Dr. Chris Hagar, a recognized scholar and educator in the areas of crisis informatics and community informatics, will be joining the full-time faculty at the San José State University School of Library and Information Science (SJSU SLIS) in Fall 2012.

At SJSU SLIS, Hagar will continue her research, which focuses on information needs and information seeking in crises; disaster health related information; and roles for libraries in crisis preparedness and recovery. In addition, her research examines education and training programs in crisis information management, including programs that equip information professionals with the knowledge and skills they need to be key players in crisis response.

Hagar is the editor of Crisis Information Management: Communication and Technologies, published in 2012. She is also editor of a special issue of the American Society for Information Science & Technology Bulletin (June/July 2010) on crisis informatics.

Hagar’s professional experience includes serving as Head of Library Development for the International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP), a non-government development organization, where she managed a UNESCO information literacy project in the South Caucasus and facilitated a library and information science curriculum review project at the University of Dar-es-Salam, Tanzania.

With more than 30 years of experience in the LIS profession, Hagar’s work also includes service at the International Centre for Information Management Systems and Services, University of Nicholas Copernicus, Torun, Poland, and at the Department of Information Studies, Northumbria University, UK.

Hagar has worked as an academic librarian in the United States and United Kingdom and as a consultant with the British Council and the UK Department for International Development.

Hagar has been a faculty member with Dominican University’s Graduate School of Library and Information Science since 2008. In addition, she previously taught at SJSU SLIS.

She holds a PhD in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her appointment with SJSU SLIS will begin in August 2012.

[top]