So, I have been getting a lot of questions about the mission here at the iSchool.  One buzzword that is heard consistently in many of my interactions is innovation.  I would have to say that Dave Lankes (our instructor who wanted us to create this blog) is an innovator.  He spent the first four classes in full deconstruction mode, but then he continued the educational process by beginning to construct what a vision of a librarian might be. 

In our latest class, he brought in a guest speaker, Joseph Janes, from the iSchool at the University of Washington.  UW is a main competitor for students studying Information Science so I thought the discussion would be thought provoking.  It was.  We heard a lot about "play" in the discussion which immediately brought me back to Derrida's notion of "jouissance".  Ideas should be played with, tossed around and used to stimulate discusssion.  This is at the very heart of innovation.  Then Prof. Janes told the class that he and Lankes had been separated at birth!  That explained a lot as to why they were saying very similar things.  Then we find out that they both graduated from Syracuse.  Even better, because now I am sure that Syracuse University is the right place to be.  It is truly an innovation hub.

One final note, as Camus said in The Fall, "We are all in the soup together"