To: All SIS Students
From: Ronald Larsen, Dean
Date: December 10, 2003

2004 WILLIAM Z. NASRI AWARD
FOR LEGAL ISSUES IN INFORMATION HANDLING,
2004 CATHERINE OFIESH ORNER AWARD
and
2004 ROBERT R. KORFHAGE AWARD COMPETITIONS

The William Z. Nasri award is made in recognition of Dr. Nasri's dedicated service of thirty years to the School of Information Sciences and the University of Pittsburgh. Students in information science, library and information science, telecommunications as well as students in the School of Law are encouraged to submit papers relating to legal issues involved in information handling, in competition for an award of $500.00 and a certificate.

The papers will be reviewed by a panel of judges from the faculty representing the three programs at SIS.

The Catherine Ofiesh Orner Award is presented annually by the School of Information Sciences to the student who prepares the best scholarly paper in information science suitable for publication. The Award, named for a distinguished deceased alumna of this School, consists of a $500 cash prize and a certificate.

All students enrolled in SIS between April 2003 and April 2004 are eligible to enter the 2004 Orner Award Competition. All students are encouraged to enter the competition whether in the IST or LIS Departments. Undergraduate, Masters and Ph.D. students are eligible to compete. A three-member panel consisting of one member from the Department of Information Science and Telecommunications, one member from the Department of Library and Information Science and one outside member will judge papers.

The Robert R. Korfhage Award was established in honor of the late Robert R. Korfhage to encourage collaborative research between faculty and students. Students in the School of Information Sciences (SIS) at the University of Pittsburgh are encouraged to submit papers relating to Information Science, co-authored with a faculty member, in competition for an award of $500.00 to be shared among the student co-authors.

The papers will be reviewed by a panel of judges from the faculty representing the three programs at SIS.

In order to be considered for the 2004 Korfhage Award, Orner Award, or the Nasri Award for Legal Issues in Information Handling, a paper must be submitted to the Dean, 514 IS Building, not later than 5:00 p.m., February 20, 2004. Papers must include a cover page with the name of the author, title of the paper, date of submission and the statement:

submitted for the 2004 Robert R. Korfhage Award Competition
or
submitted for the 2004 Catherine Ofiesh Orner Award Competition
or
submitted for the 2004 William Z. Nasri Award Competition

Your name should only appear on the title page to allow for unbiased judging. Papers received after the February 20 deadline will not be considered. Guidelines for the competitions are attached.

Extra copies of the guidelines are available from Theresa Benedek, Room 514, IS Building. The winners will be notified by mail and the awards will be presented at an awards ceremony.

The guidelines and the criteria for the evaluation and judging of the papers are as follows:

1. The papers for this award must relate to the legal issues and legal implications in dealing with information in manual or automated systems at any stage of the information acquisition, processing, storage, or retrieval process as well as to the transfer, dissemination and use of it.
2. Pertinent US laws and/or legal concepts should be discussed. Especially important is the relation and effect of such laws on the information management and services and their impact on the user.
3. Papers must be scholarly in nature and their content must demonstrate that the author has command and thorough knowledge of the area in which he/she is writing.
4. The papers must be comprehensive and thorough. This implies that adequate background information, definitions, assumptions and concepts must be presented in a manner that will render the papers both descriptive and evaluative.
5. Papers must communicate the author's interest in a concise and logical manner. The organization of the ideas and concepts should be such that the sequence or flow achieves a continuity that brings the separate parts of the paper to a logical conclusion.
6. The perceived importance of the topic of any paper in this competition in terms of contributing new knowledge or advancing the field of library, information and telecommunication sciences, will be a prime factor in judging the said paper. The paper must be judged also as suitable for publication.

The decision of the panel of judges will be final. The winner will be notified and will receive a check for the amount of $500. The name of the winner will also be listed among the honorees in the Annual Honor Convocation at the University of Pittsburgh.

In order that those students who desire to submit papers have some guidelines and understand the evaluative criteria that will be used, the following information is presented for that purpose.

1. The papers for this award must fall into the domain of "Information Science." A general definition of Information Science that may be used by those writing papers is: the field of study which attempts to describe, explain, predict, and prescribe in a systematized manner, general truths or the operation of general laws related to the transformation or process necessary to the generation, use and transfer of information. The theories and principles of a number of scientific and technical disciplines may be considered relevant and applicable to information science as so conceived. However, it is the important function of information science to determine and define, both theoretically and empirically, the relational laws and principles that integrate the generation, use and transfer functions. Such relational laws and principles so developed provide the basis for the understanding of information systems and for the design of such systems.
2. Papers must be scholarly in nature. The content of the papers must demonstrate that the author has a thorough and well-disciplined knowledge of the area in which he/she is writing as well as a formal presentation of the concepts and ideas. Theoretical presentations should be expressed using a formal deductive or inductive procedure. Experimental presentations should follow the procedures for a formal research study.
3. Papers must communicate the author's intent in a concise and logical manner. The organization of the ideas and concepts should be such that the sequence or flow achieves a continuity so that the separate parts logically build to the conclusion or final statement.
4. Papers must be comprehensive and thorough. This implies that adequate background information, definitions, assumptions and concepts must be presented in a manner that does not require judgments to be made about missing elements or ambiguous terms or ideas.
5. Papers must not be purely descriptive of systems or situations. Papers that simply describe a system or situation should not be submitted. Thus, historical papers or "How we did it as X" are not acceptable. Descriptive papers dealing with theories or methodologies in a formal manner are acceptable.
6. Papers should address an important area of information science. Papers for this award must fall into the framework of information science as per the preceding definition of information science. The perceived importance of the topic of the paper in terms of contributing new knowledge or advancing the field of information will be a prime factor in judging the papers.
7. The length of the paper should permit publication in a refereed journal (e.g., JASIS, Information Sciences, Scientific American, Science, etc.). The length should approximate no more than seven to eight pages of single space journal print.

The following evaluative criteria will be used:

1. Papers should address an important area of information science, including information retrieval, user interfaces and formal methods. The perceived importance of the topic of the paper in terms of contributing new knowledge or advancing the field of information science will be a prime factor in judging the papers.
2. Papers must be co-authored by no more than one faculty member and at least one student currently in SIS. The award was established to encourage collaborative research between faculty and students.
3. Papers must be of high scholarly quality and worthy of publication in a refereed journal. The content of the papers must demonstrate a thorough and well-disciplined knowledge of the area as well as a formal presentation of the concepts and ideas. Theoretical presentations should be expressed using a formal deductive or inductive procedure. Experimental presentations should follow the procedures for a formal research study.
4. Papers must communicate the authors’ intent in a concise and logical manner. The organization of the ideas and concepts should be such that the sequence or flow achieves a continuity so that the separate parts logically build to the conclusion or final statement.
5. Papers must be comprehensive and thorough. This requires that adequate background information, definitions, assumptions and concepts be presented in a manner that does not require judgments to be made about missing elements or ambiguous terms or ideas.
6. The length of the paper should permit publication in a refereed journal (e.g., Journal of the American Society for Information Science Information Sciences, Information Processing and Visual Language, etc.) The length should approximate no more than seven to eight pages of single space journal print.

The decision of the panel of judges will be final. The winner will be notified and will receive a check for the amount of $500. The name of the winner will also be listed among the honorees in the Annual Honor Convocation at the University of Pittsburgh.