Research Interests - Kind of

Hello! My name is Kara and I'm in my last semester of the MI program, with a dual concentration in LIS and ARM.

I am interested in tools for enhancing information sharing and information literacy within corporate, research and academic environments, and also have an interest in the development of in-house and outreach programs for literacy. For this reason, I'm interested in research that is more immediately applicable, and can be used within the context of a specific situation. This makes it a bit more difficult to articulate a research question; however, here are some general thoughts that I've come up with during Luker's 15 minute exercise:

• How does information generally reach people within the environment? Is information coming from various sources/media absorbed in the same manner and to the same extent?
• To what degree are other employees (ie. people outside of the creator(s) of the information) participants in the sharing of important information within the environment?
• If different importance is being placed on information coming from different sources/media, why? Are there different degrees of authority or urgency attributed to these sources/media, or is it a matter of the attributes of the information itself, or of the media it's presented on? 
• If information from certain sources/media is valued more highly than others, is it possible for people to articulate this? Or is this done more unconsciously?
• How does the existing pattern of information sharing and literacy align with the goals of the organization? Also, how does it compare to other patterns that have been used in the past, and that are in use in similar organizations today?

I do not believe it would be possible to go much further than this without knowing the specific context of the situation in which the information is travelling, and the information needs of its creators and users. Other questions may look more closely at the specific media being used, and potential tool to modify to the current patterns of transmissions. Hopefully I will get the chance to apply my knowledge in the future!


Sources:


Luker, K. (2008). Salsa dancing into the social sciences: Research in an age of info-glut. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.