Me, November 2010
Hi, my name is Adam Worrall and I am a third-year doctoral student at Florida State University (FSU)’s School of Library and Information Studies (SLIS), part of the College of Communication and Information (CCI). I have a MS in Library and Information Science, also from Florida State University, as well as a BS in Computer Science from the University of Central Florida.
My research centers around social informatics, especially social, collaborative information behavior and the social contexts of information and communication technologies in communities and collaborative environments. My particular focus is on the social, community, and collaborative contexts of digital libraries as boundary objects within and across social worlds, information worlds, and communities.
Read more about my research, teaching, and service below.
Research
As noted above, my research interests focus on social informatics, information behavior, and the two phenomena of communities and collaboration. I particularly examine these in the context of social digital libraries as boundary objects within and across social worlds, information worlds, and communities. I build on existing research and theory, including Star’s boundary object theory, Strauss’s social worlds framework, and Burnett and Jaeger’s theory of information worlds, employing a social informatics-based approach that uses multiple and mixed methods of data collection.
Digital libraries as boundary objects will succeed if they coherently reconcile the meanings and understandings of the multiple communities, social worlds, and information worlds that use them, allowing users to collaborate and supporting the creation or emergence of a broader community around the digital library. I look at (a) how digital libraries act as boundary objects; (b) whether and how they facilitate the interface between existing worlds and the emergence of new worlds; and (c) what role the social norms, social types, information behavior, and information values of existing information worlds play.
My other research experiences include:
- Graduate Research Assistant for NSF-funded Virtual Scientific Teams: Life-Cycle Formation and Long-Term Scientific Collaboration (VOSS) project, working to develop a model of the lifecycles of scientific teams and improve understanding of the social and organizational factors that help support such a team’s successful transition from short-term experiments to long-term programs of ongoing scientific research.
- Collaborator with Dr. Sanghee Oh on her Quality Evaluation of Health Answers in Social Q&A project (alongside Yong Jeong Yi), investigating the influence of social media in and on health information seeking and sharing behaviors. We are comparing health reference librarians, nurses, and questioners’ quality evaluations of answers to questions on Yahoo! Answers.
Read my research statement and review my publications and presentations for more details.
Teaching
I have been a teaching assistant for multiple master’s-level LIS courses at FSU, including grading papers and assignments, choosing readings, facilitating in-class and online discussions, and leading class sessions. My teaching has been highly rated and praised by both students and professors.
In my teaching, I try my best to:
- Help students learn and creatively apply what they learn as part of a collaborative learning community
- Effectively facilitate such learning through strategies, activities, and assignments chosen appropriately for the course objectives, students, and learning community
- Know students’ multiple intelligences and learning styles, addressing them in activities and assignments
- Respect students and their other obligations, expecting mutual respect in return
- Realize how my own limits and biases affect my teaching
Read my teaching philosophy statement for more details.
Service
I am a strong believer in service to one’s institution, local community, and profession. My service as a doctoral student has included:
- Participating in SLIS’s Doctoral Program Committee (DPC) as one of four student representatives
- Presenting and facilitating research and teaching colloquia and proseminar sessions at SLIS
- Representing CCI in FSU’s Congress of Graduate Students (COGS) and serving as Vice Chair of COGS’s Academics and Student Life Committee
- Serving as Secretary of Beta Phi Mu, Gamma Chapter at FSU
- Leading and facilitating discussion by doctoral students of writing goals and career progress as part of SLIS’s Agraphia writing support group, with the assistance of our faculty advisor Dr. Gary Burnett
- Peer reviewing articles for the Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology and paper and poster submissions to the 2012 iConference
- Membership in the American Society for Information Science and Technology (ASIST), Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE), and American Library Association (ALA)
Read my service statement for more details on my professional service activities.
CV
View or print my curriculum vitae in PDF and HTML formats.
Portfolio
View my portfolio, including my research, teaching, and service statements; publications; and coursework while a doctoral student.
About
Read more about me, my research interests, and how and why I’m here.
