Considering the local and the translocal

2019 ◽  
Vol 71 (6) ◽  
pp. 703-719 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole K. Dalmer
Keyword(s):  
Health Information ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Information Science ◽  
Institutional Ethnography ◽  
Practice Research ◽  
Library And Information Science ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Information Practices ◽  
Information Practice ◽  
Everyday Life Information Seeking

Purpose Institutional ethnography is a method of inquiry that brings attention to people’s everyday work while simultaneously highlighting broader sites of administration and governance that may be organising that work. The purpose of this paper is to argue that the integration of institutional ethnography in health information practice research represents an important shift in the way that Library and Information Science professionals and researchers study and understand these practices. Design/methodology/approach This paper first explores the key tenets and conceptual underpinnings of Dorothy Smith’s institutional ethnography, illuminating the importance of moving between translocal and the local contexts and identifying ruling relations. Drawing from a library and information science study that combined interviews and textual analyses to examine the social organisation of family caregivers’ health-related information work, the paper then explores the affordances of starting in the local particularities and then moving outwards to the translocal. Findings The paper concludes with an overall assessment of what institutional ethnography can contribute to investigations of health information practices. By pushing from the local to the translocal, institutional ethnography enables a questioning of existing library and information science conceptualisations of context and of reappraising the everyday-life information seeking work/non-work dichotomy. Ultimately, in considering both the local and the translocal, institutional ethnography casts a wider net on understanding individuals’ health information practices. Originality/value With only two retrieved studies that combine institutional ethnography with the study of health information practices, this paper offers health information practice researchers a new method of inquiry in which to reframe the application of methods used.

Mnemonics in the Mouseion

2015 ◽  
Vol 71 (2) ◽  
pp. 278-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ole Olesen-Bagneux
Keyword(s):  
Information Seeking ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Information Science ◽  
Book History ◽  
Library And Information Science ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Core ◽  
The One

Purpose – Mnemonics was a tool in classification and information seeking processes in pre-print libraries. The purpose of this paper is to study the role of spatial mnemonics in Hellenistic libraries, including the one in Alexandria. Design/methodology/approach – Since library- and information science has not explored this subject in depth, philology, rhetoric, book-history and archeology constitute the core literature. From this literature, the role of mnemonics in the libraries is discussed. Findings – A new description of the practice of classification and retrieval in Hellenistic libraries, based on spatial mnemonics. Originality/value – This paper is a new analysis of spatial mnemonics in the Hellenistic libraries. As will become clear, they blend easily and logically with each other.

Library and information science research in the Arab World: a bibliometric analysis 1951–2021

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadeem Siddique ◽  
Shafiq Ur Rehman ◽  
Shakil Ahmad ◽  
Akhtar Abbas ◽  
Muhammad Ajmal Khan
Keyword(s):  
Information Seeking ◽  
Information Science ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Research Performance ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Data Retrieval ◽  
Arab Countries ◽  
Library And Information Science ◽  
Arab Region ◽  
Content Type

Purpose This study aims to investigate the research productivity of library and information science (LIS) authors affiliated with the 22 countries of the Arab League. It also identifies the top countries, organizations, authors, journals, natures of collaboration, and frequently used keywords in LIS research in the Arab world. Design/methodology/approach Bibliometric methods were used to evaluate the research performance of the authors affiliated with library organizations in the Arab region. The Elsevier Scopus database was selected for data retrieval. A comprehensive search strategy was adopted to retrieve 863 publications contributed by LIS authors affiliated with the Arab countries. VOS viewer, Biblioshiny, BiblioAnalyitics, Microsoft Access and Microsoft Excel were used for data visualization and analysis. Findings This paper presents the dynamics and the state of the LIS research in the Arab region published between 1951 and 2021. The results of the study have highlighted an upward trend in the growth of the publications, especially in the past four years. The largest number of studies were published in the year 2020. The country-wise analysis ranked Kuwait and Saudi Arabia as the top LIS research producing countries with five and four researchers, respectively. The Kuwait University, the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals and the Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University were the three most productive organizations. Academic libraries, social media, bibliometrics, information-seeking behavior, information literacy and knowledge management were identified as the major areas of interest for the researchers. Internet and open access were topics that had gained recent popularity, while the digital library, research data management, green librarianship, link data, cloud computing, library leadership, library automation and artificial intelligence were identified as areas requiring further attention. Furthermore, the single-author pattern was found to be the most preferred pattern. Practical implications The findings of this study would help prospective researchers in choosing the neglected areas of research that require further investigation. They would also help policymakers in identifying factors that need more attention and allocation of research funds. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first comprehensive bibliometric study that presents a holistic picture of the LIS research in the Arab region.

