Welcome
Lynn Westbrook, School of Information
This site provides basic information on my professional life and you are most welcome here. Please send me your suggestions and questions.
As my vita indicates, my background is in human information interaction with a focus on contextual factors of the individual's experience, including the cognitive, affective, and behavioral facets of information interactions.
I've published on intimate partner violence information issues, digital reference communication, mental model theory, interdisciplinary information seeking in Women's Studies, information literacy, and information needs analysis.
My current research projects center on identifying means of understanding and building the cognitive and affective infrastructure required to increase the efficacy of formal and informal community agencies who work with people in crisis. My work is leading towards an interactive digital community model. This work includes guidelines for e-government engagement throughout crisis phases, information enrichment tools for social service agencies, resources for public librarians interested in meeting the socio-economic needs in their communities, and evaluation methods for public libraries that accept responsibility for the information needs of citizens in crisis situations. My current study context is the small world constellation of intimate partner violence (IPV). My current research projects analyze stakeholder interactions; my current writing projects are three articles and a proposal for a book on the IPV information landscape.
Again, you are most welcome and I hope to hear from you.
Lynn Westbrook, Associate Professor
lynnwest@ischool.utexas.edu
512.232.7831