I am a qualitative researcher with disciplinary interests in library and information science and fan studies. For the latest updates on my work, please view my CV.
I keep an open research notebook on this site, consisting of reading notes and reflections on the research process. I also maintain a page tracking work on fan studies in information and library science.
I’m playing with Notion as a productivity tool for things that are too complex for me to keep in a notebook, and sharing some of my set-ups.
I am a postdoctoral scholar on the TS4EDI project, an IMLS-funded project of the Connected Learning Lab at the University of California, Irvine. This project examines:
I have one publication in submission and one in preparation based on the work my colleagues and I did in the Equity in the Making Lab.
In this literature review, currently in revision for publication in the Journal of Research on Libraries and Young Adults, I argue that library programming can leverage tabletop role-playing games to support teens' identity development through creating space for teens to construct game-related identities, practice shifting between multiple identities, develop morality, take risks in a low-stakes environment, and build their self-esteem and a sense of purpose.
I have multiple projects in development, at various stages of the research process from initial development to revision before submission for publication. To preserve my anonymity in the peer review process, I have not listed these here, but feel free to email me for more information about them.
For my dissertation, I investigated the information literacy practices of cosplayers. I openly shared both my process and products online. I shared process notes in my research notebook. In addition to the finished dissertation itself, I shared the following research products so far:
From 2016 - 2019, I worked as a graduate assistant on Project Ready, an IMLS-funded project in which my colleagues and I developed and implemented a continuing education curriculum that will enable school librarians to become more culturally competent educators. This process involved reviewing relevant literature, designing and implementing a week-long intensive professional development experience, and adapting and expanding that experience to create an online, self-paced professional development curriculum.
I conducted a content analysis of school librarian preparation program websites to determine the extent to which these programs prepare preservice school librarians to work with special education students. The results of this study were presented as a poster at the 2016 American Library Association
My Master’s paper explored the self-reported transformational leadership practices of National Board Certified School Librarians in North Carolina and how those practices related to school librarians' ability to carry out leadership guidelines as identified in the American Association of School Librarians publication, _Empowering Learners: Guidelines for School Library Media Programs.
These two small-scale, unpublished research studies feature qualitative methods including interviewing and participant observation, thematic data analysis, and application of Lave and Wenger’s Community of Practice framework.
This is the website of Kimberly Hirsh. The subtitle of this site comes from the description of woodland goth on the Aesthetics wiki.
I acknowledge that I live and work on unceded Lumbee, Skaruhreh/Tuscarora, and Shakori land. I give respect and reverence to those who came before me. I thank Holisticism for the text of this land acknowledgement.
We must acknowledge that much of what we know of this country today, including its culture, economic growth, and development throughout history and across time, has been made possible by the labor of enslaved Africans and their ascendants who suffered the horror of the transatlantic trafficking of their people, chattel slavery, and Jim Crow. We are indebted to their labor and their sacrifice, and we must acknowledge the tremors of that violence throughout the generations and the resulting impact that can still be felt and witnessed today. I thank Dr. Terah ‘TJ’ Stewart for the text of this labor acknowledgement.