UBIT Faculty Fellow
Associate Professor
INFORMATION SCIENCE
Information Science; Information behavior; Information practices; Information literacy; Digital Media and Learning; Digital literacy; Literacy; Information Literacy; Online and Distance Learning; Qualitative Research Methods
My research agenda focuses on two areas: 1)The continued development of the participatory design methodology, Bonded Design which is used to foster meaningful communication between two disparate groups. Currently, it is being used as the framework for the Faculty IT Liaison Program which unites UB faculty members and IT professional staff in the shared experience of the design team to encourage innovation to better meet faculty technology needs. In recognition of my work with UBIT, I was appointed the UBIT Faculty Fellow in 2017. I have received a $451,667 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to investigate Bonded Design as a means to help public librarians and older adults collaborate to create targeted programming 2) The intersection between information-seeking behavior and information literacy, specifically with elementary school students where I used empirical evidence attained through working directly with young students and teachers to design a process model – Beginning, Acting, Telling (BAT) for teaching information literacy knowledge and skills in the classroom. An added benefit of the model is the encouragement of meaningful collaboration between school librarians and teachers. I am the former editor of the Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science and on the editorial boards of Library and Information Science Research and the Indexer.