Associate Professor Lynn Westbrook celebrated her retirement from the iSchool on August 28, 2018. Numerous iSchool faculty and staff members came together for an elegant High Tea celebration to honor Westbrook’s 13 years at the iSchool.
Westbrook started as assistant professor in 2005, after which she became an associate professor in 2009. She taught courses in research methods, information retrieval, information literacy, information resources and services, structuring information interactions, general management, collection development, academic libraries, and pedagogy.
Her research was based on human information interaction with a focus on contextual factors and outcomes of individuals’ high-risk experiences; and themes of community agencies (governmental, formal, and social service), temporal pathways, individual information determinations, and decision-making ran through her work.
iSchool Professor Andrew Dillon stated that, “Lynn tackled a much overlooked and important problem –the information needs of the most vulnerable, threatened members of our society.”
Westbrook published research on various topics including intimate partner violence information issues, digital reference communication, mental model theory, interdisciplinary information seeking, information literacy, and information needs analysis. “Her research embodied the iSchool’s mission to make a difference in people’s lives,” said Dillon.
Westbrook earned her BS in Education, Theatre, and English from Illinois State University in 1979, MA in Information and Library Studies from University of Chicago in 1982, and Ph.D. in Information and Library Studies from University of Michigan in 1995.
We would like to thank her for her invaluable service to the iSchool.