Barbara Ann Kipfer, Ph.D.
EMPLOYMENT
Lexico LLC (Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com. Reference.com) (Long Beach, CA) Managing Editor/Senior Lexicographer (4/2000-present) Development of new lexical content, maintenance of all lexical content, guiding project selection and determining editorial policies, outsourcing and tracking freelance work.
Answers.com (Pasadena, CA) Director of Research (4/96-11/96, 6/98-3/99, 9/05-11/05). Development of Internet question-answering service; answered all questions posed to system (6/98-3/99). Content Developer for Answers.com (Jerusalem/NYC) in '05.
Reference Wordsmith contract/freelance work (1991-present, www.reference-wordsmith.com) CLIENTS: CNET; CitySearch, GoTo/Overture, eHow, encyclopedia publishers (Columbia, Funk and Wagnall, Grolier), dictionary publishers; telephone companies. TYPES OF TASKS: Development of lexicons and major reference works; creation of ontologies, taxonomies, and hierarchies.
Cymfony (Buffalo, NY) Head Lexicographer (1/2001-8/2001). Design, development, and maintenance of lexical resources and tools for natural language processing and information extraction products.
Ask Jeeves (Emeryville, CA) Research and Dictionary Specialist (3/1999-1/2001). Developmental work on dictionaries for question-answering system; question-and-answer evaluation and personal answering of general reference questions via email and community.
Mindmaker, Inc/Associative Computing (San Jose, CA) Head Lexicographer (4/97-5/98). Research and development of lexicon (based on WordNet) for natural language processing and intelligent agent system.
TextWise (Syracuse, NY) Lexicographic Analyst (10/95-4/96). Lexicographic and classification/hierarchy work for information retrieval system; conducted dictionary research.
Knowledge Adventure (La Crescenta, CA) Author/Developer (4/93-10/95). Writing, editing, development of multimedia reference works for software products, including all articles for a childrens encyclopedia.
General Electric Corporate Research (Schenectady, NY) Lexicographer, Artificial Intelligence Program (8/88-4/90, 11/96-4/97). Wrote large, hierarchically arranged lexicon for use with a natural-language processor. Compiled medical lexicon and ontology.
Bellcore/Telcordia (Morristown, NJ) Lexicographer, Artificial Intelligence & Information Science Research (8/85-8/88). Research of dictionaries and other reference works for development of a lexical knowledge base.
IBM T.J. Watson Research Center (Yorktown Heights, NY) Lexicographer, Lexical Systems Group (10/84-8/85). Research of dictionaries for inclusion in lexical knowledge base.
Wang Electronic Publishing (New York, NY) Lexicographer (11/83-10/84). Edited dictionary databases, thesauri, and other reference works for software products.
Yale University School of Organization and Management (CT) Newsletter Editor, 9/82-11/83.
Laurence Urdang Inc. (CT) Assistant to the Publisher (dictionary work); 5/82-7/82.
University of Houston (TX) Director of Word Processing Center; 6/81-5/82.
City of Valparaiso (IN) Assistant to the Mayor; 11/79-6/81.
Chicago Tribune newspaper (IL) Sports Scoreboard Page Editor; 6/79-10/79.
Gary Post-Tribune newspaper (IN) News and Sports Correspondent; 2/79-6/79.
Vidette-Messenger newspaper (IN) Sports Editor; 11/76-1/79.
EDUCATION
Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics, University of Exeter, 1989
Doctor of Philosophy in Archaeology, Greenwich University, 1998
Master of Philosophy in Linguistics, University of Exeter, 1985
Master of Arts in Buddhist Studies, Greenwich University, 2002
Bachelor of Science in Physical Education, Valparaiso University, 1978
BARBARA ANN KIPFER, Ph.D.
