Profile a Prof...
Dr. Dave Robins
Position: Assistant Professor, DLIS
Education: BFA – Fine Arts, Colorado State University
MS – Library Science, University of North Texas
PhD – Information Science, University of North Texas
Research interests: Information architecture – Dr. Robins feels that this could be a good capstone class, as it combines so many elements of the MLIS program.
How he became interested in this subject: I was working in a public library during the transition between card catalogs and OPACs – it made me curious about the factors that went into making these new systems. Also, the development of the Internet, its graphical nature, appealed to my artistic side.
Family: My wife, Teresa Franson, and my son Walter Robins, who’s 13.
What he likes about Pittsburgh: There are lots of activities: sports, like golf and hockey, and cultural, because of the museums (I’m a member of the Carnegie). The city is easy to navigate and there’s a lower cost of living – “a better bang for the buck.”
Hobbies: Working out (I walk the stairs in the Cathedral), playing roller hockey with my son, and reading. I’m not painting at the moment, but I’d like to get back into it.
Favorite ice cream flavor: Pistachio Almond
Book(s) he is currently reading: The Leatherstocking Tales by James Fenimore Cooper (in the order Cooper wrote them – currently reading The Last of the Mohicans after finishing The Pioneers). I’m also reading books on knowledge management, like If We Only Knew What We Know by Carla O’Dell and C. Jackson Grayson, Jr.
Favorite book(s): William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury. I also like The Social Life of Information by John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid.
Favorite TV show: “Seinfeld,” but also “Everybody Loves Raymond,” and BBC America’s “Father Ted” and “League of Gentlemen.”
What else would he like students to know about him?
I’ll be teaching for a long time, because I’ve already taken my retirement. I “retired” for seven years after one year of undergraduate at Colorado to work at a ski resort in Vail, Colorado. Also, I once raced against Greg LeMonde at Colorado Springs in 1980, before he won the Tour de France.
Publication of the Department of Library &
Information Science
University of Pittsburgh
135 N. Bellefield Ave.
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
Last updated May 30, 2003