Doctoral Student Bio

Nancy E. Black

blackn -at- unbc.ca

Background:
PhD Candidate, UBC
MLS, Dalhousie University
BA, University of Waterloo

Research Interests:
Major research interest: Information seeking behaviour, specifically cognitive user centered perspective, interested in barriers encountered to information seeking that affect and/or are evident in information seeking behvaiour. Minor research interest, intellectual freedom, censorship, specifically how censorship issues and barriers affect information seeking experiences for young adults.

Dissertation topic:
Information seeking experiences of the post-secondary distance/online student. Currently analyzing data and writing a first draft.

Recent publications:

Lapadat, J., Black, N., Clark, P., Gremm, R., Karanja, L., mieke, Quinlan, L., (2010). Life challenge memory work: using collaborative autobiography to understand ourselves. International Journal of Qualitative Methods 9 (1), p. 77-104.

Lapadat, J.C. (2009). Writing our way into shared understanding: Collaborative autobiographical writing in the qualitative methods class. Qualitative Inquiry 15 (6), p. 955-979.

Recent research:
Chaired a committee that designed and conducted a library services assessment survey disseminated to UNBC students, faculty and staff. The findings revealed a number of interesting findings about use patterns and behavior; among the findings: respondents value and want more instruction; want more electronic resources; love and use the physical setting; respondents access and use the resources in ways that are similar to use patterns and behavior in distance students, which suggests that services implemented for distance students would also benefit on-campus users. A full report was completed and I am currently writing an article.

Currently employed at the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC) as Manager, Access and Information Services.