PROFESSIONAL INFORMATION

Faculty Rank: Clinical Associate Professor

Courses Taught:

ILS 295 Disrupting Authority: Social Justice and Information (Spring '22)

ILS 290 SPIRaL: Algorithms & Democracy, Part 1 (Fall '23)

ILS 290 SPIRaL: Algorithms & Democracy, Part 2 (Spring '24)

ILS 335 SPIRaL, Part 1: Commencing Information Literacy Research (Fall 2024, 2025)

ILS 336 SPIRaL, Part 2: Conducting Information Literacy Research (Spring 2025, Spring 2026)

Research Interest:

Information literacy; informed learning; faculty development; undergraduate research; experiential learning; student motivation; scholarship of teaching and learning

Education:

MSLIS, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), 2015
BA, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), 2011

Honors and Awards:

Project Information Literacy Research Scholars Program - One of three mid-career librarians selected to partner with Project Information Literacy researchers to develop a new research study that builds upon the PIL Climate Study (2024). (01/2025)

Teaching for Tomorrow Junior Fellow (04/2025)

PUBLICATIONS
  1. Fundator, R.*, Flierl, M., Maybee, C., Frasier Riehle, C., Slebodnik, M., & Saha, A. (2025). Librarians as faculty developers: Shaping disciplinary classroom experiences through information. College & Research Libraries, 86(5),692-704. https://doi.org/10.5860/crl.86.5.692.
  2. Fundator, R., LeGrand, S., Permenter, S., & Weiss, B. (2024). Students as Partners in the Library: Perspectives of Partnering to Develop a New Information Literacy Undergraduate Research Program. International Journal for Students as Partners 8(2), 217-225.
  3. Flierl, M., Fundator, R., Reed, J., McGowan, B., Cai, C., & Maybee, C. (2020). Training the trainer to embed information literacy into curricula: results from an action research project. Journal of Information Literacy 14(1), 3-18. https://doi.org/10.11645/14.1.2670.
  4. Flierl, M., Maybee, C., & Fundator, R. (2019). Academic librarians’ experiences as faculty developers: A phenomenographic study. Communications in Information Literacy, 13(2), 184-204. https://doi.org/10.15760/comminfolit.2019.13.2.4.
  5. Fundator, R. & Maybee, C. (2019). Academic librarians as informed learning developers. In K. Ranger (ed.) Informed learning applications: Insights from research and practice (Advances in Librarianship; volume 46). Emerald. https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1013&context=impactpubs
  6. Flierl, M., Bonem, E., Maybee, C., & Fundator, R. (2018). Information literacy supporting student motivation and performance: Course-level analysis. Library & Information Science Research 40(1), 30-37. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lisr.2018.03.001.
  7. Stonebraker, I. & Fundator, R. (2016). Use it or lose it: A longitudinal performance assessment of business students’ information literacy. The Journal of Academic Librarianship 42(4), 438-444. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2016.04.004.
PRESENTATIONS
  1. LeGrand, S., Maybee, C., & Fundator, R. (October, 2025). Disruptive partnerships: Collaborating with students to create empowering learning experiences in information studies. Association for Library and Information Science Education Annual Conference, Kansas City, Missouri.
  2. Maybee, C., Fundator, R., Gerrish, T., LeGrand, S., Huber, S. (2025, July 21). First-hand knowledge: Four approaches to experiential information literacy. [Webinar]. Presented for Information Literacy Certificate hosted by the Ohio State University Libraries.
  3. Fundator, R. & Collins, M. (2025, May 2). Experiential Information Literacy: Infusing Student Partnership into Higher Education. [Keynote]. Illinois Information Literacy Summit, Glen Ellyn, IL.
  4. Legrand, S., & Fundator, R. (2025, March 28). Fostering AI conversations through research and educational initiatives. Presented at the AI Community of Practice hosted by the Ohio State and Carnegie Mellon University.
  5. Bonem, E., Fundator, R., & Hamm, L. (October, 2024). Learning with GenAi in your classroom. International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSOTL), French Lick, Indiana.
  6. Fundator, R., Maybee, C., & Legrand, S. (2024, May). Cultivating Information Literacy Pedagogy with Student-Instructor Partnership. LOEX, Naperville, IL.
  7. Fundator, R. (2024, April 11). Reacting to AI in the classroom: Faculty and student perceptions and use of generative AI tools. Presented at Purdue Libraries Learning Live with Libraries Open Science Talks: Navigating truth, privacy, and representations in the digital age. West Lafayette, IN.