Publications
Dictionary of Artifacts, Boston: Blackwell, forthcoming 2007
The 1,572 Buddhist Ways to Be Happy, Berkeley, CA: Ulysses Press, forthcoming 2007
Word Nerd, Chicago: Sourcebooks, forthcoming 2007
Consider This, New York: Random House, forthcoming 2007
The Archaeologist's Fieldwork Companion, Boston: Blackwell, 2006
Trivia Lovers' Book of Lists, New York: Random House, 2006
Self-Meditation, New York: Workman Publishing, 2006
Life of Language, New York: Random House, 2006
201 Little Buddhist Reminders: Gathas for Your Daily Life, Berkeley, CA: Ulysses Press, 2006
How It Happens: The Extraordinary Processes of Everyday Things, New York: Random House, 2005
4,000 Questions for Getting to Know Anyone and Everyone, New York: Random House, 2004
Instant Karma, New York: Workman, 2003
Roget's Descriptive Word Finder, Cincinnati: Writer's Digest, 2003
Roget's International Thesaurus, Sixth Edition, New York: HarperCollins, 2001 (concise edition 2003)
Roget's Thesaurus of Phrases, Cincinnati: Writer's Digest, 2001
8,789 Words of Wisdom, New York: Workman Publishing, 2001 (100,000 in print)
Flip Dictionary, Cincinnati: Writer's Digest, 2000
Encyclopedic Dictionary of Archaeology, New York: Plenum-Kluwer, 2000
5,001 Things for Kids to Do, New York: Plume, 2000
Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus in Dictionary Form, New York: Dell/Laurel/Delta; 1992, second edition 1999
Dictionary of American Slang, Third Edition, New York: HarperCollins, 1998 (co-editor with Robert L. Chapman)
The Wish List, New York: Workman Publishing, 1997 (85,000 copies in print; published in Japanese)
The Order of Things: Hierarchies, Structures and Pecking Orders, New York: Random House; 1996
The Optimist's/Pessimist's Guide to the Millennium, New York: Perigee; 1996
USA Today Crossword Puzzle Dictionary, New York: Hyperion; 1996
Webster's 21st Century Large Print Dictionary, New York: Dell/Laurel, 1996
The Best of 14,000 things to be happy about Page-A-Day Calendars (annually 1995-2007), New York: Workman
1,400 things for kids to be happy about, New York: Workman; 1994. (95,000 in print)
Bartlett's Book of Business Quotations, New York: Little, Brown; 1994
Bartlett's Book of Love Quotations, New York: Little, Brown; 1994
Sisson's Word and Expression Locater, New York: Prentice Hall; 1994
21st Century Manual of Style, New York: Dell/Laurel, 1993
21st Century Spelling Dictionary, New York: Dell/Laurel, 1993
21st Century Synonym & Antonym Finder, New York: Dell/Laurel, 1993
Random House Kid's Encyclopedia text of 2,000 articles: La Crescenta, CA: Knowledge Adventure, Inc., 1993
14,000 things to be happy about, New York: Workman Publishing; 1990 (1 million copies in print; published in Bulgarian, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, German, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Swedish) (see www.thingstobehappyabout.com )
Workbook on Lexicography: A Course for Dictionary Users, Volume 8, Exeter Linguistic Series (General Editor: R.R.K. Hartmann), University of Exeter Press; 1984
Buddha, The Listmaker, Master of Arts in Buddhist Studies thesis, Greenwich University, 2002.
Encyclopedic Dictionary of Archaeology, PhD in Archaeology project in lieu of dissertation, Greenwich University, 1998.
"Computer Applications in LexicographyA New Summary of the State-of-the-Art," presented at the Dictionary Society of North America meeting, Universityof Michigan, 2001.
"Towards the Onomasiological Dictionary: The Use of the Computer in Providing Diversified Access", Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics dissertation, University of Exeter, 1989.
"Dictionaries and the Intermediate Student: Communicative Needs and the Development of User Reference Skills", in The Dictionary and the Language Learner, edited by Anthony Cowie, Lexicographic Series Maior 17, Tubingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag, 1987: 44-54.
"Investigating an Onomasiological Approach to Dictionary Material," in DICTIONARIES 1986, Journal of the DSNA, Number 8, 1987.
"The Declining Role of the In-House Dictionary Staff" and a review of The Wordtree, in DICTIONARIES 1985, Journal of the DSNA, Number 7, 1986.
