Ola Pilerot

LIS research on information sharing activities: people, places, or information

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to investigate and critically examine conceptualisations of information sharing activities in a selection of library and information science (LIS) literatur ...

The Concept of Information Literacy in Policy-Making Texts: An Imperialistic Project?

Organizations such as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) put a lot of effort in advocacy and policy making for information literacy (IL). Their ambition to foster IL can be seen as a part of a multinational educational project. By exporting a Western IL model focused on textual information sources and the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) into non-Western contexts that to a great extent lack ICTs, the educational project for IL runs the risk of turning into an imperialistic project. A discursively oriented analysis of two prominent policy documents—discussed in the light of the so-called new imperialism and the idea of invisible technologies—indicates a standardized one-size-fits-all-model of IL. Through establishing a close contact between the policy-making strand and the research strand in the IL literature and by adhering to the broad concept of information literacies, the risk of imperialism and oppression might lessen.

Connections between research and practice in the information literacy narrative: A mapping of the literature and some propositions:

The relationship between research and professional practice, often described in terms of a ‘gap’, is a topical issue involving stakeholders such as researchers, practitioners and policy-makers. Within the area of information literacy it is increasingly emphasized that practitioners make use of research and that research is conducted on problems relevant to practice. From a wide perspective, this paper discusses and identifies in the information literacy literature three different strands relating to research, practice and policy-making for information literacy. On the basis of a small-scale bibliometric investigation of samples of literature representing the identified strands, it is concluded that interconnections between the strands are weak. The results of the bibliometric study are discussed in the light of previous research on the relationship between research and practice. It is proposed that the research-based discussion on research and practice would benefit from a more nuanced terminology and by abandoning the prevailing gap-metaphor.

Making design researchers' information sharing visible through material objects

This article seeks to make visible information‐sharing activities that take place within a geographically dispersed network of design researchers. For this purpose, a theoretical approach is applied that comprises the analytical notion of material objects and a document theory. Empirical material was primarily ethnographically produced over a period of 6 months, including 2 seminars within the network. Trajectories of sharing that reach across time and space have been identified by studying how people interact with multidimensional objects, such as documents. These were found to coordinate and shape the social practice under study. The theoretical framework has made it possible to highlight aspects of information sharing that have tended to be blackboxed in previous research. It has been suggested in previous research that the concept of information sharing can be reduced to that of mere sharing. Such a stance potentially entails reduction of conceptual ambiguity but may also decrease analytical sharpness. Based on the present study, it appears beneficial to adopt the concept of document into the discourse of information‐sharing research. By adding the concept of document to our analytical toolbox, which hitherto has been dominated by the slightly diffuse concept of information, material features can be emphasized without reducing the social and cognitive dimensions of information sharing. The article offers insight into the information‐sharing activities of design researchers. Through its focus on materiality, it presents a novel theoretical approach and methodological strategy for studying information practices.

A practice-based exploration of the enactment of information literacy among PhD students in an interdisciplinary research field

Purpose – The study aims to explore the interaction between the students, the material objects surrounding them, and their social site. The purpose of this paper is to identify and elucidate information literacy as it is being enacted within a complex and heterogeneous community of PhD students. Design/methodology/approach – The study is conducted from a practice-based perspective, according to which information literacy is conceived as learnt through interaction within the socio-material practice where the learner is active. In order to produce empirical material, semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten doctoral students in an interdisciplinary research network, and their workplaces were visited. Findings – The PhD students in this interdisciplinary network are more or less constantly engaged in the enactment of information literacy. It takes place in dialogue with others who can be both co-located and distantly located, and occurs through discussions about work in progress, through processes ...

Inside the library: Academic librarians’ knowing in practice:

There is a dearth of studies on librarians’ information practices, in particular their information use. At the same time the professional field of librarianship is infused with an imperative dictating that the work of librarians should be evidence based. This paper presents an ethnographic study of academic librarians’ information use in professional practice. On the basis of the analysis, which is rooted in practice theory, it is concluded that in the academic library under investigation, information use is an ongoing practice shaped in and by the specific areas in which the work is carried out. Rather than primarily relying on evidence in terms of formal research results, the librarians in the study relate to and make use of a multitude of both formal and informal information sources.

The Enactment of Information Literacy: An Exploratory Study Among Interdisciplinary PhD Students

This paper reports a practice-based study of the enactment of information literacy (IL) in a network of interdisciplinary PhD students. Previous research on this topic is scarce. The empirical material was produced through semi-structured interviews and work-place visits. It is concluded that the enactment of IL in the practice under study is a collectively sustained project that unfolds in dialogue with others and through interaction with material objects. This process comprises activities such as participation in seminars and conferences, which offer opportunities for discussions about work in progress, and is situated in socio-material practices shaped by historically developed conceptions of what it means to be an interdisciplinary researcher.