Isto Huvila

Social Capital in Second Life

Purpose: Second Life is a user-created online virtual world, which is a place where people with shared interests can meet and be together and share information. The purpose of this study is to inve ...

The politics of boundary objects: Hegemonic interventions and the making of a document

Boundary objects are artifacts that reside in the interface between communities and are capable of bridging assumed and experienced differences. Bridging is not, however, necessarily a neutral or a consensual activity. With an emphasis on documents, the present article discusses the politics of boundary objects by analyzing the role of archaeological reports at boundaries between communities with conflicting interests. The analysis demonstrates and discusses the political and purposeful nature of boundary objects—how they are devices for creating and maintaining hegemonies within communities and achieving authority over other intersecting groups of people. The study uses the notion of hegemony and the discourse theory of Laclau and Mouffe (2001) to conceptualize the role of boundary objects as articulations of power and to explicate the dynamics of how the power is exercised.

The complete information literacy? Unforgetting creation and organization of information

Even though the concept of information literacy typically embraces an idea of a complete participation in an information community, its definitions have tended to underline the phases of seeking, searching and evaluation instead of creating information. Shortcomings of information creation can, however, explain many of the difficulties of finding information. This article develops the notion of information literacy with a specific focus on integrating creation and organization of information as central aspects of being information literate and discusses the implications of developing information creation processes from the point of view of information professionals and users. Finally, suggestions are made for how information creation might be improved in practice.

What is Librarian 2.0 – New competencies or interactive relations? A library professional viewpoint

Library 2.0 is a change in the way libraries interact with their users. Technological developments on the Web have had a major influence on these changes. The change also places new requirements on librarians’ competencies and skills. This research investigates how librarians themselves see this change in terms of their work identity and working knowledge. The research shows what kinds of qualities and characteristics are expected from a ‘Librarian 2.0’, according to a group of professional librarians. The results associate ‘Librarian 2.0’ firmly with the Web, although some of the more traditional characteristics of librarianship have retained their relevance. This research also shows that the change towards a ‘Librarian 2.0’ can be seen as intimidating by some librarians, a fact that has to be taken into account when libraries develop their future strategies.

Ecological framework of information interactions and information infrastructures

There has been notably little convergence between information organization and information use studies. A framework for explicating the contextual interplay of information interactions and infrastructures of information, and more specifically the interface of information work and knowledge organization systems, is proposed. The theoretical foundations of the framework are based on systems theory and ecological approach. It is suggested that the interplay of information use and information infrastructures may be conceptualized as a systemic interaction, which is driven by the simultaneous influence of human activity related warrants and infrastructural affordances and constraints. The model provides an instrument that explicates the interplay of human information use and information infrastructures.

“Library users come to a library to find books”: The structuration of the library as a soft information system

Purpose - Considering the perceived significance of librarians and information experts as professional information seekers and information seeking educators and of the institutional setting of info ...

Work and work roles: a context of tasks

– Both task‐based and work‐oriented research approaches have proved their value in information science research. A task is a workable analytical unit of human activity, which brings the level of explication close enough to cater for individual actions and their consequences. Similarly, work and work roles have been effective concepts at explicating the broad patterns of professional information activity. Major issues of the existing approaches are the difficulty of conceptualising the contexts of tasks and the relatively high level of abstraction of a work level scrutiny. The purpose of this paper is to discuss how the concepts of “work”, “work role” and “task” might be integrated into a common research agenda. It is suggested that the explication of work and work roles might serve in providing additional understanding on the formation of the purposes, meanings and values, which guide the shaping of the activities conceptualised as tasks., – The issue is discussed in general with a reference to an empirical study of information work of archaeology professionals informed by the notion of work role., – It is suggested that the broader notions of work and work roles are useful concepts for explicating the context of more specific tasks., – The suggested approach brings together task and work–work role‐based research and provides a basis for exploring human information activity from a broader perspective than before and thus improving the general understanding of why and how information is used as it is used., – The study provides an approach to conceptualise the ways how people work with information and lays the ground for improving information management and organisation practices., – There has been little prior discussion about integrating the task and work‐based approaches. The paper suggests that the explication of work and work roles might serve in providing additional understanding on the formation of the purposes, meanings and values, which guide the shaping of the activities conceptualised as tasks.

Cancer patients' attitudes and experiences of online access to their electronic medical records : A qualitative study

Patients’ access to their online medical records serves as one of the cornerstones in the efforts to increase patient engagement and improve healthcare outcomes. The aim of this article is to provide in-depth understanding of cancer patients’ attitudes and experiences of online medical records, as well as an increased understanding of the complexities of developing and launching e-Health services. The study result confirms that online access can help patients prepare for doctor visits and to understand their medical issues. In contrast to the fears of many physicians, the study shows that online access to medical records did not generate substantial anxiety, concerns or increased phone calls to the hospital.

How a Museum Knows? : Structures, Work Roles, and Infrastructures of Information Work

Even if knowledge is a commodity that a museum offers as Hooper-Greenhill () has argued, the mechanisms of how a museum comes to know what it mediates are not well understood. Using a case study ap ...

Perspectives to the classification of information interactions: the Cool and Belkin faceted classification scheme under scrutiny

The faceted classification system of information interactions proposed by Cool and Belkin is discussed in the light of two case studies. The two examples use the classification scheme as a structural research instrument in two different phases of investigation: in framing the collection of data and in the analysis of already existing data. The discussion is focussed on usability and the issues related to the classification scheme. We conclude that the proposed scheme is a workable instrument for studying complex information interactions with different kinds of research designs. The either premisory or post-collection use of the classification scheme was recognised to have effects on the classification outcome. The principal issues of using the scheme seemed to relate to the frequent overlap of the facets and the tendency of the classifications to be highly dependent on the perspectives of the study.