My research explores professional work and practitioner thinking in library and information service – particularly in the area of reference and information service. I am interested in how practitioners’ thoughts, beliefs and values shape their practice. My earlier research projects on use of instructional strategies and business resources in digital reference led me to inquire about the motivations for the behaviors I observed and the causes for variation in behavior among service providers. Although behaviors associated with information services work have been widely studied, how the work as conceptualized by the practitioner has not. The practitioner perspective is important for our understanding of the phenomenon of reference and information service. I hope to see improvements in professional educational and continuing education for reference and information service professionals as a result of my work.

I am also interested in qualitative research methods, and particularly in exploring the potential of interpretative phenomenological analysis for research in library and information science.

Amy VanScoy, MLIS, PhD

Assistant Professor
Department of
Library & Information Studies
Graduate School of Education
University at Buffalo

vanscoy @ buffalo.edu