Helen Partridge

University of Southern Queensland 

This paper presents results of a survey of library and information science (LIS) practitioners, which explored their research activities and the support needed from employers for research collaborations and dissemination of results. Findings show that while LIS practitioners are actively engaged in research, there are significant gaps in the availa...

The idea of a third space, positioned between academic and professional domains, has proven useful in examining the evolving nature of higher education work. The continuing disruptions in higher education worldwide highlight the importance of the third space and the need for further exploration. A scoping review of third space work in the higher ed...

Every year, millions of people are forced to flee their homes to find safety. This paper investigates the information literacy experiences of people from forced migrant backgrounds as they settle into a new country during their first few years of migration. Using a qualitative and interpretive approach incorporating thematic analysis techniques, da...

While online-only programs are increasingly common, many universities today offer dual mode programs with both online and on campus cohorts undertaking the same program at the same time. This results in students having a range of experiences along a continuum from fully online study to a mix of online and face-to-face study. This research aimed to...

Supporting academics and practitioners to collaborate is critical to advance innovations in research and practice. The Research Assistance and Development for Australian Researchers (RADAR) program was designed to: 1) provide funding to teams to implement co-designed, practice-informed research projects; and 2) to document academics and practitione...

Students from low-socioeconomic (low-SES) backgrounds living in rural, regional and remote (RRR) communities in Australia experience intersecting equity challenges and disadvantages impacting upon their study success. Using in-depth semi-structured interviews, this study explored the experience of 42 students living in low-SES RRR communities in Au...

University students living in regional, rural and remote (RRR) communities of Australia face unique challenges including geographical isolation, lack of access to face-to-face support, and technological barriers. This paper outlines a project funded by the Australian Government’s Higher Education Participation and Partnerships Program that was unde...

Postgraduate students are navigating a rapidly evolving landscape for their future careers. In this context, higher education providers are responsible for supporting and monitoring postgraduate (masters and doctoral) students’ development for both education and employability contexts. This empirical research provides a rich analysis of feedback br...

This study used narrative inquiry to investigate the experiences of Australian public librarians with professional learning and development. Twelve librarians currently working in public libraries in Australia were interviewed. The interviews revealed stories that depicted the real experiences of professional learning for the librarians. These stor...

This article examines the narratives that drive university staff understanding of the concerns and experiences of regional and remote students at five universities in Australia. Interviews were conducted with thirty university staff members over a period of three months in 2018. Reflexive thematic analysis of the stories told by staff of supporting...

Access to information as a necessary precondition for human flourishing is recognized explicitly in the UNESCO Strategic Development Goals, and mirrored by the work of universities globally to reduce barriers to information, especially research outputs. Growing international attention has turned to learning and teaching resources, particularly text...

The panel will explore the challenges and opportunities for bridging the library and information science (LIS) research practice gap in Australia. The panel brings together participants from the Research Assistance and Development for Australian Researchers (RADAR) Grant, an initiative of the Library and Information Science Research Australia (LISR...

Cohesive integration practices within ‘one-stop’ student support services are critical for student success, however empirical studies in this area are limited in number and scope. This case study addresses this gap by exploring the lived experience of staff and managers who support students at a regional Australian university’s integrated student s...

While online-only programs are increasingly common, many universities today offer dual mode programs with both online and on campus cohorts undertaking the same program at the same time. This results in students having a range of experiences along a continuum from fully online study to a mix of online and face-to-face study. This research aimed to...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide an understanding of skilled immigrants’ lived experience of using information to learn about their new setting. Design/methodology/approach Thematic analysis was conducted on a qualitative data set collected through 16 semi-structured interviews with newly arrived skilled immigrants in Australia. Fi...

The public library has historically been entrusted with the design and delivery of services and programmes aimed at supporting the information literacy needs of the community-at-large. However, despite that central role little research has been devoted to understanding the ways in which public librarians, the conduit between the programme and the p...

University students living in rural, regional, and remote (RRR) areas of Australia face unique challenges including geographical isolation, lack of access to face-to-face support, and technological barriers. Additionally, RRR students from low-socioeconomic (low-SES) backgrounds experience multiple forms of disadvantage compared to their on-campus...

Introduction. This paper presents the findings from a project that investigated people’s everyday life information experiences in Twitter. Method. The project employed Constructivist Grounded Theory methodology, which emphasizes personal, subjective meaning making or construction of reality. Eleven people from Boston in the USA participated in the...

Interviews with students who accessed enrolment support were undertaken to explore reasons students utilised this service, and how integrated student support service models can impact on student transition, retention and success. Results indicate that students primarily required support with course enrolments because of the new environment they wer...

