Michael A. Zarro

I'm a Ph.D. candidate at the Drexel University College of Information Science and Technology. Dissertation Topic: Characterizing and Enhancing Dual Process Information Behaviors: Interactive Health Search.

My research goals are to enhance exploratory search behaviors using information seeking theories from the IS community, and the Dual-Process Theories Elaboration Likelihood Model and Heuristic-Systematic Model from the social psychology domain. I plan to develop theory and systems that support health information seeking and learning on the Web through a 2 part naturalistic and controlled (mixed methods) study. My work is informed by 10+ years industry experience as an Information Architecture and Web Developer, and my research has been supported by an IMLS fellowship.

Current research projects include my dissertation study, which aims to model and enhance health information seeking; Meaningful Concept Displays, an IMLS funded research project that seeks to improve user's experience as online searchers and contributors; and exploring the concept of "social collecting" in social media websites.