Dean of Pitt's School of Information Sciences Receives ALISE Honor

February 14, 2002

PITTSBUGH—Toni Carbo, dean of the University of Pittsburgh's School of Information Sciences (SIS), has been honored for her professional contributions to the field of library and information science education by the Association of Library and Information Science Education (ALISE).

The 2002 ALISE Professional Contribution Award was presented to Carbo at the Jan. 17 ALISE Conference in New Orleans. The criteria used to determine awardees include evidence of regular and sustained service that promotes and strengthens the broad areas of library/information science education through the holding of appropriate offices and positions within the profession; contributions that promote and enhance the status of library/information science education; and evidence of leadership and initiative in dealing with issues related to library/information science education.

Carbo, dean of SIS since 1986, will step aside as dean this summer. She intends to return to research and teaching as a professor in SIS and Pitt's Graduate School of Public and International Affairs.

During Carbo's tenure as dean, enrollment in SIS has increased dramatically, and the School has gained particular recognition for its Master of Science in Telecommunications program, its telecommunications track in its Ph.D. program in information science, and its Master of Library and Information Science program, which ranks among the top three in the nation. During Carbo's deanship, SIS obtained its first endowed chair, the Doreen E. Boyce Chair of Library and Information Science, with funding from the Buhl Foundation; developed the first university Information Ethics program in the world; and built one of the strongest faculties and research programs in the nation.

In the citation for the award, ALISE praised Carbo "as both a practitioner and an ambassador … (and for) the dedication to her students and her contributions to the discipline. Her reputation within the field spans the globe."

Carbo is past president of both ALISE and the American Society for Information Science and Technology. She was a member of the U.S. Advisory Council on the National Information Infrastructure and served as a U.S. representative to the G-7 Round Table of Business Leaders to the 1995 G-7 Information Society Conference in Brussels. Carbo also served as executive director of the U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, which advises the President and Congress on policy and planning in the information field. Her work in information science includes extensive experience with information service producers and users (both libraries and database producers) and in research in the areas of information policy and use.

Carbo has extensive experience in the international arena. She chaired the last U.S. delegation to an intergovernmental council meeting of UNESCO [that of the General Information Programme (PGI)] in 1984, after having served as a member of the 1982 delegation. She also was a member of the planning committee for the first UNESCO Infoethics Conference in Monaco in 1997. She was cochair of the U.S. National Committee for the International Federation for Information and Documentation (FID) and chaired FID's Infostructures and Policies Committee, which oversaw FID's role in the Global Information Alliance (GIA).

Carbo is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Institute of Information Scientists, the National Federation of Abstracting and Information Services, and the Special Libraries Association. She received the Distinguished Service Award from the Pennsylvania Library Association in 1995 and was named to the Fiftieth Anniversary Honor Roll of Legislative and Grassroots Library Champions of the American Library Association (ALA).

Carbo has a bachelor's degree in English, American, and French literature from Brown University and a master's degree in information science and a Ph.D. degree in management of information resources from the College of Information Science and Technology at Drexel University. She was selected by Drexel as one of the

100 most distinguished of its 60,000 alumni and was awarded its Centennial Medal. She also was a member of the Greater Pittsburgh Literacy Council for five years.

ALISE was founded as the Association of American Library Schools. The original association grew out of a series of informal meetings of library school faculty at ALA conferences, which was known as the Round Table of Library School Instructors. The Round Table voted in 1915 to form a permanent organization and to be identified as the Association of American Library Schools. The Association has provided a forum for library educators to share ideas, to discuss issues, and to seek solutions to common problems. In 1983, the Association changed its name to its present form to reflect more accurately the mission, goals, and membership of the Association.

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