When I embarked on my dissertation research, my dissertation advisor advised me to choose a topic that really interested me.

I took her advice and explored a computer-based technique to build a searching tool that enabled non-subject specialists to search a specialized image collection that was only accessible to art historians who study iconography.

At the time, few researchers in our field were interested in images. After all, visual images very expensive to reproduce in published books and magazines. Today, it's a whole different story. Desktop programs have put multimedia production in the hands of everyday people.

I now teach multimedia production in the School of Information. Students learn how to to express their ideas visually, how to use the important media creation and authoring equipment and programs, and storyboard their programs prior to media creation and authoring.

Students also work with local cultural organizations such as schools, museums, and libraries because such organizations have content to share and stories to tell to interested audiences.

In September 2001, the Institute for Museum and Library Services awarded me a grant to test the effectiveness of multimedia for library-user education. In the LUMENS Project, I am teaming with library staff at Earlham College, Notre Dame University, Purdue University, and University of Illinois-Chicago to develop and test multimedia-based web sites for their librarys' users.

My research interests in this area extend to the nature of visual persuasion in everyday life, how the formal elements of visual imagery combine to deliver a persuasive message, and how visual imagery influences behavior. I teach Visual Persuasion at the School of Information. Not only do my students examine these issues, they learn how to develop strategies to protect themselves from the unwanted messages images convey and how to use persuasive imagery wisely in their own creations.

C o n t e nts
Q u i c k Bio
S u b j e c t Headings
C l a s s i fication
S e a r c h Strategies
D i g i t a l Libraries
V i s u a l Images 
B i r d ing
S q u i r rels