Portfolio

Me, Then.
Me, Then.

Me, Now.
Me, Now.

The purpose of this portfolio is to document and showcase my experiences during my graduate education at the University of Washington Information School. I submitted it and received my MLIS in June, 2003. Hopefully, this portfolio will evolve over time to become a living record of my accomplishments over the years.

Summary

I came to the University of Washington Information School in 2001 to obtain a graduate education in Library and Information Science (LIS). At the time, I wanted to become an "information professional", an ambiguous job title that covers everything from research specialists to information architects to public librarians. I wanted to work in an occupation where I could help people, design systems that met their needs, and foster community through the healthy interchange of information and ideas.

Three years later, I feel that my goals have not changed. What has changed is that I have gained knowledge and tools that can help me achieve those goals. By applying an interdisciplinary approach to my education, I have acquired skills in user-centered design, information architecture, knowledge management, and classification theory. Additionally, I have learned lessons inside and outside the classroom context that will help me in any future experience, invaluable knowledge gained from leadership, practicum, and service experiences.

Not all of the experiences I list here are entirely successful ones. However, I believe that humans learn best and fastest by trial and error. Together, these experiences demonstrate my ability to overcome obstacles, learn quickly, and adapt to change while never losing sight of the importance of human interaction. These abilities are essential to all careers in the information profession; these positions require all of the competencies contained in this portfolio. Having lived and learned through the experiences described below, I now feel confident that I can truly call myself an information professional.

Course Work

Below is a listing of the titles and descriptions for the courses I have completed at the University of Washington.

Course # Title Description
LIS 500 The Life Cycle of Information Overview of the major concepts, processes and systems, actors, and operations in the life cycle of information. Introduction to the creation, publishing and distribution, evaluation and selection, organization, access, retrieval, and use of information. Exploration of the social context in which these processes and their stakeholders interact.
LIS 510 Information Behavior Introduction to the user-centered approach to information behavior. Theoretical foundations of various information behaviors such as information need, utilizing, gathering, seeking, and evaluating. Synthesis of user studies, construction of user profiles, performance of gap analysis, and application of the results of user studies to improve services and system design.
LIS 511 Systems Analysis Introduction to the systems approach including basic concepts in the approach, dimensions of systems and steps in systems design. Emphasis is on the analysis, evaluation and design of information systems and services.
LIS 519 Ecological Information Systems Introduction to cognitive work analysis framework. Prepares for active role in design and evaluation of information systems. Familiarization with basic concepts of cognitive systems engineering and practice in field study, data analysis, and transforming field findings into requirements for the design of an information system.
LIS 520 Information Resources, Services, and Collections Concepts, processes, and skills related to parts of the life cycle of knowledge involving creation, production, distribution, selection, collection, and services to facilitate access. Specific discussion topics include characteristics of recorded knowledge; organizations and services devoted to managing access to recorded knowledge; principles associated with development of recorded knowledge and collections.
LIS 521 Principles of Information Services Analysis of the information mediation process, including determination and analysis of information needs; searching for, evaluation, and presentation of appropriate results; modalities for delivery of services; and current and future techniques.
LIS 530 Organization of Information and Resources Introduction to issues in organization of information and documents including: analysis of intellectual and physical characteristics of documents; principles and practice in surrogate creation, including standards and selection of metadata elements; theory of classification, including semantic relationships and facet analysis; creation of controlled vocabularies; and display and arrangement.
LIS 535 Classification Theory Survey of classificatory principles from bibliographic, philosophical, socio-cognitive, and linguistic perspectives. Overview of history of bibliographic classification and exploration of some existing bibliographic classification systems. Ramification of theoretical approach for classification practice.
LIS 537 Construction of Indexing Languages Exploration of the design, construction, evaluation, and maintenance of controlled indexing languages, including studies of how users are integrated into the design process. Through completion of thesaurus construction project, prepares students to design index languages, plan and implement a design project, and evaluate indexing languages.
LIS 540 Information Systems, Architectures and Retrieval Introduction and overview of information systems, system architectures, and retrieval models. Emphasis given to the role of users in the design, development, and evaluation of information retrieval and database management systems.
LIS 542 Conceptual Database Design Introduction to relational database theory and technology from an information science perspective. Focuses on traditional transactional database theory, architecture and implementation in a user-centered systems context. Introduces set and graph theory, relational algebra, and data warehouses.
LIS 543 Design of Information Systems Discusses how theories of conceptual data modeling affect design of database and information systems, examines relationships between modeling and implementation, and bridges gaps between theoretical understanding of database design and implementation issues. Implements conceptual schemata development in 542.
LIS 550 Information in Social Context Concepts, processes, and issues related to the larger social context within which the life cycle of knowledge is played out. Discussion topics include intellectual freedom, information as public/private good, intellectual property, privacy, confidentiality, information liability, information and telecommunications policy, the economics of information, and other professional values. Prerequisite: LIS 500, which may be taken concurrently.
LIS 560 Instructional and Training Strategies for Information Professionals Develops knowledge and skills in instruction and training functions for library and information settings. Issues and strategies for learning and teaching. Design, development, and evaluation of information and technology literacy programs. Addresses the needs of users when designing and delivering instruction.
LIS 570 Research Methods Research as a process from problem definition and formulation of questions to design, data collection, analysis, and reporting. Students recognize research opportunities, translate them into researchable frameworks, design research projects, and implement results in libraries and other information agencies.
LIS 580 Management for Information Organizations Introduction to internal and external management issues and practices in information organizations. Internal issues include organizational behavior, organizational theory, personnel, budgeting, planning. External issues include organizational environments, politics, marketing, strategic planning, funding sources.
LIS 587 Library Technology Systems Developing criteria for selection and design of information technology systems for libraries and information centers. Applying criteria in evaluation of hardware and software. Examining related management challenges, such as vendor relations, financing options, personnel requirements, and design of auxiliary activities.
LIS 590 Directed Fieldwork Minimum of 100 hours, maximum of 200 hours of professional, supervised fieldwork in a library or professional information setting. May be taken in one quarter or as many as three consecutive quarters. May be repeated once in a different setting.
LIS 598 Designing XML Metadata Schemas Equips students with a general understanding of metadata schemas that will be in line with international standards. Covers XML schema, the recommended markup language to describe metadata schema. Also covers basic and advanced concepts of metadata in the context of designing digital libraries. Major metadata schemas will be discussed in detail inclduing Dublic Core (DC), Open Archives Initiative (OAI), Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standards (METS), Text Encoding Initiative (TEI), and Visual Resource Association (VRA). The DC-based application profiles will also be discussed. The topic of metadata interoperability will be dealt with using RDF, RDF Schema, and SemanticWeb.
LIS 600 Independent Study: Information Architecture Explore the theory, skills, and practice of information architecture, including systems analysis, knowledge organization, content management, usability, graphic design, and project management. Conduct needs analysis and create design documentation for information architecture of an actual information system.
LIS 600 Independent Study: Content Management System Evaluation Criteria Explore the issues involved in the design, implementation and use of content management systems. By surveying the extant literature and resources on CMS evaluation, generate a standard set of criteria for evaluating CMSs. Identify common issues and challenges in the design, implementation and use of CMSs.
CSE 142 Computer Programming I Basic programming-in-the-small abilities and concepts. Highlights include procedural and functional abstraction with simple built-in data type manipulation. Basic abilities of writing, executing, and debugging programs.
CSE 143 Computer Programming II Continuation of 142. Concepts of modularity and encapsulation, focusing on modules and abstract data types. Covers some basic data structures.
MATH 126 Calculus with Analytic Geometry III Third quarter in calculus sequence. Sequences, series, Taylor expansions, and an introduction to multivariable differential calculus.

