Class of 2005 Shikun “KK” Jiang—Placements and Salaries 2005

John N. Berry III -- Library Journal, 10/15/2006

Just after she earned her bachelor’s degree in engineering in electronics and information technology, Shikun Jiang, nicknamed “KK” by friends and family, searched Peterson’s Guide to Graduate Study to move on to the next level of her education—in the United States. KK had graduated from the College of Electronics and Information Engineering at one of China’s key universities, South China University of Technology in the city of Guangzhou. In Peterson’s, KK found the School of Library and Information Sciences (SLIS) at the University of North Texas (UNT), Denton. When the school offered her a Toulouse Graduate Fellowship (SLIS is one of the Robert Toulouse Graduate Schools at UNT), she moved to Denton. She graduated with an MS in information science and represents the Class of 2005 on LJ’s cover and in this year’s “Placements & Salaries” feature.

“My bachelor’s degree was in pure technology,” KK says. “It was too 'cold’ and wasn’t exactly the field in which I wanted to work.” The North Texas program provided the “warmth” of human interaction to go with her technological expertise and skills.

“I found out what a wonderful field medical informatics is, with its interactions with people and its connections to public health. It is a field that really helps people. I loved our class studies in the information-seeking behavior of healthcare providers,” KK says as she tells how grateful she is to Ana Cleveland of the UNT faculty.

KK is also indebted and very grateful to Jiangping Chen, with whom she worked for a year as teaching assistant at UNT. Under Chen’s guidance, KK learned to design and develop instructional materials, databases, and class web sites. She also participated in a 2004 competition to demonstrate the use of natural-language processing techniques to answer questions. As part of the Eaglerad Database Project, under Chen, KK added to her skills in database design and management.

As an assistant in the Digital Project Laboratory of UNT’s Willis Library, KK developed talents in teamwork and indexing and metadata work by participating in the library’s digitization and archival projects. For her practicum at UNT she did volunteer work on the information & referral (I&R) database of the Denton Family Resource Center. It is a private center offering both information and agency referrals to the very poor in Denton.

Currently KK is an Oak Ridge Institute for Science Education Fellow at the Information Center (IC) of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta. “I work with librarians, and I work at the reference desk,” says KK, “This is more like a postgraduate fellowship, so it is a true learning experience for me.”

KK is mentored now by IC chief Jocelyn A. Rankin. She is again appreciative of all the guidance she receives. The IC is a crucial resource serving researchers and scholars. “Scholars and researchers come in to the IC or consult via the web. My major responsibility is a part of the internal web site for our staff, to make it more accessible, to organize the information so it’s easier to consult,” KK reports.

Born in 1981, KK is still unsure where her career will take her. An only child, she has visited her parents in China twice in the last two years, and she knows she wants to work in the United States for some time. “People like to work online because it is faster, and it is at their desk,” KK says, speaking of the future of information work. “I don’t think everything will be digital right away,” she quickly adds. “Personally, I like both formats. Many people print out what they find online. I think both electronic and print will coexist for some time. There are still many who come into the library to check journals and read.”

Of the UNT program, she says, “It took me in new ways toward a more humanistic view, and I learned how people search and interact with resources. I am still glad I have a bachelor’s degree in technology because it gives me a sharper sense of how to use and work with technology and how to learn about it,” KK admits. She is encouraged because it is easier than it was for Chinese and Americans to work together in both countries.

Asked about the U.S. view of information policy, KK says, “I think American attitudes about freedom of access to information are good. I had that kind of freedom in China. I think America does a good job with public information with PubMed, Medline, and other public resources. This access promotes health awareness with the public.”

“The major challenge in our field is the conceptual change, from traditional librarian to a modern information professional,” KK says. “We have a larger role in information management, access, and preservation in the newer formats. We need more research in more effective ways to be sure we meet user information needs.”

“As globalization goes on we’ll need to improve our skills and methods in international communications,” she continues. “In a few years, I hope I’ll be in a higher technical position, possibly in management. I’d like to help translate and communicate solid Chinese medical sources and research other places. This is very important. The whole world is engaged in research.”