Papers by Heather Willever-Farr
Proceedings of the 2012 iConference on - iConference '12, 2012
Q&A forums for the exchange of genealogical information are becoming increasingly common on the w... more Q&A forums for the exchange of genealogical information are becoming increasingly common on the web. Yet, relatively little is known about the socio-technical dimensions of genealogists' interactions in such forums. This study examined exchanges between genealogists on a popular Q&A message board on Ancestry.com. Our findings suggest that the web context shapes the types of exchanges and cooperative activities in which genealogists engage. Research has found that in face-to-face exchanges genealogists tend to help other genealogists by providing instructional guidance both on a one-to-one and a many-to-one basis. Our findings suggest that the presence of online genealogical data and the affordances of interactive computer technologies may be pushing answerers away from providing instruction on how to find family history data and pushing them toward providing those data outright. Answerers worked cooperatively to provide family data, suggesting that the web context is leading many genealogists to engage in cooperative research not collaborative instruction.
Private companies are influential intermediaries in the construction of family histories on the w... more Private companies are influential intermediaries in the construction of family histories on the web. Their preoccupation with profit may have considerable influence on who has access to virtual family histories and the types of family histories that are constructed. Companies are promoting and providing tools for the production of particular forms of family histories that are easily mined for data reuse, such as family trees, while providing few avenues for the production of more narrative forms of family histories. Narrative forms of histories often include “family stories, ” which are important in the creation of a shared heritage. Author Keywords Genealogy, family history, peer production
Findagrave.com and Ancestry.com are sites that support the cooperative creation of public histori... more Findagrave.com and Ancestry.com are sites that support the cooperative creation of public historical resources. These sites of cooperative production have attracted tens of thousands and millions of contributors respectively, yet they embrace content standards, social norms, and models of editorial control that differ radically from the wellstudied exemplar of Wikipedia. In this study, we investigated how Ancestry.com and Findagrave.com support production of historical resources through analysis of message boards and interviews with participants. We found that these sites are not only places for building a historical resource, but simultaneously serve as opportunities for public memorialization and familial identity construction. Notably, we found that contributors to these websites embrace the idea of familial oversight of biographical information in order to maintain high standards of quality, and they harbor a corresponding skepticism of the open editing practices that have becom...
This guide is intended to direct researchers to the Connelly Library's extensive holdings of ... more This guide is intended to direct researchers to the Connelly Library's extensive holdings of works by W.D. Ehrhart.
Health Information & Libraries Journal, Mar 1, 2012
Background: The relationship between health information seeking, patient engagement and health li... more Background: The relationship between health information seeking, patient engagement and health literacy is not well understood. This is especially true in medically underserved populations, which are often viewed as having limited access to health information. Objective: To improve communication between an urban health centre and the community it serves, a team of library and information science researchers undertook an assessment of patients' level and methods of access to and use of the Internet. Methods: Data were ...
This paper provides first steps toward an empirically grounded design vocabulary for assessable d... more This paper provides first steps toward an empirically grounded design vocabulary for assessable design as an HCI response to the global need for better information literacy skills. We present a framework for synthesizing literatures called the Interdisciplinary Literacy Framework and use it to highlight gaps in our understanding of information literacy that HCI as a field is particularly well suited to fill. We report on two studies that lay a foundation for developing guidelines for assessable information system design. The first is a study of Wikipedians', librarians', and laypersons' information assessment practices from which we derive two important features of assessable designs: information provenance and stewardship. The second is an experimental study in which we operationalize these concepts in designs and test them using Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk).
Journal of pediatric nursing, 2013
1. J Pediatr Nurs. 2012 Nov 8. pii: S0882-5963(12)00316-8. doi: 10.1016/j.pedn.2012.10. 004. [Epu... more 1. J Pediatr Nurs. 2012 Nov 8. pii: S0882-5963(12)00316-8. doi: 10.1016/j.pedn.2012.10. 004. [Epub ahead of print] An Enhanced Text4Baby Program: Capturing Teachable Moments Throughout Pregnancy. Green MK, Dalrymple PW, Turner KH, Rogers ML, Williver-Farr H, Zach L. Drexel University College of Nursing and Health Professions, Eleventh Street Family Health Services, Philadelphia, PA. Electronic address: Mkg27@drexel.edua. PMID: 23142022 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher].
Abstract Q&A forums for the exchange of genealogical information are becoming... more Abstract Q&A forums for the exchange of genealogical information are becoming increasingly common on the web. Yet, relatively little is known about the socio-technical dimensions of genealogists' interactions in such forums. This study examined exchanges between genealogists on a popular Q&A message board on Ancestry. com. Our findings suggest that the web context shapes the types of exchanges and cooperative activities in which genealogists engage. Research has found that in face-to-face exchanges ...
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Papers by Heather Willever-Farr