I study traces.  Documents, data trails, and records that people leave behind ¿ paper digital, and hybrid. What they mean, what they represent, how they are created.    I am interested in how these traces shape and are shaped by those who create, use, manage, and engage them.  I use approaches from information studies, archival studies, social informatics, information ethics, and Science, Technology, and Society to study these topics.

One arena in which I have studied this is the creation and use of  of scientific research.  As a trained biologist,  the life and health sciences particularly interest me. My areas of interest include data sharing, Web 2.0 portals for scientific data, and amateur/expert data sharing. I have started working with the UCD Earth Institute on this subject as well.

Another area in which I am interested in the implications of data and records is in pervasive computing.   I was a co-PI on ETHOS, an NSF-sponsored project (2007-2010) to investigate aging and home-based technology and the implications of pervasive computing.  I have also been working with my colleague Kay Connelly and students on Digital Trails in which we are exploring the privacy implications of exercise and diet tracking with support from Indiana University's Center for Applied Cybersecurity.

I am also interested in how to conduct research on these often difficult-to-study topics through various kinds of ethnography and other qualitative methods.  

I encourage students to connect the theoretical literature we read about technology and social change to concrete examples in their own lives through case studies, writing assignments, and addressing real-world problems through projects.  Second, I ask students to do a great deal of writing, a skill that will transcend my particular classes.  Third, I foster an environment of open sharing and inquiry and challenge my students to create such an environment for themselves and their classmates.

At UCD, I will be teaching undergraduate modules in organization/retrieval of information and information behavior, as well as postgrad modules in research methods and digital libraries.

At Indiana University-Bloomington, I taught undergraduate social informatics,  information ethics, organizational informatics,  a graduate course in intellectual freedom from the School of Library and Information Studies, and have co-taught the undergraduate capstone experience,  graduate introduction to informatics, graduate intellectual freedom course, and an advanced seminar in Science, Technology, and Society.  In 2006 and in 2009, I received the Indiana University Trustees¿ School of Informatics Award for Outstanding Teaching.