Carl Lagoze
Professional Summary

I am a senior researcher in the Information Science Program at Cornell University.  A quick statement of my research and teaching motivation is as follows.  In the spirit of the particle/wave duality in quantum physics, I find that the web and digital information can justifiably be viewed as both evolutionary and revolutionary phenomena.  I am therefore interested, in both my teaching and research, in examining the strong connections of modern digital information practices to traditional libraries and physical artifacts, as well as attempting to understand the radical departure from tradition that digital information represents.  I believe that the best route to understanding these phenomena is inter-disciplinary, mixing computer science, social science, law and policy, and economics.  While I don't pretend expertise in all these areas, I have the wisdom and privilege of working with colleagues who expand my thinking beyond my technical roots.

My specific research areas are web information architectures, digital libraries, and scholarly communication, with a concentration on interoperability protocols, object models, and metadata. Each spring semester I teach CS 431 (Web Information Systems), which examines the architectures, tools, and techniques for building and managing large-scale distributed information systems on the World Wide Web. My professional activities include a variety of program committees and advisory boards related to digital libraries and digital information.  I have had the honor of invitations to talk about my work in many parts of the world.  Take a look at my current CV to see my complete professional history, research activities, and publications. 

I arrived at this point in my career through a circuitous route that includes an undergraduate degree in urban planning, a professional career in software development and systems management, a graduate degree in software engineering, and brief tenure in a library.   My work in the area of digital libraries really began in the early 1990's when I worked with Jim Davis to develop and implement the Dienst protocol and architecture for distributed digital libraries.  Since that time my work has benefited with funding from DARPA, the National Science Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and various corporate grants. 

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Cornell Information Science