Publications

Looking for Information Book CoverMy most recent book (co-authored with Donald O. Case and Rebekah Willson) is Looking for Information: Examining Research on How People Engage with Information published by Emerald Press. The 5th edition of this popular and well-cited text includes significant design changes and new content. Presenting a comprehensive review of over a century of research on information behavior (IB), this book is intended for researchers and students in information science and other disciplines interested in how people locate information and apply it in workplaces, schools, and in everyday life.

My book 100 Questions (and Answers) About Qualitative Research provides a useful overview for research students, researcher-practitioners, or academics who want to learn more about qualitative research approaches. Exploring the nature and practice of qualitative inquiry, this unique book addresses the practical decisions that researchers must make in their work, from the design of the study, through ethics approval, implementation, and writing. The book’s quick-scan, question-and-answer format make it ideal as a supplementary text or as a ready reference for graduate students preparing for comprehensive exams and writing research proposals, undergraduates in affiliated programs who will not be taking a primary course in qualitative research methods, and researchers working across disciplines in academic or practice environments.

I publish widely on topics related to individuals’ information behaviours and qualitative inquiry. Notably, much of my work has been published in Library and Information Science Research, including the following award-winning papers:

  • Visual traffic sweeps (VTS): A research method for mapping user activities in the library space (co-author, Heather Archibald), which won the ALISE/ProQuest Best Methodology Paper Award in 2010.
  • Information literacy proficiency: Assessing the gap in high school students’ readiness for undergraduate academic work (co-authors, Jorden K. Smith, Heidi Julien, Dana Ouellette and Kathleen DeLong), which was awarded the ALA Library Instruction Round Table’s Top 20 Paper Award in 2013

I am the editor of The Sage Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methods (2008) and co-editor of Critical theory for library and information science: Exploring the social from across the disciplines (2010).