Teaching & Training

Photoshop Workshop, 2002
Photoshop Workshop, 2002

Throughout my career as a graduate student, I took advantage of many opportunities to share my knowledge with others and to shape my own learning. Included in this section are three such experiences involving teaching, training, and course planning.

Every successful teaching and training experience begins with defining learning objectives and then creating a lesson plan that meets those learning objectives. The experiences below demonstrate my abilities in designing and implementing two different training modules for two different contexts: workshops and independent study.

I planned and taught computer literacy workshops to several groups of graduate students using Adobe Photoshop. In the case of the Information Architecture Independent Study, I planned a course for myself and acheived my own learning objectives. I reflect on both experiences in the sections below.

Photoshop Workshops

During the 2002 Winter quarter, I was enrolled in an MLIS core course (LIS 560) on Instructional and Training Strategies for Information Professionals. I completed the term project, creating an Adobe Photoshop training module, which included background materials, a lesson plan, supplemental materials, and an in-class presentation. However, I wanted to extend my learning experience outside the classroom, so I teamed up with Dowell Eugenio, an iSchool staff member, to teach a series of introductory Photoshop workshops. Through the student chapter of ASIS&T, we offered 4 identical sessions at the iSchool: 2 in Winter 2002 and 2 in Winter 2003.

Process

Coloring Activity

In LIS 560, I selected Photoshop as a vehicle for teaching computer literacy, that is, to equip students with transferable knowledge and skills that will apply in many situations involving a computer, not just one program. I used Photoshop as a means to demonstrate the concepts behind digital graphics, computer architecture, and imaging devices. In developing the lesson plan for the workshops, I covered the theory behind graphics applications rather than simply listing the functions of Photoshop. The workshop activities I designed addressed multiple learning styles, ranging from a crayon coloring exercise (to convey the concepts of pixels & color palettes) to a team scavenger hunt (to de-mystify the user interface).

Using the materials I generated for LIS 560 as a guide, I created a PowerPoint presentation and an activity packet for the workshop. I also received feedback from Lorraine Bruce, my instructor for LIS 560, on the lesson plan. Dowell and I then split up the lesson plan by determining the parts with which we felt we had the most expertise.

The first set of workshops, which we taught in March 2002, were very well received by the workshop attendees. The ASIS&T student chapter asked us to repeat the workshop the following March as well, which were also successful.
Me, teaching.

Reflection

Through this experience, I learned many valuable and practical skills in teaching that I might not have attained through coursework alone. The workshops provided me with a laboratory in which to experiment with different teaching styles, activities, and methods. And most importantly, the feedback I received from students provided a valuable source of data that gave me a way to review and revise the workshops in real time.

One interesting example of this was a lesson for me on collaborative learning. In the first workshop, the attendees worked alone on the scavenger hunt. I gave them a list of different functions and tasked them with finding the associated command in Photoshop. By the end of the activity, many students were frustrated, but a few were not. I noticed that those who weren't had teamed up with the person next to them and had easily completed the scavenger hunt. In the following sessions, I asked the attendees to work through the exercise with a partner, and the response to the scavenger hunt improved markedly.

What's Next

NetPoint screenshot

As a result of these workshops, Dowell and I were approached by the instructors of the Fluency in Technology (FIT 100) distance course to record a segment on Digital Imaging for their NetPoint online videos. The video distilled some of the concepts from our workshops, and we are now reaching a wider audience than we ever expected. In the coming months, Dowell and I will be teaching a new series of workshops on advanced Photoshop skills at the Information School.

