Connections 8: A Quest for Knowledge is now a part of history. During the three-day conference, hosted by Long Island University in June 2003, doctoral students, candidates, and recent PhD graduates presented 31 research papers. Twelve colleges and universities were represented, including the Royal School of LIS, Copenhagen; Abo Akademi University, Finland; Dowling College; University of Toronto; McGill University; Long Island Universiy; and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The Conference opened with a welcome reception, held in the former mansion of Marjorie Post and her husband E.F. Hutton, where arriving attendess met colleagues and old acquantances. Conference keynote speakers included information science authors, Dr Michael E.D. Koenig and Dr Charles Hildreth. Mike Koenig, Dean of the College of Information and Computer Science, spoke on the topic of knowledge management. He shared research evidence, deriving in large part from a doctoral dissertation at LIU, that KM is not a fad but embraces the convergence of knowledge artefacts, communication channels, and societal needs. Charles Hildreth, who serves as the Director of the Information Studies doctoral program at Long Island University, spoke on a survey of the methods of information science research. Charles Hildreth suggested that the process of exploring and describing that characterizes most information science research must now lead researchers to hypothesis testing, confirmation, and explanation.