Sam Burns

Data and AI, Technical Services, School of Computing at UT Austin. Two decades at the iSchool.

Samuel A. Burns

sburns@ischool.utexas.edu · Austin, Texas

Experience

Data and AI, Technical Services, The University of Texas at Austin, School of Computing · 2026 to present
Data and AI for the school’s Technical Services team; the department’s web presence and documentation; accessibility across its sites.

Director of Information Technology, The University of Texas at Austin, School of Information · 2024 to 2026
IT strategy, compliance, and operations for the School, through its 2026 move into the School of Computing.

Senior IT Manager, The University of Texas at Austin, School of Information · 2015 to 2024
IT operations and services for a research-intensive academic unit; the shift from self-hosted to central campus services.

Communications Coordinator, The University of Texas at Austin, School of Information · 2011 to 2014
Web presence, digital communications, and publishing workflows.

Systems Administrator (HR: Network Analyst), The University of Texas at Austin, School of Information · 2007 to 2011
Self-hosted mail, directory, web, and research and teaching infrastructure; faculty and student consulting.

Graduate appointments (Teaching/Research/Instruction), The University of Texas at Austin, School of Information · 2003 to 2007
Teaching support, instructional technology, and usability research during the degree.

Business Planner, Texas Department of Insurance · 2000 to 2003
State-mandated planning and records and information systems projects.

Records Management Consultant, Texas State Library and Archives Commission · 1998 to 2000
Records management training and retention schedules for state and local government.

Archivist, Florida Bureau of Archives and Records Management, Florida Department of State · 1996 to 1998
Reference and records management services for the Florida State Library and Archives.

Student Internship (Reference Archivist), Florida Bureau of Archives and Records Management, Florida Department of State · 1995 to 1996
Reference services and an early large-scale digitization of archival photographs.

Education

  • Master of Science in Information Studies (MSIS), The University of Texas at Austin, School of Information, 2004

  • Bachelor of Science, Florida State University, 1996

Teaching

  • Tag You’re It: Vernacular Classification of Images, Sound, and Video, Universidade Nova de Lisboa (UNL), Invited Professor, 2015

  • Information in Cyberspace (INF 312), University of Texas at Austin, Lead Instructor, 2005

  • Making your classes accessible, UT School of Information, summer faculty series, 2026

Publications

  • Geisler, Gary and Burns, Sam (2007). Tagging video: Conventions and strategies of the YouTube community. Proceedings of the 7th ACM/IEEE-CS Joint Conference on Digital Libraries. doi:10.1145/1255175.1255279

  • Bias, R.G., Williams, J.P., Chung, D., and Burns, S.A. (2005). An experimental study of the effects of Microsoft’s Clear Type® on programmer productivity. Annual meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.

  • Chang, Leggett, Furuta, Kerne, Williams, Burns & Bias (2004). Collection Understanding. ACM/IEEE-CS Joint Conference on Digital Libraries.

  • Geisler, G. and Burns, Sam (2008). Tagging Video: Conventions and Strategies of the YouTube Community. Bulletin of IEEE Technical Committee on Digital Libraries (TCDL) 4(1).

  • Burns, Samuel and Geisler, Gary (2025). YouTube Tagging Dataset (2006-2007): 1+ Million Videos from Early YouTube. Zenodo. doi:10.5281/zenodo.17508119

  • How do we perform usability testing when the tasks are so novel that users don´t even know they want to perform them? Usability Professionals Association Conference, 2004.

Accessibility

  • Web accessibility practice for the school’s sites, 2015 to present

  • Accessibility hackathons and assistive-technology sessions, 2017 to 2019

  • Accessibility Institute revival effort, 2021 to 2022

  • Accessibility learning for students and faculty, 2019 to present

Skills

  • Languages: Python, Bash, SQL, PHP, JavaScript
  • Data and AI: Retrieval-augmented generation and its evaluation; LLM tools in governed settings; identity and directory data pipelines; data classification in practice
  • Web: Drupal on Pantheon; MkDocs and Sphinx; WordPress; WCAG 2.1 AA
  • Systems: Linux; Ansible; Apache and nginx; Shibboleth access control; backups and TLS automation
  • Platforms: GitHub Actions; Microsoft 365 and Graph; Power Automate; ServiceNow

Updated 2026-09-15.