At a point not long ago the doctoral student poster session was becoming unmanageable. One year there were more than 90 posters. The Works-in-Progress poster session created so there would be expanded opportunities for communication and feedback.

ALISE members can discuss the merits the change; this was the rationale.


John M. Budd
Professor
School of Information Science & Learning Technologies
University of Missouri
303 Townsend Hall
Columbia, MO 65211
Phone: 573-882-3258
Fax: 573-884-4944
Email: [log in to unmask]


________________________________
From: Miksa, Shawne <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, November 04, 2010 5:25 PM
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: ALISE doc student poster competition--what gives?!

When did the ALISE doc student poster competition become exclusively about presenting dissertation research?

As a doc student I presented posters 3 years in a row and not one was my dissertation research. The description states that the competition "offers doctoral students an opportunity to share information about their research projects" --there is nothing that says it has to be dissertation research. The eligibility guidelines state that only students who have "completed or are near completion of their doctoral dissertation research" can submit an abstract.

The spirit of the whole event was to allow students to interact with professors from across the board, get feedback about their ideas, ideas about research, research questions, different methodologies, etc. It also allowed students to network and find potential future employers. This is in line with "Professor Sutcliffe's dedication to the education of information professions" (http://alisedocsig.wordpress.com/ )

My first experience with the presenting was tremendously helpful. I presented a poster based on some theoretical work resulting from Elfreda Chatman's theory development class. The next year it was a poster on some content analysis methodology and coding scheme resulting from a faculty-led research project.  Not only did the experience force me to learn how to present my ideas, but I received great deal of feedback from a variety of profs with different backgrounds and expertise.  I got ideas on what to read, how to ask a better research question, how to present data, etc. I don't see the same opportunities happening under this "eligibility" nonsense. It should be open to all doc students.

I just found out one of my students was turned down because she didn't have her data absolutely or completely analyzed. Bulldada. She will be meeting with interested schools at ALISE, but she can't present any of the research she has done over the past few years. Some of this research, by the way, has already been presented on a reviewed panel at a significant annual conference. Something is wrong with this picture.

Don't tell me it about the number of entries either because I've seen to from 10-20 posters to over 100 and still be manageable. I believe at one point they did two sessions--one for dissertation research and another for just research.

What gives?

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Shawne D. Miksa, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Library and Information Sciences
College of Information
University of North Texas
email: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
http://courses.unt.edu/smiksa/index.htm
office 940-565-3560 fax 940-565-3101
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