Dr. Karen Fisher is the 2016 recipient of the ASIS&T SIG USE Outstanding Contribution Award

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Karen Fisher is the 2016 recipient of the ASIS&T SIG USE Outstanding Contribution Award.

Dr. Fisher is a well-known contributor in the field of Information Behavior, as well as other interdisciplinary areas.  She is a strong advocate for humanitarian rights and causes, as shown through her work with young people in a range of contexts. Her forthcoming MIT Press chapter on the Information Worlds of refugees adds to the international ICT literature on fieldwork in conflict zones and how displaced people experience information and technology.  In addition to information seeking behavior among older adults, professionals, teens, and migrant farmers, she has long researched information and technological use of young people, and co-led the InfoMe project, exploring how young people serve as ICT wayfarers or intermediaries on behalf of others. Her current research focuses on the UNHCR Za’atari Refugee Camp in Jordan, where she employs multiple methods to enrich our understanding of displaced people in the EU as well as how people, particularly youth, use information and technology.

She has developed new theories focused on how professionals seek information, information flow in communities, and mis- and dis-information. Her Information Grounds framework illuminates how people experience information in informal social settings, and stands as one of the few place-based frameworks created in our field. In 2010, Dr. Fisher co-led the U.S. Impact Study on the benefits of public access technology in libraries. Her research in Information Behavior offers an example for aspiring researchers in the field.

As a past Chair, Dr. Fisher has long supported SIG USE. She co-edited the SIG USE / ASIS&T publication Theories of Information Behavior, which continues to be the organization’s top selling book, featuring in teaching and research internationally.

Dr. Fisher is a professor at the University of Washington’s iSchool in Seattle, and a visiting professor at Newcastle University Open Lab in the United Kingdom and the Abo Academie University in Finland. She serves as a consultant for UNHCR Jordan.