Artifacts

IA Independent Study

Sitepath diagram
Sitepath diagram

Garrett IA diagram
Garrett IA diagram

Noting the recent publication of several books on Information Architecture (IA), I became interested in taking a course on the subject. The Information School's MLIS curriculum, while impressively interdisciplinary and well-rounded, lacks an IA course. Thus, I set about designing my own Independent Study course on IA.

Process

In order to create the Independent Study, I needed to submit a proposal to the school that included a list of the learning objectives, resources, activities, deliverables, and evaluation criteria I would use to guide my study. I began by surveying the literature of IA, including the most significant books, web sites, and mailing lists in this fledgling discipline. From these I created a syllabus that would allow me to explore these readings in depth and apply them to a real-life project at the same time.

I approached David Hendry, an iSchool professor with some experience in IA, and asked if he would be willing to act as my instructor for this independent study. He agreed, and we began meeting once a week to discuss the issues I explored throughout the term.

The readings provided a foundation of theory and best practices, and I spent the first few weeks absorbing them all. It was then time to apply the concepts to practice. Using the Faculty Accomplishments project as the test-bed for my ideas, I produced several documents central to the information architecture process. I applied what I had learned through the readings and noted how each book contributed to each activity.

In the beginning, I wanted to learn about both the theory and practice of IA. The latter turned out to be easier to accomplish than the former. The discipline of IA draws from extant theories in Library & Information Science, Architecture, User-Centered Design, and Systems Science. However, there is no single theory of IA, and many practitioners of IA have attempted to re-invent the wheel with new theories of how information should be organized and used.

Reflection

This experience taught me some of the complexities involved in curriculum design. Teaching a discipline involves extracting the key concepts and practices of a knowledge domain and producing curricula that convey those concepts and practices to learners. With information architecture, a fairly new discipline, the key concepts and practices have yet to be reified. By developing my own training module and testing it on myself, I have a better idea of how to go about designing a course (or series of courses) on IA.

What's Next

I am working with a few Information School faculty members to develop a quarter-long special topics IA course, and I hope to learn more about the curriculum development process through this interaction. The goal is to eventually propose a sequence of courses that will serve as a certification program in IA.

Artifacts

Leadership

Spring Fling Banquet Permit
Spring Fling Banquet Permit

Leadership can be defined as the act of guiding, directing, and advising. Over the course of my graduate education, I took a leadership role in many different student groups and activities, but the most significant experiences were those during my term as Vice President of ALISS, the Information School's Association of Library & Information Science Students.

Whether by gathering and coordinating the Spring Fling committee, recruiting and shepherding the Silverfish staff, or sponsoring an amendment to the ALISS bylaws, I was constantly involved in the student leadership of the iSchool. In the section below, I describe and reflect on these activities in detail.

Vice Presidency, ALISS

The Association of Library & Information Science Students acts as the student government for the MLIS programs in the UW Information School. In Winter quarter 2002, I was elected to be the Vice President of this organization. Throughout the following year, I helped represent and guide the student body of the iSchool by coordinating events, organizing and advising committees, and attending meetings. The following timeline chronicles the most significant milestones during my time in office:

Timeline

Process

Spring fling


Spring Fling Alcohol Permit

My first major leadership experience as ALISS Vice President was organizing and coordinating Spring Fling, the iSchool's annual year-end celebration. The event is open to the entire school (over 300 people in total) and traditionally features food, games, music, and, of course, beer.

Planning for Spring Fling requires the coordinated effort of a sizable committee of students and staff. The venue must be reserved. If the event takes place outside, tents, chairs, and tables are rented. A sound system and a DJ must be found. Food, catered and otherwise, must be planned for. For the beer, we needed an alcohol permit, plus permission from several entities on campus.

On the advice of my predecessor, I immediately formed a Spring Fling committee within 2 weeks of taking office. I separated the volunteers into two teams: logistics and entertainment. We set a budget, decided on a date, location, and time, and then set about procuring the proper authorizations, reservations, menus, and so on. Fortunately, I had several willing and responsible committee members to collect the necessary information and paperwork. For all my delegation, however, I had to spend many hours wandering the bureaucratic maze of UW's facilities, catering, and student activities policies.

On the day of the event, I faced a nightmare of last-minute changes of plan due to the simple fact that it rained -- torrentially -- negating our plans to hold Spring Fling outdoors. The equipment we rented -- the tent, tables, chairs, and garbage cans -- went unused. We moved inside, quickly finagling a deal with a building manager through an iSchool staff member.

The event itself went over well, though not without unforeseen difficulties. The DJ's music was too cacophonous and didn't have a microphone; the caterer didn't bring enough food; we ran out of beer... But, in the end, people left satisfied that another Spring Fling had gone successfully.

The Silverfish

As ALISS VP, I was also responsible for overseeing the publication of the iSchool's student newsletter, The Silverfish. In the past, this newsletter had been published once a term, usually including two or three articles in each issue. It went mostly ignored and unread in the past due to its anemic publication schedule, and, as such, suffered from a lack of contributions. When I took office, I hoped to greatly increase the relevance of The Silverfish by raising the frequency of issues to once a month and recruiting several new staff members.

I drafted a plan for reorganizing The Silverfish that included a set of policies, procedures, and schedules. I worked with the other ALISS officers to refine the plan and then set out implementing it. I recruited fellow student Michael Harkovitch, who had a background in journalism, to be the new Senior Editor of The Silverfish.

During the Summer, I attended the new student orientations for the Evening, Distance, and Day MLIS programs to talk about ALISS and recruit staff members for the new positions I identified in the reorganization plan. By the second week of Autumn quarter 2002, Michael and I had collected a group of 7 students from all three MLIS programs to fill the new staff positions. Using the publication schedule and list of article ideas I drafted as a guide, we began publishing issues of The Silverfish on a monthly basis.

