In order to provide a richer sense of my accomplishments at the University of Washington, I have detailed my coursework below. I also provided some links to papers that were written for some of these classes on topics that I have not discussed thus far. While I have not had the chance to discuss them yet, they certainly affected my development in library and information sciences and, thus, warrant some attention. And, of course, I have included a short resume and a longer curriculum vita. Please feel free to contact me with any comments. Thank you for taking the time to read through my portfolio. I hope that it has demonstrated not only my growth but also my enjoyment of the past few years.

Coursework

The following course descriptions were published by the iSchool in 2006.

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 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 531: Catalogs, Cataloging, and Classification Develops an understanding of library catalogs as information retrieval systems. Introduces library cataloging and classification. Focus on principles and standards in the creation of catalogs and cataloging records. Includes practice in descriptive and subject cataloging and classification. User perspective emphasized throughout.
LIS 536: Indexing and Abstracting Exploration of issues in subject representation. Survey of different approaches, techniques, and methods for representing the subject matter of documents, including an evaluation of the role of users and context in subject representation. Formulation of policies for indexing and abstracting services.
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 541: Internet Technologies and Applications Overview of Internet technologies including networking hardware, the TCP/IP protocol suite, addressing, packets and routing, the client/server model. End-user applications for communication and collaboration such as telnet, FTP, email, conferencing, and streaming media. Web site creation, development, and management.
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 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.
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 565: Children's Materials: Evaluation and Use Library materials for children from infancy through elementary grades. Focus on resources in all media that serve informational, educational, cultural, and recreational needs of the young. Focuses on standard bibliographies and other resources designed to meet informational needs of adults serving children.
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 588: Special Librarianship Seminar in the practice of special librarianship in business and industrial firms, government agencies, and the free-lance sector. User services and information resources.
LIS 590: Directed Fieldwork Minimum of 100 hours, maximum of 200 hours of professional, supervised fieldwork in a library or professional information setting.

Papers

While this portfolio collects much of my work at the iSchool, there are a few projects that have not been represented yet. I include them here because they demonstrate that I have experience with some areas in library and information science which I have yet to put into practice. For instance, I may not have had the chance to work closely with children yet, but I include an analysis of children's materials because I training in that field. Similarly, I have considered issues about indexing in an abstract way and have evaluated indexing in a more concrete way when assessing the cataloging of a library system.

My work at the iSchool was particularly engaging because some professors took innovative approaches to their courses. For instance, in 540, we were asked to write a poem that encoded words or letters in unique ways. My limerick, for example, substituted symbols for vowels; the result in interesting because the poem is quite intelligible even if one does not know the code. Another example of a creative assignment came from the same class when we were asked to whack Google and find an expression that was not indexed by that company, a tricky feat when considering that they index word lists. In another class, I was asked to promote the development of programs at a special library, and I had the option to choose any library, fictional or not. With my love for Harry Potter, I leaped at the chance to be the librarian at Hogwarts and to develop programs aimed for a rather specific user group. This project also complements my Harry Potter website that I started during my first term. Given such projects, is it any wonder that I enjoyed my work at the University of Washington?