Devan Ray Donaldson, Ph.D., is an award-winning information science scholar, federally funded researcher, and academic leader who serves as a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Information and Library Science at Indiana University Bloomington, home to the nation’s No. 9-ranked Library and Information Studies program (U.S. News & World Report). In 2022, 75 years after the department’s origins in 1947, Donaldson became the first African American to earn tenure in its history. A Bill Gates Millennium Scholar and Edward Alexander Bouchet Scholar, he has contributed to more than $14 million in collaborative research initiatives and secured more than $1.1 million in competitive federal and internal awards as PI or Co-PI. Nationally and internationally recognized for his scholarship, Donaldson serves as an NIH/NLM grant reviewer and has authored more than 25 peer-reviewed publications and delivered more than 40 research presentations across 15 countries and 22 U.S. states, including an invited keynote address for the United Nations Dag Hammarskjöld Library.
Donaldson’s research asks a fundamental question: What makes information trustworthy enough to preserve, reuse, and act upon? Drawing on archival studies, biomedical informatics, artificial intelligence, and digital curation, he investigates trust, provenance, data quality, transparency, and accountability across digital information systems. His work bridges disciplinary communities by applying theories and methods developed in one domain to consequential challenges in another, including electronic health record data quality, AI data stewardship, archival and recordkeeping approaches to machine-learning feature engineering, digital curation, and community-engaged archival practice.
Donaldson is Project Director of DECODE: Developing Competencies for AI Data Evaluation in Library and Archival Education, a three-year, $671,369 Applied Research grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), awarded through its Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program. DECODE investigates the emerging information objects produced and used by artificial intelligence systems, including training datasets, model files and learned parameters, configuration files, evaluation logs, prompt histories, and system documentation, as well as the competencies library and archival professionals need to responsibly appraise, preserve, provide access to, and steward them. The project extends Donaldson’s longstanding research at the intersections of trustworthy information, digital stewardship, and emerging technologies.
His scholarship has appeared in leading journals and proceedings, including Scientific Data in the Nature portfolio, PLOS ONE, the Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology (JASIST), Archivaria, and the International Digital Curation Conference (IDCC). Across this body of work, Donaldson brings archival and information science perspectives to emerging challenges in data-intensive research, artificial intelligence, healthcare, and the long-term stewardship of digital information.
From 2019 to 2026, Donaldson served as Director of the Master of Library Science (MLS) Program in Indiana University Bloomington’s Department of Information and Library Science. Asked to assume the directorship while still an untenured assistant professor, he led the department’s largest graduate program for six years. The MLS accounts for approximately two-thirds of the department’s graduate student enrollment. His leadership encompassed graduate recruitment, curriculum development, program assessment, student success, and institutional change. During his tenure as director, BIPOC enrollment in the MLS program increased by nearly 50 percent. He continues to direct the department’s Archives and Records Management and Digital Content, Curation, and Collections (DC3) specializations.
Donaldson’s more than 20-year career in library and information science spans Indiana University, the University of Michigan, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, with experience encompassing student advocacy, faculty governance, program administration, research collaboration, professional service, and fundraising. As Co-Chair of iConference 2025, he helped secure more than $32,000 in corporate sponsorships, a 433 percent increase and the highest level of corporate sponsorship in the conference’s 20-year history.
Nationally, Donaldson contributes to the evaluation of emerging scholarship through service on National Institutes of Health/National Library of Medicine (NIH/NLM) Special Emphasis Panels. He previously served on the Biomedical Informatics, Library and Data Science (BILDS) Review Committee for the National Library of Medicine from 2018 to 2021. These appointments draw upon his interdisciplinary expertise at the intersections of biomedical informatics, information science, librarianship, and data science.
Internationally, Donaldson is co-founder and co-chair of the Research Data Alliance (RDA) Early Career and Engagement Interest Group and co-chair of the Repository Platforms for Research Data Interest Group. The RDA is a global community dedicated to building the social and technical infrastructure necessary for the open sharing and reuse of research data. Through these roles, Donaldson mentors emerging data professionals, facilitates collaborations across national and disciplinary boundaries, and contributes to the development of international research data practices.
Donaldson also maintains a strong commitment to student mentorship and expanding educational opportunity. He serves as faculty advisor to Indiana University’s ColorStack chapter, part of a national organization working to increase the number of Black and Latinx computer science graduates pursuing careers in technology. In this role, he supports students through professional development, industry connections, mentorship, and community-building initiatives.
Donaldson’s institutional service includes numerous faculty governance and academic leadership roles at Indiana University. Within the Department of Information and Library Science, he has served as Chair of the ILS Curriculum Committee, Chair of the MLS Curriculum Review Task Force, and Chair of multiple Faculty Search Committees. At the Luddy School level, he has served on the Strategic Visioning Planning Committee and the Task Force on Diversity and Inclusion, as well as two three-year terms on the Faculty Policy Committee. He was also selected for the dean-initiated Luddy Leadership Training Program, an intensive faculty leadership development program addressing organizational leadership, financial management, faculty hiring and tenure, diversity and inclusion, and conflict resolution.
Donaldson’s honors include selection as a Bill Gates Millennium Scholar (2002–2015), Horace H. Rackham Merit Fellow (2008–2015), Edward Alexander Bouchet Graduate Honor Society member (2012–present), and Research Data Alliance U.S. Data Share Fellow (2015–2016). His faculty honors include the Luddy Faculty Recognition Award (2024), Indiana University Trustees Teaching Award (2017–2018), and Champion of Inclusion Award (2016).
Donaldson earned his Ph.D. in Information from the University of Michigan, M.S. in Library Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and B.A. in History from William & Mary. In 2005, he studied abroad at Hertford College, University of Oxford.
Outside of his academic work, Donaldson is deeply engaged in his community through church participation and creative pursuits. He enjoys attending performing arts and sporting events and spending time with family and friends.
With Donaldson Research Lab senior data science students John Lucaccioni, Ethan Gray, David Gourley, and Brendan Winckler presenting their EHR data quality research at the IU Data Science Capstone Project Poster Session (2026)
Standing with Slava Sterzer, Executive Director of iSchools, Inc., at iConference 2026 in Edinburgh, Scotland
