Jenna Hartel

Jenna Hartel is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Information,  University of Toronto. As an interdisciplinary social scientist devoted to the field of Library and Information Science (LIS), she conducts research in three related areas: 1) information and the “higher things in life” that are pleasurable and profound; 2) visual and creative research methods; and 3) the history and theory of LIS.

In the Master of Information program at the Faculty of Information, Professor Hartel mostly teach graduate students in the Library and Information Science concentration, and she advises both masters and doctoral student research on information behaviour in everyday life and leisure contexts.  Both her research and teaching aim to be an imaginative forms of intervention in the field of LIS, through unorthodox projects such as her YouTube channel, INFIDEOS (which contains almost 100 educational videos about Information Science) and the iSquare Research Program, a first application of arts-informed research methods in Information Science. She is the recipient of multiple teaching and research awards.   

• ASIS&T Distinguished Member, 2023
• ASIS&T Outstanding Information Science Teacher Award, 2023
• ASIS&T/SI-USE Outstanding Information Behaviour Research Award, 2022
• ALISE Pratt-Severn Faculty Innovation Award, 2022
• Community of Champions (Teaching Award) Nominee, University of Toronto, 2016
• Excellence in Teaching Award, Library Journal/Association for Library and Information Science Education, 2016
• Innovation Award, American Society for Information Science and Technology/Special Interest Group on Information Needs, Seeking and Use (SIG-USE), 2013
• Highly Cited Paper Award, Journal of Documentation for “Managing Documents at Home for Serious Leisure: A Case Study of the Hobby of Gourmet Cooking,” 2010
• Dialog/ALISE Methodology Paper Award, Association for Library and Information Science Education (2006)