Collaborative information seeking environments benefiting from holistic ergonomics

2015 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 439-459 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anika Meyer ◽  
Ina Fourie
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Information Science ◽  
Library And Information Science ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Science Literature ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Social Perspectives ◽  
Collaborative Information Seeking ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the value of utilising a holistic ergonomic approach, covering engineering, cognitive and social perspectives, to cultivate beneficial and productive collaborative information seeking (CIS) systems and environments, specifically with regard to three main CIS pillars (control, communication and awareness). Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative research approach, based on a selective corpus of CIS literature, was utilised to perform a content analysis to note if terms and concepts normally associated with engineering, cognitive and social ergonomics can be used to eliminate terms reflecting issues related to three CIS pillars (control, communication and awareness) that can benefit from a holistic ergonomic approach. Findings – The content analysis revealed that a fairly extensive amount of holistic ergonomic terminology is prominent within the CIS literature, therefore establishing a connection between the two disciplines: CIS and ergonomics. This suggests that CIS system issues could benefit from the insights of a holistic ergonomic approach. Research limitations/implications – Since this is an exploratory study the scope of CIS literature utilised in the content analysis was limited to a selection considered most important by the authors; this should be supplemented by further research. Practical implications – Intended to instigate interest in further exploration of the beneficial and productive implications and practical application of holistic ergonomics in designing CIS systems and environments. Originality/value – This is the first research paper in the Library and Information Science literature that explores the potential of utilising holistic ergonomics to cultivate CIS systems and environments.

Information seeking and searching strategies as plans and patterns of action

2016 ◽  
Vol 72 (6) ◽  
pp. 1154-1180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reijo Savolainen
Keyword(s):  
Information Search ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Information Science ◽  
Library And Information Science ◽  
Web Searching ◽  
Text Book ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Main Emphasis ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
Key Aspects

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to elaborate the picture of strategies for information searching and seeking by reviewing the conceptualizations on this topic in the field of library and information science (LIS). Design/methodology/approach The study draws on Henry Mintzberg’s idea of strategy as plan and strategy as pattern in a stream of actions. Conceptual analysis of 57 LIS investigations was conducted to find out how researchers have approached the above aspects in the characterizations of information search and seeking strategies. Findings In the conceptualizations of information search and information seeking strategies, the aspect of strategy as plan is explicated most clearly in text-book approaches describing the steps of rational web searching. Most conceptualizations focus on the aspect of strategy as pattern in a stream of actions. This approach places the main emphasis on realized strategies, either deliberate or emergent. Deliberate strategies indicate how information search or information seeking processes were oriented by intentions that existed previously. Emergent strategies indicate how patterns in information seeking and seeking developed in the absence of intentions, or despite them. Research limitations/implications The conceptualizations of the shifts in information seeking and searching strategies were excluded from the study. Similarly, conceptualizations of information search or information retrieval tactics were not examined. Originality/value The study pioneers by providing an in-depth analysis of the ways in which the key aspects of strategy are conceptualized in the classifications and typologies of information seeking and searching strategies. The findings contribute to the elaboration of the conceptual space of information behaviour research.

