ISCHOOL - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor of Practice at the University of Texas School of Information
Abhijit Mishra is an Assistant Professor of Practice at the University of Texas School of Information. He teaches Applied Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing (NLP), Deep Learning, and Introduction to Human Centered Data Science. Abhijit obtained his Ph.D in Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay and served as a research scientist at Apple and IBM Research, contributing to flagship products such as Siri and IBM Watson. Abhijit's research interests are Natural Language Generation, Large Language Models, and cognition inspired NLP.
Arif's research is in the field of human-computer interaction and social computing. He uses innovative combinations of computational analysis, participatory engagement, and traditional qualitative methodologies to address questions about the spread of mis- and disinformation. Much of his work has examined the dynamics of mis- and disinformation during crisis situations, with a primary interest in how we might respond to these dynamics with more solidarity as researchers, educators and designers. This interdisciplinary work draws on a wide body of work, including science and technology studies (STS), postcritical theory, research on reflection and contemplation, and more.
Growing up in Pakistan, Ahmer earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in Computer Science from the Lahore University of Management Sciences. Before coming to UT Austin, Ahmer earned his doctorate in Human Centered Design & Engineering from the University of Washington. Beyond academia, he has had the good fortune to work as a researcher and consultant with several large organizations like Facebook, Yahoo!, The World Bank and the UN.
Job Titles:
- Graduate Advisor and Director of Masters Studies
Amelia Acker studies the emergence and standardization of new information objects in wireless communication networks. Currently, she is researching information infrastructures and digital preservation contexts that support long term cultural memory and literacy.
Her award-winning dissertation was a history of the text message as it became a standardized information object. This research demonstrated how the infrastructure of mobile communication, including transmission protocols and the stabilization of the SMS data format, is one of the seminal developments in present-day networked, digital culture. Amelia's dissertation is one of the first scholarly works to describe the transformation of the mobile phone to a reading and writing machine that supports new kinds of literacies.
Amelia's current research program addresses emerging digital traces and mobile computing cultures that are shaped by new data collection practices amongst different kinds of users, designers, technologists, and institutions. Her research has been funded by grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS), and has been published in journals such as the Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (JASIST), Archival Science, and the Annals of the History of Computing.
From 2006 to 2014 Amelia worked as an archivist, librarian, and preservation consultant for libraries and archives in Southern California. During her PhD she worked as an arts librarian and cataloger for John Baldessari. Prior to joining the faculty at UT Austin, Amelia served for two years as an assistant professor and lead faculty of the archives program at the University of Pittsburgh's iSchool.
Mayernik, M. S. and Acker, A. (2018), Tracing the traces: The critical role of metadata within networked communications. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 69: 177-180. doi:10.1002/asi.23927
Angela D. R. Smith's research is in the field of human-computer interaction, computer supported cooperative work, and information sciences. Her current research studies how to more equitably design sociotechnical interventions to support the information work of homeless young adults residing within homeless shelter networks. Angela employs community-based participatory research and participatory design methods to construct knowledge and design interventions with her populations. This interdisciplinary work draws on a wide variety of work including information poverty, strength-based and asset-based approaches, as well as critical race theory and intersectionality.
Prior to receiving her Ph.D. in Technology & Social Behavior from Northwestern University, Angela has worked as an IT Consultant, Cybersecurity Analyst, as well as a UX Researcher for Airbnb and several startups.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor of Instruction
Biography
Ayse is a Boyvey postdoctoral teaching fellow in the School of Information. Her research interests include digital archives, game studies, and game preservation. She is particularly interested in inclusive and playful approaches to pedagogy.
Job Titles:
- Adjunct Assistant Professor
- Coordinator, School Librarian Certificate Program & Adjunct
- Coordinator, School Librarian Certificate Program & Adjunct Assistant Professor
Dr. Jansen is an Adjunct Assistant Professor and the School Librarian Certificate Coordinator at the iSchool. She recently retired after 26 years as an elementary and high school librarian and department chair. Her dissertation study explored the support of new media in subject-area knowledge building and 21st century skills development in high school curricula.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor
- Social Informatics Professor at the University of Texas
Brian McInnis is a Social Informatics professor at the University of Texas at Austin in the School of Information. Brian investigates the capability of computing systems to coordinate groups of people to problem-solve civic issues through informed discussion. This work involves a broad range of research methods, from system design and evaluation to expert interviews, data science, design speed-dating, as well as public policy analysis. Brian really enjoys asking students, "what civic issues matter to you?" and then working with them to explore socio-technical systems questions, like: (1) Where do people go to share experiences of this issue? (2) How have technologies helped to advance conversation about the issue? (3) What human labor and other resources are necessary to facilitate these conversations?
