Otlet Lecture: Diane Kelly, Wilson Distinguished Professor

Abstract:
Drawing on search interfaces from the past and present, I will explore the claim that online information search systems have moved through three distinct periods of development. The first period focused on helping people explore, develop, and resolve their information needs through interaction. During this period, many interfaces were modeled after the reference interview and included novel interactive features, such as relevance feedback and search result visualizations. During the second period, a turn was taken towards extracting information from information seekers primarily through implicit techniques such as logging. Search became more passive and people no longer needed to explicitly provide queries or feedback. Instead, systems inferred interests based on large-scale log data and began using aggregate needs and behaviors to standardize search results and homogenize search behaviors. In the current period, the focus has turned towards the hypnotic and transactional where information seekers function as trainers, crawlers, and harvesters for generative AI systems. Rather than viewing information seekers as unique individuals with the capacity for agency, information seekers are viewed as information processors and providers who only need mediated and limited access to information, even if through dialogic interfaces.

Bio:
Diane Kelly started her academic career at UNC-CH School of Information and Library Science (SILS) in 2004, where she served as assistant, associate, and full professor. In 2016, she joined the University of Tennessee Knoxville where she served as Director of the School of Information Sciences (2016-2020) and Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs (2020-2024). In 2024, she returned to UNC-CH and served as interim and last dean of SILS during the 2025-2026 academic year. Kelly is most known for her research in interactive information search and user-centered evaluation, although these days she is more interested in information and library science history, foundations, and theory. She is currently co-leading a project focused on helping public libraries in North Carolina address AI with the UNC-CH University Librarian and the State Librarian of NC. She also serves as the Faculty Director of the UNC-CH Institute for Arts and Humanities Academic Leadership Program.

Kelly has received several awards for her research and teaching, including induction into the ACM SIGIR Academy, the ASIST Research Award, British Computer Society’s IRSG Karen Spärck Jones Award, Best JASIST Paper of the Decade (2000s) and the ASIST/Thomson Reuters Outstanding Information Science Teacher Award. Kelly has served as chair of the Association for Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group in Information Retrieval (SIGIR), co-editor-in-chief of Foundations and Trends in Information Retrieval, and as a member of the ALA Committee on Accreditation.

Questions? Contact Christine Hopper