Faculty & Staff


Full-time Faculty
Tomas A. Lipinski, J.D., LL.M., Ph.D. Director tlipins1@kent.edu
Phone: 330-672-8535


Research Areas:

  • Copyright, Information Law & Intellectual Property as pertains to:
  • Privacy and Free Speech
  • Ethics
  • Freedom of Inquiry
Denise A. D. Bedford, Ph.D. Goodyear Professor, Knowledge Management dbedfor3@kent.edu


Research Areas:

  • Knowledge Architectures and Knowledge Engineering
  • Search System Design/Architecture
  • Semantic Analysis Methods
  • Communities of Practice
Belinda Boon, MLIS, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Columbus bboon1@kent.edu
Phone: 614-291-1007


Research Areas:

  • Children's Services
  • Public Library Services
  • Small Community Libraries
  • Folklore and Traditional Literature
Carolyn S. Brodie, Ph.D. Professor cbrodie@kent.edu
Phone: 330-672-2782


Research Areas:

  • Children's Authors, Literature, and Library Services
  • Young Adult Materials and Library Services
  • Multicultural Materials for Youth
  • Internet and Young People
Greg W. Byerly, Ph.D. Associate Professor gbyerly@kent.edu
Phone: 330-672-2782


Research Areas:

  • Information Access and Literacy
  • Web Resources for Children and Young Adults
  • Distributed Education
  • Networks and Consortia
Karl V. Fast, Ph.D. Assistant Professor kfast@kent.edu
Phone: 330-672-2971


Research Areas:

  • Human Information Interaction
  • Information Visualization
  • Information Architecture
  • Multitouch surfaces
Thomas J. Froehlich, Ph.D. Professor tfroehli@kent.edu
Phone: 330-672-5840


Research Areas:

  • Usability of Information Systems, Interfaces, Products, and Services
  • Social Epistemology and Relevance Criteria in Information Retrieval Systems
  • Ethical Concerns of the Information Professions
  • Information Technologies in Libraries and Information Centers
Karen Gracy, Ph.D. Assistant Professor


Research Areas:

  • Digital Preservation, Preservation Education
  • Preservation of Moving Images
  • Social Contexts of Information Creation and Use, Focusing on Ethics and Values
  • Information Policy, Focusing on Intellectual Property Issues
Meghan Harper, Ph.D. Associate Professor sharper1@kent.edu
Phone: 330-672-5849


Research Areas:

  • School Library Administration
  • School Library Evaluation
Christine Hudak, Ph.D., CPHIMS Professor chudak3@kent.edu
Phone: 330-672-1913


Research Areas:

  • Health Informatics, Management, and Policy
  • Organizational Theory
  • Educational Evaluation
  • Society and Technology
Frank Lambert, Ph.D. Assistant Professor flamber1@kent.edu
Phone: 330-672-2782


Research Areas:

  • Community and e-Government Informatics and Information Seeking
  • Web Log Analysis, Informetrics
  • Government Information
  • Social Shaping of Technology
Kiersten F. Latham, Ph.D. Assistant Professor kflatham@kent.edu
Phone: 330-672-2782


Research Areas:

  • Museology
  • Document Studies
  • Lived Experience of Materiality
  • Phenomenological Research Methods
Nancy Lensenmayer Lecturer, Columbus nlensenm@kent.edu
Phone: 614-291-1012


Research Areas:

  • Reference and Information Services
  • International Librarianship
  • Non-traditional LIS Careers
  • Public and Special Libraries
Marianne Martens, Ph.D. Assistant Professor


Research Areas:

  • Publishing for young readers, genre construction and the commodification of books, international children’s literature, and transnational publishing
  • Youth services librarianship, reviews, awards, the literary canon and arbiters of taste
  • Children’s information seeking behavior
  • Gendered professions within publishing and librarianship for young readers
Miriam Matteson, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Columbus mmattes1@kent.edu
Phone: 614-291-1006


Research Areas:

  • Library Management
  • Groups & Teams in Libraries / Small Group Communication
  • Reference & Instruction Services
  • Academic Libraries
Rebecca Meehan, Ph.D. Assistant Professor


Research Areas:

  • Health Informatics
  • Medical Sociology
  • Gerontology
  • UXD- Experience Design Research
Mary Anne Nichols Associate Lecturer mnichol1@kent.edu
Phone: 330-672-0029


Research Areas:

  • Teen Library Materials and Services
  • School-Age Library Materials and Services
  • Public Library Services
  • Marketing Library Services
David B. Robins, Ph.D. Associate Professor drobins@kent.edu
Phone: 330-672-5852


Research Areas:

  • Information Architecture
  • Visual Explanations of Complex Constructs
  • User Interaction with Information Systems
Daniel Roland, Ph.D. Assistant Professor droland1@kent.edu
Phone: 330-672-2782


Research Areas:

  • Information Behavior of Clergy in the Routine Task of Sermon Preparation
  • Influence of Sermons in the Social Construction of Knowledge
Athena Salaba, Ph.D. Associate Professor asalaba@kent.edu
Phone: 330-672-0023


Research Areas:

  • Organization of Information: Descriptive and Subject Cataloging, Metadata
  • Knowledge Organization Systems: Thesauri, Classification Systems, Taxonomies
  • Subject Access to Information
  • Information-Seeking Behavior
Catherine Smith, Ph.D. Assistant Professor csmit141@kent.edu
Phone: 330-672-2116


Research Areas:

  • Psychology of Information Search
  • Search Behavior, Expertise, & Education
  • Design of Interactive Retrieval Systems
  • Digital Libraries
Don A. Wicks, Ph.D. Associate Professor dwicks@kent.edu
Phone: 330-672-0011


Research Areas:

  • Information-Seeking Behavior of Clergy
  • Access to Information for Senior Populations
  • Information and Religion
Marcia Lei Zeng, Ph.D. Professor mzeng@kent.edu
Phone: 330-672-0009


Research Areas:

  • Knowledge Organization and Representation; Thesaurus, Taxonomy, Ontology
  • Linked Data; Metadata
  • Database Quality Control
  • Multilingual & Multicultural Information Processing
Yin Zhang, Ph.D. Professor yzhang4@kent.edu
Phone: 330-672-0010


Research Areas:

  • Information Uses and Users
  • Information-Seeking Behavior
  • Information Organization
  • Database Systems and Design

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