Prior to joining UT Austin, Brian was a postdoctoral scholar in the Research Center for Optimal Digital Ethics (ReCODE) as well as the Design Lab at UC San Diego. Brian earned his PhD in Information Science from Cornell University, a Masters of Public Policy from Vanderbilt University, and studied Economics and History at UC Davis. Brian has also worked at the RAND Corporation where he studied the design of youth summer learning programs, strategies for supporting families through active military deployment, and potential unintended consequences associated with the use of predictive policing systems.
Job Titles:
- CARE Counselor at the School of Information
Job Titles:
- IT Manager for JR Schneider Construction
Currently, Catherine is the IT Manager for JR Schneider Construction in Austin. Catherine grew up in Austin, earned her undergraduate degree from Vanderbilt University, and returned to Austin to pursue her MLIS from the School of Information at The University of Texas. Since completing graduate school, Catherine has enjoyed a successful career with companies including Samsung Electronics, marchFIRST, Arthur Andersen, and the Texas Comptroller's office.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Librarianship at University of Texas
Ms. Schley is currently a consultant on a broad range of legal and information matters, after having practiced law for many years in both large law firm and large corporation environments, and serving as a senior level executive search professional to large law firm, corporate, and non-profit clients. She is a graduate of Smith College, with an M.Ed from Boston University, a JD from Emory University School of Law, and an MSIS from The University of Texas.
Job Titles:
- Executive Director of the Tocker Foundation
Darryl is the executive director of the Tocker Foundation, an Austin-based family foundation that supports libraries and library education in Texas. A Univeristy of Texas graduate in accounting, Darryl worked as an accountant for the Zales Corporation prior to starting the Tocker Foundation with his parents and uncle.
Dean Hendrix is the Dean of Libraries for The University of Texas at San Antonio. Dean earned a Bachelor of Arts in the Plan II Honors Program and a Master of Library and Information Science from the University of Texas at Austin. His research focuses on bibliometrics, research impact, data management, strategic planning, social networks and e-textbooks.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor
- Associate Professor of Practice
Biography
Dr. Andrea Baer is an Associate Professor of Practice in the School of Information at the University of Texas-Austin. She teaches courses
Job Titles:
- Professor
- Professor / Health Information Systems
Dr. Bo Xie received her Ph.D. in Science and Technology Studies from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, her MS in Psychology from Peking University, and her B.Med.Sci. from the West China School of Medicine in Chengdu, China. Her research reflects her interdisciplinary training in Medicine, Psychology, and Science and Technology Studies. She focuses on health informatics interventions that can promote older adults' use of information and communication technologies (ICT) for health information and decision-making (i.e., e-health literacy) that may have important implications for patient-provider relationships and health outcomes. Dr. Xie has joint appointments in the School of Nursing and School of Information at the University of Texas at Austin. For more information, see my website
A twice graduate of the School of Information at The University of Texas; now twice retired, Dr. Calvin Boyer received his MLIS from UT in 1964, and then earned the first PhD awarded by the Library School in 1972. After completing his education, Calvin enjoyed a long and successful career in academic Libraries.
Dale recently retired as the director of the public library in Round Rock, Texas. As a committed professional, Dale served the city of Round Rock for 30 years. Although retired, she is still very active in the community, and is currently pursuing her PhD in Business-Leadership. She earned her undergraduate degree from Illinios Wesleyan University, and her MLIS from The University of Texas.
Job Titles:
- Group Manager of NAS Data Release
Dr. Davis serves as Group Manager of NAS Data Release and Senior Policy Advisor within Mission Support Services, Air Traffic Organization, Federal Aviation Administration, Washington DC. Prior to his current position, Woody has enjoyed a career working with organizations such as the Center for Naval Analysis, United States Air Force, FAA, Transportation Security Administration, Department of Homeland Security, as well as The University of Texas. He completed his JD at Baylor University and earned his MD at the University of Texas Health Science Center-San Antonio.