  8. Maybee, C., Fundator, R., Permenter, S., & Dooley, N. (2024, April 11). Student partners for information research and literacy (SPIRaL). Presented at Purdue Libraries Learning Live with Libraries Open Science Talks: Navigating truth, privacy, and representations in the digital age. West Lafayette, IN.
  9. Maybee, C., Fundator, R., Flierl, M. (2024, May). Librarians and Teachers Co-designing for Information Literacy: Creating Informed Learners in the Classroom. LILAC: Information Literacy Conference, Leeds, United Kingdom.
  10. Fundator, R., Mohandas, L., Hamm, L., Guberman, D., Nelson, D., Neubauer, K. (November, 2023). Reacting to AI in the classroom: Faculty & student perceptions and use of generative AI tools. Purdue Libraries Celebrating Research, West Lafayette, IN.
  11. Maybee, C., Flierl, M., & Fundator, R. (October, 2023). Creating informed learners in the classroom workshop. [Workshop]. European Conference on Information Literacy, Krakow, Poland.
  12. Fundator, R., LeGrand, S., Permenter, S., & Weiss, B. (2023, April). SPIRaL: Student partners for information research and literacy undergraduate research program. Presented at the Information and Democracy: Education, Access, and Libraries (ID:EALS) Symposium, West Lafayette, IN.
  13. Fundator, R., & LeGrand, S. (2023, April). Students as partners in the library: Creating meaningful information literacy instruction together. Information Literacy Summit, Glen Ellyn, IL.
  14. Maybee, C. & Fundator, R. (2022, August 10). Informed learning design: Fostering librarian-instructor collaboration. [Virtual workshop]. Presented for Seminole State College librarians.
  15. Maybee, C., Fundator, R., & Saha, A. (2022, May). Creating informed learners in the classroom: Librarian experiences of developing a multi-institutional information literacy project. [Webinar]. Presented for the Indiana State Library.
  16. Fundator, R. & Gaha, U. (2021, July). Leveraging the moment: Benefits of a collaborative approach to IL instruction [virtual poster presentation]. Academic Libraries of Indiana Information Literacy Committee Conference.
  17. Maybee, C. & Fundator, R. (2021, April). But how do we do that online? Lessons learned from shifting information literacy design workshops online. Information Literacy Summit, Palos Hills, IL.
  18. Flierl, M., Maybee, C., Fundator, R. (2019, October). Enabling student learning sustainably, at scale: A phenomenographic study. Library Research Seminar VII, Columbia, SC.
  19. Flierl, M., Maybee, C., & Fundator, R. (2019, April). Integrating information literacy into disciplinary courses using informed learning design. Information Literacy Summit, Palos Hills, IL.
  20. Flierl, M., Bonem, E., Maybee, C., & Fundator, R. (2018, October). Information use in learning environments: Supporting student motivation and performance. International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSOTL), Bergen, Norway.
  21. Neubauer, K., Huang, W., Fundator, R., Cai, H., Hands, N., Zimpfer, M., Diao, X., & Reed, J.B. (2018). Teamwork makes the dream work: Purdue’s IMPACT course transformation faculty learning community. Presented at Purdue Global 2018 Virtual General Education Conference.
  22. Fundator, R., Flierl, M., & Maybee, C. (April, 2018). Crushing curiosity: How information literacy can hinder or foster student engagement. Presented at 2018 Illinois Information Literacy Summit in Palos Hills, IL.
  23. Maybee, C., Flierl, M., & Fundator, R. (August, 2017). Unearthing authority: Helping students develop richer understandings of disciplinary information. Presented at 2017 Indiana University Information Literacy Colloquium in New Albany, IN.
  24. Fundator, R., & Stonebraker, I. (2016). Playing the long game: Longitudinal assessment of information literacy. Presented at 2016 Illinois Information Literacy Summit in Palos Hills, IL.
OTHER INFORMATION

Grants:

  1. Reacting to AI in the classroom: Faculty and student perceptions on use of generative AI tools, Co-PI (January 2023) Funded by Purdue Innovation Hub, Innovation Grant (Proposal Number: IH‐IG‐23001)
  2. Academic Librarian Curriculum Developers: Building Capacity to Integrate Information Literacy across the University, (2019-2023) Funded by Institute of Museum and Libraries Services Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program (RE-13-19-0021-19).