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- N.B.
- I am an Associate professor in both Dalhousie's Faculty of Computer Science and School of
Information Management. Further details of
my academic appointment are in the
other information
section,
below.
(Up to section list)
I am an active researcher.
My overall goal is to help people find and use information more
effectively.
I believe this goal can best be achieved through interdisciplinary and
collaborative research.
Much of my research is conducted under the mantle of the HAIKU research group.
A searchable version of
my bibliography is in the collection of links to research
resources I maintain primarily for graduate students.
My research is funded by CFI, NSERC, and SSHRC.
Research Areas
My major research areas are summarized by the fields below:
- Hypertext
Text which does not form a single sequence and which may be read
in various orders …
(Simpson & Weiner, 1993, in the
OED Additions Series)- Human-Computer Interaction
- Understanding how people use computer technology, to develop tools
that fit users rather than tools that users must contort to fit
- Web science
What do people and communities want from [the technology of] the
Web
(Shneiderman, 2007 in CACM, DOI:10.1145/1247001.1247022)- Digital Libraries
- A reconceptualisation of that cornerstone of civilisation, The Library
Specifically the following topics:
- Annotation, text analytics, and e-Learning
- Supporting expert readers and learners by understanding their needs,
and building suitable tools to support their activities
- Sensemaking
Sensemaking is the process of searching for a representation and
encoding data in that representation to answer task-specific
questions.
(Russell et al., 1993 in
INTERCHI'93, DOI:10.1145/169059.169209)- Information Seeking
… a variety of behaviors [sic] seemingly
motivated by the recognition of missing
information. …
information seeking is typically defined strictly in terms of active
and intentional behavior…
(Case, 2007, p. 81,
Looking for Information: A Survey of Research on Information
Seeking, Needs, and Behavior[sic], 2e, ISBN
978-0-12-369430-0)
Potential Graduate Students/Research Assistants
Please see the Graduate section (below) for topic
suggestions, answers to frequently asked questions, and more.
I do not do research in data mining (except possibly specialised user
interfaces).
(Up to section list and
address)
For details about all of my courses see
my courses webpage.
A list of topics I can use books about is in a webpage just for book reps.
This Fall (Sept.–Dec.) I will be teaching CSCI 3160 (User Interface
Design).
My courses webpage has information about all of the courses I
teach.
I also keep a collection of material for teaching
(forms, slides, notes, etc.) for a
variety of courses.
Some of the materials for my current classes is available to my students
through the FCS's
moodle and portal
websites.
My hours for the new year are yet to be announced.
I was available to advise undergraduates about course selection etc. on Mondays from 2:30 until 4:30 in
the afternoon.
To make an appointment please contact Barbara Borden (the FCS's receptionist).
My hours for the new year are yet to be announced.
(Up to section list and
address)
My hours for the new year are yet to be announced.
(Up to section list and
address)
is four parts: about
me, other
resources, for
more …, and about this
document.
I pronounce my family name as blustin
in the
International Phonetic Alphabet. That sounds like this 
.
I am an associate professor in Dalhousie University's Faculty
of Computer Science and hold a cross-appointment in
the
School of Information Management (in the Faculty of
Management). I became an associate professor (with tenure)
effective July 2007. I have been a faculty member in Computer
Science (and Graduate Studies) at Dalhousie since August
2000. I joined the Faculty of Management in 2005.
Timetable
My weekday schedule is no longer on the WWW.
(Up to section list and
address)
An accesskey legend for this
webpage is available.