Dr. Jacek Gwizdka conducts research in human-computer interaction with interests in information search processes and search interfaces, in application of cognitive psychology to interactive information retrieval, and in implicit assessment of cognitive load using psycho-physiological methods. His recent projects include application of cognitive neuroscience tools to the study of cognitive function engaged in human-information interaction as well as examination of effects of search results presentation and cognitive abilities on information search task performance. He serves in various roles at international conference and workshop organization committees (for example, IIiX, ASIS&T, ACM SIGCHI and SIGIR). He serves on editorial board of Interacting with Computers.
Gwizdka, J., Moshfeghi, Y., & Wilson, M. L. (2019). Introduction to the special issue on neuro-information science. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 70(9), 911?916. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.24263
Gwizdka, J., Zhang, Y., & Dillon, A. (2019). Using the eye-tracking method to study consumer online health information search behaviour. Aslib Journal of Information Management, 71(6), 739?754. https://doi.org/10.1108/AJIM-02-2019-0050
Dr. Ying Ding is Bill & Lewis Suit Professor at School of Information, University of Texas at Austin. She has been involved in various NIH, NSF and European-Union funded projects. She has published 240+ papers in journals, conferences, and workshops, and served as the program committee member for 200+ international conferences. She is the co-editor of book series called Semantic Web Synthesis by Morgan & Claypool publisher, the co-editor-in-chief for Data Intelligence published by MIT Press and Chinese Academy of Sciences, and serves as the editorial board member for several top journals in Information Science and Semantic Web. She is the co-founder of Data2Discovery company advancing cutting edge AI technologies in drug discovery and healthcare. Her current research interests include data-driven science of science, AI in healthcare, Semantic Web, knowledge graph, data science, scholarly communication, and the application of Web technologies.
Earl Huff Jr.'s research examines how human-centered design and inclusive design principles can be applied to make information and communication technology (ICT) more inclusive, equitable, and accessible. He has conducted research in understanding the needs of vulnerable and underserved populations such as marginalized racial and ethnic groups, people with disabilities, and aging adults. The domains of Earl's research have included transportation, education, and social media.
His current research focuses on equity and access in electronic learning (e-learning) and e-learning technologies for underserved populations. Earl employs participatory and interaction design methodologies to inform the design of technology for meeting the needs of all users. His secondary research looks at designing, developing, and employing interventions to increase the interest and self-efficacy of marginalized K-12 students in pursuing careers in computer and information science.
Earl earned his Ph.D. in Human-Centered Computing from Clemson University's School of Computing. He earned his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Computer Science from Rowan University.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor
- Associate Professor at the School of Information
Edgar Gómez Cruz is an Associate Professor at the School of Information at The University of Texas at Austin. He has published widely on several topics relating to digital culture in top journals, particularly in the areas of material visual practices, digital ethnography, and critical approaches to digital technologies. His recent publications include the books: Vital Technologies. Thinking digital cultures from Latin America (2022). From Kodak Culture to Networked Image: An Ethnography of Digital Photography Practices (2012), and the co-edited volumes Digital Photography and Everyday Life. Empirical Studies on Material Visual Practices (Routledge, 2016) with Asko Lehmuskallio and Refiguring Techniques in Visual Digital Research (Palgrave, 2017), with Shanti Sumartojo and Sarah Pink. His current research focuses on the datafication of everyday life in the Global South.
Elliott Hauser (he/him/his) studies the ways information systems condition social reality. His work focuses on sites and situations where actions are taken in light of information. He has investigated the computational production of time, the documentary production of scientific facts, and conceptions of temporality in data science education. His current research program examines robotics as a site of human and non-human action in light of information. He is Co-Lead of Living and Working With Robots, an eleven PI collaboration across seven disciplines to deploy and study robots on the UT Austin campus using sociotechnical methods. Elliott holds a PhD in Information Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was a member of the Royster Society of Fellows.
Gary in an entrepreneur whose most notable ventures include founding BOOKSTOP Inc in 1982, which he later sold to Barnes and Noble, and Hoovers. Gary has a BA in Economics from the University of Chicago. He currently travels the world giving speeches and serving as a consultant. He is an active supporter of nonprofit entrepreneurship, particularly in education.
