School of Information Resources and Library Science

Kay Mathiesen Senior Lecturer E-mail: kmathies@email.arizona.edu Phone: 520-621-3565 Curriculum Vitae Homepage

Education

• PhD, University of California, Irvine, Philosophy
• MA, University of California, Irvine, Philosophy
• BA, Summa cum Laude, University of California, Santa Cruz, Philosophy

Biography

Kay is a Senior Lecturer with a focus on Information Ethics. Kay received her Ph.D. in Philosophy at the University of California, Irvine. Her dissertation focused on the moral and political importance of social groups. When visiting SIRLS in 1998, she developed an interest in ethical issues surrounding libraries and librarianship. At that time, she created and was the first to teach “Ethics for Library and Information Professionals.” Since then, Kay has continued her research and teaching both on information ethics and on the ethical and political status of social groups. Recently, she has brought together these two areas of research in her work on the rights of indigenous peoples to their cultural information.

Teaching Areas

• Ethics for Library and Information Professionals
• Intellectual Freedom and Libraries
• Intellectual Property
• Applied Ethics and Ethical Theory
• Social and Political Theory

Research Areas

• Information Ethics and the Library Profession
• Information Rights of Indigenous Peoples
• Social and Political Theory
• Applied Ethics and Ethical Theory
• Social Epistemology

Selected Publications and Presentations

• "What is Information Ethics?" Computers and Society, Vol. 32, No. 8, 2004.
• "The Ethical Presuppositions Behind the Library Bill of Rights" [with Martin Frické and Don Fallis] Library Quarterly, Vol. 70, No. 4, 2000.
• "Who's to Blame? Individual and Collective Responsibility" Brantl Lecture Series, Montclair State University, March 10, 2005.
• "Liberal Theory and the Collective Right to Privacy" 2nd Annual Information Ethics Roundtable, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, May 2, 2004.
• "Virtue Ethics and Rescuers of Jews in the Holocaust" [with Kristen Monroe and Jack Kraypo] Annual Review of Law and Ethics, 1998.

Notable Projects & Activities

• 2005-present, Guest Editor, special issue of Journal of Information Ethics
• 2000-present, Editorial Board, Journal of International Women’s Studies
• 2005-present, Guest Editor, special issue of Social Epistemology on “Collective Knowledge”
• 2003-present, Co-organizer, Information Ethics Roundtable
• 2001, Creator,“Information and Society” core course for the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts