In addition to my formal studies, I have also benefited from working on two student projects this academic year; a podcast and a journal. It has also been informative to play the role of founder and chair in the first case, while playing an important if not central role in the second case.
Back in the fall of 2008, I organized a group to podcast lectures at the University of Toronto. The result is the iSchool Podcast which has published seven lectures so far, with more to come. In my view, this project has been a success on at least two levels. First, I have received postive feedback from people who tell me that they appreciate the project. These kind words are backed up by our own statistics; more than 1200 unique visitors have visited the blog and 25,000 pageviews have been registered since December 2008. I have enjoyed podcasts for several years now as a listener, so it was gratifying to give back to the podcast community. For myself, I have also found the project valuable in that it has given me a way to learn new skills (e.g. what makes a podcast work, using Audacity, marketing, management and so forth). Managing in an all volunteer environment presents some challenges that I am still learning from. As I will be graduating this year, I am also making efforts to train and mentor other students to take over the project.
On the other front, I have worked as an editor and author for the Faculty of Information Quarterly. This is an online-only student led publication that has been interesting to work on. The journal was co-founded and currently managed by Meghan Ecclestone, a friend and fellow student at the Faculty. So far, most of the content has been produced by students in our program but that will hopefully change in the future. Working on the journal has provided me with an opportunity to improve my editing skills further and learn more about the field, two things I enjoy doing. I am not sure what plans are in place regarding the journal’s future, but I do hope it will stay around.
Interestingly, both of these projects were not for pay or academic credit. They were both created out of an ambition to contribute to the profession and learn new skills.
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