Gives MLIS students an idea on how to transition skills from school to an information architecture career path.

1. Using Your MLIS Skills in
Information Architecture
Theresa Putkey

2. My Background
• Technical writer to requirements analyst
• Employee to independent
• Technical writer to information architect
• To MLIS degree

3. What Is IA?
• Helping people organize information
• Understanding who is going to use it and
designing for them
• Design can be for a content management
system (CMS), digital asset management
system (DAM), digital library, Intranet,
website

4. Why IA?
• Corporations have tonnes of information
but have no idea how to organize it
• Or they organize it but no one can search
for it or find it

5. The IA Approach
• Is a user-centred design approach
• We learn about what users need (just as a
librarian learns about services patrons
need)
• Use research skills such as surveys and
interviewing
• Apply our understanding of information
seeking behaviour.

6. IA Analysis and Design
• Do a content inventory
• Card sorting to find out how people
organize content
• Create metadata and taxonomies, a site
map to show site structure
• Advise on and review the search interface
• Design wireframes
• Conduct user testing

7. What Skills Do IAs Use?
• 240 – basic structure of a website, some HTML
and CSS
• 244 – search tools (I did a paper on federated
search)
• 247 – a lot about non-traditional classification
• 281 – all about metadata
• 282 – digital asset management
• 285 – research skills
• 287 – digital libraries (which can be corporate,
too!)
• 294 – taxonomy internship
• WISE – information interaction

8. Challenge MLIS Students Face
• Many MLIS students lack practical, on the
job experience in corporations
• Aren’t sure how to speak the language
and adapt the skills
• Solve this by doing a non-library internship
• Find a company you want to work for and
ask them to have you as an intern.

9. Resources
With these resources, you’ll find a LOT more
information
• ASIST www.asis.org
• IA Institute www.iainstitute.org
• My 240 project
foo.keypointe.ca/libr240/final_project/page
s/iatopics.php
• My website www.keypointe.ca

10. Contact Me
• 604 563 6317
• tputkey@keypointe.ca
• www.keypointe.ca
• @tputkey