DTIC, in support of the DoD Scientific and Technical Information Program, solicits student papers for consideration on the agenda of its annual user conference. Selected student authors will be invited to present their papers at the DTIC 2009 Conference, April 6-8, 2009, in Alexandria, Virginia (see: <http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/announcements/conference.html> http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/announcements/conference.html). PURPOSE: * to promote the generation of new ideas and the conduct of new research in areas of strategic interest to DTIC * to promote understanding of DTIC's mission and program among information professionals TOPICS: Papers should show relevance to DTIC's mission. DTIC is the central scientific, research, and engineering information support activity for the DoD, Director of Defense Research and Engineering (DDR&E) and supports the DDR&E's execution of the DoD Scientific and Technical Information Program. General information about DTIC is available at: <http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/> http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/ Examples (to stimulate input, not to constrain topics): * Blogging and wiki behaviors (e.g., methods to incentivize submissions especially in communities trained to protect information, or scientists versus engineers) * Making scientific and technical information discoverable * Conceptual and/or technical approaches for enabling collaborative searching * Recommended features of a tool suite for usability experimentation * Statistical analysis of searching bibliographic metadata vs. full text documents CONFERENCE PARTICIPATION: DTIC will consider the papers for presentation at the DTIC 2009 Conference, April 6-8, 2009, in Alexandria VA. Selected authors will be compensated for traveling expenses to attend the conference. Papers may have multiple authors, but only one per paper will be compensated for traveling expenses. DTIC may select up to three papers for presentation. RULES: * Deadline for submission is March 6, 2009. * Only students enrolled, as of March 6,2009, in graduate level programs of information studies are eligible. Faculty may assist students but are not eligible as authors or joint authors. * The paper must be original work by the author(s). Submission of the paper does not preclude the author(s) from submitting its contents to other means of publication, but papers must not have been previously published or copyrighted. * The paper should not exceed 15 pages, single spaced, including charts and appendices. The paper must include a title. * Submit papers as hard copy to: Defense Technical Information Center ATTN: DTIC-E (Student Papers) 8725 John J. Kingman Road Fort Belvoir VA 22060-6218 * Include contact information: Author name(s) E-mail address to use for further correspondence Telephone contact School affiliation * DTIC will select papers based on their relevance to DTIC's mission, potential interest to conference attendees, originality, clarity, and sufficiency of support for conclusions. * Selected authors will be notified not later than March 20, 2009.