Standard III. Faculty

III.6 The faculty hold advanced degrees from a variety of academic institutions. The faculty evidence diversity of backgrounds, ability to conduct research in the field, and specialized knowledge covering program content. In addition, they demonstrate skill in academic planning and assessment, have a substantial and pertinent body of relevant experience, interact with faculty of other disciplines, and maintain close and continuing liaison with the field. The faculty nurture an intellectual environment that enhances the accomplishment of program objectives. These characteristics apply to faculty regardless of forms or locations of delivery of programs.

In Standard III.3, the diversity of academic backgrounds of program faculty was delineated. The faculty have advanced and terminal degrees in computer science, digital humanities, education, history, information systems, library and information science, science and technology studies. Three fulltime faculty members (Biagini, Cox, and Currier) received their Doctor of Philosophy degrees from the University of Pittsburgh; other full-time faculty members received Ph.D. degrees from institutions such as Case Western, Toronto, McGill, Columbia, and North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Name	Title	Highest Degree
Beaton, Brian	Assistant Professor	PhD, History, University of Toronto
Biagini, Mary K.	Associate Professor	PhD, Library Science, University of Pittsburgh
Bowler, Leanne	Assistant Professor	PhD, Education, McGill University
Corrall, Sheila	Chair, Library & Information Science Program, Professor	MSc, Information Systems, University of Southampton; MBA, University of Sussex
Cox, Richard J.	Professor	PhD, Library Science, University of Pittsburgh
Cumer, Brian	Post-doctoral Associate	PhD, Library Science, ABD, University of Pittsburgh
Currier, James D. "Kip"	Assistant Professor	PhD, Library & Information Science, University of Pittsburgh
Detlefsen, Ellen	Associate Professor	PhD, Library Science, Columbia University
Griffin, Stephen	Visiting Professor, Mellon Cyberscholar	PhD, Information and Decision Systems, ABD, George Washington University
He, Daqing	Associate Professor	PhD, Artificial Intelligence, University of Edinburgh
Langmead, Alison	Lecturer	PhD, Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University
Larsen, Ronald	Dean & Professor	PhD, Computer Science, University of Maryland, College Park
Mahoney, Elizabeth	Lecturer	CAS, School of Information Sciences, University of Pittsburgh
Oh, Jung Sun	Assistant Professor	PhD, Library & Information Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Tomer, Christinger	Associate Professor	PhD, Library and Information Science, Cast Western Reserve University

Faculty research interests are wide-ranging, reflecting a diverse group of research areas in the Information Sciences. A partial list of these research specialties is as follows:

• Academic librarianship
• Archival ethics and accountability
• Archives management
• Collection development in digital environments
• Copyright and fair use
• Cyberscholarship
• Digital humanities
• Health information behavior and health education interventions
• Information behaviors, particularly in digital environments
• Information design/design methodology
• Interactive system design and adaptive Web search system design
• Metadata
• Professional education
• School librarianship
• Social information systems
• Strategic management
• Web-based systems for representing, retrieving, extracting and disseminating information

These research areas are supportive of, and feed into, the teaching areas within the program. Faculty teach mostly within their disciplinary expertise (with the exception of the core courses). Core courses are taught by permanent faculty with an interest and background in the subject; electives and specialization-related coursework meshes almost seamlessly with faculty research interests. Biagini and Bowler teach exclusively in the area of librarianship for children and youth, while Cox and Langmead teach in the archives area as their expertise lies in this areas. Tomer and He, in addition to core courses, teach in the information technology and digital libraries areas, which matches their research agenda. Detlefsen teaches core courses, but has substantial teaching responsibilities in the health informatics and resources areas – melding her research and teaching into this significant area of librarianship. Faculty members Mahoney and Currier find great satisfaction in teaching core courses, reflecting their experience in libraries and information centers; Mahoney is also lead faculty for the Reference Resources and Services specialization, while Currier specializes in legal issues in information handling. Electives and special topics courses are developed in response to a faculty member’s interest in the area, or to direction from advisory groups advocating inclusion of such material.

In fact, many faculty members have a significant amount of practical experience in their various fields. Elizabeth Mahoney has more than 20 years of experience as an academic librarian at the University of Pittsburgh. Sheila Corrall served as chief cataloger for a public library system, a senior manager in the British Library, and as director of library, information and academic services at the Universities of Aston, Reading, and Southampton. Richard Cox worked professionally as an archivist at New York State Archives and Records Administration, Alabama Department of Archives and History, the City of Baltimore, and the Maryland Historical Society. Leanne Bowler served as librarian at the Montreal Neurological Hospital and Institute and the Reginald J.P. Dawson Library in Quebec. James “Kip” Currier served as the Manager of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh’s Woods Run Library, as Administrator in Reference and Museum Services at the Sandusky (OH) Library, and as the Adult Services Librarian at the Sunnyvale (CA) Public Library. Christinger Tomer was a reference librarian at both the Cuyahoga County Public Library and the U.S. Naval War College during his early career; he then served as Director of the Library and Learning Center at Notre Dame College in South Euclid, Oh. This practical experience brings a richness to the curriculum, reflecting the real-world needs of information users in schools, libraries, universities and archives. Professional experience of other faculty members is documented in their CVs.

Faculty gain experience, if they have not had the opportunity to do so before, in academic planning as part of this program. Core curricular elements are discussed and determined by the faculty as a group to ensure a good fit with the program and the needs of the students. New faculty are introduced to the process through monthly faculty meetings. They may access the resources of the University’s CIDDE unit for further guidance in course development.  As they grow into their academic role, they will take on responsibility for program development. For example, the children and youth specialization was completely revamped by Leanne Bowler over a number of years to move this storied program into areas of critical importance to generations of digital natives. Brian Beaton has been working with APRM faculty on the revision of the archives program of study to better represent the core nature of the specialization in contemporary settings and to adjust the curriculum to account for faculty changes.

In order to ensure that their research and teaching activities remain of relevance in light of the evolving nature of the professions and the Information Sciences, faculty interact with professional and academic organizations extensively. Below is a selected list of organizations each faculty member is involved with:

Biagini	Pennsylvania School Library Association, American Library Association
Beaton	Society for Social Studies of Science, ASIS&T
Bowler	ALISE, ASIS&T, CAIS-ACSI
Corrall	ALISE, American Library Association; Elected Fellow of The Library Association (now CILIP),  the Chartered Management Institute, and the Royal Society for the Arts; Past President and Honorary Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals
Cox	Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference, Archival Educational and Research Institute, Society of American Archivists, ALISE
Currier	American Library Association, ASIS&T, Special Libraries Association
Detlefsen	Medical Library Association
Griffin	Library of Congress National Digital Strategy Advisory Board
He	ACM SIGIR, Association of Computational Linguistics, ASIS&T, IEEE Computer Society
Langmead	Society of American Archivists, College Art Association, Visual Resources Association
Mahoney	American Library Association

New faculty find a supportive environment that provides the tools and support needed to grow into the role of an iSchool instructor and researcher. Financial support is provided for equipment, student and research assistance, lab development, and travel to professional conferences, which enables faculty members to build rigorous research programs. Their teaching is supported through assignments of teaching assistance, technology, and instructional design services and advice. Their activity in service to the University, the School and the field are supported and recognized.