Eric M. Meyers is an Associate Professor at the School of Library, Archival and Information Studies (SLAIS) at the University of British Columbia, where he teaches and conducts research on the information practices of young people in academic and everyday contexts. Eric’s research interests lie at the intersection of information science, the learning sciences, and new media studies, with a focus on collaborative information use and meaning making in social situations. A former K-12 teacher, school librarian and technologist, Eric consults with a wide range of institutions and professionals regarding information services, youth programming, learning spaces, and technology-enriched curricula. He has published journal articles, book chapters, and conference papers on information behavior, school library programs, and research methods with young people. His current research, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) focuses on how early adolescents make decisions to use or reject information in the context of their daily lives.
Research Interests
Eric’s research, at the intersection of information science and the learning sciences, explores how young people engage socially with digital information systems as they work, learn, and play. This research has included work on collaborative search, social reading environments, digital literacies in YouTube, and the affordances of tablet-based learning. Recent work has focused on how crafting and prototyping activities in informal learning settings, specifically Maker Camps and library-based coding and crafting programs, support the development of design literacies and computational thinking, the skills and attitudes that facilitate understanding of today's complex information and communication technologies. He is co-PI on The Six Seasons of the Asiniskow Ithiniwak: Reclamation, Regeneration, and Reconciliation, a $2.5 million SSHRC Partnership Grant which will build six multi-touch (tablet-based) narrative textual experiences for elementary-age children. This seven-year project works with northern Manitoba’s Asiniskow Ithiniwak (Rocky Cree) to reclaim their history by revitalizing their stories of cultural identity. The prototype of the first app is in early testing.