I am currently based in Aberystwyth at the Department of
Information Studies and my other
WWW page has various contact details etc.
A focus on the central
area of human information behaviour, and how this works in the contexts of
information seeking, learning, communication, and society. Around and within
this interest in human information behaviour a number of theoretical and
practical problems are explored: information skills training, models of
information seeking issues surrounding behaviour, specific behavioural
processes including serendipity, uncertainty, and problem solving, the effects
of personality, cognitive process and learning styles on information seeking,
and more broadly the exploration of non-linear interpretations of problem
solving and decision making. Social tagging, Web 2.0 and social dimensions to
information exchange are fascinating, as are the applications of these in
cultural and heritage scenarios. Away from the behavioural theme I am
interested in the very human problem of implementing technological change and
how this relates to the individual, organisation, and society, and how humans
learn and communicate within computer mediated environments.
There is lots of of writing up to be done at the
moment, not least the update to my model, the development of a related model,
and a collaboration co-editing an Information Retrieval text. Some of the publications are outlined below.
Foster,
A.E. & Rafferty, P. (editors, in preparation for Spring 2011), Innovations in
Information Retrieval: Perspectives for Theory and Practice, Facet.
Ferguson-Boucher,
K and Foster, A.E. (in preparation). Conceptualising information: working
towards a unified model of information seeking, use, recording, and retrieval
Foster,
A.E. & Urquhart, C.J. (in preparation) Working title: Refining a Nonlinear
Model of Information Behaviour
Foster,
A E; Ferguson-Boucher, K & Broady-Preston, J. (2010) Unifying information
behaviour and process: a balanced palette and the balanced scorecard, Performance Measurement and Metrics,
11(3): 280-288.
Foster,
A E; Ferguson-Boucher, K & Broady-Preston, J. (2010) Unifying information
behaviour and process: a balanced palette and the balanced scorecard, QQML
Conference 2010
Stokes,
P, Foster, A, and Urquhart, C.
(2009). Beyond relevance and
recall: testing new user-centred measures of database performance, Health
Information & Libraries Journal, (DOI) 10.1111/j.1471-1842.2008.00822.x
Foster,
A., Urquhart, C. & Turner, J. (2008). Validating coding for a theoretical
model of information behaviour. Information Research, 13(4) paper 358.
[Available at http://InformationR.net/ir/13-4/paper358.html]
Foster,
A.E. and Urquhart, C. (2008). Validating coding for a theoretical model of
information behaviour. Paper presented
at the Information Seeking in Context (ISIC) 2004 conference (Vilnius).
Foster,
A.E. and Urquhart, C.J. (2007). Testing a nonlinear model of information
behaviour: experiences of examining coding. Paper presented at the I3
Conference, Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen.
Foster,
A.E. (2007). Information literacy for the information profession: experiences
from Aberystwyth. Aslib proceedings, 58(6), 488-501.
Foster,
A.E. (February, 2006). A Nonlinear Perspective. In Spink, A. and
Cole, C. (Editors). New Directions in
Human Information Behavior,
Foster,
A.E. (2005) "A non-linear model of information seeking behaviour", Information Research, 10(2) paper 222 [Available
at http://InformationR.net/ir/10-2/paper222.html]
Foster,
A.E. (July, 2005) Nonlinear information
seeking. In Fisher, K E., Erdelez, S.,
& McKechnie, E. F. (Eds.). Theories of Information Behavior: A
Researcher's Guide.
Foster,
A.E. (2005). Non-linearity and Human Information
Behaviour, Elucidate, 2(4), July/August, pp.3-8.
Foster A.E. (2004). A Nonlinear Model of information seeking behavior. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 55(3), 228-237. (This paper was ranked in Library Instruction Round Table (LIRT) “Top Twenty” information instruction articles of 2004, announced June 2005, [Available at: http://www3.baylor.edu/LIRT/lirtnews]).
Foster,
A.E. (2004). Nonlinear information seeking. Paper presented at the Information Seeking in
Context (ISIC) 2004 conference (Dublin), proceedings to be published
Information Research.
Foster,
A.E. and Ford, N.J. (2003). Serendipity and information seeking: an
empirical study. Journal of
Documentation, 59 (3), 321-340.
(This article won the Emerald Literati Club 2004 Award for Excellence
Outstanding Paper).
Foster,
A.E. (2003). Interdisciplinary information seeking
behaviour: A naturalistic inquiry, Unpublished PhD. Thesis,
Ellis,
D.,
Spink,
A., Wilson, T. D., Ford, N. A., Foster, A., & Ellis, D. (2002).
Information seeking and mediated searching.
Wilson,
T. D., Ford, N., Foster, A., Ellis, D., & Spink, A. (2002 ).
Information seeking and mediated searching. Part 2: Uncertainty.
Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 53 (9), 704-715.
Spink,
A., Wilson, T. D., Ford, N. A., Foster, A., & Ellis, D. (2002).
Information seeking and mediated searching. Part 3: Successive
searching. Journal of the American
Society for Information Science and Technology. 53 (9), 716-727.
Ford,
N., Wilson, T. D., Foster, A., Ellis, D., & Spink, A. (2002).
Information seeking and mediated searching. Part 4: Cognitive styles and
individual differences. Journal of the American Society for Information
Science and Technology. Vol 53 (9),
728-735.
Ford,
N. J., Wilson, T. D., Ellis, D., Foster, A., & Spink, A. (2000). Individual differences in information
seeking: An empirical study. ASIS
2000: Annual Meeting of the American
Society for Information Science, November,
Wilson,
T.D., Ford, N.J., Ellis, D., Foster, A.E. & Spink, A. (2000). Uncertainty and its correlates. The New Review of Information Behaviour
Research, 1(1), 69-84.
Wilson,
T.D., Ellis, D., Ford, N., and Foster, A.
(1999). Uncertainty in
Information Seeking: Final Report to the British Library Research and
Innovation Centre / Library and Information Commission on a research project
carried out at the Department of Information Studies, University of
Sheffield, Grant number LIC/RE/019.
[Available at http://informationr.net/tdw/publ/unis/ ]
Levy,
P. and Foster, A. (1998). Communicating Effectively in the Networked
Organisation: Using Electronic Mail in Academic Libraries, Journal of
Documentation, vol. 54 (5), 566-583.
Foster,
A., Levy, P and Ward, S. (1997) Communicating effectively in the networked
library: an investigation into good practice for computer-supported
co-operative working, Final Report to the British Library Research and
Innovation Centre. British Library
Research & Innovation Centre Report No. 111.
Official UWA disclaimer: The information provided on this and other pages
by me, Allen Foster (aef@aber.ac.uk) and is my own personal responsibility, not
that of the