Linda C. Smith

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Linda C. Smith is professor emerita at the University of Illinois School of Information Sciences. She has served as President of the Association for Information Science and Technology and the Association for Library and Information Science Education. [1] Her scholarship has been wide-ranging and she is particularly known for her research on the potential of information systems to support discovery and consideration of convergence curation. [2] The first librarian to investigate Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Information Retrieval (IR), Smith also specified the role of AI as a human intermediary and identified the AI techniques of pattern recognition, representation, problem-solving, and learning as suitable for IR, claiming AI is just like a human librarian who helps users navigate information systems. [3]

Contents

Education and career

Linda C. Smith holds a PhD in information transfer from Syracuse University," [4] MS in information and computer science from the Georgia Institute of Technology, MS in library science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), and BS in physics and mathematics from Allegheny College.

Smith joined the faculty of the School of Information Sciences, the iSchool at the University of Illinois, in 1977. Positions held as assistant professor (1977-1982), associate professor (1983-1994), professor (1994-2019), Distinguished Teacher/Scholar, August 1999- present and professor emerita (2019-present). She has served in several administrative capacities including Interim Dean, Associate Dean for Academic Programs, and Executive Associate Dean.

Smith supervised forty-six PhD dissertations to completion and served on eighty-four doctoral committees. [5]

Professional associations

Smith has served as president of the Association for information Science and Technology, president of the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE), and president of Beta Phi Mu, the international honor society for library & information science.

She served on the American Library Association Committee on Accreditation from 2018 to 2022 and chair in 2021-2022. [6]

Awards

Publications

Related Research Articles

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References

  1. Coleman, Anita S., and Martha Kyrillidou. 2022. “The Renaissance Scholar of Library and Information Science: Professor Linda C. Smith.” Library Trends 71 (1): 1–7. doi:10.1353/lib.2023.0000.
  2. Palmer, Carole L., and Melissa H. Cragin. 2022. “Curating for Convergence: Data Stewardship for Interdisciplinary Inquiry.” Library Trends 71 (1): 113–31. doi:10.1353/lib.2023.0007.
  3. Smith, Linda C. 1976a. “Artificial Intelligence in Retrieval Systems as an Alternative to Human Intermediaries.” American Society for Information Science Midyear Meeting Proceedings 5 (May): 51-57,  (In American Society For Information Science (ASIS). Information Interaction Panel. Compendium Of Presentations Of The 5th ASIS Mid-Year Meeting. Vanderbilt Univ.)
  4. Smith, Linda C. Selected Artificial Intelligence Techniques in Information Retrieval Systems Research." PhD diss., Syracuse University.
  5. Howarth, Lynne C., and Eileen G. Abels. 2022. “Linda C. Smith: Fifty Years of Library and Information Science Education by Design.” Library Trends 71 (1): 8–20.
  6. "From the COA Chair: Perspective." and Fall 2021 issue "From the Chair From the Director of the Office: Of Note Prism. American Library Association, Spring 2021, Volume 29, Number 1 • ISSN 1066-7873
  7. Linda C. Smith Inducted as an Illinois Library Luminary Illinois Library Association, February 22, 2019.