Call for Participation
Junior Faculty Mentoring Session

Do you have an appointment as assistant professor, instructor, adjunct, post-doc, or other pre-tenure title? Do you have questions about pursuing your research interests in diverse disciplinary settings? Would you like advice about developing and presenting interdisciplinary research and scholarship for different disciplinary audiences? Would you like to learn more about the tenure process in iSchools and similar programs? Would you like to meet other pre-tenure and senior iSchool faculty? Would you like feedback about your interests from iSchool peers and prominent senior faculty?

If you said “yes” to any of these questions, we encourage you to sign up for the Junior Faculty Mentoring Session to be held during iConference 2009 from 12:00 to 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, February 8, 2009.

The aim of this session is to create a forum for informal dialogue, guidance, and insights about the emerging intellectual communities in the iSchools and similar programs, and to connect junior faculty with their peers and senior faculty within and across their research territories. The charge for this opportunity is $50, which includes lunch. Enrollment is limited and places will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis.

Please send the questions you’d like senior faculty mentors to answer in advance to: Be sure to add MENTORING QUESTIONS in the subject line of your e-mail message.

The session will offer:

  • 12:00 - 1:00 Lunch
  • 1:00 - 1:30 Introduction and Summary of last year’s mentoring sessions.
  • 1:30 - 2:30 Informal Discussion

    • Mentors and junior faculty will be assigned to groups to discuss questions that have been submitted ahead of time and to informally discuss topics such as: getting connected with a research community, who to you should talk to within your institution, getting a mentor, balancing teaching/research/service/outside life, publishing, getting outside reviewers for tenure application, and getting grants.

  • 3:30 - 4:30 Reporting from each table.
  • 4:30 - 5:00 Summary

If you would like to participate, please register by January 23, 2009 through the conference tool

If you want to just attend the mentoring session, or if you have previously registered and have already paid your conference registration fee, please send a check to: iConference 2009, School of Information and Library Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 100 Manning Hall, CB 3360, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3360.

Those attending the Junior Faculty Mentoring Session are encouraged to stay at the Courtyard Marriott in Chapel Hill. It is within walking distance of the Friday Center (buses will not run on Sunday, February 8).

Mentors and Areas of Expertise

  • Nick Belkin, Rutgers University
    Areas: Human information behavior, interactive information retrieval, personalization of information interaction, and human-computer interaction.
  • Peter Bloniarz, University at Albany/State University of New York
    Areas: Information systems in the public sector; information and computing education; interdisciplinary and inter-departmental research and teaching; public-private-academic partnerships
  • Karen Fisher, University of Washington
    Areas: information behavior (roughly translated as social and cognitive aspects of how individuals need, seek, give and use information in different contexts).
  • Anne Gilliland, UCLA
    Archival informatics, digital records management, information as evidence, design and evaluation of cultural information systems, social justice and human rights issues as they relate to archives and records; and archival education.
  • Martha A Garcia-Murillo, Syracuse University
    Areas: Theory construction
  • Dr. Joanne Gard Marshall, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
    Areas: Health information needs and services; value and impact of library and information services; aging workforce issues; and competencies of library and information professionals.
  • Jane Greenberg, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
    Areas: Metadata, cataloging/indexing and classification, semantic web developments and ontologies, and visual image indexing.
  • José-Marie Griffiths, professor & dean, School of Information and Library Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
    Areas: Science and technology policy; information and information technology policy; information retrieval; information system and service evaluation; economics of information; information technology use in higher education; scientific and technical communication; diffusion of information; and information and library science education.
  • Caroline Haythornthwaite, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
    Areas: Internet research (broadly defined), online community, e-learning, social networks.
  • Barbara Moran, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
    Areas: Academic librarianship, management of information agencies, human resources management, popular materials, organizational design and leadership.
  • Jenny Preece, University of Maryland
    Areas: Computer-mediated communication, human-computer interaction, management of online communities of practice, health, education, and knowledge.
  • Howard Rosenbaum, Indiana University
    Areas: Social informatics, computerization movements, community networks, pedagogy in LIS.
  • Eileen Trauth, Penn State University
    Areas: Social informatics, global informatics, diversity and social inclusion, qualitative research methods, the knowledge economy, skills and knowledge of the IT professional.
  • Ping Zhang, Syracuse University
    Areas: Human-centered information systems design, development, evaluation, and use; and the intellectual development of information related fields.