Karen E. Pettigrew

Biographical Information

Karen E. Pettigrew received her B.A. in English and Russian Studies from Memorial University of Newfoundland in 1989. She earned her MLIS (1991) and PhD (Dec. 1997) in library and information science from the University of Western Ontario. Her dissertation, entitled, "The role of community health nurses in providing information and referral to the elderly: A study based on social network theory" was supervised by Drs. Patricia Dewdney (chief), Roma Harris and Catherine Ross.

Since January 1998 Karen Pettigrew has been working with Dr. Joan Durrance as a research fellow at the University of Michigan's School of Information. Her postdoctorate research, entitled "Help-seeking in an electronic world: The impact of Internet access to community information on citizens' information behavior," is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and the U.S. Institute for Museum and Library Services. For this research she is conducting observation, in-depth interviews and surveys with community network users and non-users, service providers and public library reference librarians in three U.S. cities. Karen Pettigrew is also principal investigator of the KALIPER Project (Kellogg-ALISE Information Professions & Education Reform Project; URL: www.alise.org), which is a multi-stage study of advancements in LIS curriculum across North America and involves participation by PhD students, faculty, deans and LIS schools in Canada, the U.S., and Great Britain.

Karen's research and teaching interests include information behavior (how people need, seek, give and use information in different contexts), theoretical activity and growth, community networking, medical informatics, special libraries, and bibliometrics. Recent publications and presentations include:

• Waiting for chiropody: Contextual results from an ethnographic study of the information behavior among attendees at community clinics (under review).

• Theory specification and its role in basic research: An illustrative example using Granovetter's Strength of Weak Ties (under review).

• Agents of information: The role of community health nurses in linking the elderly with local resources by providing human services information. In T. Wilson (Ed.), Information Seeking in Context: An International Conference on Information Needs, Seeking and Use in Different Contexts (August 14-17, 1998, Sheffield, UK).

• Theories for the new millennium: The deployment of theory in LIS research. In E. Toms (Ed.), Information Science at the Dawn of the Millennium: Proceedings of the 26th Annual Conference of the Canadian Association for Information Science (June 3-5, 1998, Ottawa, ON) (pp. 125-142). Toronto: CAIS, 1998. (With L. McKechnie)

• "Only for Emergencies": The Role of Network Members in Providing Instrumental Help, Human Services Information and Affective Support to the Elderly. Sunbelt XVIII/5th European International Conference on Social Networks (May 28-31, 1998, Sitges, Spain).

• A general model of the information seeking of professionals: Role theory through the back door? In P. Vakkari, R. Savolainen, & B. Dervin (Ed.), Information Seeking in Context: Proceedings of an International Conference on Research in Information Needs, Seeking and Use in Different Contexts (August 14-16, 1996, Tampere, Finland) (pp. 99-110). London & Los Angeles: Graham Taylor, 1997. (With G. J. Leckie)

• Nurses' perceptions of their needs for community information: Results of an exploratory study in southwestern Ontario. J Education for Library & Information Science, 37 (1996): 351-360.

• Control of community information: An analysis of roles. Library Quarterly, 66 (1996): 373-407 (With M. A. Wilkinson)

• Modelling the information seeking of professionals: A general model derived from research on engineers, health care professionals, and lawyers. Library Quarterly, 66 (1996): 161-193. (With G. J. Leckie and C. Sylvain)

• Publication patterns of LIS faculty from 1982-1992: Effects of doctoral programs. LISR, 16 (1994): 139-156 (with P. T. Nicholls)

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