The Information Seeking in Context (ISIC) Conference has created the “Ross Todd Award for Inspirational Information Behaviour Research by a Doctoral Student” to be given biennially to the top student in the Doctoral Workshop session of the conference.

Ross Todd, a member of the SC&I Library and Information Science faculty for over 21 years, was a world-renowned expert on adolescent information seeking and use, inquiry learning in digital information environments, and the transformative role of school libraries in the 21st century. He died on March 30, 2022.

Recipients of the Ross Todd Award will receive a 100 EUR cash prize, funded by two anonymous ISIC members. The award winner will be chosen by conference chairs based on "research that is uplifting, innovative, and committed to improving the lives of information users."

The award winner will be chosen by conference chairs based on "research that is uplifting, innovative, and committed to improving the lives of information users."

The Doctoral Workshop, a highlight of the conference, provides doctoral students an invitation to share their current dissertation work-in-progress with their peers and with an international panel of research mentors invited to take part in the workshop, according to ISIC. 

Professor and Chair of the Library and Information Science Department Marie Radford, who is a chair of the ISIC Doctoral Workshop, and a close friend and colleague of Todd’s, said, “This is a very fitting tribute to Ross's impact within the ISIC community, especially in recognition of his leadership in the Doctoral Workshop.”

The ISIC conference is held biennially to share Library Sciences research and practices among university professors, researchers, and doctoral students. 

This year the conference was held from September 26-29 at the Berlin School of Library and Information Science in Berlin, Germany. The award’s first recipient was Xiaoqian Zhang, a doctoral student at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, who received the award for her proposal “How is health information used? Lessons from older adults with diabetes during the COVID-19 Pandemic.” 

“This is a very fitting tribute to Ross's impact within the ISIC community, especially in recognition of his leadership in the Doctoral Workshop.” – Chair and Professor Marie Radford 

According to the ISIC website, “The Information Seeking in Context (ISIC) conference is the academic home of the Information Behaviour research community. The biennial conference focuses on contextualized information activities, expressed in different forms such as Information Behaviour, Information Practice, Information Seeking, Information Experience, and others.”

To learn more about Ross Todd and his legacy click here.

More about the ISIC Conference is here. 

Discover more about the Library and Information Science Department at the Rutgers School of Communication and Information on the website.