LIS 6272 Spring 2015

Hey, y’all! My name is Dawn Betts-Green, and I’m a first year student in our program. I’m a product of FSU’s MLIS program and also got the youth services certificate. All 3 of my Bachelor’s degrees are also from FSU: Women Studies (minor in Religion), Religion (minor in Women’s Studies), and Creative Writing (minor in Latin). My background in Women’s Studies leads me to incorporate feminist thought in my current work.

My wife and I are both originally from Alabama, though different parts. My hometown (Sylacauga) is famous for some of the purest white marble in the world, being the hometown of Jim Nabors, and being the site of the first known instance of a human being hit by a meteorite. We have a guinea pig (Sir Merriweather, Peeg of the Shire–Peeg for short) and a one-eared hamster (Nora Florene Squidge Boneschmutz–Nora for short). My main hobby is reading and rambling about books on youtube, though I also love gaming (both tabletop and online) and embroidering weird things when I have the time.

As for research interests, mine include LGBTQ young adults and young adult literature, especially in rural Southern public libraries; rural Southern public libraries in general; intellectual freedom; graphic novels; and social justice librarianship. Though the practical plans for the future include teaching, research, and/or working for publishers or non-profits, my dream job is, of course, Pagemaster. I’m looking forward to this class because my research tends to be extremely qualitative in nature.

Hello everyone,

This is Hengyi (Holly) and I’m a second year doctoral student in school of information. I got my master degree of Library and Information Science from  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2013. Before that,I studied Computer Science at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Before entering the doctoral program, I worked as an IT consultant for KPMG and graduate assistant/programmer for International & Area Studies Library and Grainger Engineering Library in UIUC.

My research interests include Online group work,Social computing, Human-computer interaction,and Social informatics.

Outside of the field of research: I’m originally from Suzhou, which is a major city on the east coast of China and well-known for its classical gardens. Before coming to U.S, I have studied and worked in Hong Kong and Japan so I can speak Mandarin, Cantonese, and Japanese. Outside of the field of LIS, I have played violin and double bass for long. I’m also a GO (One kind of East Asian board game) player, manga and PC/video game enthusiast, figure skating fan and bunny owner!

 

My name is Tim and I am a first year doctoral student. My bachelor’s degree from Ohio University is in media studies with a emphasis in audio production. Armed with this knowledge, I thought I would record rock bands for the rest of my life. Instead, I meandered through a sundry of jobs including seven years as a professional baker. I worked for four years at public libraries in Ohio and Florida performing various duties. During my time in the MLIS program at FSU, I was a graduate assistant in the cataloging department. One of the skills I learned was to copy catalog in languages I do not know such as Arabic and Tibetan.

My research interests include collaborative work organization and data practices, knowledge organization, data curation, and social informatics. Currently, I am trying to narrow my interests down to something a bit more focused. I find the iterative aspect to qualitative research appealing and would like to learn more about it.

When I had to introduce myself during my MLIS program (at USF), I often referred to myself as a “recovering attorney”. I still rather think of myself that way. I had been a contract attorney for Marriott and for Citigroup for, collectively, about 12 years. The financial industry tanking as it did after ’08, clearly not a stable field to be in – so I decided to pursue other interests “just in case” – and that led me to the MLIS program. This is not to say that I’ve abandoned my legal background – indeed, I view my studies in (L)IS as enriching it and allowing me to fuse the two disciplines, particularly in the areas of data privacy, information security/ cyber security, and intellectual property (copyright was one of my areas of focus in law school) – which, per an article I came across last semester, I have decided to refer to collectively as “information rights” (anything that might tend to either inhibit or increase one’s propensity to share or seek for information). I am especially focusing on the policies/ legislation around these areas and how that contributes to the issue of information sharing/ seeking or not.  You’ll probably hear me blathering about this more than once this semester as we discuss and present…

Other than the foregoing – as my first year cohort knows all too well, I am a very proud dog-mom (I have a 5 year old Whippet named Robin who is my sweetheart.  We have the same birthday, too…).  I love Monty Python and pretty much Brit-coms in general. Huge mystery lover (Agatha Christie in particular, but also Ellis Peters… and of course, Arthur Conan Doyle).  I’ve recently gotten into “fractured fairy tales” as well – including some of the TV shows such as Once Upon a Time, and Grimm.  Long time Star Trek/ The Next Generation fan as well (Data is the man!!!)  I collect music of all types and have a fairly sizable collection – but I am most proud of my extensive soundtracks collection and some of the rare broadway “concept albums” and other obscure prints I have procured over the years.   I love history – Russian/Soviet and Roman in particular.  And I am sort of a self taught expert on Tudor England – which is my favorite period.  Elizabeth I is my personal hero and has been since I was about 12.

Brief biog to close:  I was born in CA, lived in TX, MA, went to school in WI (UW!!! U RAH ON) and at VU School of Law in Indiana. Then, as I mentioned, I went back to school after a number of years working (never mind how many…) to get my MLIS at USF (mainly because I was working in the Tampa area, and the campus was only about 20 mins from my office). When my department in Citi folded at the end of 2013 (we were “offshored”), I took the opportunity to take this new direction in both my personal and professional life and pursue my PhD!!

-Cheers
Cheryl

Hello everyone,

My name is Alex, and I’m part of the School of Communication. As was mentioned in class, I’m a first year doctoral student studying environmental communication, environmental justice, and the rhetoric of environmentalism.

I’m originally from Iowa, and completed my BA in communication at West Virginia University and my MA in health communication at the University of Kentucky. Intellectually, I’m more inclined toward examining the world from a critical perspective and looking how current power structures influence how we live our lives.

Hi everyone, glad to learn with all of you this semester. As most of you know about me that, I am a second year international doctoral student, and also the current youngest student here I believe. I came originally from China, with bachelor degrees in psychology and library science, and a master in library science.

My current research interest lies in how to promote equal information access for D/deaf and HOH, culturally Deaf especially. I chose this topic because I have seen from my parents (who belong to that group) and their friends, that how eagerly they need information to improve their lives. So I took minors in communication disorder department.

I took this class partly because it is what offered in this semester. More important, I prefer the holistic, meaningful, and never ended approach of qualitative studies. I used to apply interviews to discover the process of serendipity among researchers. And I was amazed at how rich and meaningful 11 interviews told me. Also, I like the feeling to help others to dig out their stories and live experiences.

The impressions from first three articles mainly lie in the importance of qualitative approach to understand richness of social phenomena, especially information phenomena. I can feel how it values human, live experience, openness, and integrity. And also, not that clearly but very strong, I can feel that the most important technique in qualitative approach does not lie in rigorous and “scientific gold rules”, but lies in how much you can be one of your target interviewees, how much you can be emerged by your data, and how much respect you give for live experience itself.

Simple. Somewhat hidden, but NOT totally private. Enjoy our time together! –Michelle