Hanlin Li is an assistant professor in the School of Information at UT Austin. research aims to inform policy and design interventions to incentivize responsible data collection and use. She examines the societal and economic impact of data generated by the public, from rating data to social media comments. Her work sits at the intersection of data governance and human-computer interaction. Li holds a Ph.D. in Technology and Social Behavior from Northwestern University. She publishes in ICWSM, ACM CHI, ACM CSCW, and ACM FAccT.
Hyun Joon Jung and Matthew Lease. A Discriminative Approach to Predicting Assessor Accuracy. In Proceedings of the 37th European Conference on Information Retrieval (ECIR), pages 159-171, 2015. Samsung Human-Tech Paper Award: Silver Prize in Computer Science. https://www.ischool.utexas.edu/ ml/papers/ecir2015_hjung.pdf
Job Titles:
- Interim Associate Dean for Research & Associate Professor
James Howison studies open collaboration, particularly in software development, including open source software development and the development of software in science. His work has been supported by grants from the NSF, including a 2015 NSF CAREER award and a 2019 PECASE award, as well as the Sloan Foundation. James has published in the fields of Information Systems, Computer-Supported Cooperative Work, and Information Sciences (e.g., MIS Quarterly, ACM CSCW Conference, and JASIST), as well as keynotes for industry and funding agency advisory events. Recently James has contributed to the development of [CiteAs](http://citeas.org), a system to improve incentives for high quality software work in science by mapping from software to its requested citation and released [a gold standard dataset of software mentions in publications](http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4444074), to facilitate improved rewards for software work in science. James joined the school of information in 2011. CV and Publications at james.howison.name.
Moon, E., & Howison, J. (2024). A dynamic perspective on software modularity in opensource software (OSS) development: A configurational approach. Information andOrganization, 34(1), 100499. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infoandorg.2023.100499
Du, C., Cohoon, J., Lopez, P., & Howison, J. (2022). Understanding progress in softwarecitation: A study of software citation in the CORD-19 corpus. PeerJ Computer Science, 8,e1022. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj-cs.1022
Job Titles:
- Director of Archives & Collections at NBCUniversal
Jeff is the Director of Archives & Collections at NBCUniversal in Universal City, Calif. Before joining Universal Studios in July 2002 as Archivist for Manuscripts and Special Collections, Pirtle served as Museum and Archives Project Manager for the J.C. Penney Company in Plano, Texas. He has also worked for the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth and served as a graduate intern with the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles. Jeff holds a BA in History and an MA in Museum Science, both from Texas Tech University.
Job Titles:
- Practice and Director of Capstone Programs
John is a user-experience professional with 20 years of experience in academic research and industry. After growing up in the Midwest US, John moved to Florida and Texas to pursue academic and athletic interests. John earned his undergraduate B.B.A. in Management from Florida Atlantic University, then later received his Masters and Doctorate in Modeling & Simulation - HCI/Human Systems from the University of Central Florida. John lives in Austin, Texas with his rescue dogs, and enjoys cooking, music, travel, and gaming in his free time. John is an active coach and mentor, too.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor of Instruction
Biography
Kayla M. Booth is an Assistant Professor of Instruction in the School of Information at The University of Texas at Austin. She is the PI and Director of the iSchool Inclusion Institute (i3) (i3-inclusion.org), an award winning, national undergraduate research and leadership development program that prepares students from underrepresented populations for graduate study and careers in the information sciences. As an educator, Dr. Booth collaboratively builds courses and experiences rooted in cultural humility that empower students to apply human-centered values to data, information, and technology in pursuit of a more equitable world in ways that align with their skills, interests, and passions.
Informed by her time at the Berkman Klein Center's Youth and Media Lab, her dissertation explored how the intersections of class, race, and gender relate to the ways in which teenagers assess the quality of nutrition and exercise information they interact with on social media. She continues to employ a youth-oriented, strengths-based approach across her research and teaching. Her work focuses on the co-design and evaluation of community-led health and education interventions to support and empower marginalized youth populations. These interventions take a myriad of formats, including curriculum design, community programming, app and software development, training and policy evaluation, etc.
