imposing
dinosaur displays. Attendees rated the conference and location an unqualified
success and EC ’06 proved to be a opportunity to advantageously highlight
the research and programs of STIET and the University of Michigan. •
David LaCrone (MSI ’06) is a Kansas
City research librarian for the Kansas
City (Missouri) Public Library. He helps
plan and implement all aspects of a
Web portal related to Kansas City-area
research material. dlacrone @ umich.edu
Book Learnin’: It Sticks with You for a Lifetime
Courses at Michigan about the history of printing had a lasting impression
on Tyrus G. Harmsen (ABLS ’48), who now lives in Pasadena, California.
A working lifetime in libraries, with an emphasis on rare books, culminated in Harmsen and Stephen Tabor writing a book, The Plantin Press of
Saul & Lillian Marks, A Bibliography, that was published in 2005.
After Harmsen graduated, he moved to San Marino, California, where
he became a cataloger in the Department of Manuscripts at the Henry E.
Huntington Library. “I was responsible for the literary manuscripts, and
British historical materials from the 18th Century to the present,” he says.
“Personal interests, developed in my college years, included a love of reading
and book collecting.” •
Sylvie (Khajuria) Williams (MSI
’06) is a computer systems analyst/programmer for Lockheed Martin Global
Commerce & Information in Woodlawn,
Maryland. sylwill@ umich.edu
In Memoriam
Lucy Schiller (MSI ’00) , 57, of Ann
Arbor, died Saturday, July 22. She was
a pediatric research resource librarian at the U-M. Previously, she was a
teacher and the executive director of
Big Brothers Big Sisters in Midland and
Caro, Michigan. Memorials may be
made to the Scleroderma Foundation
or the Washtenaw County (Michigan)
Humane Society.
• SI@umich • Summer 2006
Since the IPL’s founding in 1995
at SI, its content has been generated
and maintained almost exclusively by
graduate students. Now, 14 universities
across the United States and Canada
have agreed to share the IPL’s operating cost and give students and faculty
the responsibility of helping the IPL
grow. Each university will decide
how it wishes to incorporate the IPL
into its own curriculum.
Since the IPL is Web-based,
consortium partners can contribute
to the library and provide services
from their own locations.
SI@umich
Nonprofit
Organization
U.S. Postage
PAID
Ann Arbor, MI
Permit 144
3 0 4 We s t H a l l
1085 South University Avenue
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1107
The correct answer is…
…the School of Information, of course, when a prospective
student asks the best choice for becoming a success like you.
Write to [email protected] or call (734) 763-2285
if you know someone thinking about applying to grad school.
Don’t Forget These Big Events!
October 13
John Seely Brown Symposium on Technology and Society with author Steven
Johnson, 2 p.m., 1020 Biomedical Science Research Building. See si.umich.edu/
events for more.
October 14
School of Information Alumni Society Board Meeting, 10 a.m., Ehrlicher Room,
411 West Hall. Open to all alumni.
October 14
School of Information Anniversary Celebration to mark the 10th year of the
School of Information. All alumni are invited. Special recognition will be given to
graduates of the 1996-2006 classes. In addition, Community Information Corps
alumni will gather for a two-day reunion. See si.umich.edu/events.
October 15-17 Four free public lectures are part of the i-Conference of the iSchools Project in
Ann Arbor. Come hear John Wilkin at 1 p.m. Sunday, John Seely Brown at 7
p.m. Sunday, Chris Anderson of Wired magazine at 9 a.m. Monday, and Christine
Borgman at 9 a.m. Tuesday. Details at iconference.si.umich.edu.
October 28
Return to campus and feel young again — without the guilt — at the U-M homecoming Tailgate. The U-M Alumni Association is sponsoring its 30th annual pre-game
Tailgate at Elbel Field, and this year SI will have its own area for alumni to meet
and mingle. A limited supply of tickets to the football game with Northwestern
University is also available. Call Kelly at (734) 763-2281 to reserve your ticket now.
Go to alumni.umich.edu/events for more.
It May be Time to Change Your Password!
If you haven’t changed your U-M Kerberos log-in password since the Clinton Administration
(December 1998, to be exact), it will no longer work.
The Kerberos log-in password gives you access to SI’s Alumni Connections directory and
the SI Alumni Blog, in addition to a range of University sponsored computing services. Update
your password online (https ://accounts.itcs.umich.edu / kpasswd). You will need to remember
your uniqname and your old password to use this page.
Forgot that info? Reauthenticate yourself at U-M’s Uniqname Sign-Up site (https ://accounts.
www.umich.edu / create /alumnirec). You’ll need either your alumni ID (10 digits, on your SI@
umich mailing label), your U-M ID (the eight-digit number on your old U-M ID card), or your Social
Security number. Once authenticated, you can create a new Kerberos password.
Information is also available through the above links for those who wish to take advantage
of the free E-mail forwarding service. For example, by using your uniqname @ umich.edu address,
all mail sent to you at your U-M name can be forwarded to whatever account you select, such as
bigdog1523@ doggieville.com.
This is especially useful to you if you change E-mail accounts, since your friends and associates could continue to send to your umich.edu address and the mail would come to the account
of your choice. Also, if you’re sending out resumés or other material and you want a professional
E-mail address, you could give your umich.edu address instead. •
Share Your News with Fellow Alumni
Please send us your news by any of these convenient methods:
Postal mail: Karen Jordan
Web:
si.umich.edu/alumni/update.htm
SI Development and Alumni Relations E-mail: [email protected]
304 West Hall
1085 South University Avenue
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1107
Dean Search Under Way
Dear Alumni:
John King, who had served as dean of the School
of Information since January 2000, recently moved
into a new position at the University as vice provost for academic information. Olivia Frost (known
to many of you as Carolyn O. Frost) has stepped in
as interim dean while we search for a permanent
replacement for Dean King. The provost has asked
me to serve as chair of the Search Advisory Committee. The full membership of this committee is
shown below. A copy of the job announcement
is posted on the SI Web site. We will be working
hard this summer and fall to find a superb leader
for this most important position.
We value the views, expertise, and support of our
alumni in all aspects of SI planning, and would
welcome hearing from you regarding the dean
search. Please feel free to drop me a note by email at [email protected]. Meanwhile, we will keep
you informed about the progress of our search
through the SI@umich newsletter and postings to
the SI Web site at si.umich.edu/deansearch.
Sincerely,
Gary M. Olson
Paul M. Fitts Collegiate Professor
of Human-Computer Interaction
Chair, School of Information
Dean Search Advisory Committee
Dean Search Advisory Committee members are:
Laurie Alexander, senior associate librarian, U-M
Library; Jane Dutton, professor of management
and organizations, professor of psychology,
and William Russell Kelly Professor of Business
Administration; Margaret Hedstrom, associate
professor of information; Libby Hemphill, SI
doctoral student; Judy Lawson, SI director of academic and career services; Jeffrey MacKie-Mason,
professor of information and Arthur W. Burks
Collegiate Professor of Information and Computer Science; Paul Resnick, professor of information