It was a hit. As the school year progressed, we generated articles and solicited contributions from students that were timely, often controversial, and, most importantly, read regularly.

Amendments to the ALISS Bylaws

In Winter 2003, I worked with the other ALISS officers to coordinate the elections of the new ALISS officers, since our term in office was coming to an end. We followed the guidelines in the ALISS Bylaws, but, despite our heroic efforts to recruit nominees, we were unable to generate enough interest in the elections to fill all the officer positions. The Bylaws were silent on what to do in this case, and we debated amongst ourselves whether to:

I argued for the former, and after a stalemate and much discussion, we decided on a compromise: postpone the elections long enough to find a candidate for the open positions, but close nominations on the other positions.

To save future officers from having to deal with these problems, I proposed two amendments to the ALISS Bylaws clarifying elections policies and rules of order. These amendments had to be ratified by the MLIS students, so I took charge of setting up the vote.

The amendments passed almost unanimously, and I incorporated the new policies into the Bylaws as my last act in office.

Reflection

Through my experiences as ALISS Vice President, I've learned many important lessons in delegating, time management, teamwork, budgeting, and a host of other leadership issues. In the case of the Spring Fling, I learned those lessons the hard way. However, I believe I learned from those lessons and applied that learning in later situations.

If I could, I would certainly do things differently, but I value my hard-won skills in management, delegation, and politics.

What's Next

I am currently mentoring my successor, S.J. Alexander, to pass some of this knowledge to her.

Artifacts

Practicum & Service

Volunteering at ASIS&T PNC 2002
Volunteering at ASIS&T PNC 2002

While skills and tools may be gained through classroom learning, real knowledge often only comes from experience. In this section, I describe how I obtained practical experience and interacted with professionals through directed fieldwork and service in professional organizations.

I was able to test my skills learned from coursework in professional practice by doing a directed fieldwork. In volunteering at three conferences, I provided a service to the professional community. While these two experiences are vastly different, they represent two major aspects of any career: the practice and the community of practice (in other words, the skills and knowledge to do the job and the people who do that job).

Directed Fieldwork

Before entering the MLIS program at the Information School, I worked for the University of Washington Program for Educational Transformation Through Technology (PETTT) as a web applications developer and educational technology researcher. When I went to graduate school, my job with PETTT became a graduate assistantship. During my first year at the iSchool, I assisted PETTT in the development of a non-functional demo for the Washington State Bar Association (WSBA) Council on Public Legal Education (CPLE) Legal Gateway Project, now known as LawForWa.org. The goal of the Legal Gateway Project was to create a public portal to the myriad web sites containing information for the general public on legal issues in Washington State. PETTT and several people at the iSchool were involved in this project due to its relevance to educational technology and content management.

After the demo, I saw an opportunity in the Legal Gateway Project to apply some of the knowledge gained in my MLIS coursework in a real-life setting. During a project meeting, I suggested hiring interns from the Information School to assist in the collection of resources and creation of a taxonomy for the web site. They asked me if I would be willing to work as an intern on the methods and technology they would use to collect and categorize the resources. I consented, and I immediately started the process for setting up a Directed Fieldwork through Lynnea Erickson, the Information School's fieldwork coordinator.

In the summer of 2002, I went to work for the WSBA. My mission was twofold:

Process

I worked with a group of other interns from the Information School, UW Law School, and Seattle University Law School who were collecting resources and suggesting terms for the taxonomy. Marc Lampson, a PhD student at the Information School with a background in law, was the supervisor for the interns. The other iSchool interns, since they had some experience with taxonomies, teamed up with the law students to help them choose terms. My role was to draft the structure of the taxonomy, create a database to hold the terms and records, and load the collected resources into the database.

The Taxonomy

My coursework in the MLIS program had greatly influenced my view of taxonomic structures. I believed that faceted classification -- the multi-dimensional, poly-hierarchical categorization of information, was the best method (see the section on Classification and Information Architecture for my argument). After taking classes on Organization of Information and Resources (LIS 530) and Classification Theory (LIS 535), I felt confident that I understood the concepts involved in constructing a faceted classification scheme. However, conveying this understanding to a group of law students and to the Legal Gateway Project team proved to be quite challenging.

I consulted with Judge Marlin Appelwick (CPLE Chair), Pam Inglesby (WSBA Education Manager) and Marc Lampson on the facets we should use for the taxonomy. We came up with four a priori dimensions: Purpose, Type, Topic, and Question. Isolates in each facet were to be arranged hierarchically. For instance, "Employment -- Discrimination -- Age" was an isolate for the Topic facet. I then created a blank MS Excel spreadsheet for collecting resources.

In one of the first meetings with the interns, I explained the concept of faceted classification and introduced the spreadsheet. I laid out guidelines for selecting terms and notation for creating categories. My presentation was met with nods from the iSchool interns and perplexed expressions from the Law School interns. It was then I realized that faceted classification might be too complicated a concept to convey to non-information professionals. So, taking a lesson from the Photoshop Workshops, I suggested to Marc that we team iSchool interns with Law School interns and assign each team of 2 to a different area of the law.

He did so, and the interns went about collecting and categorizing resources in their spreadsheets. We continued to meet as a group and individually with Marc Lampson once a week to discuss our progress. By the end of Summer quarter, we had a fledgling (though imperfect) taxonomy and a modest collection of over 1000 resources.

The Database

Meanwhile, I worked with Eric Maddox, PETTT web and database developer, to create an Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD) and logical schema for the database that would store the records. From this, we decided on a system architecture that would best accommodate the data design.

Eric began building the data storage mechanism while I created an interface for uploading, editing and viewing the documents. We connected the database and the interface together and began testing the basic functionality.

