Linda C. Smith

Key takeaways

Linda C. Smith belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Linda C. Smith to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Linda C. Smith from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Linda C. Smith is professor emerita at the University of Illinois School of Information Sciences. She has served as President of the Association for Information Science and Technology and the Association for Library and Information Science Education. Her scholarship has been wide-ranging and she is particularly known for her research on the potential of information systems to support discovery and consideration of convergence curation. The first librarian to investigate Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Information Retrieval (IR), Smith also specified the role of AI as a human intermediary and identified the AI techniques of pattern recognition, representation, problem-solving, and learning as suitable for IR, claiming AI is just like a human librarian who helps users navigate information systems.

Education and career Linda C. Smith holds a PhD in information transfer from Syracuse University," MS in information and computer science from the Georgia Institute of Technology, MS in library science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), and BS in physics and mathematics from Allegheny College. Smith joined the faculty of the School of Information Sciences, the iSchool at the University of Illinois, in 1977. Positions held as assistant professor (1977-1982), associate professor (1983-1994), professor (1994-2019), Distinguished Teacher/Scholar, August 1999- present and professor emerita (2019-present). She has served in several administrative capacities including Interim Dean, Associate Dean for Academic Programs, and Executive Associate Dean. Smith supervised forty-six PhD dissertations to completion and served on eighty-four doctoral committees.

Professional associations Smith has served as president of the Association for information Science and Technology, president of the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE), and president of Beta Phi Mu, the international honor society for library & information science. She served on the American Library Association Committee on Accreditation from 2018 to 2022 and chair in 2021-2022.

Awards 2019.Illinois Library Luminary. 2010-Award of Merit - Association for Information Science and Technology 2008. ALISE Award for Professional Contribution to Library and Information Science Education. 2007.University of Illinois. Campus Award for Excellence in Online & Distance Teaching 2004. Beta Phi Mu Award 2000.Isadore Gilbert Mudge Award--R.R. Bowker Award, Reference & User Services Association, 2000. 1998. University of Illinois. Graduate College Excellence in Graduate Student Mentoring Award 1993. Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science 1987. Outstanding Information Science Teacher Award, Association for Information Science and Technology. 1973. Medical Library Association. Rittenhouse Award. Phi Beta Kappa

Publications Smith, Linda C. 1974. "Systematic Searching of Abstracts and Indexes in Interdisciplinary Areas." Journal of the American Society for Information Science 25(6): 343–353, November–December. 1976. "Artificial Intelligence in Information Retrieval Systems." Information Processing and Management 12 (3): 189–222. "Citation Analysis." Library Trends 30(1): 83–106, Summer 1981. 1981. "Representation Issues in Information Retrieval System Design." ACM SIGIR Forum 16 (1): 100–105. 1983. "Machine Intelligence vs. Machine-Aided Intelligence in Information Retrieval: A Historical Perspective." In Research and Development in Information Retrieval, Proceedings, Berlin, May 18–20, 1982, 263–74. Berlin: Springer-Verlag. and Amy J. Warner. 1984. "A Taxonomy of Representations in Information Retrieval System Design." Journal of Information Science 8 (3): 113–21. https://doi.org/10.1177/016555158400800303. 1991. "Memex as an Image of Potentiality Revisited." In: Nyce, J. M.; Kahn, P., eds. From Memex to Hypertext: Vannevar Bush and the Mind's Machine. Boston, MA: Academic Press, 1991, pp. 261–286. Bopp, Richard E., and Linda C. Smith. 1991. Reference and Information Services : An Introduction. Englewood, Colo.: Libraries Unlimited. This award-winning book has been published in many editions with several co-editors. 1999 "Journal of the American Society for Information Science (JASIS): Past, present and future" In ' 'Journal of the American Society for Information Science' ' 50(11) 965-969. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1097-4571(1999)50:11%3C965::AID-ASI2%3E3.0.CO;2-2 2001 and Sarai Lastra, and Jennifer Robins. "Teaching Online: Changing Models of Teaching and Learning in LEEP." Journal of Education for Library and Information Science 42 (4): 348–63. 2008. "From Foundation to Federal Funding: The Impact of Grants on Education for Library and Information Science." Advances in Librarianship 31: 141–165, 2008. 2010. "Reference Services." In Encyclopedia of Library and Information Sciences, 3rd ed., edited by Marcia J. Bates and Mary Niles Maack, 4485–91. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. Smith, L.C. “Who, What and How? Commentary on Chen, F. N. (1963) The Teaching of Reference in American Library Schools, Journal of Education for Librarianship, 3(3), 188-198.” Journal of Education for Library and Information Science 56(1): 50-52, January 2015. 2018. "Reference Services." In Encyclopedia of Library and Information Sciences, 4th ed., edited by John D. McDonald and Michael Levine-Clark, 3912–19. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. 2019. "Artificial Intelligence in Information Retrieval: Forty Years On." In The Human Position in an Artificial World: Creativity, Ethics, and AI in Knowledge Organization, ISKO UK Sixth Biennial Conference Proceedings, London, England, 15–16 July 2019, 301–2. Baden-Baden, Germany: Ergon Verlag. 2024. “Reviews and Reviewing: Approaches to Research Synthesis. An Annual Review of Information Science and Technology (ARIST) Paper.” Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology 75 (3): 245–67. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.24851

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Linda C. Smith

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Linda C. Smith claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Linda C. Smith before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Linda C. Smith ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Linda C. Smith

In research: Linda C. Smith appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Linda C. Smith in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Linda C. Smith is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics American librarians, American women scientists, Georgia Tech alumni, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Linda C. Smith outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study Linda C. Smith in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Linda C. Smith means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Linda C. Smith out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Linda C. Smith in simple terms?

Linda C. Smith is professor emerita at the University of Illinois School of Information Sciences.

Why does Linda C. Smith matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Linda C. Smith?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Linda C. Smith.