Research

Recent Grant-Based Research

In just the last year alone, our faculty have secured nearly $5,000,000 in funding to pursue work that helps create educational materials for school children affected by civil war in Nigeria, to digitize community assets for historical documentation, to help build family engagement at the local library level and to create community engagement projects that nurture children’s early learning and development and more. Here are just a few of our recent projects.

• Project VOICE: Value sensitive design of Outcomes Informing Community Engagement
  • $421,533 from the Institute of Museum and Library Services
• Mobile Digitization for Community Memory Projects in Northeast Ohio
  • $4,999 from the Institute of Museum and Library Services / State Library of Ohio
• Addressing Education in Northeast Nigeria - Adamawa and Gombe States
  • $3,940,113 from USAID / American University of Nigeria
• Working Towards a Smarter Ohio: Supporting Family Engagement through a Strong Preschool-Library Partnership
  • $4,999 from The Institute of Museum and Library Services / State Library of Ohio
• Exploring Cohort Models for Capacity Building in the Archival Process
  • $3,000 from the Society of American Archivists
• Leveraging Cognitive Task Analysis Methods and Data eHMP Interaction Design
  • $123,118 from the Veterans Health Administration
• Energetic Alpha, Numero and Script: Continued Research and Development Costs
  • $22,585 from the College of Communication and Information / Kent State University

Research Spotlights

The research that Dr. Meghan Harper has done into care-based practices and trauma informed care in libraries has found an audience with the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners in Boston. Having seen Dr. Harper present at a number of conferences regarding how libraries can help address the opioid crisis in their community, staff in Boston recognized her insights into the library's role in as a safe space for the public. Her work, "Libraries Lending Hope" will be utilized in a November Massachusetts state library conference to help educate and inform public and school librarians how they can better serve members of their community through bibliotherapy, mindfulness and creating supportive networks. Dr. Harper has also been invited to speak on this same topic at the Akron-Summit County Public Library, the Ohio Educational Library Media Association 2019 Conference, the Northeast Ohio Network for Educational Technology (NEONET), and the Ohio Library Council (OLC).

Recently Dr. Lala Hajibayova published results of her research into how cultural sites and objects in former conflict zones are constructed in user-generated narratives. For "An investigation of cultural objects in conflict zones through the lens of TripAdvisor reviews," she analyzed TripAdvisor reviews and images of the South Caucuses, finding that these reviews and images demonstrated the embodied orientation of reviewers’ narrations. Further, where the nature of the cultural sites was disputed, these reviews are mainly voiced in the form of dissatisfaction with the socio-economical situation and services. This research suggests that the forgotten nature of frozen conflicts engendered an erosion of and disconnect from cultural heritage, ties and significance for those who fled the contested areas.

Dr. Katie Campana and her partners at the University of Washington iSchool has been awarded an Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) Research in Service to Practice Grant as part of the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program. This grant of $421,533 allows the team to focus on researching and developing a social justice, outcomes-based planning and assessment toolkit. This will  provide hands-on assistance for library staff who want to better support the families and young children (ages zero to eight) of underserved communities. Their goal is to assist libraries in developing outreach programs and services that nurture children’s early learning and development with an emphasis on equity, engagement and empowerment.

Research Areas

Faculty research areas include but are not limited to the following:

For more information about specific faculty research, visit our Faculty profiles and the Publications & Presentations page.