This Educational Leadership Portfolio (ELP) addresses the information needs of the staff involved with the Delaware Academy for School Leadership (DASL) Principal Preparation Program (PPP). As a program that prepares and certifies school principals in the State of Delaware, DASL staff sought to understand the extent and ways in which they are…

Adjunct faculty hired to teach at a community college lack onboarding (Danaei, 2019). At the time of this study, Montgomery County Community College (Montco) did not offer an onboarding program to adjunct faculty. Previously collected data indicated that during the hiring process, adjunct faculty did not receive knowledge about college culture,…

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between intentional online information seeking, incidental online information seeking, eHealth literacy, and shared decision-making; the relationship between intentional online information seeking, incidental online information seeking, information overload, eHealth literacy, information…

In the United States, the internet is a vital resource for LGBTQ+ youth to meet their sexual and reproductive health information needs, especially those who cannot receive necessary information from family, healthcare providers, and classrooms. In this dissertation, I present three papers that connect content moderation policies and their impacts…

Human search for information is a constant and instinctual act Search is a problem-solving. goal-oriented behavior. With the rise of the computer, searching has quickly manifested itself into a digital activity. Searching the internet for information is a ubiquitous act. In some situations, there are information seeking circumstances where a…

Literature in the field investigates and debates the importance of the MLIS degree in librarianship. This information is of limited use in Maine where over 30% of public library directors have only a high school diploma. The research questions guiding this Constructivist Grounded Theory study are: How do high school educated library directors in…

This qualitative study explored the training and preparation of educators who teach sexual health education to students identified as intellectual and developmentally disabled. People with disabilities experience the highest rates of abuse, including mental, emotional, physical, and sexual. Although there are many resources to help improve the…

This study explored the experiences of Muslim Arabic-speaking women international students (MASWIS) using a qualitative design method. A phenomenological approach included face-to-face interviews with five MASWIS who live in Chicago and three focus groups with seven additional participants (two groups in person and one online.) The data was…

Successful collaboration is a pressing need for groups, organizations, and communities who are looking to identify solutions to local problems. As these local problems become increasingly complex, collaboration requires the engagement and active participation of diverse stakeholders. In order to support the success of cross-sector, multiple…

My study addresses how experiences within the role of a resident assistant (RA) may be related to need for cognition, a measure describing an individual's capacity and desire to engage in effortful thinking. To investigate this relationship, I used a pretest and posttest survey methodology. This methodology allowed me to determine if RAs…

The purpose of this action research was to examine information literacy skills in undergraduate students. In particular, this research investigated students' knowledge and self-efficacy of information literacy skills. Furthermore, this study explored students' application of information literacy and how students apply information literacy skills…

Concussions affect millions of young adults annually, many of whom are enrolled in post-secondary education. To date, concussion research has yet to establish evidence-based protocols to assist university students in returning to the classroom (i.e., return to learn [RTL]) after concussion. Without clear guidelines, students are left to…

The purpose of this autoethnography and interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) study was to gain a better understanding of the challenges faced by mothers of children with Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in Saudi Arabia and the strategies they use to address these challenges. In addition, explore the feelings and meanings associated with…

This dissertation focuses on the everyday life information practices of teens in the Nerdfighter online fan community known as Nerdfighteria. Nerdfighteria is the community of fans of vloggers John and Hank Green. This study examines aspects of everyday life information seeking (ELIS) by (1) focusing on an understudied demographic, teens between…

Research conducted at scientifically significant sites produces an abundance of important and highly valuable data. Yet, though sites are logical points for coordinating the curation of these data, their unique needs have been under supported. Previous studies have shown that two principal stakeholder groups -- scientific researchers and local…