We are living in the age of online information. Knowledge and information are increasingly accessed through the internet, and the catch-cry ‘I’ll just Google that!’ now has a firm place in the vernacular. Founded in 1998, Google.com has had unprecedented success in changing the way we look for and find online information. This article discusses res...

The paper presents findings from a study into the information experiences of people needing to make post-separation parenting arrangements. Data was collected from 20 participants, through in-depth, semi-structured, telephone interviews. Thematic analysis identified five major themes: Following, Immersion, Interpersonal, History and Context which d...

The public library has historically been entrusted with the design and delivery of services and programmes aimed at supporting the information literacy needs of the community-at-large. However, despite that central role little research has been devoted to understanding the ways in which public librarians, the conduit between the programme and the p...

As universities seek new ways to engage and support students in their learning, in Australia, students from regional and remote areas pose a challenge for universities given their geographical, social and technological isolation compared with their metropolitan counterparts. Much of the literature that address challenges associated with distance le...

Objective – This article presents the findings of a project which established an empirical basis for evidence based library and information practice (EBLIP). More specifically, the paper explores what library and information professionals experienced as evidence in the context of their professional practice. Methods – The project consisted of two...

This Good Practice Guide to support the Postgraduate Student Experience is part of a suite of resources developed during the 2014 Strategic Priority Project: Engaging postgraduate students and supporting higher education to enhance the 21st century student experience, funded by the Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching. This three...

The overall goals of the research were to determine what Australian postgraduates think about their student experience and to recommend ameliorative actions to guide the strategies of higher education leaders. The specific project aims were to: (i) undertake a comprehensive analysis of the broad experiences of Australian coursework postgraduate stu...

Introduction. This paper presents the findings from a project that investigated the lived experiences of library and information professionals in relation to evidence-based practice within an Australian public library. Method. The project employed ethnography, which allows holistic description of people's experiences within a particular community o...

The qualitative research reported here identifies how web designers and developers experience information literacy. Using a phenomenographic approach, this cohort's experience is presented through a map of variation, which includes four different ways of experiencing information literacy. Analysis of 23 in-depth interviews with web workers from dif...

The University of Southern Queensland (USQ) has a strong social justice ethos. Based on this ethos, USQ is seeking to re-position and re-conceptualize itself as a university grounded in the principles of openness and open education. This chapter describes the experiences of USQ as it strives to build a culture of openness and agility and investigat...

Makerspaces are more than just places to make things; a makerspace is ‘a physical location where people gather to share resources and knowledge, work on projects, network, and build’. The NMC Horizon Report: 2015 Higher Education Edition lists the time-to-adoption of makerspaces within the higher education context, as two to three years. While ther...

Strategic communication is not solely the remit of library managers and directors, but is the product of internal culture and engagement with the organization's brand. Libraries need to communicate strategically, in order to demonstrate to individuals across the organization that their message is on point, and that they understand, are committed to...

Healthcare professionals' use of social media platforms, such as blogs, wikis, and social networking web sites has grown considerably in recent years. However, few studies have explored the perspectives and experiences of physicians in adopting social media in healthcare. This article aims to identify the potential benefits and challenges of adopti...

Introduction. This paper explores the current and future skills and knowledge requirements of contemporary information professionals in a converged gallery, library, archive and museum sector (also referred to as the GLAM sector) in Australia. This research forms part of a larger study that investigated the education needs of information profession...

Introduction. This study reports an investigation into the ways in which people engaged in a serious leisure activity can experience using information to learn (also known as information literacy). Method. Data were collected through twenty-two semi-structured, one-on-one, phenomenographic interviews conducted with identified serious leisure partic...

This article presents a ‘knowledge ecosystem’ model of how early career academics experience using information to learn while building their social networks for developmental purposes. Developed using grounded theory methodology, the model offers a way of conceptualising how to empower early career academics through 1) agency (individual and relati...

The San Jose Gateway PhD program is a doctoral partnership between the School of Information at San Jose State University (SJSU) in the USA, and the Information Systems School at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Australia. Because of Californian legislation, SJSU has not been able to offer PhD degrees. The Gateway Program therefore...

Purpose – This paper aims to explore the potential contributions of social media in supporting tacit knowledge sharing, according to the physicians’ perspectives and experiences. Design/methodology/approach – Adopting a qualitative survey design, 24 physicians were interviewed. Purposive and snowball sampling were used to select the participants....

Information Literacy (IL) is presented here from a relational perspective, as people's experience of using information to learn in a particular context. A detailed practical example of such a context is provided, in the Health Information Literacy (HIL) experience of 65 to 79 year old Australians. A phenomenographic investigation found five qualita...

