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It's Friday, and a holiday weekend approaches. With no criteria for choice, no way the information is gathered, nothing but a list, the report and its trashing schools, especially with Penn State at the top (which coincidentally never had a library school but did have an excellent technology program graduating some of the finest technology researchers in the U.S.) seems something in the realm of the people who appear on TV reality shows and want someone to notice them. Reality shows aren't worth watching, this isn't worth noticing. Have a great holiday weekend. Blanche On Thu, Feb 16, 2012 at 5:38 PM, Gretchen Whitney <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Greetings, > I find that there is usually a bit of truth in the most whacko assertion. > Here is another example. The trick is to find the truth. > > I was surprised to learn earlier this week that the Univ of Tenn had been > ranked nationally as a "slacker school" - (and I quote) > > "Inside College quoted CollegeHumor, whose rankings aren't probably as > highly regarded as U.S. News and World Report's annual list, describing its > rankings as the "power rankings" for schools "having the maximum amount of > fun while putting forth the least amount of effort."" > > See http://tinyurl.com/7psmb2t or the longer URL > > http://www.volunteertv.com/**home/headlines/University_of_** > Tennessee_ranks_in_Top_T<http://www.volunteertv.com/home/headlines/University_of_Tennessee_ranks_in_Top_T> > en_Slacker_Schools_Website_**139217624.html > > Upon examination of the original reporting site, there clearly were no > criteria for these rankings. However examination of the original site > turned up that the following universities (with schools of LIS) were also > included in the top ten slacker schools as listed in the institutional > members of ALISE:: > > Alabama (Tuscaloosa) > Oklahoma (Norman) > Louisiana (Baton Rouge) > > and Penn State (which as I recall used to have an LIS program of some > description). > > I just find it downright weird that, despite the lack of criteria for > identifying "slacker schools," universities with LIS programs account for > nearly half of the top ten universities identified as "slacker schools.". > When there are fifty or so LIS programs across the country, and at least > there are hundreds of universities to be considered. I'm not saying that > LIS programs drag down universities (it well could be that LIS programs > grew up in less-demanding universities), but I note the interesting > appearance of these universities with these LIS programs on this list at > such a heavy proportion).. > > I also note that there are no iSchool universities on the list. Again, > this is just an observation. I would certainly not assert that an iSchool > could alone raise the perception of a university within its community. But > it is interesting that they do not show up here. > > Comments and observations are welcomed, as always. > --gw > > <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>**<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>** > <><><><><><><> > Gretchen Whitney, PhD, Retired > School of Information Sciences > University of Tennessee, Knoxville TN 37996 USA [log in to unmask] > http://web.utk.edu/~gwhitney/ > jESSE:http://web.utk.edu/~**gwhitney/jesse.html<http://web.utk.edu/~gwhitney/jesse.html> > SIGMETRICS:http://web.utk.edu/**~gwhitney/sigmetrics.html<http://web.utk.edu/~gwhitney/sigmetrics.html> > <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>**<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>** > <><><><><><><> > >