Bringing it together

Before loading the records collected by the interns into the database, I had to clean up the spreadsheets. I combined the separate files into one spreadsheet and started the arduous process of normalizing the data. After a week of this, I began to see problems with the approach we had taken. Very few of the interns had truly understood the purpose of the classification process, mostly due to a lack of collaboration with their teams. The terms some chose were full of legal jargon, while others used entry terms to describe categories. Different people had different conventions for representing the terms, and few had followed the guidelines I had given them at the beginning of the quarter. In short, it was a mess.

I did my best to clean up the data and load it into the database, but the technology was having problems as well. Theoretically, everything should have worked, but we were stymied by the idiosyncrasies of the platform & approach we had chosen. In the end, we opted for a simpler, more scalable system.

Reflection

As with many projects involving technology, we ran into some frustrating obstacles, such as scalability and performance problems. I also encountered firsthand some of the difficulties of interdisciplinary teamwork. Our team suffered from a lack of collaboration and clear communication, possibly due to the differences in language between the law students and the librarianship students.

In spite of these challenges, the project was finished to the satisfaction of the stakeholders, and we came away with a greater appreciation for the intricacies of taxonomy construction.

What's Next

I have continued to work with Eric and other PETTT team members to guide the development of the Legal Gateway web site, now called LawForWa.org. They are nearing a public release of the site, but much work remains behind the scenes on the content management system, scalability and speed of the technology, and, of course, the taxonomy. The Topic facet was too vague and became too bloated with terms, so I have suggested breaking it out into three sub-facets: Problem, Context, and Strategy. The Question facet was also loaded with a great deal of duplicates and vagaries, and I have recommended arranging it hierarchically as well, according to the need addressed in each question. I will be working with the LawForWa team to refine their taxonomy and test its utility with the potential users of the site.

Artifacts

Volunteer, ASIS&T and CoLIS

Several years before beginning the MLIS program at the University of Washington Information School, I worked for the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, DC (a national professional organization for scientists). I was able to help plan their annual meeting and interact with influential scientists from around the world. As a result of that experience, I became a firm believer in professional and academic organizations and their power to define, direct, and advocate a profession or discipline.

When I started my graduate studies at the iSchool, I was very interested in being involved in the various professional organizations in Library & Information Science (LIS). I attended several events held by the Special Libraries Association (SLA), the American Library Association (ALA), and the American Society for Information Science & Technology (ASIS&T). The community I became most active in, however, was ASIS&T. Following are my most significant service experiences in the professional organizations of LIS:

Timeline

Process

CoLIS4

Name badge from COLIS4

In May, 2002, a professor at the UW Information School, Raya Fidel, announced that CoLIS (an international semi-annual conference on the theoretical foundations of Library & Information Science) would be held at the University of Washington in July and that they were seeking volunteers to help run the conference. I jumped at the chance, hoping to see a few of the LIS "celebrities" whose works I had appreciated in my classes.

At the conference, I was put to work setting up the AV systems for conference rooms and signing in participants. As a volunteer, I had the unique role of acting simultaneously as an attendant and a participant. In this role, I was able to relate to the presenters in ways I may not have been able to otherwise. In addition, during the sessions where I was not working, I attended a variety of presentations and mingled with scholars and professionals from around the world.

Some of the sessions invited some interesting academic debate: I felt privileged to see Birger Hjørland, Marcia Bates, and Michael Buckland arguing about information seeking strategies. This was my first exposure to the professional community of LIS, and I truly enjoyed the lively debate, the interesting histories, and the gossip. I considered it the sign of a healthy scholarly organization.

ASIS&T Pacific Northwest Chapter 2002 Annual Meeting

Following CoLIS, I was told about an opportunity to volunteer at the annual meeting of the Pacific Northwest chapter of ASIS&T in exchange for free registration. I was enthusiastic at the possibility of meeting local professionals and networking with those who will soon be my colleagues.

The conference was held at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon. My duties included checking in participants, among other tasks. I spent much time chatting with local members of ASIS&T, asking them questions about their jobs and answering their questions about my graduate work. I was able to attend several sessions, notably the keynote speech by Peter Morville, co-author of Information Architecture for the World Wide Web.

Several of the presentations focused on the future of our profession and were punctuated with lively discussions of the state of the economy, organizational psychology, and best practices. It became clear to me that the people who make up the Pacific Northwest chapter of ASIS&T are a fairly diverse yet well-knit community of professionals. But most importantly, they seemed like my kind of people.

ASIS&T 2002 Annual Meeting

Name badge from ASIS&T 2002 Annual Meeting

Because of the overwhelmingly positive experiences with my previous two conferences, I signed up immediately when the call for volunteers went out for the ASIS&T Annual Meeting in Philadelphia. No matter that it was in November, was a week long, was clear across the country, would cost over $600, and conflicted with all of my classes. Rumor had it that half the iSchool faculty were going to be there anyway.

To keep costs down, I shared a hotel room with two other iSchool students. This turned out to be an excellent decision, as they were able to attend the sessions I couldn't. We'd fill each other in on what we learned, keep each other informed of conference events, and, best of all, introduce each other to interesting people we met. We managed to collect a group of students from other universities with whom we became fast friends. Together we explored Philadelphia, shared thoughts and stories about our graduate programs, and talked about the future of our profession.

The conference sessions provided many opportunities to learn about the current state of research and practice in LIS. As a volunteer, I monitored several different sessions over the week. This exposed me to a diversity of presentations I may not have chosen myself but that were interesting and rewarding.

By the end of the conference, I was exhausted and behind in my schoolwork (although I was able to connect to the Internet from the hotel and submit my assignments online). However, the experience on the whole was well worth the time and energy.

