William J. Paisley

William J. Paisley (b. 1937) is an American communications scholar.

Life

William John ("Bill") Paisley was born on September 14, 1937 in Syracuse, New York. He attended Syracuse University, BA 1960; MA 1962) then Stanford University, PhD in Communication, 1965, with a dissertation on "Extent of information-seeking as a function of subjective certainty and the utility of the information".

Paisley was assistant professor, then associate professor at Stanford University, Palo Alto, 1965-1985. He then became Executive vice president, Knowledge Access Inc., Mountain View, California, in 1985.

Contributions

Paisley is noteworthy for his research in sociology and psychology, especially his writing in needs for and uses of information in the social sciences. Prior work had been largely limited to the uses of information in the sciences.

Publications

• "Predicting library circulation from community characteristics." With Edwin B. Parker. Public Opinion Quarterly 29, no. 1 (1965): 39-53.
• The flow of (behavioral) science information: a review of the research literature. With Edwin Parker. [Stanford, CA]: Institute for Communication Research, Stanford University, 1966.
• "Research for psychologists at the interface of the scientist and his information system." With Edwin B. Parker. American Psychologist 21, no 11 (1966): 1061.
• "Information Needs and Uses." Annual Review of Information Science and Technology 3 (1968): 1–30.
• The Analysis of Communication Content; Developments in Scientific Theories and Computer Techniques. With George Gerbner and others. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1969.
• "Information science as a multidiscipline: twenty questions and a few answers" (1989).
• Women and the Mass Media: Sourcebook for Research and Action. With Matilda Butler.

New York : Human Sciences Press, 1980.

• "Scientific literacy and the competition for public attention and understanding." Science Communication 20, no. 1 (1998): 70-80.

Offices

• Member of advisory panels United States Government, Washington, 1970-1992.
• Knowledge Utilization Society. President, 1990.

Further reading

• "William John Paisley." Prabook Profile. [1]