The conference theme “Evidence and practice: Working together” reflected our focus on narrowing the gap between practice and evidence, and in promoting evidence based practice in all parts of the information profession.

Background: The problem of developing and sustaining mutual trust is one of the main barriers to knowledge sharing on social media platforms such as blogs, wikis, micro-blogs and social networking websites. While many studies argue that mutual trust is necessary for online communication and knowledge sharing, few have actually explored and demonst...

Introduction. Social media are becoming a vital source of information in disaster or emergency situations. While a growing number of studies have explored the use of social media in natural disasters by emergency staff, military personnel, medical and other professionals, very few studies have investigated the use of social media by members of the...

Increasingly, the library and information science (LIS) practitioner is being challenged to incorporate research into the context of their professional work. This paper reports on the Researcher-Librarian Partnership, a research-mentoring programme that was initiated by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. Six new...

In recent years, there has been considerable discussion of the challenges facing the future of information education in Australia. This paper reports a study that explored the characteristics and experiences of Australia’s information educators. The study was undertaken as part of a larger project, which was designed to establish a consolidated and...

Purpose – This paper aims to outline research that explores the information literacy experiences of English as a foreign language (EFL) students. The question explored in this research was: how do EFL students experience information literacy? Design/methodology/approach – This study used phenomenography, a relational approach to explore the inform...

The purpose of this book is to open a conversation on the idea of information experience, which we understand to be a complex, multidimensional engagement with information. In developing the book we invited colleagues to propose a chapter on any aspect of information experience, for example conceptual, methodological or empirical. We invited them t...

Previous studies have shown that users' cognitive styles play an important role during web searching. However, only a limited number of studies have showed the relationship between cognitive styles and web search behavior. Most importantly, it is not clear which components of web search behavior are influenced by cognitive styles. This article exam...

Digital disruption and an increasingly networked society drive rapid change in many professions and a corresponding need for change in tertiary education. Across the world, information education has, to date, prepared graduates for employment in discrete professions, such as librarianship, records management, archives and teacher librarianship. How...

Organisations have begun projects to improve the implementation of Knowledge Management (KM). There are two approaches to implementing KM: the KM technology-centred approach and the KM people-centred approach. Information technology (IT) has been a central element of many of KM projects. Recently, the emerging information technology known as Web 2....

This chapter presents the preliminary results of a phenomenographic study aimed at exploring people’s experience of information literacy during the 2011 flood in Brisbane, Queensland. Phenomenography is a qualitative, interpretive and descriptive approach to research that explores the different ways in which people experience various phenomena and...

Information Literacy (IL) is presented here from a relational perspective, as people's experience of using information to learn in a particular context. A detailed practical example of such a context is provided, in the Health Information Literacy (HIL) experience of 65 to 79 year old Australians. A phenomenographic investigation found five qualita...

The emerging growth of Web 2.0 has been observed by users in the workplace, and has therefore encouraged organisations to introduce Web 2.0 technologies in their businesses. Although its adoption is beneficial, it could meets with employees resistance due to some organisational factors. The successful implementation of Enterprise Web 2.0 is based o...

In this closing chapter the editors review key themes that have emerged through the book. We recognize the varied and dynamic nature of information experience across multiple contexts, and present our own conceptualization of information experience. Finally, we consider possible future directions for information experience research. © 2014 by Emera...

Information experience has emerged as a new and dynamic field of information research in recent years. This chapter will discuss and explore information experience in two distinct ways: (a) as a research object and (b) as a research domain. Two recent studies will provide the context for this exploration. The first study investigated the informatio...

This chapter presents the preliminary findings of a qualitative study exploring people's information experiences during the 2012 Queensland State election in Australia. Six residents of South East Queensland who were eligible to vote in the state election participated in a semi-structured interview. The interviews revealed five themes that depict p...

California is home to multiple queer community archives created by community members outside of government, academic, and public archives. These archives are maintained by the communities and are important spaces not only for the preservation of records, but also as safe spaces to study, gather, and learn about the communities’ histories. This arti...

This paper presents the findings of a pilot study that explores LIS professionals' experiences of using Twitter as part of their professional practice. The researchers used a qualitative research methodology to undertake the study. Semi-structured interviews and observation were used for data collection. The researchers conducted two in-depth, semi...

Purpose Researchers debate whether tacit knowledge sharing through information technology (IT) is actually possible. However, with the advent of social web tools, it has been argued that most shortcomings of tacit knowledge sharing are likely to disappear. The purpose of this paper is two‐fold: first, to demonstrate the existing debates in the lite...

