Adam Worrall

My name is Adam Worrall and I am an Assistant Professor at the University of Alberta School of Library and Information Studies. I earned my PhD from the Florida State University School of Information and also hold an MS in Library and Information Studies from FSU and a BS in Computer Science from the University of Central Florida.

In my research, I adopt social informatics, information behaviour, and information practice perspectives to study information-centric communities that are wholly or partially online. I am particularly interested in the roles played by information and communication technologies (ICTs) in online information-centric communities and the relationships and interactions they have with users and their information sharing behaviours and practices within these contexts.

On this site, you can

find out more about my research agenda and interests;
learn about my teaching experience (including courses I teach) and my teaching philosophy;
review my service philosophy and experience;
review my full portfolio, including
- my research, teaching, and service statements,
- details of my publications and presentations, and
- my PhD dissertation;
review my curriculum vitae (CV);
read more about me, my research interests, and how and why I'm here; and
find out how to contact me.

Travels

June 3 - 5: Vancouver, BC (CAIS 2019 Annual Conference) (dates TBC)
July 19 - 21: Toronto, ON (Social Media and Society 2019) (dates TBC)

Info for U of A SLIS Students

Office Hours

For Winter 2019 (Jan 7 - Apr 19)

Tuesdays 11am - noon
Wednesdays 1:30 - 2:30pm
or by appointment

Teaching

Winter 2019: LIS 598 Technology, Information, and Society (on-campus and online)
Fall 2019: LIS 501 Foundations (online)

Scholarships, Awards, and Bursaries

I am Chair of SLIS's Scholarships, Awards, and Bursaries Committee. The committee maintains pages on the SLIS web site with information on the various scholarships, awards, and bursaries that are on offer from SLIS, other University of Alberta units, and elsewhere. If you have questions about or after checking with this information, please contact either myself or SLIS Graduate Program Administrator Grace Jamieson.

Publication in JASIST

I’m happy to say that I recently had a paper accepted for publication in the Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology (JASIST): "Connections Above and Beyond": Information, Translation, and Community Boundaries in LibraryThing and Goodreads.

As the abstract of the paper states, the connections and contexts surrounding information shared in social settings must be accounted for, and this is particularly true for online communities that are information-centric (as much of my research program studies). The accepted JASIST article presents a mixed-methods study of LibraryThing and Goodreads, which have characteristics of information-centric online communities and social digital libraries, with attention to their roles as boundary objects, users’ information values and information behaviour, and other boundaries and boundary objects at play. Content analysis of messages, a survey of users, and qualitative interviews show LibraryThing and Goodreads help establish community and organizational structure; support sharing of information values; and facilitate the building and maintenance of social ties. Translation of meanings and understandings within and between communities is a key activity in these roles. The article notes key implications, including that online communities and social digital libraries should highlight translation processes and resources; provide user profiles and off-topic spaces and encourage their use; take a sociotechnical approach to tailor technology and community features to the right audiences; and facilitate the establishment of shared structure, values, and ties and the work of boundary spanners. Further implications exist, as discussed in the paper, for research on and theorizing of information-centric online communities, boundaries, and boundary objects as part of the sociotechnical infrastructure surrounding online information sharing.

A self-archived e-print of the article is available for non-commercial use. My research agenda and ongoing publications and presentations continue to build on this project with further research into information sharing within and across the boundaries of information-centric online communities.

ASIS&T 2018

I attended the ASIS&T 2018 Annual Meeting in Vancouver, BC from November 10-13, 2018. As part of the conference I attended and facilitated a discussion table at the SIG USE Symposium: Moving Toward the Future of Information Behavior Research and Practice on Saturday November 10th, 1-5pm; as well as chaired and moderated the "Social Media in Daily Life" papers session on Sunday November 11th, 3-4:30pm. I also facilitated (in my role as SIG SI Social Chair) a social dinner for those interested in social informatics and sociotechnical research as part of the conference.

CAIS 2018

I attended the 2018 Annual Conference of the Canadian Association for Information Science (CAIS/ACSI), held as part of the 2018 Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Regina, Regina, SK May 30 - June 1, 2018. It was great to see everyone, catching up with old friends and colleagues and meeting new people!

As part of the conference I presented a paper co-authored with Alicia Cappello and Rachel Osolen (University of Alberta MLIS and MA, Digital Humanities students) titled "Balancing socio-emotional and informational considerations in social Q&A: The case of Academia Stack Exchange." In examining the balance between socio-emotional and informational support on social Q&A sites, we found seven categories of socio-emotional motivations contributing positively or negatively to community coherence on Academia Stack Exchange. The site focuses on being an information resource and on acculturation, learning, and translation, akin to legitimate peripheral participation, but empathetic concerns stress the necessity of further balancing socio-emotional and informational considerations for Stack Exchange, social Q&A sites, and other online / social media communities.

Welcome!