Olívia Pestana is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Porto, since 2013, in the Department of Communication and Information Sciences. She is also a researcher at CITCEM - Transdisciplinary Culture, Space and Memory Research Centre. Before working exclusively in academia, she worked as an information manager in the health sector.
She holds a PhD in Information and Communication in Digital Platforms from the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Porto - joint degree with the University of Aveiro (2011). She also holds a Master in Information Management from the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (2006), a Specialisation Diploma in Documentation Sciences from the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Coimbra (1996), and a BA in Modern Languages and Literature from the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Porto (1992).
Former member of the Teaching Standards Committee of FLUP (2019-2023), former director of the Bachelor of Arts in Information Science (2014-2019), former member of the board of the R&D Centre CETAC.MEDIA (2012-2016) and of the Scientific Committee of the Master in History and Heritage (2014 -2023).
She is a member of the Scientific Committee of the Master in Information Science (2015 -...) and a member of the Follow-up Committee of the Bachelor of Arts in Information Science (2019 -...).
Her current interests are in knowledge organisation systems, content analysis and subject indexing in different domains. She is also interested in graduate and postgraduate education in information science, especially in information and knowledge organisation.
Olívia Pestana is a member of the
Standing Committee on Subject Analysis and Access of
IFLA and
Country Representative at the Association for Information Science and Technology (
ASIS&T).