"Computer Applications in Lexicography--A Summary of the State-of-the-Art," in Advances in Lexicography, (Proceedings of the 1983 DSNA meeting),Edmonton,Canada: Boreal Scholarly Publishing, 1986.
"Dictionaries and the Intermediate Student: Communicative Needs and the Development of User Reference Skills," Master of Philosophy in Linguistics, University ofExeter, 1985.
"Methods of Ordering Senses Within Entries," in Lexicographica, Series Maior 1: LEXeter '83 Proceedings, edited by R.R.K. Hartmann,Tubingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag, 1984: 101-108.
"Computer Applications in Lexicography: A Bibliography," in DICTIONARIES 1982, Journal of the Dictionary Society ofNorth America, No. 4, 1983: 202-237
BARBARA ANN KIPFER, Ph.D.
Summary of Specific Experience
INTERNET CONTENT AND QUESTION-ANSWERING:
Answered thousands and thousands of general reference questions.
Developed basic plan and categorization scheme of online question-and-answer community.
Researched and wrote many how-to / instructional articles.
Researched best answers to thousands and thousands of knowledge-base questions.
Set up hierarchical schemes and synonym tables for online shopping, online city directories, and a search engine.
MULTIMEDIA REFERENCE PRODUCTS:
Conducted analyses of multimedia product containing multiple major reference books and developed plan for improving the index/browser, access, and presentation of the text.
Copyedited and proofread content and documentation for multimedia reference products.
Designed and coded subject categorization for CD-ROM products.
Designed categorization scheme and encoded 200,000+ articles in encyclopedia sets.
Edited databases of reference materials for software products, including spelling checkers, thesauri, dictionaries, encyclopedias.
Wrote 2000+ encyclopedia articles for children, including amazing facts and bibliographic information.
NATURAL LANGUAGE PROCESSING, ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, AND INFORMATION RETRIEVAL RESEARCH:
Conducted research of dictionaries, encyclopedias, almanacs, and other reference works for artificial intelligence, natural language, and information retrieval projects.
Created collection of questions with paraphrases and sentence simplification for natural language system.
Prepared corpus annotation for natural language processing.
Prepared hierarchies, subject-field categorization/classification schemes, ontologies for document summarization.
Prepared lexicons for text expansion and generation.
Prepared medical spelling dictionary and ontology, extracted medical terminology and associated definitions.
Prepared thesauri and lexicons for various uses, including automated development of lexicons and glossaries.
Prepared thesaurus of collocations and created many collections of collocations.
WordNet complete revamping: added synonyms, removed erroneous synonyms, enhanced with weighting of terms (obscurity coding) at sense and word level.
Wrote lexicon of most frequent 10,000+ words, assigned to a 1000-concept hierarchy for use in a natural-language processor.
REFERENCE PUBLISHING AND CONTENT CREATION:
Dictionary entry writing, revision, and copyediting.
Designed and compiled a variety of word books.
Designed and compiled A-to-Z thesauri and conceptually arranged thesauri.
Designed categorization schemes for major reference works.
Prepared Americanization of British dictionary content.
Prepared pronunciations in a respelling system for dictionaries.
Wrote workbook on lexicography for dictionary users and students.
SUMMARY OF SKILLS:
Always meet deadlines, often finishing ahead of target.
Experienced at writing proposals and reports based on ideas, needs, and research.
Extremely good organizational and planning skills.
Have supervised assistants, especially during the past 13 years. Have worked closely with programmers/engineers.
Intense desire to learn.
More than 20 years experience as a teleworker; very willing to make regular and special visits to headquarters.
Offer a unique combination of talent and training: PhDs in linguistics and archaeology, Masters in linguistics and Buddhist studies; work in artificial intelligence research, reference publishing, reference software, Internet content and question-answering; and development of categorization schemes, hierarchies, and ontologies.
Strength is self-motivation to complete tasks beyond expectations and on-time.
Very communicative and easily reached via email, phone, and fax. Have high-speed Internet connection.
*I am also a Registered Professional Archaeologist (RPA).