BSc(Hons), MLib, PhD, FCLIP, AALIA
Professor Philip Hider has been Head of the School of Information and Communication Studies at Charles Sturt University since 2008. He holds an Honours degree in Social Anthropology from the London School of Economics, a Masters of Librarianship from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, and a PhD from City University, London. Philip worked at the British Library from 1995-1997, and in Singapore from 1997-2003. He publishes and researches in the areas of information organisation, retrieval, and architecture, and served on the Australian Committee on Cataloguing from 2004-2009. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals and an Associate Member of the Australian Library and Information Association. Philip served as the inaugural Head of the CSU Virtual Campus from 2014-15, as the Acting Executive Dean of the Faculty of Education from June 2015 until July 2016, as the Deputy Presiding Officer of CSU’s Academic Senate from 2018-2020, and as the Associate Dean Research of the Faculty of Arts and Education from 2020-21. He was also seconded on a part-time basis to the Australian Government's Office for Learning and Teaching in 2016. The second edition of his best-selling text, Information Resource Description, was published in 2018.
Philip's research is primarily located in the field of information (and knowledge) organisation, and in cognate fields such as information retrieval and information architecture. It examines the way information resources are described and categorised, and how these descriptions and categorisations (i.e., metadata) can be used to retrieve resources in optimal ways. Philip has conducted research in and for a range of institutions, including the National Library Board of Singapore, the National Library of Australia, the State Library of Victoria, the State Library of NSW, and the Australian government's Office for Learning and Teaching, generating around $1M of grant income. He has published around 100 scholarly articles in a wide range of Library and Information Studies journal and co-leads CSU’s Libraries Research Group. He currently serves on several editorial boards, including those for the Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association (which he chairs), the Journal of Documentation, Library Management, LIBRES, and Open Information Science.
Philip has been involved in the teaching of Library and Information Studies (LIS) for many years. His text, Information Resource Description, is used in many information and knowledge organisation courses around the world. He has also published various papers on the teaching of both information organisation and LIS more generally, and previously conducted many short courses on different aspects of library cataloguing.
Philip has supervised the following research students to completion:
Coe, Mary. PhD. 2022. “How readers make sense of active e-book indexes.”
Khan, Arif. PhD. 2022. “An exploratory prioritisation of key elements in library and information science practicum supervision.”
Bacic, Marijana. PhD. 2020. “A study of undergraduate student uptake of library discovery tools."
Gao, Lily. PhD. 2014. “Information seeking and use of Chinese offshore students studying in Australian university programs.”
Burford, Sally. PhD. 2010. “The practice of Web information architecture in large organisations.”
Ruthven, Joan. DInfoMgt. 2009. “Characteristics, preferences, and needs of adult Internet users in a New South Wales public library environment.”
Philip has served on various professional committees, such as the Australian Committee on Cataloguing, and is currently a member of the Subject Analysis and Access Section of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. He also has a lengthy consulting record and has written many book reviews for The Electronic Library and other journals.
A record of Philip’s research publications can be found here.
A selection from more recent publications is listed below.
Hider, P. Garner, J. Wakeling, S. & Jamali, H. (2022). Serving their communities: An analysis of Australian public library mission statements. Journal of Library Administration, 62(2), 190-205. https://researchoutput.csu.edu.au/ws/portalfiles/portal/251783187/Serving_their_communities_ms_final.pdf
Hider, P. & Steele, G. (2021). LibraryThing and literary works revisited: Are social and library cataloging just as complementary as they were a decade ago? Library Resources & Technical Services, 65(3), 113–125.
Hider, P. & Spiller, B. (2020). Fiction genres in bookstore and libraries: A comparison of commercial and professional classifications. Cataloging & Classification Quarterly, 58(8), 664-682. https://researchoutput.csu.edu.au/ws/portalfiles/portal/251792574/Hider_Spiller_ms_final.pdf
Hider, P. (2019). From Anderson to ORDAC: A history of bibliographic policy discussion in Australia. Journal of the Australian Library & Information Association, 68(1), 3-17.
Hider, P. (2018). Information Resource Description. 2nd edn. London: Facet; Chicago: ALA Editions.
Hider, P. (2018). The terminological and disciplinary origins of information and knowledge organization. Education for Information, 34(1), 135-161.
Hider, P. (2017). A critique of the FRBR user tasks and their modifications. Cataloging & Classification Quarterly, 55(2), 55-74.
Hider, P. (2016). The functional requirements for community information. Journal of Documentation, 72(1), 81-102.
Hider, P. (2015). A survey of the coverage and methodologies of schemas and vocabularies used to describe information resources. Knowledge Organization, 42(3).