Featured Member
- iSchools News
- Sep 30
- 5 min read
Issue #7
Rebekah (Becky) Willson
North American Region
Canada
McGill University
School of Information Studies
iSchools member since 2014
Hello Rebekah! Please tell us a bit about you!
I am an associate professor at the School of Information Studies at McGill University. I recently received tenure and am on sabbatical for 2025/2026 – a definite change of pace. My research area is in the field of information behaviour – examining the information people need and how they find, share, and use that information. While you can apply that to any area, I have been particularly focused on individuals and groups who are undergoing transitions and living with uncertainty, including academics working on short-term contracts, early career researchers dealing with COVID-19, and early career librarians, my most recent project. We just received a grant to look at early career librarians, examining their experiences from graduating from their master’s program, what it is like to look for a job in this market, and then experiences of starting a job in an academic library, during this time of cutbacks and uncertainty for universities.
Can you tell us a bit about your iSchool, please?
The School of Information Studies was the first formal library education program in Canada. Beginning in 1904, it was one of the first university programs in librarianship outside the United States. While we are an old program, we have changed a lot over the years, including what we teach and what we research. We have five areas of interest: libraries, archives, knowledge management, user experience, and data science. In addition to our Master and PhD programs in Information Studies, we offer Graduate Certificates in Digital Archives Management, Information Architecture, Information & Knowledge Management, and Cybersecurity. There is wide range of research that takes place in the School of Information Studies, but it is clustered around our five areas of interest and particularly focused on human-information interaction. This includes accessibility, representation, sensory information, managing expert knowledge, cybersecurity, and information behaviour.
Before you worked for McGill University you have been a Lecturer in Information Science in the Department of Computer and Information Sciences at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, UK and obtained your PhD from Charles Sturt University in Australia - all iSchool members! What unites all of these schools even if they are located in three different iSchool regions on the globe for you?
Good question. While the iSchools are geographically far apart, each has a focus on connecting people with information and the information professions. People are at the heart of the discipline, as well as the focus of the research and teaching that takes place. While cataloguing, storing, retrieving, and managing information and data are all important, the iSchools focus on the fact that people will ultimately be using that information, whether the members of the public or of the profession. The iSchools are also concerned with those who will become professionals in various areas across the discipline. As the world of information becomes increasingly complex, professionals are needed to help others navigate that world. As part of this, each of the iSchools is forward looking, working to help future information professionals negotiate this constantly changing field.
Your Doctoral Thesis focused on a special information behaviour topic that is also very important for iSchools. Can you tell us a little bit about it?
I appreciate getting a chance to talk about my thesis! My doctoral thesis looked at the information behaviour of academics who had recently graduated from their doctoral program and started their first full-time academic position. I looked at the move from being a student to being an academic as a transition, examining the kind of information they needed to do this new job, as well as how they found, used, and shared that information. I focused a lot on their everyday experiences, such as the information they didn’t know, what they did and who they talked to about that missing information, and how they problem solved. Many academics had a lot of expertise in their research, content area, and teaching; however, they had challenges finding the day-to-day information needed to do their work. Much of the information they were missing was practical (e.g., how to upload grades) or administrative (e.g., undergraduate grading policies) in nature. The administrative side of their work added a significant burden to early career academics, who experienced a significant amount of stress and frustration. The main way these academics got information and determined what to do was to talk to their colleagues; informal and social collegial interactions were extremely important. The research highlights the need to ensure newly hired academics are supported with sufficient orientation, access to mentorship, and provisions to regularly interact with colleagues.
Information Behaviour is also the main topic of the ISIC. Together with Owen Stewart-Robertson you are organizing ISIC 2026 next year, which will also be an anniversary! What can participants expect?
This June we are very excited to be hosting the 30th anniversary of ISIC: The Information Behaviour Conference at McGill University. This is also the first time the conference will be in North America! This conference holds a special place in my heart, as it was the first conference I attended as a doctoral student. Because the conference focuses on information behaviour research, it is typically smaller in size. That means that it is a great place to meet other researchers and for doctoral students to get to know the community. (We also have a full-day Doctoral Workshop.) This year will be a mix of papers, panels, posters, and workshops, and, because it is the 30th anniversary, include a focus on the past and future of information behaviour research. While the content of the conference will be exciting, it also takes place in Montréal, a fantastic city known for its food, art, and music. You can find more information about submissions (due October 15) and the Doctoral Workshop on our website.
If you could give just one advice to future information scientists, what would it be?
I think my one piece of advice comes from my dissertation research – I think it is key to find your people. You need to find your disciplinary communities who are going to be able to support your research and where you are going to find the newest advances. You need to find those people with whom you can collaborate. Research is always going to be challenging but finding like-minded collaborators can be inspirational, as well as a way to share the work. Interacting with peers and colleagues is important to get mutual support and benefit. While networking is challenging, meeting new people is key to being a part of the field of information science.
Thank you very much, Rebekah!
Featured Members is a new iSchools Feature series spotlighting members of iSchools who are part of the development and organization of thought provoking projects or conferences. Please contact admin@ischools-inc.org in case you would like to be featured as well.
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