Note: The following tribute was read at all four programs of LRRT during the 2002 Annual Conference in Atlanta, GA.
The Library Research Round Table deeply mourns the loss of an outstanding scholar, teacher, and friend, Dr. Elfreda A. Chatman, who passed away after a short illness in January 2002. An active member of the LRRT during the 1980s and 1990s, Dr. Chatman served as Chair in 1993-1994. Many LIS scholars have been influenced or inspired by Dr. Chatman’s use of qualitative methodology, her development of theoretical constructs, and the insights provided by the results of her research. She was a leader in the profession, an outstanding teacher, and also had an unforgettable, powerful, and warm personality.
Dr. Chatman was internationally known for her ethnographic research into the information-seeking behaviors of traditionally understudied groups such as the poor, the elderly, women prisoners, and janitors. Dr. Chatman had a B.S. from Youngstown State University, her M.S.L.S. from Case Western Reserve University, and her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. A prolific author, her book The Information World of Retired Women (1992), Greenwood Press, won the ACRL Best Book Award for 1995. She published numerous articles and was the recipient of many additional prestigious awards. From 1998, Dr. Chatman was Professor at the School of Information Studies at the Florida State University, Tallahassee.
Please join us in a moment of silence as we honor the memory of Elfreda Chatman.
Thank you.