Research Groups
I am a founding member of the Digital Information Interaction Group (DiiG) at SLAIS.
Research Projects & Grants
Graphics, Animation and New Media - A Network Centre of Excellence
I am a Network investigator for the NCE Grand, and working on the the NGAIA - Next Generation Search Appliances Project, the NEWS Project, and the MEOW Project. I am project co-leader for the NGAIA project.
E-informing the public: a genre-based approach to information interaction in digital government (http://diigubc.ca/research/egovernment/)
This research investigates the information interactions between government information producers and public information consumers from the perspective of genre theory. The aim is twofold: to inform the design of strategies and tools to facilitate access to and use of digital government information, and to validate and extend to the public domain a novel approach to information retrieval based on the relationships between tasks and genres. This work will focus on the case of digital government at the Canadian federal level.
Funding Agency: SSHRC - $122,000 (September 2009-2012)
Systematic Review of Imposed Search Tasks (http://ils.unc.edu/searchtasks/)
People’s search behaviors vary widely. It’s likely that some of this variation is not related to differences in the characteristics of individual searchers (e.g., domain knowledge or search expertise), but is instead due to differences in the tasks that they are trying to accomplish. Through a systematic review of prior research, we hope to gain a better understanding of the types of search tasks that have been imposed in studies of searching behaviors and evaluations of information retrieval (IR) systems, and the potential influence of those search tasks on study/evaluation outcomes.
Co-Investigators: Barbara Wildemuth, Elaine Toms, Jung Sun Oh
Designing Digital Information Use Environments to support Academic Work
Our goal in this study is to discover ways of enhancing the interactive experience and scholarly utility of digital information environments for academic use. We will explore how users currently engage with digital materials in the normal course of scholarly activity, and determine new means of presentation, interaction, and engagement with these materials. The study further aims to place this activity in the specific context of undergraduate students' general information practices and to assess the relationship between features of an online journal system and the cognitive and affective outcomes of academic work within this system.
Funding Agency: UBC Hampton Fund, Amount $20,000 (September 2009-2011)
Co-Investigators: Heather O'Brien & Rick Kopak
Seeking Common Ground: Genres of Communication for Digital Government (Completed)
This research will examine how the interchange of information between the government and the public can be fostered and supported through the establishment of common ground, with a particular emphasis on the role of digital document genres.
Funding Agency: UBC Faculty of Arts HSS Grants, Amount $5,000 (June, 2008 - May, 2009)
Learning from our Students: Assessing student perceptions of information studies programs and the information professions (http://www.diigubc.ca/projects/lfos/index.html)
This project studies student perceptions of their education and their professions. We are interested in how perceptions change over time in general, how perceptions might differ at different points in the program, how perceptions differ across different areas of specialization, and how perceptions differ across different institutions.
Funding Agency: Association for Library and Information Science Education, $5,000. (Jan, 2008 - Dec, 2008)
Co-investigators: Joan Cherry & Wendy Duff, University of Toronto
Research Areas
Digital Document Genres
Focuses on the nature and potential exploitation of naturally occuring patterns of document genres in heterogenous document collections.
Interactive Information Retrieval
Focuses on the use of information retrieval systems by people in various domains, settings and task frameworks.
Reference and information services
Focuses on the provision of information services and the associated interactions between humans and technology.
LIS Education & Evaluation
Focuses on the development of tools to monitor and assess LIS educational standards and approaches across institutions and contribute to the establishment of best practices and critical success factors.