Crossing boundaries in the Real World Panel: Intriguing Interdisciplinary Initiatives

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Crossing boundaries in the Real WorldPanel
Intriguing Interdisciplinary Initiatives

• Claire McInerney
• Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey

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What counts as real?

• Virtual teams
• Virtual workplaces
• Living in cyberspace
• A Google world
• Living on the screen
• Much of our work, education, and play has moved
  out of the realm of place to a new landscape of
  activity and outcomes.

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This presentation makes the case that

• Our university work is very much in the real
  world
• We could do well to treat it as such,
• We might talk with colleagues and students as
  such,
• With an understanding that in the world off
  campus knowledge is integrated across areas of
  expertise.

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An overview

• What counts as real?
• Interdisciplinary ways of working
• Advantages
• Disadvantages
• Case study Interdisciplinary research project
  Factors that influence choice of major
• Rationale
• Methodology
• Outcomes implications
• So what?
• Implications and future directions

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What counts as real?

• Working across disciplines is much more real than
  the departmental silo approach that is
  traditional in higher education.
• The comfort of epistemic communities may not be
  real.
• The separation between professional and liberal
  education may not be real.
• These two statements have implications for our
  undergraduate programs in library science,
  information science, information studies, and
  information management.

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What counts as real?

• In the past to a large extent we worked in the
  comfortable confines of our own discipline
  (library and information science) the epistemic
  community we understood and in which we were
  comfortable.
• Today, many LIS departments are hiring faculty
  from other fields, and we are seeing the
  connections between ourselves and other
  university disciplines.

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The time may be right to invest time and energy
in examining our undergraduate programs

• Undergraduate education in the US
• The coherence and integrity of No. American
  undergraduate education has been criticized for
  over 20 years.
• The blame is often placed on the growth of
  professional studies at the expense of an
  integrated view of the world fostered by the
  humanities.
• The Syracuse experiment in the 1980s attempted
  to address this criticism.
• (Marsh, P. T. (1988). Contesting the boundaries
  of liberal and professional education. Syracuse
  Syracuse University Press.)

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Most of our LIS undergrad programs are career
focused.

• This presents us with opportunities for
  interdisciplinary work in the informing
  disciplines and with arts and humanities
  departments.
• As information experts we have depth of knowledge
  and expertise to offer other university units.
• As off-campus organizations have turned to
  multidisciplinary approaches to work, we too can
  gain from crossing departmental boundaries in our
  research and teaching.

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ALA accredited LIS programs with undergraduate
majors required hours for the degree.
Source Barron, D. and Harris, C. L. (2003).
Curriculum in ALISE Library and Information
Science Statistical Report 2003. Retrieved
January 3, 2005 from http//ils.unc.edu/ALISE/200
3/Curric/Curriculum01.htm
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Interdisciplinary ways of working - Advantages

• LIS department/school becomes more integral to
  the universitys mission (e.g. service courses)
• Raise the profile of library and information
  science on campus (can be helpful for budget
  allocations, tenure decisions, other resource
  allocation decisions)
• Increased opportunities to learn grow (research
  methods, funding, fellowships, ideas about other
  ways to work, etc.)
• Improve communication between units (help with
  student committees, course exchange, etc.)
• Help establish identity.

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Interdisciplinary ways of working -
Disadvantages

• Requires extra effort
• Requires more meetings
• May require moving physically to other locations
  for meetings
• Requires adjustments in how meetings are
  conducted
• Requires an understanding and appreciation for
  other ways of working.

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Case Study Interdisciplinary research re
undergrad students career choices

• Sponsored by the National Science Foundation
• Conducted collaboratively by five units at
  Rutgers University
• Library and Information Science
• Graduate School of Education
• School of Engineering
• School of Planning and Public Policy
• Douglass College (Rutgers women's college)
• Goal to learn how gender, choice of major, and
  work experience influence information technology
  career choices of undergraduates.

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Methodology

• Population 2,000 Rutgers undergrad students
• Traditional IT degree students Computer
  Science Computer Engineering
• New IT major Information Technology and
  Informatics (LIS degree)
• General undergraduate students
• 1st year students who have not declared a major
• 3rd year students in arts and sciences
• Student computing consultants

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Methodology

• Research methods
• Group interviews with students in Computer
  Science (CS), Computer Engineering (CE) and
  Information Technology Informatics (ITI)
• Self-administered written surveys (CS, CE, ITI,
  arts sciences students)
• Alumni phone survey (3rd year of project)
• Group interviews with information technology
  professionals

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Preliminary results are helping us define our
identity in the world of information technology
programs.