Dr. Booth's work has been funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Prior to joining the faculty at UT Austin, she served as a Research Assistant Professor at the University of Pittsburgh's School of Computing and Information, where she was awarded the university's 2020 Provost's Award for Diversity in the Curriculum.
Job Titles:
- Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies
Kenneth R. Fleischmann is a Professor in the School of Information at The University of Texas at Austin. He is also the Founding Chair of the Executive Team for Good Systems, a UT Grand Challenge (http://goodsystems.utexas.edu/) and the Founding Director of Undergraduate Studies for the iSchool's B.A./B.S. in Informatics. His research and teaching focus on the ethics of AI and more broadly on the role of human values in the design and use of information technologies. His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA), Microsoft Research, Cisco Research Center, Micron Foundation, and the Public Interest Technology University Network. His research has been recognized by the iConference Best Paper Award, the ASIS&T SIG-USE Best Information Behavior Conference Paper Award, the ALA Library Instruction Round Table Top Twenty Articles, the ASIS&T SIG-SI Social Informatics Best Paper Award, the Civic Futures Award for Designing for the 100%, and the MetroLab Innovation of the Month Award.
Xie, B., Berkley, A. S., Kwak, J., Fleischmann, K. R., Champion, J. D., & Koltai, K. S. (2018). End-of-life decision making by family caregivers of persons with advanced dementia: A literature review of decision aids.
Job Titles:
- Senior Enterprise Security Architect for Acxiom Corporation
Leticia is a Senior Enterprise Security Architect for Acxiom Corporation. She earned her Masters of Science in Information Security from the Royal Holloway University of London, UK. Her experience in Information Security spans over 15 years. Currently, she volunteers as an adviser for industry-sponsored projects for MS IT Audit and Security students at the McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin. She is also actively engaged in volunteer projects that inspire girls to explore opportunities in STEM.
Lisa graduated from the School of Information in 2012 and currently serves as the Hispanic Collections Archivist at the University of Houston. Prior to her position at UH, Lisa was the Librarian-in-Residence at the University of Notre Dame.
Job Titles:
- Professor Director of Doctoral Studies Assistant Graduate Advisor
Matthew Lease received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Brown University and his B.Sc. in Computer Science from the University of Washington. He has received early career awards from the NSF, IMLS, and DARPA. Recent honors include Best Student Paper at the 2019 European Conference for Information Retrieval (ECIR) and Best Paper at the 2016 Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) Human Computation and Crowdsourcing conference (HCOMP). Lease is currently helping lead Good Systems, an eight-year, university-wide Grand Challenge Initiative at UT Austin to design AI technologies that maximally benefit society.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor of Instruction
Mick McQuaid graduated with the PhD degree from the University of Arizona in 2003 and has been teaching for almost all the time since, with just a year as a post-doc at Carnegie Mellon and two years as a computing security expert at University of Michigan. He has taught at University of Michigan, University of Oregon, and Rochester Institute of Technology. Mick grew up in an Air Force family and moved around the United States quite a bit. In his spare time he plays Irish traditional flute and Uilleann pipes and does woodworking. He has a wonderful family including two adorable teenagers.
Michael is currently a Senior Developer and Experience Lead at Springbox, a digital agency in Austin. His expertise lies in bridging the gap between user experience and technical development, with a focus on interface and interaction design. He holds both a BA and MSIS from UT Austin, where he served as the graduate student body president.
Min Kyung Lee is an assistant professor in the School of Information at the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Lee has conducted some of the first studies that empirically examine the social implications of algorithms' emerging roles in management and governance in society, looking at the impacts of algorithmic management on workers as well as public perceptions of algorithmic fairness. She has proposed a participatory framework that empowers community members to design matching algorithms for their own communities. Her current research on human-centered AI is inspired by and complements her previous work on social robots for long-term interaction, seamless human-robot handovers, and telepresence robots. Dr. Lee is a Siebel Scholar and has received the Allen Newell Award for Research Excellence, research grants from NSF and Uptake, and five best paper awards or honorable mentions in venues such as CHI, CSCW, DIS and HRI. She is an associate editor of the ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction. Her work has been featured in media outlets such as the New York Times, New Scientist, Washington Post, MIT Technology Review and CBS. She received a PhD in Human-Computer Interaction and an MDes in Interaction Design from Carnegie Mellon University.
