Understanding the people who use the digital products we build is essential to creating experiences that are useful, desired, and enjoyable. Personas are a tool often employed in educational settings and industry to build empathy for users. Using a concurrent mixed methods approach, this study sought to better understand how personas help to build…

Employability is key to libraries as they continue to diversify their services to include career services to meet the job seeking needs of community members. In fulfilling this crucial role, public libraries face challenges in providing career services for their community members. This dissertation probed and sought ways to continuously improve…

Fighting false information, propaganda, open lies, rumors, misinformation, and disinformation by attacking it directly and challenging it is the dominant strategy for dealing with false beliefs (Lazer et al., 2018; Maseri et al., 2020; Van Bavel et al., 2021), and it is an important one. Refuting falsity is crucial. At the same time, there are…

This study explores how undergraduate engineering students interacted with users, user proxies, and user information during engineering design curricular experiences at a Large Midwestern University. Such practices are essential to human-centered design, a prominent framework within engineering design curriculums. While human-centered design can…

The landscape of workforce management has undergone a significant transformation, marked by a notable shift from the traditional framework of Human Resources (HR) to the contemporary concept of people operations. This shift represents a fundamental reimagining of the role of HR, emphasizing a more comprehensive and personalized approach to…

With the growth of digital media, learners are presented with multiple options to choose from when looking for resources to learn from. Learning that happens during searching for items to learn from is called Search-as-Learning (SaL). Recommender Systems (RS) can aid in SaL by reducing information overload and providing item suggestions. An…

Some products are not designed with people of color in mind. As more products are created with the implementation of technology, it is important that they are designed for the population at large including Black Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC) populations. User Experience Design (UXD) is the process employed by designers to create products…

This study utilized a sequential mixed-methods design to investigate the role of social media as a marketing tool for public schools. The quantitative portion applied content analysis to 18 elementary schools with Facebook accounts. Post types and content categories were coded and analyzed to determine their roles in social media posts and user…

This descriptive qualitative study explores undergraduate students' experiences of physical academic libraries to identify possible connections between physical academic library environments and students' affective experiences. Drawing on a combination of theoretical perspectives focused on how humans understand, navigate, and respond to space and…

Public libraries, important spaces for accessing assistance and resources, are increasingly focusing on Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) and hands-on learning (Lee & Phillips, 2019). While they are promising spaces for STEAM learning that supports marginalized communities and multi-generational engagement, this…

In the context of the rapid expansion of web-integrated technologies, there exists a need for a thorough comprehension of data privacy, emphasizing risk mitigation and the nuanced governance of private data within organizational and regulatory frameworks. Given the rise of privacy regulations such as the GDPR and CCPA, it has become important for…

Collections are the tools that people use to make sense of an ever-increasing number of archived web pages. As collections themselves grow, we need tools to make sense of them. Tools that work on the general web, like search engines, are not a good fit for these collections because search engines do not currently represent multiple document…

Informal learning constantly happens all around us. Informal learning approaches often stand in stark contrast to school practices and standards, receive little attention in the formal study of education, and present a great deal of untapped opportunity to support learners. Mendoso Community Library (MCL) is a particularly interesting illustration…

The human component of information systems represents a critical and high-impact target for cyberattacks. Firms address these threats through various means, including security awareness training, security policy monitoring, security controls, and enforcement. Even the most robust technical controls have limits. Consequently, elevating user…

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact technology, specifically the Student Information System's (SIS) parent portal has on parent involvement in K-12 education. Parents who participated in the study were asked questions in the fields of special education; social economic status; parent workshops; use of technology, including the…