Paul Conway

Paul Conway is Associate Professor in the School of Information at the University of Michigan. Conway's research encompasses the digitization of cultural heritage resources, particularly photographic archives, the use of digitized resources by experts in a variety of humanities contexts, and the measurement of image and text quality in large-scale digitization programs. At the School of Information, Conway teaches graduate level courses on the administration of archives, preservation, and digital libraries. He also teaches an upper level undergraduate course on ethics and information technology.

Currently, Conway is Principal Investigator of Validating Quality in Large-Scale Digitization: Metrics, Measurement, and Use-Cases. The research is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and is focused on the quality and usefulness of the millions of digitized books and serials deposited in the HathiTrust Digital Library. The two-year research project is investigating methods for defining, detecting, and measuring errors and other quality issues within this collaborative preservation repository. It is also analyzing the potential impact of found errors on educational and scholarly use within a representative set of use cases: reading online, printing on demand, mining texts, and managing library print collections.

Conway has extensive research, teaching and administrative experience in the archives and preservation fields and has made major contributions over the past 30 years to the literature on archival users and use, preservation management, and digital imaging technologies. Prior to joining the faculty of the School of Information in 2006, Conway held positions at Duke University (2001-06), Yale University (1992-2001), the Society of American Archivists (1988-89), and the National Archives and Records Administration (1977-87; 1989-92). In 2005, Conway received the American Library Association's Paul Banks and Carolyn Harris Preservation Award for his contributions to the preservation field. He has been a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists since 1997. He holds a Ph.D. in Library and Information Studies from the University of Michigan.

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