Job Titles:
- Director of the Lake Travis Community Library
Morgan McMillian became the Director of the Lake Travis Community Library in June 2009, shortly after receiving her MLIS from The University of Texas in May 2009. Additionally, she has a masters degree in Liberal Studies from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and a BA in English from Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee.
Job Titles:
- Interim Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Virginia and Charles Bowden Professor of Librarianship
R. David Lankes is the Virginia and Charles Bowden Professor of Librarianship at University of Texas at Austin. Lankes has always been interested in combining theory and practice to create active research projects that make a difference. His work has been funded by organizations such as The MacArthur Foundation, The Institute for Library and Museum Services, NASA, The U.S. Department of Education, The U.S. Department of Defense, The National Science Foundation, The U.S. State Department, and The American Library Association.
Lankes is a passionate advocate for libraries and their essential role in today's society earning him the American Library Association's Isadore Gilbert Mudge Award for distinguished contribution to reference librarianship in 2021 and the Ken Haycock Award for Promoting Librarianship in 2016. He also seeks to understand how information approaches and technologies can be used to transform industries. In this capacity he has served on advisory boards and study teams in the fields of libraries, telecommunications, education, and transportation including at the National Academies. He has been a visiting fellow at the National Library of Canada, The Harvard School of Education, the French national library school Enssib, and was the first fellow of ALA's Office for Information Technology Policy. His book,The Atlas of New Librarianship won the 2012 ABC-CLIO/Greenwood Award for the Best Book in Library Literature.
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer of the National Association of College Stores
Robert is the Chief Executive Officer of the National Association of College Stores (NACS), the professional trade association for the collegiate retailing industry. Walton has also served as Vice President for Finance and Administration at Vassar College and Chief Executive Officer of the Claremont University Consortium. A former partner and software executive of several companies, Walton earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees from UT Austin, and he spent a decade teaching information management and technology strategic planning at the School of Information.
Job Titles:
- Professor at the University of Texas
Sandra is a professor at the University of Texas and works as a corporate user experience researcher. She helps companies learn about their users and apply research to operational teams and technology (both backend and user interfaces) to improve experiences. Her current research focuses on research operations and community-based healthcare. Recent Citations: Towards Automated Quality Curation of Video Collections from a Realistic Perspective (2017). Todd Goodall, Maria Esteva, Sandra Sweat, and Alan C. Bovik. IEEE. User Guided Design: Building Confidence in Engineering Data Publication (2016). Sandra Sweat, Aditi Ranganath, Maria Esteva, and Maà ¡a Prodanovià ¡, SciDataCon. Persistence Statements: Describing Digital Stickiness (2016). John Kunze, Scout Calvert, Jeremy D. DeBarry, Matthew Hanlon, Greg Janà ©e, and Sandra Sweat. Data Science Journal. Data Curation with a Focus on Reuse (2016). Maria Esteva, Sandra Sweat, Robert McLay, Weijia Xu, and Sivakumar Kulasekaran. JCDL Conference.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor of Practice in Library and Archives Conservation and Preservation at the University of Texas School of Information
Sarah Norris is Assistant Professor of Practice in Library and Archives Conservation and Preservation at the University of Texas School of Information. She teaches conservation, preservation, and related topics for library, archives, and information students. She also conducts conservation treatment and service and outreach projects. Norris previously established the conservation lab at the Texas State Library and Archives Commission. There, she treated books and paper; performed exhibit preparation; managed environmental monitoring; and worked with interns and volunteers. Norris is a graduate of the University of Texas Kilgarlin Center. She is a Fellow in the American Institute for Conservation (AIC), where she has served on the boards of the Book and Paper Group and the Electronic Media Group, as well as on the Connecting to Collections Care Webinar Committee (Chair), and the AIC Publications Committee. Her published research appears in the Journal of the American Institute for Conservation 53(3) and the Association for Recorded Sound Collections Journal 41(2).
Scott is a retired research geologist for Shell's Deepwater Exploration division. He earned his undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degrees from The University of Texas College of Natural Science. The son of a librarian, Dr. Reeve has long been involved with the University of Texas School of Information.