Discursive power and resistance in the information world maps of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and asexual community leaders

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vanessa Kitzie ◽  
Travis Wagner ◽  
A. Nick Vera
Keyword(s):  
South Carolina ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Information Science ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Community Leaders ◽  
Situational Analysis ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Information Practices ◽  
Discursive Power

PurposeThis qualitative study explores how discursive power shapes South Carolina lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and asexual (LGBTQIA+) communities' health information practices and how participants resist this power.Design/methodology/approachIn total, 28 LGBTQIA+ community leaders from South Carolina engaged in semi-structured interviews and information world mapping–a participatory arts-based elicitation technique–to capture the context underlying how they and their communities create, seek, use and share health information. We focus on the information world maps for this paper, employing situational analysis–a discourse analytic method for visual data–to analyze them.FindingsSix themes emerged describing how discursive power operates both within and outside of LGBTQIA+ communities: (1) producing absence, (2) providing unwanted information, (3) commoditizing LGBTQIA+ communities, (4) condensing LGBTQIA+ people into monoliths; (5) establishing the community's normative role in information practices; (6) applying assimilationist and metronormative discourses to information sources. This power negates people's information practices with less dominant LGBTQIA+ identities and marginalized intersectional identities across locations such as race and class. Participants resisted discursive power within their maps via the following tactics: (1) (re)appropriating discourses and (2) imagining new information worlds.Originality/valueThis study captures the perspectives of an understudied population–LGBTQIA+ persons from the American South–about a critical topic–their health–and frames these perspectives and topics within an informational context. Our use of information world mapping and situational analysis offers a unique and still underutilized set of qualitative methods within information science research.

scholarly journals The Information Seeking and Communication Model

2015 ◽  
Vol 71 (5) ◽  
pp. 1043-1069 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Robson ◽  
Lyn Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Information Seeking ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Information Science ◽  
Library And Information Science ◽  
Pharmaceutical Companies ◽  
Communication Model ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Information Behaviour ◽  
Practical Usefulness ◽  
Information Providers

Purpose – This study investigated the application in the field of healthcare of a recently developed model of information seeking and communication. The purpose of this paper is to test the model’s validity and to identify insights that it may provide. Design/methodology/approach – To investigate the model’s application to information users, the findings from published literature on physicians’ information behaviour were studied. To investigate its application to information providers, interviews were carried out with staff working for the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence and with employees of pharmaceutical companies. The findings were examined using deductive content analysis. Findings – The findings endorse the validity of the model, with minor modifications. The model provides practical insights into the behaviour of both users and providers of information and the factors that influence them. It can be used to identify ways in which information behaviour may be positively modified in both finding and communicating healthcare information. Originality/value – This research demonstrates the practical value of a new model of information behaviour which was developed using insights from earlier models. In doing so it answers criticisms that research in library and information science often fails to build on previous research and that it has little practical usefulness.

Affordances for information practices: theorizing engagement among people, technology, and sociocultural environments

2020 ◽  
Vol 77 (1) ◽  
pp. 229-250
Author(s):  
Yuxiang Chris Zhao ◽  
Yan Zhang ◽  
Jian Tang ◽  
Shijie Song
Keyword(s):  
Information Science ◽  
Illustrative Case ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Sociocultural Environment ◽  
Information Practices ◽  
Information Studies ◽  
Technology Affordances ◽  
Information Practice ◽  
A Chain ◽  
Music Information

PurposeIn the domain of information science, affordance is a relatively new concept that deserves further exploration. It may serve as a bridge to narrow the research-practice gap that has persisted in information studies. Building upon previous research, we call for a broader concept of affordance that would help researchers understand information practices from an ecological perspective.Design/methodology/approachThe study focuses on conceptualizing affordances for information practices in order to theorize engagement among people, technology, and sociocultural environments. We develop a hierarchical model and a component model to illustrate how key tenets of affordances can be linked with the decomposition of activities and its mechanism. Following this, we describe an illustrative case of a popular Chinese cloud-based music platform to demonstrate the utility of our conceptual frameworks in guiding studies of information practices.FindingsThe study proposes to shift the focus of technology affordances, which highlights the features and functions of particular technologies, to the affordances for practices that are enacted through technology and social construction within a sociocultural environment. The illustrative case of the cloud-based music platform shows that the proposed models can provide a structured view of operations, actions and motives for music information practices. The processes of internalization and externalization offer insight into the decomposition of information practice as a chain of activity-action-operation.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the literature on theorizing engagement among people, technology and sociocultural environments through the theoretical lens of affordances and sheds new light on the challenges of information practice.

