I am interested in three related areas: 1.) information phenomena in serious leisure; 2.) ethnography; and 3.) the history and theory of information studies. My academic career is organized around the question: What is the nature of information in the pleasures of life? I am investigating this matter through the concatenated study of serious leisure realms, which are crossroads of information and enjoyment. My empirical research explores the use and structure of leisure information on personal and social levels, and my dissertation is a case study of information phenomena in the hobby of gourmet cooking. I am a methodologist and practicing ethnographer with a particular interest in visual techniques. I take an interdisciplinary and international approach and maintain close ties with leisure studies and northern European information scholars. My goals are to generate basic knowledge about information in the pleasures of life; challenge existing ideas that have largely emerged from academic problem scenarios; establish positive models of organic, flourishing information environments; enliven classrooms with upbeat topics; and enrich the information experience for leisure enthusiasts.
Articles
Visual approaches and photography for the study of immediate information space (with Leslie Thomson), Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (2012)
This methods-oriented paper introduces visual methods and specifically photography to study immediate information space (Lee,...
Welcome to Library and Information Science, Journal of Education for Library and Information Science (2012)
This paper enacts the following scenario: At an orientation session for a library and information...
Managing Documents at Home for Serious Leisure: A Case Study of the Hobby of Gourmet Cooking, Journal of Documentation (2010)
Purpose – This paper describes the way participants in the hobby of gourmet cooking in...
Time as a Framework for Information Science: Insights from the, Information Research (2010)
Introduction. This paper proposes a framework for information science based upon time. The conception is...
Information and Higher Things in Life: Addressing the (with Jarkko Kari), Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (2007)
The article discusses lower and higher contexts for information phenomena, and argues that there is...
Contributions to Books
Information in the Hobby of Gourmet Cooking - Four Contexts, Everyday Life Information (2011)
This chapter aims to characterize the information activities and information resources that underlie the hobby...
Leisure and Hobby Information and its User, Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science (2010)
This article examines leisure in North America and western Europe with a focus on its...
Presentations
Metatheoretical Snowmen, II, ASIST Annual Meeting (2011)
Metatheory is the highest level conceptual device used in research and determines a way of...
The Future of Information History, ASIST Annual Meeting (2011)
This panel discusses developments in the scholarship of information history and speculates on its future....
Metatheoretical Snowmen, Conceptions of Library and Information Science (COLIS) (2010)
Metatheory is the highest level conceptual device used in research and determines a way of...
Metatheoretical Snowmen, ASIST Annual Meeting (2009)
Metatheory is the highest level conceptual device used in research and determines a way of...
Towards Positive Information Science (with Jarkko Kari), ASIST Annual Meeting (2009)
This panel offers a refreshing counterpoint to the predominantly problem-oriented perspective of theory and research...