Selene is a Data Analyst at data.world, an Austin-based startup. She was previously the Director of Customer Support at Information Evolution. A former Catalog Engineer at Infochimps Inc., Selene earned her Master of Science in Information Studies from the UT School of Information in 2012, and is a graduate of Smith College. Before attending the iSchool and moving into the tech world, she was the Assistant Director of an art gallery and the Registrar of an art handling company, where she helped create the company's digital asset management system.
Sharon recently retired from her position as Assistant Archivist for Presidential Libraries. She began her career in archives at the Lyndon Johnson library, and then pursued a career which would include 34 years in public service. Sharon received her BA from The University of Texas, and then earned her MLIS, also at UT.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor of Practice / Software Development
Job Titles:
- Interim Dean and Brook E. Sheldon Professor
- Interim Dean and Brooke E. Sheldon Professor
Soo Young Rieh is Interim Dean and Brooke E. Sheldon Professor of Management and Leadership in the School of Information at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research areas include human information behavior, search as learning, supporting creativity in search, information credibility, and exploring the applications of artificial intelligence (AI) in library settings. Her prior research has focused on conceptualizing searching as a learning process and evaluating human learning during web searching. Currently, her research revolves around fostering critical thinking and creativity within the search process, with a particular emphasis on the intersection of information search strategies and idea generation. She is the PI for the Training Future Faculty in Library, AI, and Data Driven Education and Research (LADDER) Project, funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).
Her research contributions have garnered recognition, earning her over 10 research awards, including the ASIS&T Outstanding Contributions to Information Behavior Research Award (2019), CHIIR Best Paper Award (2023), CHIIR Honorable Mention (2019), Best JASIST Paper Award (2005, 2011), ASIS&T Best Conference Paper Award (2010), and Eugene Garfield-ALISE Doctoral Dissertation Award (2002). Furthermore, she was honored with the ASIS&T Watson Davis Award for Service in 2022.
Rieh has been actively engaged in various scholarly communities. She served as a Director-at-Large on the Board of the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) and a member of the ACM SIGIR Conference on Human Information Interaction and Retrieval (CHIIR) Steering Committee. Currently, Rieh holds the position of Associate Editor for Information and Learning Sciences and serve as a member of the Editorial Boards of the Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology (JASIST) and Library and Information Science Research. In 2023, she served as the co-general conference chair for the ACM SIGIR Conference on Human Information Interaction and Retrieval (CHIIR).
She served on the faculty of the School of Information at the University of Michigan from 2002 to 2019. Additionally, she worked as a Human Factors Research Engineer at the Excite@Home Search and Directory Group. She received her Ph.D. in Communication, Information, and Library Studies from Rutgers University, USA.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor
- Assistant Professor at the School of Information
- Science and Technology Studies
Biography
Stephen C. Slota is an Assistant Professor at the School of Information. Stephen's research in Social Informatics bridges critical infrastructure studies, data and information ethics, and information policy. His research focuses on advancing our shared understanding of how to leverage technology for social good by critically engaging with the role of information technology in policy, in the development of knowledge infrastructures for the sciences, and in the ethics of data and information in people's personal and professional lives.
Through his focus on infrastructural dynamics, Stephen is able to engage with a broad diversity of research sites. He has explored NSF-funded efforts to develop cyberinfrastructure for the geosciences, nationwide work to collaborate around and support the development of data science, and the data work and practices of social workers and local government related to homelessness in Austin. Stephen's current research explores how technology mediates and infrastructures the relationships between human and non-human life, from environmental management, to conservation work, to agriculture.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor of Practice
Tyler McDonnell, Matthew Lease, Mucahid Kutlu, and Tamer Elsayed. Why Is That Relevant? Collecting Annotator Rationales for Relevance Judgments. In Proceedings of the 4th AAAI Conference on Human Computation and Crowdsourcing (HCOMP), pages 139-148, 2016. Best Paper Award. https://www.ischool.utexas.edu/ ml/papers/mcdonnell-hcomp16.pdf
Dr. Zhang's research interests are mainly within two areas: (1) users' perceptions of information systems, particularly web-based information retrieval (IR) systems, and (2) consumer health information needs and information seeking, as well as the design of consumer health information systems.