Previous Postings
October 4, 2013
Elliance hired to lead rebranding initiative
Digital Marketing Agency Elliance has been hired to lead the rebranding initiative underway in the School of Information Sciences. Working with their research partner, Campos, Inc., Elliance will assist the School in establishing a unified, confident brand of the school that resonates internally and in creating a multifaceted strategy to communicate that unified brand to external audiences. Consultants from Elliance met with faculty and staff during a kickoff meeting on Friday, September 20, 2013. It is expected that deliverables from the rebranding initiative will be available in Spring 2014.
Director of External Relations position vacancy
Former Director of External Relations, Kelly I. Shaffer, ended her term in the School of Information Sciences on Thursday, September 5, 2013. Ms. Shaffer provided invaluable assistance to the Dean, faculty members, staff, and students during her time at the School. She supervised all aspects of public relations: from designing and ordering promotional materials to creating and maintaining web content and publicizing iSchool events to a wide audience. Additionally, Ms. Shaffer assisted faculty with the logistical organization of many events and colloquia throughout her time at the School. In September 2013, Ms. Shaffer moved to a new position in the School of Nursing at Pitt.
In the interim, The School of Information Sciences has hired Alexandra Cole to supervise public relations and proposal writing. The vacancy will be posted as a full-time, permanent staff position.
Fall 2013 Colloquia temporarily organized by Marcy Walls
As a result of the departure of Director of External Relations, Marcy Walls will temporarily supervise the logistical duties of events and colloquia. Professional Writer Alexandra Cole will retain responsibility for publicizing events and colloquia in the interim.
Faculty Recruitment
The School of Information Sciences is pleased to announce the recruitment of three new faculty members: Dmitry Babichenko, Yu-Ru Lin, and Balaji Palanisamy. All three are teaching courses in the Fall 2013 semester. Babichenko, who holds the position of Professor of Practice, is teaching courses in the undergraduate program and is supervising the internship program. He comes to the School with years of experience in the corporate IT arena. Assistant Professor Yu-Ru Lin recently served as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Northeastern University and at Harvard University. She and Assistant Professor Balaji Palanisamy are offering courses in the undergraduate and the Graduate Information Science and Technology programs. Assistant Professor Palanisamy joins the faculty upon completion of his doctoral studies at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Continued ALA accreditation without conditions
Issued July 1, 2013, the American Library Association (ALA) has granted continued accreditation status to the Master’s of Library and Information Science (MLIS) program. This continued accreditation was issued without conditions and will be in effect until 2020. The MLIS program at the School has been continually accredited since 1962.
iConference 2014 to be hosted in Berlin by Germany’s Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
The iConference series is presented by the iSchools organization and is an annual gathering of scholars and researchers with critical information issues in contemporary society. The theme of this ninth annual conference is “Breaking Down Walls: Culture-Context-Computing.” These issues will be addressed during a four day event in Berlin Germany. The event will be hosted by Germany’s Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin with program administration by Denmark’s Royal School of Library and Information Science.
Facilities
The 3rd floor has become a popular space for students. On August 30, 2013 we opened the 8th floor after several months of renovations. This space includes a PhD Student Collaboratory with a Media Scape lounge and Media Scape collaboration table, additional study tables along the windows and a lounge area. Also on the 8th floor is a high-tech Teleconferencing room, new server room, expanded computing/teaching lab, and Tele Labs. The renovation of the 1st floor will be the next project.