Reflection

Each of these conferences allowed me a difference glimpse of the professional and academic community in Library & Information Science. I began to notice familiar faces, especially those of the leading thinkers and of the local chapter of ASIS&T. The discussions and presentations at each conference gave me a feeling for the most pertinent issues facing our discipline. My position as a volunteer gave me a perspective from behind-the-scenes at the inner workings and leadership of the conferences.

I feel that I came away from these experiences with skills in networking and the beginnings of a social network in LIS. While the volunteer work itself was not measurably arduous or intellectually challenging, it provided me with countless learning opportunities and contacts at each conference.


ASIS&T 2002 Annual Meeting, Philadelphia

What's Next

Since I will soon be entering the LIS profession, I hope to remain involved with all these professional organizations as time allows. I also plan to keep in touch with those I've met along the way and perhaps take an active role in planning and participating in activities at the regional and national level.

Artifacts

Intellectual Work

ASIS&T IA Summit, 2003
ASIS&T IA Summit, 2003

For any professional to be good at what they do, they must have a firm grounding in the theories that form the foundations of their discipline. In Library & Information Science, however, there are multiple bodies of theory that form the basis of our intellectual work.

I have always endeavored at syncretism (the synthesis of different approaches or philosophies) in all I do. For example, during my graduate education in Library & Information Science (LIS), I did not focus my studies on any single sequence of courses. Instead, I attempted to gain a holistic view of the LIS field by taking classes that ranged from Ecological Information Systems to Database Design to Thesaurus Construction.

Below, I describe one such example, in which I synthesized theories of knowledge organization and the practice of information architecture.

Buddhist Thesaurus

During my last term in graduate school, I took a thesaurus construction course (LIS 537) where our task was to select an intellectual domain and to research, design & build a 100-term thesaurus for that domain. My group chose Buddhism.

The Process

Thesaurus construction involves a great amount of learning, and my colleagues and I first set out to absorb as much as we could of Buddhist literature. We checked out and bought books, scoured the web, and pored over articles from academic journals. After this initial frenzy, we determined that we could not, in 10 weeks, digest it all nor limit ourselves to 100 terms. So we decided to attempt a cursory survey of Buddhism from the perspective of a novice. Thus, we titled our project "The Beginner's Buddhist Thesaurus".

Traditionally, the creation of a thesaurus would involve harvesting terms from literature, writing them down on cards (known as "Soergel cards"), and tracking the relationships between all the terms on those cards. If any term or its relation to other terms changed, the cards themselves had to be edited by hand. This was all incredibly time consuming. Most of our colleagues were using this technique with a little help from spreadsheet software, but I was determined to save our group time and effort. So, over a weekend, I built a web-based thesaurus management system in Zope. It was messy and slow, but it worked. And it is still working.

The tool freed us to experiment with the relationships of terms in the thesaurus and, as a result, explore the structure of Buddhism as a knowledge domain. Throughout this process, we found ourselves discussing deep philosophical concepts, which we otherwise would never have considered.

Reflection

I feel that I learned, in addition to all the Buddhist concepts and thesaurus construction techniques, much about project management and teamwork through this experience. In retrospect, it may not have been the best use of my time to build a web application just for this project. However, if I ever need to build another thesaurus from scratch, it's there.

Artifacts

Classification & IA


Presenting my poster at
the IA Summit

My final paper in Classification Theory (LIS 535) represented my attempt to theoretically justify the use of faceted classification in web site design and content management. After that class, however, I wanted to put that theory into practice. Using the concepts culled from that paper, I created a conceptual design for a content management system based on facet analysis. When the ASIS&T Information Architecture Summit rolled through Portland, Oregon, I saw a unique opportunity to extend my intellectual argument from LIS 535. I submitted a proposal, was accepted, and authored a poster titled "Using Faceted Classification to Provide Structure for Information Architecture".

Process

The thesis of my Classification Theory paper posited that the different epistemic, or paradigmatic, approaches involved in the creation of different classification systems leads directly to different uses of those classification systems on the web. For instance, a rationalist, logic-based view of the universe leads to the creation of mono-hierarchical subject listings in web directories such as Yahoo! and The Open Directory Project. On the other hand, an empiricist, evidence-based approach yields such methods as machine indexing and automated metadata harvesting, which are used in search engines such as Google and AltaVista.

In the end of the paper, I suggested that a pragmatist, context-based approach should use faceted classification to create poly-hierarchical, multidimensional data structures, which could be used in the design and management of digital libraries.

Faceted classification is, in a nutshell, the combination of all the epistemic approaches to designing classification systems. Using a technique called facet analysis, a collection of documents is described from as many perspectives (facets) as is necessary. Within each facet, a hierarchical list of concepts (isolates) is arranged. The result is a multidimensional representation of knowledge that more closely matches the state of real human knowledge.

My idea was to use faceted classification as a basis for generating web site designs and for content management. I envisioned a faceted classification system paired with a collection of digital documents classified in that system. Each facet would provide a different way of viewing the collection, so each facet could be linked to a different navigation method. The order of the facets and hierarchies in each facet could be rearranged at any time, directly affecting how the collection was accessed.

This is not a new idea. Several web sites, such as Wine.com, Epicurious.com, and Flamenco employ systems similar to what I have described. I tested the idea myself in my graduate assistantship with the PETTT zBento project. However, I did not feel that the link between classification theory and information architecture had not been properly established in the Information Architecture community.

Information architecture (IA) is the art and science of organizing structures for document storage, use, and access -- most often in a digital environment. Since there are obvious commonalities between IA and LIS -- especially knowledge organization and representation -- a good number of professional information architects hold MLIS degrees. So, in January of 2003, I submitted a poster proposal to the American Society of Information Science & Technology (ASIS&T) Information Architecture Summit, which was to take place in Portland, Oregon, in March.

