Rebekah (Becky) Willson
Assistant Professor
- PhD, School of Information Studies, Charles Sturt University
- MLIS, School of Library & Information Studies, University of Alberta
- BA Honors (Psychology), University of Alberta
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Dr Rebekah (Becky) Willson is an assistant professor at the School of Information Studies at 51吃瓜网 (Montr茅al, Canada). Before coming to McGill, Dr Willson spent three years as a Lecturer in Information Science in the Department of Computer and Information Sciences at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, UK. In 2016 she obtained her PhD from Charles Sturt University in Australia. Dr Willson鈥檚 research examines the information people need and how they find, share, and use that information. Her research particularly focuses on often forgotten or marginalised individuals who are undergoing transitions and living with uncertainty, including academics working on short-term contracts, early career researchers dealing with COVID-19, and knowledge workers working remotely.听
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Review Editor:听Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology
Past President:
Editorial Board Member:听Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science
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| 2021鈥�2023 | SSHRC Insight Development Grant: Precarity and information marginalization: Exploring how academic casualization complicates workplace information practices.听(Principal Investigator) |
| 2021-2024 | NSERC Alliance Grant:听Defending our cyberspace: AI-powered search engine for cyber threat intelligence听(Co-Investigator) |
Given, L., Case, D. O., & Willson, R. (2023). Looking for Information: Examining research on how people engage with information (5th ed.). Emerald.
Willson, R. (2022). 鈥淏ouncing ideas鈥� as a complex information practice: Information seeking, sharing, creation, and cooperation. Journal of Documentation, 78(4), 800-816.
Nicol, E., Willson, R., Ruthven, I., Elsweiler, D., & Buchanan, G. (2022). Information intermediaries and information resilience: Working to support marginalised groups. Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 59(1), 469-473. Pittsburgh, USA.
Willson, R., Makri, S., McKay, D., & Ayeni, P.* (2022). Precarity and progression during a pandemic. Preliminary findings from a study of early career academics鈥� information听behaviour during COVID-19. In Proceedings of ISIC: the information behaviour conference, Berlin, Germany, 26-29 September, 2022. Information Research, 27(Special issue), isic2225.
Rowley, K. & Willson, R. (2022). Scotland鈥檚 public libraries are nothing but practical when it comes to deselection. Library and Information Research. Advance online publication.
Willson, R.听& Given, L. M. (2020). 鈥淚鈥檓 in sheer survival mode鈥�: Information behaviour and affective experiences of early career academics.听Library and Information Science Research,听42(2).听
Willson, R. (2019). Transitions Theory and liminality in information behaviour research: Applying new theories to examine the transition to early career academic. Journal of Documentation, 75(4), 838-856.听
Willson, R. (2018). 鈥淪ystemic Managerial Constraints鈥�: How universities influence the information behaviour of HSS early career academics. Journal of Documentation, 74(4), 862-879.听听
Given, L. M., & Willson, R. (2018). Information technology and the humanities scholar: Documenting digital research practices. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 69(6), 807-819.听
Given, L. M., Winkler, D. C., Willson, R., Davidson, C., Danby, S., & Thorpe, K. (2016). Watching young children 鈥榩lay鈥� with information technology: Everyday life information seeking in the home. Library & Information Science Research, 38(4), 344-352.听
Given, L. M., Winkler, D. C., Willson, R., Davidson, C., Danby, S., & Thorpe, K. (2016). Parents as co-researchers at home: Using an observational method to document young children鈥檚 use of technology. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 15(1).听听
Given, L. M. & Willson, R. (2015). Collaboration, information seeking, and technology use: A critical examination of humanities scholars鈥� research practices. In P. Hansen, C. Shah, & K. Claus-Peter (Eds.) Collaborative information seeking: Best practices, new domains and new thoughts (pp. 139-164). New York: Springer-Verlag.听听听