David Stern
email: hdavid.stern @ gmail.com

Associate Dean
Illinois State University
Milner Library
Campus Box 8900
Normal, IL 61790-8900

  phone: (309) 438-5891
  email: david.stern  @ ilstu.edu

As a member of the Library's senior administrative team, plays a lead role in library-wide planning and evaluation and in setting the Library's strategic directions. Serves as the Map Librarian, currently expanding GIS support. Provides collection development in Library Science. Special project is the planning of actions to address the redundancy of materials in the large on-site and off-site collections.

David Stern was the founder and principal of Maximize Information, a firm specializing in advanced information discovery techniques, enhancing organizational communication, collaboration and knowledge management, and leading organizational reviews and project management initiatives to find service quality improvements.  He was the Associate University Librarian for Scholarly Resources at Brown University, the Director of Science Libraries at Yale University and he has also worked as a general librarian, a medical librarian, and a science librarian in centralized and departmental libraries. In addition, he has taught library science graduate courses (University of Illinois and Southern Connecticut State University) and serves as a consultant and advisor to a number of professional societies and commercial publishers and online services. He has degrees in Biological Sciences (University of Connecticut), History & Philosophy of Science (Indiana University), and Library Science (Indiana University).

David served on the Board of Directors (2000-2003) and as the Chair of the Knowledge Management Division (2007-2008) of the Special Libraries Association, the leading international library association of over 9,000 librarians serving specialized populations of researchers. He is currently the Chair of the Virtual Worlds Advisory Council.

David also served as Editor of the journal Science and Technology Libraries from 2005-2007. His research involves electronic retrieval and transmission of data, focused primarily upon scholars workstations. He was recently involved in the development of end-user search systems for both local and remote hosts, including a web-based expert systems librarian emulator and linking of paleobotany fulltext material with related museum and researcher databases. He is also working on the development of standards and cost models for federated full-text search and retrieval systems.

His resume and publications include over twenty journal articles, several book chapters, two edited special issues of Science and Technology Libraries entitled Digital Libraries: Philosophies, technical design considerations, and example scenarios and Competencies for Science Librarians, and the books Guide to Information Sources in the Physical Sciences (Colorado: Libraries Unlimited, 2000) and How Libraries Make Tough Choices in Difficult Times: Purposeful Abandonment, Chandos Press, Oxford, U.K. (2013) (details, Elsevier site).

He has been a speaker at conferences of ALA, SLA, AAAS, SSP, ASIS, NASIG, Online, InfoToday, Computers in Libraries, Charleston Conference, CESSE, NFAIS, and the Library of Congress.

Current research efforts include the following areas:

1. Interfaces (expert systems)
The Yale University Science Libraries  developed intelligent (expert user) front-end interfaces using nested web HTML screens. These non-linear pathways direct users to the most appropriate types of sources for their particular needs. Further specificity identifies the best source for a specific need. See the NAVIGATOR.
"Federated or harvested searching ... so many ways to combine options and confuse researchers." Library2.013 Conference, October 18, 2013

2. Cost models for seamless document delivery
"Enhanced online access requires redesigned delivery options and cost models" Acquisitions Librarian 19 (1/2) (#37/38): 119-134 (2007),
"Open Access or Differential Pricing for Journals: The Road Best Traveled?" Online 29 (2): 30-35 (March/April 2005),
"Pricing models and payment schemes for library collections" Online 26 (5): 54-59 (Sept/October 2002),
"Pricing Models: Past, Present, and Future?" Serials Librarian 36 (1/2): 301-319 (1999).

3. Search engines and indexing schemes
The testing of various search engines focus on full text search capabilities, hypertext linkages, and relational (virtual journal) output possibilities.

“Waiting for Weighted Navigation” Online Searcher 37 (2): 51-55 (March/April 2013).
"Author as Object: Disambiguation and Enhanced Links" Online 34 (6) : 29-33 (Nov/Dec 2010).
"Harvesting: Power and Opportunities Beyond Federated Search" Online 33 (4) : 35-37 (July/August 2009).
"User Expectations and the Complex Reality of Online Research Efforts" Science and Technology Libraries 22 (3/4): 22 (3/4): 137-148 (2002).
"New Search and Navigation Techniques in the Digital Library" Science & Technology Libraries 17 (3/4): 61-80 (1999).

4. Seamless and Limitless Networking
Concepts and technical considerations required to scale the existing and developing standards for federated searching and extended linking among and between distributed information objects.

"Ebooks: From institutional to consortial considerations" Online 34 (3) : 29-35 (May/June 2010).
"Yale Leaf Morphology Digitization and Network Project" Science and Technology Libraries 26 (3/4): 137-155 (2006).
"Automating enhanced discovery and delivery: The OpenURL possibilities" Online 25 (2): 42-47 (March/April 2001), and
"From the All-In-One Workstation to Seamless Networks: A Strategic Plan" Online 21 (2): 46-55 (March 1997).

5. Enhanced Reference at a Distance
Providing real-time assistance to remote users via shared screens and sidebar guided assistance.

"Virtual Reference and In-depth Assistance Using Shared Workspaces" Online Searcher 37 (1) : 22-26 (January/February 2013).

6. New considerations in Scholarly Communications
New tools, techniques and considerations to be accommodated as we expand media, domain, and navigation options.

"Embargoes and Institutional Repositories: Faculty Early Transparency Concerns” Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication 2 (2): eP1080 (9 pages) (March 2014).
"The Future of Peer-Reviewed Scientific Video Journals" Online Searcher 37 (3): 28-32, 49-50 (September/October 2013).

Advanced Search and Navigation 

last revised: April 3, 2014