• Sarah Polkinghorne, PhD

      Hello! I'm a researcher and a librarian.

       

      This page shares current highlights.

      For my full CV, please reach out: sarah.polkinghorne@ualberta.ca

    • Research

      A brief introduction

       

        In my research, I focus on:

        • Information practices that are unexamined, tacit, or assumed to be mundane. My research illuminates how people's everyday information practices are not mundane at all; they are complex, meaningful, and co-constitutive with identity.
        • Information-related language choices, and how these reflect underlying power relations, norms, and ways of thinking.
        • People's experiences of misinformation, particularly how people navigate embodied misinformation.
        • Information literacy and scholarly communications

      • Teaching

        Recent

         

          • Human Information Interaction, Winter 2021, for the University of Alberta's School of Library and Information Studies. An exploration of how people experience information.
          • Information Resource Discovery, Fall 2020, for the University of Ottawa's School of Information Studies. An introduction to information services, information practices and experiences, and search.

        • Publications

          In progress & recent

           

            • "Getting past 'approachability': What cultural humility brings to library and information education." With Lilliana Montoya. Forthcoming in Hopeful visions, practical actions: Cultural humility in library work, eds. Sarah Kostelecky, Lori Townsend, and David Hurley. ALA Editions.
            • "Love is a lens: Locating love in library and information studies." With Mary Greenshields. Forthcoming in Library Trends special issue, "The Joy of Information," eds. Jenna Hartel and Hailey Sirackey. [pdf]
            • "A devil in the details: Addressing authors' needs in transformative agreements." With Lisa M. Given. Common Place, special issue, The Global Transition to Open. https://doi.org/10.21428/6ffd8432.255897ef
            • "Holistic approaches to research: From rhetoric to paradigm." With Lisa M. Given. Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.24450

          • Presentations

            Upcoming & recent

             

              • "I have a body, therefore I think, therefore I am." (2022. June). For Nerd Nite, Edmonton, Canada.
              • "Reconceiving trial and error: A central information practice in everyday food life." (2021, September). For the 2021 conference of the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE).
              • "Interdisciplinary concept development as a path to impact: 'Vicarious sensory engagement' and YouTube food videos." (2019, October). Symposium of SIG-USE (the Special Interest Group for Information Needs, Seeking, and Use), at the Annual Meeting of the Association for Information Science and Technology, Melbourne, Australia.

            • Practice

              As an academic librarian

               

                The core of my work as a librarian is leading monograph collections at the University of Alberta, including approval plans, demand-driven acquisition, frontlist negotiations, open access transitions, and assessment.

                 

                I've also worked as a public services librarian, helping people find and use information, manage research data, and work through processes such as making their publications openly available.

              • Service

                Recent & ongoing commitments

                 

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