Research Program - overview

My research and scholarly activity focuses on the study of human information behavior. The overall purpose of this research is to develop a deeper understanding of how people need, seek and use information in their professional and everyday lives. Ultimately the new knowledge generated by this research is used to inform the development or enhancement of resources, services and technologies that facilitate information access and use.

My research and scholarly work features:

1. significant research problems;

 
2. clearly articulated research questions or objectives;

 
3. contemporary theoretical and conceptual frameworks;

 
4. creative, valid and reliable methods;

 
5. findings, conclusions and recommendations that link to professional practice, service and system design, or methodological enhancement.

The theoretical underpinning for my research program has consistently been the user-oriented paradigm.

Over the years, my research program has included human information behavior studies that:

1. expound contemporary theoretical and methodological frameworks—the user-oriented paradigm, the cognitive viewpoint in information science;

 
2. explore and elaborate key concepts and processes—relevance, satisfaction, information infrastructure, collaborative information retrieval, information literacy, personal information management, information usings, personal information collection, personal anticipated information need, and interdisciplinarity; and

 
3. examine the impact of information technology on information seeking and use in the workplace and community—the Internet and academic work, statewide database licensing.

Research Awards

UMI ASIS Doctoral Dissertation Award

Research Reports

Bruce, H. Lampson, M. and Klein, R. Information Literacy Project Report. Final report to the State Library Information Literacy Committee.

Efthimiadis, E. N., Bruce H., James L. & Merrigan, K. A study of the impact of Statewide Database Licensing on Information Provision in the State of Washington. Final Report to the Washington State Library. February 2000.

PhD Thesis

"A user oriented view of Internet as information infrastructure"

Masters Thesis

"A cognitive view of the situational dynamism of user centered relevance estimation."

Funded Projects

Microsoft ($75,000) 2005-2006
  "The Encarta Project"

National Science Foundation - Information and Data Management ($428,389) 2001, 2002, 2003

    "Keeping Found Things Found"

           Supplementary award ($70,000), 2004-2005

National Science Foundation – Information and Data Management ($34,361) 2004, 2005

   "Sponsored workshop on personal information management"

National Science Foundation - Information and Data Management ($246,208) 2003

   "Information Retrieval and Databases: Synergies and Syntheses" – PI workshop, Seattle, September 2003.

Institute for Museum and Library Services ($212,023) 2003, 2004, 2005

   "Project Athena: Spinning the Web of our Future"

Institute for Museum and Library Services ($74, 801) 2005, 2006

   "Extending the Web"

National Science Foundation - Computation and Social Systems ($444,947) 1999, 2000, 2001

   "Collaborative Information Retrieval"

Washington State Library ($7,995) 2000

   "Information Literacy Project"

 Washington State Library ($19,568) 1999

   "Statewide Database Licensing User Study"

State Library of N.S.W. ($5,000) 1997, 1998

   "Community access to the Internet via the local public library"

University of Canberra Internal Research Grant ($7,000) 1996

   "Internet and academic work - a quantitative study"

DEET Evaluation and Investigations Program ($21,905) 1994, 1995

   "AARNet and academic work: A longitudinal study"

Committee of Australian Directors of Information Technology (CAUDIT) ($6,300) 1993

   "AARNet and academic work - an exploratory study"

University of Technology, Sydney Internal Research Grant ($1,235) 1992

   "Information professionals' assumptions about the user: Developing and measuring behavioural indicators"