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Dr. Kristin R. Eschenfelder, Assistant Professor at the School of Library and Information Studies at University of Wisconsin-Madison, is the 2004 recipient of the NewsBank/Readex/ÂÜÀòÍøÊÓƵCatharine J. Reynolds Award. Kristin teaches and conducts research in the areas of information technology, information policy, and libraries. Among her teaching responsibilities is a government documents course. Her research focuses on the information published on official government web sites and how agencies manage the creation, approval, management, and retention of this information. This research has resulted in several publications and presentations at scholarly conferences and professional organizations. A colleague notes that, "Her work in this area is groundbreaking and has been well-received by the practicing government documents community in Wisconsin and within the academic research community."

Kristin will use the Reynolds Award funds to hire primarily library school students to gather data and provide computer support for an extensive content analysis of 30 to 40 state bureau or program level agency web sites. This will enable her to complete her research project on the organizational factors affecting the characteristics of government information published by state agencies on their web sites. Kristin will examine variables such as the quantity, quality, origins (e.g. drawn from paper publications), and frequency of change of web content. With this award, Kristin will further her efforts as an academic researcher in the important and emerging field of electronic government information---an area of interest and import to all government information professionals.