Zack Lischer-Katz

Dr. Zack Lischer-Katz is an assistant professor in digital curation and preservation at the University of Arizona College of Information Science. He is an interdisciplinary information studies researcher who brings phenomenological, historical and cultural perspectives to research on the archiving and curation of visual media formats and visual knowledge production. He received his PhD in Communication, Information and Library Studies from Rutgers University and his MA in Cinema Studies from New York University, Tisch School of the Arts.

Select Publications

Lischer‐Katz, Z. (2023). Information Borderlands in the US Southwest. Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 60(1), 1055-1058. https://doi.org/10.1002/pra2.943

Clark, J., & Lischer-Katz, Z. (2023). (In)accessibility and the technocratic library: Addressing institutional failures in library adoption of emerging technologies. First Monday, 28(1). https://dx.doi.org/10.5210/fm.v28i1.12928

Lischer-Katz, Z. (2022). A methodological framework for studying visual information practices. Library and Information Science Research, 44(4). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lisr.2022.101188 

Lischer-Katz, Z. (2022). The emergence of digital reformatting in the history of preservation knowledge: 1823–2015. Journal of Documentation, 78 (6), 1249-1277. https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-04-2021-0080

Lischer-Katz, Z., & Cook, M.N. (2022). Virtual reality and the academic library of the future. In Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society: The Past, Present, and Future of Libraries, American Philosophical Society: Philadelphia, PA. https://www.jstor.org/stable/45420507

Lischer-Katz, Z., & Clark, J. (2021). XR accessibility initiatives in academic libraries. In Proceedings of the Association of Information Science and Technology Annual Meeting 2021, Salt Lake City, UT, Oct. 30-Nov. 2. https://doi.org/10.1002/pra2.560

Lischer-Katz, Z. (2020), Archiving experience: An exploration of the challenges of preserving virtual reality. Records Management Journal, 30 (2), 253-274. https://doi.org/10.1108/RMJ-09-2019-0054            

Current Grant Projects

Lead Principal Investigator (with Co-PI, Matt Cook, Harvard Library), “3D Research Data Curation Framework (3DFrame): Understanding 3D Data Creation, Analysis, & Preservation Practices across Disciplines”, Institute for Museum and Library Services, National Leadership Grants for Libraries Program, 3-year Research Grant (20% effort), $ 599,816 (August 2023 - July 2026), https://www.imls.gov/sites/default/files/project-proposals/lg-254830-ols-23-full-proposal.pdf

Co-PI (with PI: Dr. Bryan Carter, U of A Center for Digital Humanities & Co-PI: Dr. Rashida Braggs, Africana Studies Dept., Williams College), “Preserving BIPOC Expatriates’ Memories During Wartime and Beyond: Building a Volumetric Archiving Platform for Immersive Storytelling and Historical Preservation”, Digital Humanities Advancement Grant, National Endowment for the Humanities ($49,428, August 2022 – January 2024).

Honors and Awards

• CollectionBuilder Curriculum Development Program Award, Growing CollectionBuilder, A Sustainable Digital Exhibit Framework and Static Web Development Model, University of Idaho Library, funded by the Institute for Museum and Library Services (Fall 2023).
• University of Arizona, College of Information Science, Faculty Leadership Award (December 2022)
• Bob Williams Research Paper Award, Special Interest Group on the History and Foundations of Information Science, Association for Information Science & Technology, for the 2022 paper “The emergence of digital reformatting in the history of preservation knowledge: 1823–2015” published in Journal of Documentation (October 2022).

Courses

• LIS 506 Introduction to Research Methods for Library and Information Professionals
• LIS/INFO 515 Organization of Information
• LIS 442/542 Curating and Preserving Media Art Collections
• LIS/INFO 671 Introduction to Digital Curation and Preservation
• INFO 696E Art, Media and Knowledge: Visual Epistemologies in the Age of Immersive Computing (Graduate Seminar)