CIRSS History

The Center for Informatics Research in Science and Scholarship (CIRSS) was formerly the Library Research Center (LRC). For over 45 years, the LRC has been an integral part of GSLIS, conducting Web-based and print survey design and administration, focus groups, telephone interviews, market research, and other social scientific studies. CIRSS combines this base of activities and expertise in research design and implementation with the existing GSLIS research strength in scientific and scholarly information use. The Center’s extended focus is on the information problems facing research communities and the advancement and integration of digital information within and across disciplines.

With the retirement of Leigh Estabrook in August 2007, Graduate School of Library and Information Science (GSLIS) Associate Professor Carole L. Palmer was named director of the reestablished center. "It has always been our goal to conduct research that libraries can use to increase their effectiveness. This transition is an ambitious and wonderful expansion of that effort," said Estabrook. Palmer notes, “I am honored to be carrying on the legacy of the LRC and extending its reach in library and information science. Our aim is to build on the Center’s strong foundation to catalyze a range of new research on how digital information can advance the work of scientists and scholars. This is a natural step for GSLIS, since we have a growing base of researchers conducting more studies in this area. We also believe that this is now an area fundamental to the future of the information professions. Many of our projects are already done in partnership with scientific and scholarly communities, and CIRSS will help facilitate this collaborative approach and provide an infrastructure for broader programs of research.”

CIRSS faculty, staff, students, and research affiliates bring a wide variety of research techniques, experience, and knowledge to four core areas of concentration: scientific communication, digital humanities, collections and metadata, and next-generation libraries and museums. New projects, funded primarily by NSF, IMLS, and the Mellon Foundation, include studies of data curation requirements in bioinformatics and e-science, integration of ontologies with scientific publishing, institutional repository development, OAI federation of cultural heritage collections, literary text mining and analysis, and digital music retrieval and evaluation.