Social Life of Information

Today was the first day of classes, and the first class session of my PhD student career was at 8 AM. I’m a morning person, but that still feels a little early to be in class. This morning’s course, IST 778 - Data Elicitation & Analysis Techniques, is taught by my first-year advisor, Carsten Østerlund. The course is devoted to qualitative research methods and involves conducting a field study, so it should be really interesting. The expectations for the course would seem a lot more intimidating had I not taken a couple of PhD courses at Michigan; another factor is that I’ll be taking fewer credits, which is good, since they’ll require more work.

Everything is slowly starting up, not moving too fast just yet - I will start reading for 778 tomorrow when I pick up one of the texts, and will be arranging my teaching and research practica tomorrow as well. Additional responsibilities will ensue and will doubtless put my time management skills to the test. I’m starting to rough out my weekly calendar and it will be busy, no question; classes three mornings a week, weekly meetings and hours to put in for my graduate assistantship, weekly meetings and hours to put in for teaching practica and for research practica, plus service on school governance committees.

Everything is new to me, but everyone at the iSchool has been very welcoming and I’m starting to feel comfortable in my surroundings. I like both my advisor and the faculty person with whom I’m working for my GA-ship, my cohort all seem to be smart and interesting people, the rest of the PhD students are looking out for us newbies, and things are generally going well so far. I’m a little uncertain of how to handle having a desk of my own at school. It’s a pretty big desk, actually - plenty of room to stack up papers and binders and books. I’ve never had any place to study except home, but on the other hand, the PhD student offices are not at all unlike the offices at Enlighten. The work is totally different, however, and I haven’t yet had time to become accustomed to that change.

It’s also my delight to report that Everett got the librarian job at SU, and started working there today. He will be providing general reference and bibliographic instruction. I am immensely grateful that we ended up where we are, as this outcome never would have come out of Michigan’s economy. While the position is temporary, it will make Everett an internal candidate when permanent positions are posted, and that doesn’t hurt the long term outlook for us in Syracuse.