My proposal was accepted, and I went to work on the poster. It was to be presented as a case study of zBento, so I credited two of my PETTT teammates, Eric Maddox (zBento developer) and William Washington (zBento usability engineer), as 2nd & 3rd authors. However, I completed all of the intellectual work, graphic design, and production of the poster myself.


Information Architecture Summit Poster: Faceted Classification and IA

At the IA Summit, the poster was well received, in my opinion. I was able to chat with several people in the IA community about the poster, including Peter van Dijck, developer of XFML, an XML schema for representation and sharing of faceted metadata. Some conference attendees asked difficult questions, and others had some difficulty understanding the point of the poster. I suspect this was due to the fact that many in the IA profession have never heard of faceted classification.

Reflection

The experience of extending a class paper into a development project and a conference poster gave me a deeper understanding of the research and publishing process. I also began to see a great need for an elucidation of the theoretical foundations of Information Architecture. Much of IA tends to be based on best practices and guesswork, and none of the major works that define the discipline of IA attempt to synthesize the multitude of theories and assumptions that IA draws from. My intellectual work in connecting classification theory to IA was my first stab at filling that gap.

What's Next

In the future, I hope to explore this issue further and submit a paper for presentation at an annual meeting. Meanwhile, I will continue my work with zBento and similar projects to refine my skills in practicing what I preach.

Artifacts

Design & Development

ZBento Design Meeting, 2002
ZBento Design Meeting, 2002

My experience in web development is quite extensive, reaching back to the early days of Mosaic, when I created a web site for my college newspaper comic strip, "Ka-Blouie!". As web technologies progressed, I acquired skills in CGI script programming and eventually co-founded a web design company, Yeti Arts. Then came XML and content management systems, such as Zope. In the two years immmediately preceding my term in the Information School MLIS program, I worked for the University of Washington Program for Educational Transformation Through Technology (PETTT) as a web site manager, web applications developer, and educational technology researcher.

When I began my graduate studies at the iSchool, I continued to refine my skills in IT design and development, adding competencies such as user-centered design, knowledge management, and object-oriented programming. I found new ways to incorporate skills learned in classes into my projects and allowed the theory learned in my studies to inform practice. Below, I explore and reflect on my most significant experiences in which I participated in the design and development of projects and products involving information technology.

Faculty Accomplishments

iSchool Research Event Poster: Faculty Accomplishments
iSchool Research Event Poster:
Faculty Accomplishments

In Summer 2002, iSchool instructor and content management guru Bob Boiko asked me to be his graduate assistant. He told me that he was working on a project involving the design of a university-wide information system for recording and tracking the achievements of faculty at the University of Washington. I had taken a class Bob taught earlier that year, enjoyed working with him, and had liked reading his book The Content Management Bible, so I accepted, hoping that this experience would be positive as well.

My role was to be the "Information Lead", in charge of user analysis, information architecture, and user-centered design. The programming was to be carried out by Suzi Soroczak, a PhD student at the iSchool. The project was dubbed "Faculty Accomplishments".

Process

I had little formal training in user-centered design (UCD), so my first assignment was to scan the literature on systems analysis, needs analysis, qualitative research methods, usability testing, and so on. Over the months, I amassed a library of UCD manuals.

The Faculty Accomplishments project was mandated by the UW administration with support from a couple of faculty from the Information School and School of Nursing. Our goal was not to build the information system, but to develop a conceptual design that would be submitted for consideration at the end of the year.

We developed a strategic plan during Autumn 2002, exploring the best approach to take, and by the end of the quarter, we were ready to implement that plan. Bob worked on database schemas and algorithms, and Suzi reviewed the technical requirements of the university systems. Meanwhile, I began interviewing faculty and staff members in the Information School and the School of Nursing.

Over the next 4 months, I interviewed 13 people, including faculty members, deans, chairs, support staff, and student assistants. Using the information I collected, I then produced systems and user analysis documentation, including:
Faculty Accomplishments Information Architecture
Faculty Accomplishments
Information Architecture Diagrams

My goal in doing all this analysis was to obtain a clear conception of the needs and motivations that govern the workflow of recording and reporting on faculty activities. By using that conception to design the system, the Faculty Accomplishments system will fit, hand-in-glove, into the users' existing tasks and systems.

Some of the most significant findings from this process could probably not be elucidated by common technology-based system design methods. We had originally underestimated the role that staff and students currently play in recording and reporting faculty accomplishments. In fact, it seems that staff and student assistants will be the most frequent users of the Faculty Accomplishments system. I also found a great need for an incentive structure (such as promotion or penalties) to encourage -- or coerce -- faculty to regularly add and update their information in the system.

Reflection

Faculty Accomplishments Wireframes
Faculty Accomplishments Wireframes

I see this project as one of those rare opportunities to design a system from scratch -- and do it right. I have worked on several technical system development projects in the past, but was often rushed to build a system before it was ready. By taking a metered, thoughtful approach to user and systems analysis, we have been able to enter the design phase with very little ambiguity or guesswork.

Through the Faculty Accomplishments project, I have gained many valuable skills -- the most important of which include:

I was able to use knowledge and methods obtained in several of my classes -- LIS 540, 511, 519, 600 -- to aid in this project, and I feel that I can now count myself to truly be a user-centered designer.

What's Next

Unfortunately, this project never came to fruition, due to a lack of funding or support from the university administration, and was tabled indefinitely. However, it remains one of my capstone learning experiences as an information architect.

