Soo Young Rieh

Biography

Soo Young Rieh is Professor and Associate Dean for Education in the School of Information at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research areas include credibility assessment of online information, search as learning, learning-centric search systems, supporting creativity in search, and exploring the applications of artificial intelligence (AI) in library settings. Her prior research has focused on conceptualizing searching as a learning process and evaluating human learning during web searching. Currently, her research revolves around fostering critical thinking and creativity within the search process, with a particular emphasis on the intersection of information search strategies and idea generation. She has contributed as a Co-PI for the IDEA Institute on Artificial Intelligence Project and serves as the PI for the Training Future Faculty in Library, AI, and Data Driven Education and Research (LADDER) Project, both of which have received funding from the IMLS.

Her research contributions have garnered recognition, earning her over 10 research awards, including the ASIS&T Outstanding Contributions to Information Behavior Research Award (2019), CHIIR Best Paper Award (2023), CHIIR Honorable Mention (2019), Best JASIST Paper Award (2005, 2011), ASIS&T Best Conference Paper Award (2010), and Eugene Garfield-ALISE Doctoral Dissertation Award (2002). Furthermore, she was honored with the ASIS&T Watson Davis Award for Service in 2022.

Rieh has been actively engaged in various scholarly communities. She served as a Director-at-Large on the Board of the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) and a member of the ACM SIGIR Conference on Human Information Interaction and Retrieval (CHIIR) Steering Committee. Currently, Rieh holds the position of Associate Editor for Information and Learning Sciences and serve as a member of the Editorial Boards of the Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology (JASIST) and Library and Information Science Research. In 2023, she served as the co-general conference chair for the ACM SIGIR Conference on Human Information Interaction and Retrieval (CHIIR).

Before joining the University of Texas at Austin, she served on the faculty of the School of Information at the University of Michigan. Additionally, she worked as a Human Factors Research Engineer at the Excite@Home Search and Directory Group. She received her Ph.D. in Communication, Information, and Library Studies from Rutgers University, USA.

Degrees

Ph.D. in Communication, Information, and Library Studies, Rutgers University

Areas Of Specialization

Search as Learning
Information Behavior
Information Literacy
Creativity Support in Search Process
Credibility Assessment of Online Information

Recent Publications

Chavula, C., Choi, Y., & Rieh, S. Y. (2023). SearchIdea: An Idea Generation Tool to Support Creativity in Academic Search. In ACM SIGIR Conference on Human Information Interaction and Retrieval (CHIIR '23). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 161-171. https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3576840.3578294.

Rieh, S. Y., Bradley, D. R., Genova, G., Le Roy, R., Maxwell, J., Oehrli, J.A., Sartorius, E. (2022). Assessing college students information literacy competencies using a librarian role-playing method. Library and Information Science Research, 44. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lisr.2022.101143

Chavula, C., Choi, Y., & Rieh, S. Y. (2022). Understanding Creative Thinking Processes in Searching for New Ideas. In ACM SIGIR Conference on Human Information Interaction and Retrieval (CHIIR '22). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 321326. https://doi.org/10.1145/3498366.3505783

Rieh, S. Y., Yakel, E., & Alexander, L. (2020). Library as research lab: New research engagement model for LIS students and professionals. Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE) Annual Conference. Pittsburgh, PA. October 13-23, 2020. https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/108826/paper_209.pdf

Smith, C. L. and Rieh, S. Y. (2019). Knowledge-Context in search systems: Toward information-literate actions. Proceedings of the ACM SIGIR Conference on Human Information Interaction & Retrieval (CHIIR 19), 55-62. https://doi.org/10.1145/3295750.3298940

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Recent Courses

YearSemesterCourse NumberCourseSyllabusNotes
2024FallINF 385TSpecial Topics in Information Science: User Behavior and Search Experience User Behavior and Search Experience
2023FallINF 391FAdvanced Topics in Research Methods, Methodologies, and Design: Qualitative Research Methods Qualitative Research Methods
2023SpringINF 385TSpecial Topics in Information Science: User Behavior and Search Experience User Behavior and Search Experience
2022FallINF 388LProfessional Experience and Project
2022SpringINF 385TSpecial Topics in Information Science: User Behavior and Search Experience User Behavior and Search Experience
2021FallINF 391FAdvanced Topics in Research Methods, Methodologies, and Design Qualitative Research Methods
2021SpringINF 385TSpecial Topics in Information Science: User Behavior and Search Experience User Behavior and Search Experience
2020FallINF 388RPracticum in School Libraries
2020FallINF 388LProfessional Experience and Project
2020SpringINF 382CUnderstanding and Serving Users