Best Moment Although I already had a Masters degree from the University of Southern California, in early 1978 I decided to start the Master in Business Information Systems (MBIS) program at Georgia State University. I believed that this program would be an asset to my future computer/programming oriented job potentials. In 1982 I received my MBIS Degree from Georgia State University. I went on to become the Manager of the Georgia State University's Wells Computer Center Information Systems Department (COBOL based business application programming department running on a Sperry 70/7 and later a Univac 90/80 mainframe environment), and in 1996 I was "rented" by the University System of Georgia to also be the Director of Virtual Library Support for USG to support the System-wide unix based Voyager automated library system - GIL (Galileo Integrated Libraries). Starting in 1986 I was also involved in supporting the GSU PALS COBOL automated library system from Mankato State University that operated on a Unisys 1100 mainframe. We eventually expanded this System to support 12 USG Libraries, the State of Georgia's State Archives and a 55 library Union Catalog. Another project in support of the State of Georgia Archives was the digitizing of their Confederate Pension Records. This project became so popular that the State Archives eventually received funding to takeover the project.
Worst Moment Several years after receiving my MBIS at Georgia State University, I decided to start work on my PhD in Information System. I made it through most of the preliminary course work, but then I was told that it was expected that I work part-time as a Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA) in the IS Department. The problem with this requirement was that I had a full-time job in the GSU Wells Computer Center as the Department Manager of the Institutional Support Group (administrative programming development and support). In addition to an adequate salary I also had health and retirement benefits. While I was very interested in getting my PhD, the GTA requirement was a price that I registered as to great to pay. A PhD in Information Systems was a personal goal and while it may have offered me other job opportunities, in my current GSU position it was not truly job enhancing. So I let my academic efforts decrease and lost interest in persuing a PhD. I was eventually dropped from the program after failing to meet some of the final preliminary requirements.
