Brittany Brannon
Research Support Specialist
Brittany Brannon is a Research Support Specialist with OCLC’s Library Trends and User Research group, where she works on several multi-institutional research projects studying user information behavior, including the IMLS grant-funded project Researching Students’ Information Choices: Determining Identity and Judging Credibility in Digital Spaces.
Brittany’s primary research interests are in information seeking behavior, academic research skills, and scholarly communication. She earned an MLIS at Kent State University, a Master’s in Rhetoric and Composition from the University of Kansas, and a Bachelor’s in English Literature and Philosophy from Denison University. Before joining OCLC, she taught first-year composition, consulted with graduate students on their research and writing, and worked for an educational nonprofit.
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Publications
Backgrounds and behaviors: Which students successfully identify online resources in the face of container collapse
15 February 2021
Christopher Cyr, Tara Tobin, Brittany Brannon, Amy G. Buhler, Ixchel M. Faniel, Lynn Silipigni Connaway, Joyce Kasman Valenza, Rachael Elrod, Samuel R. Putnam
This study of students from primary through graduate school looks at their ability to identify the containers of information resources, and how this ability is affected by their demographic traits, the resource features they attended to, and their behaviors during a task-based simulation.
I still go ask someone I enjoy talking to: The use of digital and human sources by educational stage and context
6 January 2021
Chris Cyr, Brittany Brannon, Lynn Silipigni Connaway
How does educational stage affect the way people find information? In previous research using the Digital Visitors & Residents (V&R) framework for semi-structured interviews, context was a factor in how individuals behaved. This study of 145 online, open-ended surveys examines the impact that one's V&R educational stage has on the likelihood of attending to digital and human sources across four contexts.
Mixed methods data collection using simulated Google results: reflections on the methods of a point-of-selection behaviour study
16 December 2020
Tara Tobin Cataldo, Amy G. Buhler, Ixchel M. Faniel, Brittany Brannon, Lynn Silipigni Connaway, Christopher Cyr, Kailey Langer, Erin M. Hood, Joyce Kasman Valenza, Rachael Elrod, Randy A. Graff, Samuel R. Putnam, and Summer Howland
A multi-institutional, grant-funded project employed mixed methods to study 175 fourth-grade through graduate school students’ point-of-selection behaviour. The method features the use of simulated search engine results pages to facilitate data collection.