Devan Donaldson
Devan Donaldson, an assistant professor of information science at the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering, was awarded second place for Best Short Paper at the Association for Information and Technology annual meeting in Salt Lake City Oct. 30-Nov. 2.
Donaldson’s paper, “Towards a Taxonomy of Trustworthy Digital Repository Impacts,” presented a Minimum Viable Prototype that formalizes concepts about the impacts of Trustworthy Digital Repositories and allows researchers to investigate ways to measure whether the impacts associated with becoming and remaining a certified TDR also generate societal value. TDRs provide reliable, long-term access to managed digital resources to its customers. The implications of Donaldson’s taxonomy include potential strategies to identify, extract, and/or author machine-readable descriptions of measurable facets of TDR activities and the resulting impacts on communities.
“Winning this award lets me know that I’m on the right track with my research,” Donaldson said. “Short papers allow you to present works-in-progress and receive feedback from an international group of peers on your work. The field clearly recognizes that this work needs to be done. The research is important because if we can effectively articulate the societal value of data repositories, then we can better justify their expense and we can sustain them.”
Donaldson was supported during his presentation by ILS faculty members Ron Day, Howard Rosenbaum, and Pnina Fichman, all of whom were in the audience. Donaldson’s career has been shaped by the ASIS&T Conference. In 2014, he was recruited by Rosenbaum during the ASIS&T Conference in Seattle, which led to his joining the Luddy faculty.
The ASIS&T ’21 conference enjoyed its 84th annual meeting and maintained its reputation as being one of the most prestigious events in the field of information science and technology. The conference included more than 600 participants from 43 countries, and it featured a rigorous peer review process.
“Researchers at the Luddy School are conducting groundbreaking work, and it’s always exciting when that work is recognized as making an impact,” said Kay Connelly, associate dean for research at the Luddy School. “Devan’s focus on TDRs is changing the way those entities are viewed, and we couldn’t be more excited to have him take a leadership role in such a vital area of information science.”