• Information Technology Informatics students
• Are often influenced to major in ITI as a result
  of experiences in high school,
• Believe their degree is more flexible than others
  in seeking job opportunities,
• Like the focus of the human side of technology,
• Appreciate the management skills (team work,
  project management, etc) that they develop,
• Understand that they may not have the full array
  of programming skills as their counterparts in
  CS, CE,

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Preliminary results are helping us define our
identity in the world of information technology
programs.

• Information Technology Informatics students
• Feel confident in their project management
  skills and expect to be managers and leaders in
  the IT profession,
• Worry about the impact of outsourcing on job
  prospects (so do other technology-related
  majors),
• Hope that they can compete with the combination
  of technology skills and understanding of human
  information behavior,

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So what?

• What are the implications of working across
  units?
• Adjustments have been made in meeting venues,
  communication methods, etc.
• We have had to develop trust.
• We have had real time accountability in the
  project.

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So what?

• The faculty team collectively has learned new
  research and management skills
• Using technology to organize and manage group
  interviews (online signup, etc.)
• Using commercial calling firms for phone
  interviews
• Working with students from different units
• Using content analysis software -- Nvivo (with
  help from faculty in different units)
• Managing a large project across multiple
  campuses.

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So what? Why should we care about this research?

• From time to time its useful to learn about our
  students motivations, interests, and
  expectations from their lifes work. We may think
  we know what theyre thinking from reading
  applications or by talking to them informally,
  and maybe we do.however, rigorous research
  always has more power and authority than
  anecdotal records.

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The results of the research should help the LIS
faculty and administration

• Conduct effective career counseling and
  interventions with students
• Sharpen the focus of the IT curriculum
• Speak with employers knowledgably
• Talk with colleagues in other units in the
  university about how degrees compare/contrast
• Develop recruitment materials
• Understand the identity of the degree within the
  context of the department, the university and the
  workplace.

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Collateral benefits

• Invitation to teach an interdisciplinary Ph.D.
  course.
• Invitation to serve on another interdisciplinary
  research project.
• Opportunity to sharpen skills in designing group
  interviews.
• The fun of working with interesting people
  (students and faculty)!

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What are other implications?

• The natural answer do a similar study with LIS
  students looking at influences on their choosing
  a degree program.

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Conclusion

• Garrett Hardin, author and professor emeritus (UC
  Santa Barbara) who is best known for his works
  Tragedy of the Commons and Living on a
  Lifeboat has given much thought to the wisdom of
  interdisciplinary efforts. He spoke about these
  efforts in a 1998 article in Science magazine.
• (Hardin, G. (1998, May). Extensions of The
  tragedy of the commons. Science, 289 (5364),
  682-683.)

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Conclusion

• It is easy to call for interdisciplinary
  syntheses, but will anyone respond? Scientists
  know how to train the young in narrowly focused
  work but how do you teach people to stitch
  together established specialties that perhaps
  should not have been separated in the first
  place
• (Harden, 1998)?
• One way to expand our view of information and
  technology may be to start by getting to know our
  information colleagues through joint research
  efforts.

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References

• Barron, D. and Harris, C. L. (2003). Curriculum
  in ALISE Library and Information Science
  Statistical Report 2003. Retrieved January 3,
  2005 from
• http//ils.unc.edu/ALISE/2003/Curric/Curriculum01
  .htm
• Hardin, G. (1998, May). Extensions of The
  tragedy of the commons. Science, 289 (5364),
  682-683.
• March, P. T. (Ed.). (1988). Contesting the
  boundaries of liberal and professional education.
  Syracuse Syracuse University Press.
• McInerney, C., Daley, A., Vandergrift, K. E.
  (2002, February). Broadening our reach LIS
  education for undergraduates. American Libraries,
  33 (2), 40-43.

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Contact Information

• Claire McInerney, Ph.D.
• Assistant Professor
• Library and Information Science Department
• Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
• clairemc_at_scils.rutgers.edu