Artifacts

PETTT: zBento


zBento data model
& system architecture

I have worked continuously for the University of Washington Program for Educational Transformation Through Technology (PETTT) in some form since October 1999. During my time at the Information School, I've worked as a 1/4-time graduate assistant for PETTT. Over the last nearly 4 years, my role in PETTT has changed from web site manager to educational technology researcher to web applications developer to system designer. The theme of all these roles has been consistent, however: knowledge management (KM). KM is a buzzword that usually means using a set of techniques and tools to capture, store, maintain, share, and utilize knowledge (information and the stuff in people's heads) within an organization that values learning.

PETTT has assisted several entities on the University of Washington campus that develop tools and strategies for educating learners, in classrooms, in distance programs, and in the world at large. The tools, which eventually took the form of a gradually evolving content management system, were designed and developed primarily by myself. When I started graduate school, however, I passed most of the development responsibility to Eric Maddox, a full-time developer for PETTT.

During Spring quarter 2002, in which I took Classification Theory (LIS 535) and wrote a paper on Epistemology and Classification, I attended a meeting in the Architecture school to discuss how PETTT could help apply its content management tools in a study-abroad build-design class. We were discussing how all the information they were collecting would be organized, and I had a brainstorm: What if we built a content management system that used faceted classification? This led, eventually, to a strategy for creating prototypes, such as the Legal Gateway Project, and our development of a new content management tool called zBento.

Process


zBento facet search interface

Over the next month, I mulled over this idea and finally presented it to the PETTT team. I explained how a system that was able to more faithfully represent knowledge in its organization (information architecture) and, hence, its navigational scheme, might be a better knowledge management system as well. They were excited about the prospects, so Eric and I began designing the system.

We started first with the data model. A faceted classification system is a poly-hierarchical, multidimensional subject listing, so our database had to represent those aspects. The content management system also had to provide for the classification of documents within that faceted system. During several day-long work sessions, we hashed out what the entities were, how they were related, and, eventually, what the logical schema of the database was. From those, we created UML class diagrams and built prototypes of the database and scripts that would generate navigational structures. Although Eric did the majority of the programming, we worked side by side on many occasions; I provided debugging and algorithm editing support. We also chose a name: zBento. The "z" is for Zope, the web applications development platform we used to build the content management system, and "bento" is the Japanese lunch box with compartments for organizing a meal.

Development of zBento went slowly, since PETTT had a number of other projects that both Eric and I were involved in. However, we managed to incorporate our prototypes into many of those projects, including the Legal Gateway project. Lessons learned from those prototypes then informed the design of zBento. While we were doing all this, another PETTT team member, William Washington, designed and conducted usability tests on a user interface for zBento. Over the next 8 months, we'll write all the logic code to marry the data services of zBento to the user interface. Soon, what began as a thought experiment in a class will become a reality.

Reflection


zBento management interface

This work was very closely coupled with my intellectual argument that faceted classification can be used to generate information architecture. I wish that I had more time to devote to zBento and guide its progress to match my original conception of it. Unfortunately, technological and logistic limitations caused the project to change as time passed. However, the faceted classification system -- the core idea behind zBento -- remains integral to the project.

More than anything, I feel I have gained an understanding of the life cycle of a long-term software development project. The seed of an idea became a team effort with very real consequences to the users of the systems we built.

The skills I learned in Information Systems, Architectures and Retrieval (LIS 540), Database Design (LIS 542), Information Systems Design (LIS 543), XML Schema Design (LIS 598) constantly informed the technical decisions made in this project. Furthermore, the intellectual work and theory gained in Information Behavior (LIS 510), Organization of Information and Resources (LIS 530), and Classification Theory (LIS 535) gave me the inspiration and grounding for making zBento a reality.

What's Next

I worked with the zBento team until June 2004. Several of the prototypes that informed the development of this project, including the Legal Gateway and the Architecture project, went live, and we observed how these prototypes were being used. Based on the results of these studies, we adjusted our design accordingly. Additionally, I and the zBento team presented our work at the September 30, 2003, WebEd Meeting and in an administrative review of PETTT.

Even though the administrative review went very well, the PETTT group was eventually dissolved due to political factors, and our work on zBento, save for the Legal Gateway and the Honors Program in Rome, never surpassed the prototype phase. Members of the zBento team went on to work for other UW units, and, hopefully, the knowledge gained from this project will be put to good use.

Artifacts

Yeti Arts: YetiBlogSite

I get sick of building web sites sometimes. HTML is so boring and obtuse, and server-side includes alleviate only a little of the tedium. Yeti Arts, the web design company I co-founded with a few friends, has several clients whose sites I update on a regular basis. And when those sites are in HTML, it makes the whole maintenance process very unrewarding.

One weekend I got inspired to build myself a content management tool. So I sat down and pounded out a simple blogging tool that I named, imaginatively, YetiBlogSite.

Process

Using everything I'd learned about web site and user interface design, content management, and programming up to that point, I composed the code in Zope (which uses DTML and Python) for a simple tool that would:

As evidenced by this YetiBlog-based portfolio, YetiBlogSite does all this... and not much more. And yet it is most likely one of the most useful tools I have ever built.

Reflection

YetiBlogSite works so well probably because it is so simple. I created a blank, default YetiBlogSite for my brother, who knows little to no HTML and let him go at it. Within a month, he had blogs for his photos, his resume, and his journal (which is read frequently by his friends and family). It seems unlikely he could have done the same with zBento.

I think I learned that sometimes -- maybe most of the time -- less is more. I'm not sure how all this fits into this portfolio, but I felt that it was worth a mention because, as I mentioned above, this very site was built with YetiBlogSite.

What's Next

I am constantly refining YetiBlogSite -- making it simpler, more reliable, and more intuitive. As with most things built in Zope, it's open source, so the export file is available for download and modification below.

Artifacts