Applying the Experience Sampling Method to the Study of Information Communication Technology Use by Child Welfare Workers in Rural North Florida

Photo of Melissa Gross.

Melissa Gross, PhD

Professor, School of Information, Florida State University

Seminar Date: April 24, 2019

The experience sampling method (ESM) allows researchers to study human behavior and cognition on site, capturing the subjective experiences that make up everyday life. The method was developed in the 1970s as Mihaly Csikszentimihalyi looked for ways to study the experience of flow. Library and information science research has begun to utilize ESM to learn more about flow and other experiences users have in libraries and in interacting with technology. This talk will describe how ESM is being used in a study of child welfare workers’ experience using information communication technology in the course of performing their work.

Melissa Gross is a professor in the School of Information at Florida State University and a past president of the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE). She received her PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1998 and was awarded the prestigious American Association of University Women Recognition Award for Emerging Scholars in 2001. She teaches and does research in the areas of information seeking behavior, resources for youth, research methods, the evaluation of library programs and services, information literacy, and teacher and librarian collaboration. She has published extensively in a variety of peer-reviewed journals including Library & Information Science Research, Library Quarterly, Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, and College & Research Libraries. Her most recent book, co-edited with Shelbie Witte and Don Latham, is Literacy Engagement through Peritextual Analysis (2019, Chicago, IL: ALA Editions and the National Council of Teachers of English).