Dr. Donald Fallis

In 2002, Don guest edited an issue of the interdisciplinary journal Social Epistemology on "Social Epistemology and Information Science." He is currently on sabbatical working on a book manuscript titled Knowledge and the Information Age. These are both projects that bring research in epistemology to bear on issues of concern to library and information science.

Martin Frické and Don have received several grants to identify indicators of accuracy on the Internet. They have just completed a study on ready reference information and are working on a study on information about carpal tunnel syndrome.

Don has published several articles, reviews, and opinion pieces since fall 2001 in additional to presentations and colloquia made at conferences. Two samples of this production are: "Verifiable Health Information on the Internet," (with Martin Frické) Journal of Education for Library and Information Science, 43, 4, (2002): 246-253. And "Further Results on Inquiry and Truth Possession," (with Gerrard Liddell) Statistics and Probability Letters, 60, 2, (2002): 169-182.

Dr. Martin Frické

Martin has a B.Sc. in Computer Science from the University of Otago, New Zealand, a B.A. in Philosophy from the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom, and a MSC and Ph.D. in Economics for the London School of Economics. Martin's research interests include Theories of Information, evaluating information ehtics, and manipulation and presentation of information by computers.

Dr. Anita Coleman

Anita Coleman has received $50,000 from the Engineering Information Foundation to map the properties of a class of digital objects known as virtual laboratories.

Aided by Prop 301 monies and in partnership with the Arizona Health Sciences Library, Anita in summer 2002, launched an international scholarly communication consortium initiative called DLIST, Digital Library of Information Science & Technology. DLIST is an open source eprints repository and seeks to raise awareness of the scholarly communication crisis among faculty. DLIST has attracted international attention in a short time; we now have more than 140 users from over 30 countries. DLIST has been presented at the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA), Edinburgh, August 2002, American Society for Information Science & Technology, Philadelphia, Nov. 2002, Arizona State Library Association, December 2002, and at the Educause National Learning Infrastructure Initiative conference in New Orleans, Jan. 2003. In Feb. Anita will travel to Ahmedabad, India to speak to the attendees of an Information Systems Conference there; she will also visit with faculty at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore to discuss her models classification research. DLIST presentations are available online, http://dlist.sir.arizona.edu/pubs/.

Among her many activities, Anita has been elected to serve as a member of the Steering Committee for the Digital Library for Earth System Education (DLESE). DLESE is based in Boulder Colorado and more information can be found on the web at http://www.dlese.org/. Anita is also the Digital Libraries Theme Editor for an international journal published by Oxford University Press and the British Computer Society, the Journal of Digital Information. JoDI's website is http://jodi.ecs.soton.ac.uk/. Anita continues to serve on the Board of Directors and edit Intercom, an online newsletter for the Learning Resources Association of the California Community Colleges (LRACCC).

In October 2002 Anita was an invited speaker at the International Arid Lands Consortium's Conference and Workshop held in Tucson and at ECURE 2002, Preservation and Access of Electronic College and University Records, hosted by Arizona State University, Tempe. Anita's most recent publication appears in the January 2003 issue of Library Resources & Technical Services. She and her former student Olha Buchel discuss new approaches to classificatory structures in physical geography. In fall 2002, her essay on Scientific Models as Works appeared in Works as Entities for Information Retrieval published by Haworth Press.

Dr. William Edgar

Dr. Edgar's research interests include: 1) Strategic Management of Libraries and Information Centers, 2) Collection Development in Libraries and Information Centers, and 3) Information service phenomena in computing environments.

Bill is currently working with colleagues in the University of Arizona (UA) department of Management Information Systems, exploring the operation of such phenomena as people use computing resources to meet their information needs.

Bill's teaching interests are largely related to his research initiatives, and lie in the management and effectiveness of libraries and information centers, collection development, and reference services, both generally and as such services are done specifically for users of business information.

Bill currently teaches five courses at SIRLS. These are IRLS 524, IRLS 560, IRLS 608, IRLS 622, and IRLS 688. He is also helping his colleagues, Dr. Anita Coleman of SIRLS and Paul Bracke (of the Arizona Health Sciences Library), to develop D-LIST, a digital repository of research and instructional materials within library and information science and technology. This repository can be found at http://dlist.sir.arizona.edu/.

Cheryl Knott Malone

Cheryl joined the SIRLS faculty in the fall of 2001 after teaching for several years at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Malone's article, "Imagining Information Retrieval in the Library: Desk Set in Historical Context," appeared in the July-September 2002 issue of the IEEE Annals of the History of Computing. She is co-author (with Fernando Elichirigoity of the University of Illinois) of a forthcoming article in the Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology on the North American Industry Classification System and the construction of the Information Sector as an economic entity. Malone is also collaborating with UA Documents Librarian Atifa Rawan on a U.S. Government Printing Office pilot project to assess the move toward greater electronic dissemination of government information.

Guest Professors, Spring 2003

A number of revered scholars are teaching courses at SIRLS this semester. Ms. Elizabeth Martinez, adjunct faculty and PRAXIS Program Project Coordinator at the UCLA Department of Information Studiesof The University of California in Los Angeles, is teaching the 688: 001 Information Policy & Cultural Perspectives. Mr. John Berry, editor of Library Journal, is teaching 688: 002 Advanced Information Resources.

Both of these courses are condensed weekend courses, which afford greater participation by our distance students living within drivable distances.

Deceased
Edmund Frank Santa Vicca
Edmund passed away, after surgery, in Tucson, April 19, 2003. Ed was a most popular adjunct professor for SIRLS, and had been scheduled to teach Ethics and Collection Development this summer. In 2001 he was the recipient of the University of Arizona Summer Session Excellence in Teaching award. Ed held the Master's Degree in Library Science, and the Ph.D. from the University of Michigan as well as the MA in French Literature from Wayne State University. He held professional positions at Arizona State University, Vanderbilt University as well as Estrella Mountain Community College in Arizona. Ed was a wonderful part of our adjunct faculty contingent and we will miss him very much.