Converging research threads
Crisis information needs, digital communities, mental models
These questions are moving towards a convergence of research on information interactions, contextual components of information decisions, digital communities development, and service design. By focusing on intimate partner violence (IPV) I am developing a model of the staged relationships between need and service experienced by people in crisis. The formal and informal information infrastructures, cross-agency supports, and mental models of various information related processes underpin personal information engagement.
In my Crisis Research in Information Studies (CRIS), I examine the following questions:
- What types of activities do personal crisis survivors find cognitively, affectively, and behaviorally possible at what stages of engagement with information systems? How do those correlate with stages of movement towards safer living? What roles can/do community embedded information agencies play in that movement?
- Digital communities hold the potential to provide an accessible, organized online agency with service, collection, and information literacy components. How could digital communities interlace formal and informal support services on a community, state, and even national level? How can people in crisis situations safely contribute to the content, participate in the sub-communities, manage the information required in their various problem solving efforts, and connect to ever-changing local resource offerings?
- What are the mental models that people in crisis hold? What, for example, do IPV survivors expect of police, of shelter staff, of each other, of medical staff, of librarians, of the Internet? Each MM is, of course, unique, but what are the common patterns that can be incorporated into design?
If any of this interests you, please let me know. Research partnerships with experts in digital library design, information retrieval, and usability would be particularly welcome. A variety of research internships and independent studies are available at all times.