Sarah Polkinghorne is a Research Fellow in Social Change at RMIT University in Melbourne.

On this page, I share current highlights.

For a full CV, please reach out to sarah.polkinghorne@rmit.edu.au

I'm an information science researcher and librarian with a longstanding interest in people’s everyday interactions with information and technology. I explore the impacts of information systems for society and on people’s lives, including the embodied (often tacit) experience of needing, finding, using, and sharing information.

Publications

New & recent

  • Structural elements and spheres of expertise: Creating a healthy ecosystem for cultural data initiatives. With Lisa M. Given, Joann Cattlin. Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.24849 [open access]

  • Information practices, plural: Exploring multiplicity and mutual constitution of practices. Proceedings, 2023 Annual Meeting of the Association for Information Science & Technology (ASIS&T) https://doi.org/10.1002/pra2.841 [Award: 3rd Prize, Best Short Paper]

  • Getting past “approachability”: What cultural humility brings to library and information education. With Lilliana Montoya. In Hopeful visions, practical actions: Cultural humility in library work, eds. Sarah Kostelecky, Lori Townsend, and David Hurley. ALA Editions (USA) and Facet (UK/Europe). https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-ngec-sh80 [open access]

  • Holistic information research: From rhetoric to paradigm. With Lisa M. Given. Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.24450 [check Google Scholar for access]

Presentations

Upcoming & recent

  • “Transformative” agreements between publishers and libraries. Guest lecture for LIS 591: Publishing, School of Library and Information Studies, University of Alberta (February 2024)

  • What does it mean to engage in transdisciplinary research? Preparing for future collaborations. Workshop with Lisa Given for the QUT Digital Media Research Centre / ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society Summer School, Queensland University of Technology (February 2024)

  • Pathways to positive change: Exploring research engagement in practice contexts. A panel I chaired, with Lynne Bowker, Brian Detlor, Mary Greenshields, and Dana Mckay for the 86th Annual Meeting of the Association for Information Science and Technology (October 2023)

  • Building a bigger table: Food research, methods, policy, and action in library and information science. A panel chaired by Xiaotong Du, with Melissa Ocepek and Kaitlin Costello, for the 86th Annual Meeting of the Association for Information Science and Technology (October 2023)

Teaching

I’m currently in a 100% research role, but I relish teaching opportunities

  • Information Resource Discovery for the University of Ottawa’s School of Information Studies. An introduction to information services, information interaction and practices, and advanced search concepts and techniques (for Fall 2020 — I adapted and built the course for online)

Practice

I’m on leave from my librarian role until November 2024

The main component of my librarian work is leading monograph collections (ie. books!) at the University of Alberta. This includes:

  • approval plan management

  • demand-driven acquisition

  • publisher-direct frontlist negotiations

  • open access transitions

  • qualitative and quantitative assessment

Service

Recent commitments