In Conversation with Samantha Hastings, who has been Professor and Director of the School of Library and Information Science at the University of South Carolina, Interim Dean at the University of North Texas, a Librarian, and a Consultant. She is a Past President of top information associations – ASIS&T and ALISE. She talks about growing up in Avra Valley, Arizona, her career, random acts of kindness, and fighting prejudice.
Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Information Science
In conversation with Nicholas Belkin, Distinguished Professor of Information Science, Emeritus, at the School of Communication and Information, Rutgers University and a stalwart of the information science and information retrieval fields. He talked about growing up speaking Russian in the US during the cold war, forming the Concept of Anomalous State of Knowledge (ASK), his time in the military during the Cuban Missile Crisis, being open to ideas but following your own, and keeping fit.
Retired Professor, Head of Department, and Chair of the School
In conversation with Ina Fourie, who retired as a Full Professor from the University of Pretoria, South Africa. She has been Head of Department of Information Science and Chair of the School of Information Technology. She talks about growing up in apartheid South Africa, her work in health information behavior including cancer, grief, and palliative care, how personal experiences shaped her scholarly direction, with meaning, compassion and human connection being central to it all.
Episode 14 Yunjie (Calvin) Xu Professor, Fudan University
In conversation with Yunjie (Calvin) Xu, Professor at the Department of Information Management and Business Intelligence, School of Management, Fudan University, Shanghai, China. He talked about growing up poor in a farming family, his faith, the social problems of AI, and balancing work and family.
Episode 13 Gobinda Chowdhury Professor, University of Strathclyde
In conversation with Gobinda Chowdhury, Professor of Information Science at the University of Strathclyde. He talked about growing up during the Bangladesh Independence war, meeting and working for then President of India A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, and his process for writing 17 books.
Episode 12 Lynn Perry Wooten 9th President of Simmons University
In conversation with Lynn Perry Wooten, the 9th President of Simmons University and the first African American to lead the University since its founding in 1899. She talked about growing up, her family, philanthropy, being the Pandemic President, and her vision for the University’s future.
Episode 11 Madhav Kakkar Seeing India become independent, academia, loneliness in old age
In conversation with Professor Madhav Kakkar, who talks about his childhood in India and seeing India become independent from British rule, moving to the US, career in academia and leadership roles, losing his wife, and loneliness of old age.
Episode 10 Suliman Hawamdeh Regents Professor, Knowledge Management expert, Author
In conversation with Suliman Hawamdeh, knowledge management (KM) expert and Regents Professor at the University of North Texas. He talks about his childhood in the West Bank, writing poetry and creating art, traveling, consulting, founding masters degrees, running conferences, editing journals, writing books, and remaining calm.
In conversation with Marjorie Hlava, an expert in taxonomies, metadata, and data science and a database, search, and standards development pioneer. She shares her life story and career highlights, starting from her early days in California and Wisconsin to working for NASA and starting her own company in New Mexico. She talks about her family’s ‘can do’ attitude and how it has shaped her professional interactions and made her more resilient.
Episode 8 Carol Tenopir Chancellor’s Professor Emerita
In conversation with Carol Tenopir, Chancellor’s Professor Emerita at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. She discusses her non-traditional path to librarianship, progression from consultant to professor to dean, editorship of Library Journal, Fulbright fellowship, and move from Hawaii to Tennessee to Michigan. She addresses the issues of being a parent while working and shares how her broad range of interests led to her wide-reaching career.