scholarly journals Toward Collaborative Evidence Based Information Practices: Organisation and Leadership Essentials

2010 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anita Mirijamdotter
Keyword(s):  
Information Science ◽  
Library And Information Science ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Potential Contribution ◽  
Social Informatics ◽  
Information Practices ◽  
Information Practice

This commentary is based on my key note for the EBLIP conference held in 2009 in Stockholm, Sweden. The title was: Bridging the gap between users and systems – the potential contribution of Social Informatics to Evidence Based Library and Information Practice. In the following commentary, I focus on the application of social informatics principles to develop a collaborative evidence based approach grounded in shared workplace leadership. My remarks highlight some main contributions from the field of library and information science and social informatics and conclude with implications for practice, including further research.

Factors affecting the unplanned use behavior of academic libraries users

2019 ◽  
Vol 71 (2) ◽  
pp. 138-154
Author(s):  
Hadi Harati ◽  
Fatemeh Nooshinfard ◽  
Alireza Isfandyari-Moghaddam ◽  
Fahimeh Babalhavaeji ◽  
Nadjla Hariri
Keyword(s):  
Academic Libraries ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Information Science ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Information Resources ◽  
Library And Information Science ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Axial Coding ◽  
Use Behavior

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify and design the axial coding pattern of the factors affecting the unplanned use behavior of users of the academic libraries and information centers. Design/methodology/approach The study as an applied research with a qualitative approach employed the grounded theory. The data collection tool was a deep and semi-structured interview. The interviews data were analyzed and coded during three stages of open, axial and selective coding using the MAXQDA 10 qualitative analysis software. The research population consisted of faculty members and experts in three areas of library and information science, management and psychology. Using the combined targeted sampling method (targeted and then the snowball), 12 subjects were selected as the sample size. Findings According to the research findings, the factors affecting the unplanned behavior of users in the use of academic libraries resources and services were identified as factors related to technology, environmental factors, information resources, information services, human resources, individual features, time position factor, cultural factors and social factors. Accordingly, the axial coding pattern of this type of behaviors was designed. Research limitations/implications The research limitations include the lack of theoretical basis related to the unplanned behavior issue in the field of library and information science and the lack of full familiarity of most of the experts in the field of library and information science with this topic. These factors lead to the necessity of explaining the subject under discussion. Originality/value The unplanned behavior of clients can be utilized to persuade users to use the information resources and library services so that the costs spent on their preparation and collection will be justifiable. The current research addressed this aspect of the unplanned information-seeking behavior.

scholarly journals Health information practices of young parents

2017 ◽  
Vol 73 (5) ◽  
pp. 778-802 ◽  
Author(s):  
Devon Greyson
Keyword(s):  
Health Information ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Constructivist Grounded Theory ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Building Relationships ◽  
Young Parents ◽  
Information Practices ◽  
Young Parent

Purpose Despite societal investment in providing health information to young parents, little is known about the health information practices of young parents themselves. The purpose of this paper is to explore young parents’ health information practices in context. Design/methodology/approach This constructivist grounded theory study investigates the health information practices of young mothers and fathers (age 16-23) in Greater Vancouver, Canada. Data were collected over 16 months via individual interviews with 39 young parents (37 mothers, 2 fathers) and observations at young parent programs. Inductive analysis was iterative with data collection. Findings Young parent health information practices emerged, clustering around concepts of information seeking, assessment, and use, with sharing conceptualised as a form of use. Many young parents were sophisticated information seekers, and most were highly networked using mobile technology. While access to information was rarely a barrier, assessment of the large quantity of health-related information posed challenges. Research limitations/implications These findings are not generalisable to all populations. Newly identified information-seeking practices such as defensive and subversive seeking should be explored further in future research. Practical implications Rather than focusing on quantity of information, health and information professionals trying to reach young parents should focus on fostering information literacy skills and building relationships as trusted information providers. Social implications Young parent experiences of social marginalisation influenced their information practices and should be taken into consideration. Originality/value This first investigation of young parent information practices can guide services and resources for young parents, suggests that sharing might be conceptualised as a subset of use, and highlights new information-seeking practices by marginalised individuals, such as defensive and subversive seeking.

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