This paper presents the findings from the first phase of a larger study into the information literacy of website designers. Using a phenomenographic approach, it maps the variation in experiencing the phenomenon of information literacy from the viewpoint of website designers. The current result reveals important insights into the lived experience o...

This chapter uses the idea of informed learning, an interpretation of information literacy that focuses on people’s information experiences rather than their skills or attributes, to analyse the character of using information to learn in diverse communities and settings, including digital, faith, indigenous and ethnic communities. While researchers...

Although the adoption of Enterprise Web 2.0 within organisations is beneficial, it could meet with employees' resistance and the adoption process can be lengthy. The successful implementation of Enterprise Web 2.0 is based on employee involvement and adoption of such social technology. This paper is part of a larger research project that explored t...

Success of query reformulation and relevant information retrieval depends on many factors, such as users' prior knowledge, age, gender, and cognitive styles. One of the important factors that affect a user's query reformulation behaviour is that of the nature of the search tasks. Limited studies have examined the impact of the search task types on...

Tacit knowledge sharing amongst physicians, such as the sharing of clinical experiences, skills, or know-how, or know-whom, is known to have a significant impact on the quality of medical diagnosis and decisions. This paper posits that social media can provide new opportunities for tacit knowledge sharing amongst physicians, and demonstrates this b...

Exploring information use within everyday or community contexts is a recent area of interest for information literacy research endeavors. Within this domain, health information literacy (HIL) has emerged as a focus of interest due to identified synergies between information use and health status. However, while HIL has been acknowledged as a core i...

Phenomenography is a qualitative research approach that seeks to explore variation in how people experience various aspects of their world. Phenomenography has been used in numerous information research studies that have explored various phenomena of interest in the library and information sphere. This paper provides an overview of the phenomenogra...

This paper discusses users' query reformulation behaviour while searching information on the Web. Query reformulations have emerged as an important component of Web search behaviour and human-computer interaction (HCI) because a user's success of information retrieval (IR) depends on how he or she formulates queries. There are various factors, such...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to debate the evolving relationship between libraries and users, and to justify the idea of participatory library and the use of the “participatory library” term. The paper also discusses the development trend of the participatory library and calls for empirical research on this area. Design/methodology/appro...

In recent years there has been considerable discussion afforded to the challenges facing the future of library and information science (LIS) education in Australia. This paper outlines a twelve-month project funded by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council that was undertaken by eleven institutions representing university and vocational LIS e...

With the advent of social web initiatives, some argued that these new emerging tools might be useful in tacit knowledge sharing through providing interactive and collaborative technologies. However, there is still a poverty of literature to understand how and what might be the contributions of social media in facilitating tacit knowledge sharing. T...

Social media networks have emerged as a powerful tool in allowing collaboration and sharing of information during times of crisis (Axel Bruns, The Centre for Creative Industries Blog, comment posted January 19, 2011). The 2011 Queensland floods provided a unique opportunity to explore social media use during an emergency. This paper presents the fi...

Lankes and Silverstein (2006) introduced the “participatory library” and suggested that the nature and form of the library should be explored. In the last several years, some attempts have been made in order to develop contemporary library models that are often known as Library 2.0. However, little research has been based on empirical data and such...

In the current economy, knowledge has been recognized to be a valuable organisational asset, a crucial factor that aids organisations to succeed in highly competitive environments. Many organisations have begun projects and special initiatives aimed at fostering better knowledge sharing amongst their employees. Not surprisingly, information technol...

As more and more information is available on the Web finding quality and reliable information is becoming harder. To help solve this problem, Web search models need to incorporate users' cognitive styles. This paper reports the preliminary results from a user study exploring the relationships between Web users' searching behavior and their cognitiv...

Seventy-six librarians participated in a series of focus groups in support of research exploring the skills, knowledge and attributes required by the contemporary library and information professional in a world of ever changing technology. The project was funded by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council. Text mining data analysis revealed thr...

In 2005, Stephen Abram, vice president of Innovation at SirsiDynix, challenged library and information science (LIS) professionals to start becoming "librarian 2.0." In the last few years, discussion and debate about the "core competencies" needed by librarian 2.0 have appeared in the "biblioblogosphere" (blogs written by LIS professionals). Howeve...

A graduate destination survey can provide a snap shot in time of a graduate’s career progression and outcome. This paper will present the results of a Queensland University of Technology study exploring the employment outcomes of students who had completed a library and information science course from the Faculty of Information Technology between 2...

Evidence-based practice is increasingly being recognised as an important issue in a range of professional contexts including education, nursing, occupational therapy and librarianship. Many of these professions have observed a relationship or interface between evidence-based practice and information literacy. Using a phenomenographic approach this...