Sköld Wins the ProQuest Doctoral Dissertation Award
The Association for Information Science & Technology (ASIS&T) is delighted to announce that Dr. Olle Sköld is the 2018 recipient of the ProQuest Doctoral Dissertation Award from ASIS&T for his dissertation titled “Documenting Videogame Communities.” The award’s purpose is to recognize outstanding recent doctoral candidates whose research contributes significantly to an understanding of some aspect of information science. The award is intended to encourage participation of new PhDs in the activities of a professional association by providing a forum for the presentation of their research and assisting them with some travel support.
Dr. Sköld was selected as the winner from among a pool of outstanding candidates who were judged based on these criteria: Importance of the topic to theory development and/or practical applications in information science; soundness of methodology; organization and clarity of the presentation; and quality of data (when applicable).
In his letter of support for Dr. Sköld’s nomination, Professor Isto Huvila wrote, “Sköld’s research focuses on the documentation and preservation of videogames, and especially the broader contexts of gameplay in social media and beyond, often left aside in the earlier and ongoing preservation efforts and research. The research innovatively brings together perspectives of information studies, archival science and game studies research to a comprehensive whole. Sköld’s work is characterized by an excellent command and understanding of multiple methods and their applicability in addressing complicated research questions, quality of empirical work and data, and clarity of presentation. Especially commendable is his ability, shown by the highly ambitious and clear articulation of the so-called “extended notion of video games,” to develop information science theory in an under-researched but highly pertinent area of cultural production in the contemporary society. The extremely high quality of his work is clearly shown by that the single-authored articles included in the dissertation have been published in the number one journals in the field, where many senior researchers have never succeeded in publishing their work.”
Upon learning of his selection as the 2018 ProQuest Doctoral Dissertation Award winner, Dr. Sköld said, ” I am honored and happy to be the recipient of the 2018 ProQuest Doctoral Dissertation Award from the Association for Information Science and Technology. ASIS&T and JASIST have been important parts of the research infrastructure I’ve used in my work to date, and I look forward to continuing the discussion and exploration of information phenomena at the intersections of the ALM disciplines in these venues in the future.”
Dr. Sköld will accept the award at the 2018 meeting of the Association for Information Science & Technology (ASIS&T) which will be held in Vancouver, Canada, November 10-14, 2018.
Dr. Sköld’s full dissertation is available here: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-336748
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Founded at the beginning of the information age in 1937, ASIS&T has promoted the development and understanding of information science and documentation. Through its 80 decades it has reflected a rapidly changing landscape, embracing and promoting new advances in technology to improve all aspects of information collection, management, storage, use and communications. ASIS&T members are at the forefront of research and practice within Information Science. Leading discoveries on how we organize, relate, learn, and access information, our members are changing the face of information utilization. From fine arts to health informatics, ASIS&T is a synergistic organization that allows the exchange of ideas to flourish for the benefit of the whole international field.