Like many
people, Dr. Linda Schamber has had several careers. Her careers are united by
common themes of information, communication, and education. She joined the
faculty of the University of North Texas (UNT)
At UNT,
Dr, Schamber was among the first faculty to begin teaching in an electronic
distributed learning environment. Since 1998, she has designed and taught large
and small courses and managed teaching teams to deliver instruction via
combinations of web-based, video, and face-to-face methods. Her courses include
SLIS 5000: Foundations of Library and Information Science; SLIS 5040:
Information Behavior; SLIS 5200: Introduction to Information Organization; SLIS
6945: Doctoral Seminar in Information Issues; SLIS 6700: Seminar in
Communication and Use of Information; and SLIS 6940: Seminar in Research and
Research Methodology. Her student guide, Tips
for Coursework, contains advice for improving writing, citations, and
presentations.
Dr.
Schamber's teaching and research interests include information and
communication theory, human information behavior, information organization,
research methods and design, and information skills development. She has long
been intrigued by behavior models and relevance criteria that help explain how
people seek, evaluate, and use information in different formats and situations.
She has conducted funded studies and published on a number of topics, including
work on relevance research and on the impact of technology on library
education. These topics and others on research methods, distributed
communications, and electronic publishing are represented in Selected Publications and Presentations. She
is a research fellow in the
Dr.
Schamber's career as a professional editor predates her career as an educator
and continues to the present. She is an editorial board member for the Journal of the American Society for
Information Science and Technology (JASIST)
and past staff editor of the Annual
Review of Information Science and Technology (ARIST). She is active in the American Society for Information
Science and Technology (ASIS&T), where she served as conference proceedings
editor for the 2004 Annual Meeting as well as technical program committee
chair. Previously, she worked as a newspaper editor and as a freelance copy
editor, writer/photographer, and publication designer.
In
addition to her ASIS&T activities, she is a member of the American Library
Association (ALA), Association for Library and Information Science Education
(ALISE), Special Libraries Association (SLA), and Association for Computing
Machinery (ACM). At UNT, she has chaired and participated in many faculty
governance committees at the School and University levels.