The University has launched a contest aimed at increasing student participation in the 2010 Census. Sponsored by the Office of the Provost and the Institute for Social Research, the contest offers $3,000 in prizes for short videos that get the message across to peers that college students count in the upcoming census. Details of the contest and information about why student participation in the census is so important are available on the contest Web site. The deadline for video contest entries is March 9. The contest is open to students, staff, and faculty.
Count on it: video contest offers cash
Posted February 8, 2010 by Jay JacksonCategories: Faculty, Staff, Students
Tags: census
Google book settlement as copyright reform
Posted February 8, 2010 by Jay JacksonCategories: Events, Guest speakers
Tags: cyberlaw, digital copyright law, intellectual property
Pamela Samuelson, an expert on matters related to copyright law and intellectual property, will be at the School of Information to discuss “The Google Book Search Settlement as Copyright Reform” as a guest of SI and the University Library. Her talk will be from noon-1 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 25 in the Ehrlicher Room, 411 West Hall.
Samuelson is a professor of law and information at the University of California at Berkeley. She is a pioneer in digital copyright law, intellectual property, cyberlaw, and information policy. She has written and spoken extensively about the challenges that new information technologies pose for public policy and traditional legal regimes.
She is the director of the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology, serves on the board of directors of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and on advisory boards for the Electronic Privacy Information Center, Public Knowledge, and the Berkeley Center for New Media. The talk is free and open to all. Coffee and cookies will be provided for this brown bag lunch.
Exploring the costs of preserving research data
Posted February 5, 2010 by Jay JacksonCategories: Faculty, Guest speakers, Students
Tags: OCLC
When it comes to preservation, cost is a factor, and deciding how much to save and how much to spend doing it applies to the mountains of research data in the world. At the next Preservation of Information Guest Speaker Series lecture, Brian Lavoie will discuss “Framing the Costs and Benefits of Preserving Research Data.” His talk will be from 11:30-1 p.m. Friday, Feb. 12 in the Ehrlicher Room, 411 West Hall. All are invited to the free event.
Lavoie is a research scientist in the Office of Research at OCLC. Since joining OCLC in 1996, he has worked in a variety of areas, including bibliographic control, analysis of library collections, models and frameworks for library service provision, digital preservation, and analysis of the structure and content of the Web.
Lavoie has conducted extensive work in the area of digital preservation, where he has written and presented on such topics as preservation repository architectures, metadata, and the economics and costs of digital preservation. He is a cofounder of the award-winning PREMIS preservation metadata working group, and currently serves on the PREMIS Editorial Committee.
Informatics program graduates its first student
Posted February 3, 2010 by Jay JacksonCategories: Alumni, Faculty, Students
Tags: Informatics
Undergraduate Lauren Fine can lay claim to being the first undergraduate to graduate with a major in informatics. The program is a collaboration between the School of Information, the College of Engineering, and the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. You can read more on the University Record site.
NEH funds virtual lab for digital humanities
Posted January 30, 2010 by Glenda BullockCategories: Faculty, Research
Tags: digital curation, National Endowment for the Humanities, virtual lab
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Preservation and Access Education and Training Program has awarded the School of Information a two-year grant to develop and implement a virtual laboratory featuring digital access and preservation tools.
These tools will be integrated into five master’s level courses in two SI specializations: Preservation of Information and Archives and Records Management. Students will gain hands-on experience managing humanities-related content across the records lifecycle.
The tools will also be accessed and integrated into the Digital Preservation Management Workshops hosted by the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research at the University of Michigan. In the past year, nearly 50 professionals from a wide range of humanities-related institutions have attended these workshops.
Humanities scholarship depends on access to primary sources. As more of these sources are originally created in digital formats or have been digitally reformatted, the need is growing for a new generation of digital archivists and preservation specialists. This grant supports the creation of the first comprehensive virtual laboratory for the education of digital archivists and curators.
Lecturer David Wallace is principal investigator and Associate Professor Elizabeth Yakel is co-principal investigator; senior personnel are Margaret Hedstrom and Paul Conway, both associate professors.
Faculty candidates to speak at SI
Posted January 22, 2010 by Jay JacksonCategories: Faculty, Guest speakers
The School of Information will interview the following individuals for faculty positions in coming weeks. Their presentations are open to all. You can view detailed descriptions of the ICT4D and Digital Environments positions that are available. The visitors’ topics and other details will be added as they become available.
Order your ASB Recipe Book by Friday
Posted January 18, 2010 by Jay JacksonCategories: Career Development, Students
SI students discovered what great cooks they are
at the ASB Recipe Book Dinner Party.
Looking for something different to eat on a cold night? You might want to pick up a copy of the ASB Recipe Book for just $5 to benefit the Alternative Spring Break program. Hurry, though, because you need to order by Friday, Jan. 22. The book features the meals featured at the ASB Recipe Book Dinner Party that was held Friday, Jan. 15.
Kelly Kowatch, assistant director of the SI Career Development Office and executive chef of the SI culinary division, says the book includes 47 delicious recipes.
Take a break from school to give back
Posted January 18, 2010 by Emily PuckettCategories: Ann Arbor, Events, Students
Catherine Le, Emily Puckett, Jessie Mannisto, and Caitlin Holman
At the very end of the fall semester, in fact on the first day of winter break, three SI students and I participated in a few hours of service at MAP’s headquarters on South Packard. MAP is the Michigan Abilities Partners, a past SI 501 client, that provides housing to people with disabilities and to veterans in the area.
Our service project with MAP was really more like a break from school: we created holiday wreaths for veterans and their families and the low-income housing facilities in the area, using brightly colored ribbon, ornaments, and what I called “disco birds.” It was a great chance to relax with fellow SI students and get to know each other a little better. We also got to meet several of the employees at MAP, and I went home feeling like I had contributed to the good spirit of the season and to the well-being of the community I live in.
The opportunity was coordinated by the CIC, SISA, and ASB and there are more opportunities to give back to the community we all live in over the winter term this year. It’s a great chance to take a break from school and get to know your classmates a little better!
Check out the ASB Web site and watch your E-mail for the winter term opportunities.
Alumnus Peter Morville’s newest book out Friday
Posted January 14, 2010 by Glenda BullockCategories: Alumni, Faculty
Tags: Alumni, Web search
The fascinating and at times frustrating Web function known as search is explained and explored in the latest book by SI alumnus and former faculty member Peter Morville (MILS ‘93). Released Friday, Jan. 15 by O’Reilly Media, Inc., Search Patterns is a provocative but practical guide designed to help make search better today across multiple categories, including web, E-commerce, enterprise, desktop, mobile, and social search and discovery.
Career Development: Employer information sessions
Posted January 14, 2010 by Shamille OrrCategories: Career Development, Events
The SI Career Development Office invites all students to the following presentations. A representative from each organization will talk with students and give an overview of the company, as well as discuss the types of job opportunities and careers that are available for SI students. Sign-up is required through iTrack. All students welcome!
Google, Inc.
Friday, Jan. 29
Noon-1:30 p.m.
311 West Hall
Yahoo!
Alumnus Chris Hanrath will speak
Tuesday, Feb. 2
Noon–1:30 p.m.
Ehrlicher Room, 411 West Hall
HookLogic, Inc.
Wednesday, Feb. 3
Noon-1 p.m.
311 West Hall
HUGE, Inc.
Thursday, Feb. 4
Noon-1 p.m.
Ehrlicher Room, 411 West Hall
