Szarina Abdullah

Areas of Expertise: Bibliometrics, Citation Analysis, Evaluation & Measurement, Strategic Management

Szarina Abdullah, PhD. Information & Library Science (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign), M.L.S (Hawaii), B.A. Honors (Chulalongkorn)

Professor Szarina Abdullah is currently attached to Wisdom Synergy Consulting as Principal Consultant after completing 37 years’ service at Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Shah Alam on 15 April 2012. Before joining UiTM she was a librarian at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore in 1974; and a special cataloger at the Asia Collection, University of Hawaii Library, Honolulu during 1972-1973. From January 1975 to April 2012, she served UiTM in various capacities, in addition to the essential role of lecturer and professor in Information Management. Her previous administrative posts included: Dean, Centre for Graduate Studies, Assistant Vice-Chancellor (Distance Education and Flexible Learning), Assistant Director (Academic), Head of School of Library & Information Science, and Course Leader of the School of Library & Information Science.

She has conducted workshops for Malaysian and international librarians covering topics such as: Strategic Planning and Implementation, Public Relations, Information Entrepreneurship, Information Literacy Assessment, Performance Measurement, Bibliometrics, Citation Studies and Research Performance, and Action Research for Librarians.

Professor Szarina has authored academic articles, book, chapters in books, and conference papers in national and international arena. Her prime article entitled, “Measuring Information Literacy Competency: Perception vs. Evidence-Based Data” International Information and Library Review, June 2010, has been selected as one of the top 20 quality academic articles of the year 2010 by the American Library Association.

She has been active in leading teams of researchers in two major areas: Information Literacy Assessment, and Bibliometrics. In August 2008, she was a key player in successfully conducting a Regional Workshop for Training the Trainers in Information Literacy, for UiTM /UNESCO. She is also a panel member of UNESCO’s expert group on Media and Information Literacy Indicators. During June 2003 to Aug 2004, and July 2008 to March 2010, she led a team of researchers from the Faculty of Information Management, UiTM, to conduct two national Bibliometric studies of Malaysia’s Science &Technology knowledge productivity for the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation, Malaysia. Findings from these comprehensive studies have implications for S&T policy makers, university administrators, researchers, and academics engaged in R&D activities, and were tabled to the Cabinet in August 2004 by the Minister. Since then, Malaysian academics, researchers and university administrators have become more aware of the importance of citation studies and their use in the assessment of science productivity, and ranking of universities. It has also led to the establishment of the national database for S&T indicators under the Malaysian Science & Technology Information Centre. She has conducted workshops for various groups of academics and researchers in Malaysian universities and research institutions on the proper use of citations as indicators of quality in international scholarly publications.

Professor Szarina can be contacted by email:szarina@wisdomsynergy.com