Marcia J. Bates

Dr. Bates has published widely in the areas of information system search strategy, user-centered design of information retrieval systems, organization of knowledge, information seeking behavior, and the nature of the information professions. (See publications below.) She has taught reference services, information seeking behavior, subject access, and user-centered design of information systems. She has served as Associate Dean and Department Chair. She is now retired as Professor Emerita.

Dr. Bates was Editor-in-Chief of the 7-volume Encyclopedia of Library and Information Sciences, 3rd Ed., with Mary Niles Maack, Associate Editor.

She has also been a professional consultant to numerous organizations in government, foundations, and businesses, including technology start-ups.  She has consulted for these organizations, among others:

• Library of Congress
• Getty Research Institute (part of the Getty Trust)
• Council on Library and Information Resources
• U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science
• Centro de Investigaciones Regionales de Mesoamerica, Guatemala
• American Chemical Society
• Litton Guidance and Control Systems
• Amgen, Inc.
• Stone & Webster Engineering Corp.
• Ensemble, Inc. (San Rafael, CA)
• Electric Schoolhouse (now Lightspan.com)
• Southern California Edison

Dr. Bates is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement for Science. In 2005, she received the Award of Merit from the American Society for Information Science and Technology, the association’s highest award. She is also a recipient of the ASIST Research Award, 1998 (in recognition of an extensive program of research), and has twice received the American Society for Information Science "Best Journal of ASIS Paper of the Year Award," in 1980 and 2000. In 2001 she received the Frederick G. Kilgour Award for Research in Library and Information Technology, co-sponsored by the American Library Association’s Library and Information Technology Association and OCLC, Inc.

After receiving a B.A. at Pomona College, Claremont, California, Marcia Bates taught English as a foreign Language as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Thailand for two years. Upon return, she studied librarianship and information science at the University of California at Berkeley School of Library and Information Studies. She received her M.L.S. degree in 1967 and Ph.D. in 1972.

She subsequently taught at the University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, and at the University of Washington in Seattle. Receiving tenure at the University of Washington, she accepted a promotion at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1981, where she has taught ever since. At UCLA she is now a "Professor VI," a special rank requiring additional review beyond that for full professor.

Her hobbies are cats, world-wide travel, and photography.