All SIS doctoral students and faculty are invited to the DLIS  Doctoral Colloquium.

When: Friday, February 20, 12 noon - 1 pm
Where: 1st Floor Conference Room, IS Building
Who: Dr. Anthony Debons and Dr. Patrice Clemson

I. Information Science for Secondary School Students

Dr. Anthony Debons

Abstract: The development of any field is very much dependent on the attention it can muster among  the young in secondary schools. This is a particular challenge to Information Science. In the muster of sciences and professions Information Science is new. Often associated with Computer science and related technologies, information science has not benefited from the breadth of the science in the intellectual excitement and the challenges to the young mind it offers. The rationale, structure and content of a text for secondary students is offered to stimulate an understanding and interest in the broad scope of information science and the challenges it presents for those seeking a career in information science.

II. Backlinks and Persistence On The WWW: A Bibliometric Approach  

Dr. Patrice Clemson

Abstract: This study searched 2300+ Web sites from the OCLC Web Characterization Project (WCP) on the Google search engine over a seven-month period. The aim was to determine if a correlation existed between the number of links to a Web page and the length of time that a Web page exists. Related questions included whether worthwhile material exists on the World Wide Web for bibliographic agencies to catalog and whether backlinking (i.e., citation by one Web page to another) could be used to identify these materials and predict their usefulness. Bradford's law of scatter and other analyses were performed on the WCP sample Web sites that had backlinks to them in the Google index. Although the study found no structures for self-organization in the WCP sample, results provided confirmation for some theories about World Wide Web sites, and how people use and cite them. The presentation will outline the data collection and analysis methods, their results and conclusions.