Posts about Academic (old posts, page 2)

There's No Shortcut: Building Understanding from Information in Ultrarunning

Gorichanaz, T. (2017). There’s no shortcut: Building understanding from information in ultrarunning. Journal of Information Science, 43(5), 713–722.

Abstract. Now that information proliferates, information science should turn its attention toward higher-order epistemic aims, such as understanding. Before systems to support the building of understanding can be designed, the process of building understanding must be explored. This paper discusses findings from an interpretative phenomenological analysis study on the information experience of participants in a 100-mile footrace which reveal how these participants have built understanding in their athletic pursuits. Three ways in which ultrarunners build understanding -- by taking time, by undergoing struggle, and by incorporating multiple perspectives -- are described. The ensuing discussion leads to three questions that can guide the future development of information systems that support understanding: First, how can information science slow people down? Second, how can information science encourage people to willingly struggle? And third, how can information science stimulate analogical thinking?

Understanding Art-Making as Documentation

Gorichanaz, T. (2017). Understanding art-making as documentation. Art Documentation, 36(2), 191–203.

Abstract. Typically, arts information professionals are concerned with the documentation of artwork. As a provocation, this conceptual paper explores how art-making itself can be considered a form of documentation and finished artworks as documents in their own right. On this view, art works as evidence in referencing something else, within a broader system, and under scrutiny it exposes how it references. Some implications of this perspective are discussed, springing from a historical discussion of document epistemology, research on the information behavior of artists, and the philosophy of Nelson Goodman. This discussion provides a framework for conceptualizing artistic information behavior along the entire information chain. Framing art-making in the terms of information science in this way may help arts information professionals assist artists, and it provides grounds for deeper co-understandings between artists and information scientists. Additionally, once information scientists consider art as a kind of document, one can begin to see that even non-artistic documents perhaps never were as "objective" or "factual" as they may have seemed.

All the Community's a Stage: The Public Library's Part in Community Information Provision

Gorichanaz, T., and Turner, D. All the community’s a stage: The public library’s changing role in community information provision. The Library Quarterly, 87(2), 99–116.

Abstract. Community information is indispensable for modern life, but access to it remains challenging for many people. Historically, public libraries have been central in providing formal community information, but today such information provision is accomplished largely by informal networks of community service agencies. Thus, the role and the value of the public library in community information provision seem unclear. We find an analogy to this situation in design theorist Christopher Alexander’s conceptualization of planned versus natural cities, and we bring this to bear on an ongoing study of public library service provision to the urban poor. This work reveals implications and recommendations for the public library’s unfolding role in community information provision: public libraries may no longer be needed to provide formal community information, but they can engage as information shepherds with local community service agencies in informal community information provision.

Auto-hermeneutics: A Phenomenological Approach to Information Experience

Gorichanaz, T. (2017). Auto-hermeneutics: A phenomenological approach to information experience. Library and Information Science Research, 39(1), 1–7.

Abstract. The need for methodologically rigorous approaches to the study of human experience in LIS has emerged in recent years. Auto-hermeneutics is a research methodology that offers a systematic way to study one's own experiences. In LIS, auto-hermeneutics offers a way to approach emerging questions regarding information experience and allows researchers to explore yet-undocumented contexts, setting precedents for further work in these areas and ultimately widening our understanding of information. Auto-hermeneutics draws principles from autoethnography (perhaps the most well-known of automethodologies), self-study and systematic self-observation; prior studies of these types in LIS and allied fields are presented. A discussion of generalizability, validity and reliability in auto-hermeneutic research follows. Finally, an example of an auto-hermeneutic study conducted by the author is outlined for illustration.

Conceptualizing Self-Documentation

Gorichanaz, T. (In press, 2019). Conceptualizing self-documentation. Online Information Review, 43(7), 1352–1461.

Abstract

Purpose: Self-documentation is an increasingly common phenomenon, but it is not yet well understood. This paper provides a philosophical framework for analyzing examples of self-documentation on the dimensions of ontology, epistemology and ethics.

Design/methodology/approach: The framework addresses these three major areas of philosophic thought by operationalizing insights from philosophy, chiefly the work of Martin Heidegger. Heidegger's concepts of authenticity and fallenness inform the poles of each dimension of the framework.

Findings: Ontologically, self-documentation may manifest as document (authentic) or data (fallen); epistemologically, as understanding (authentic) or idle curiosity (fallen); and ethically, as self-care (authentic) or diversion (fallen). These dimensions are presented separately but are understood to be intermingled.

Originality/value: This unified framework offers a lens for examining and comparing cases of self-documentation and self-documents. No such framework has previously been articulated, but given the ubiquity and growing importance of self-documentation, it is needed.

Keywords: self-tracking, autobiography, document, philosophy of information, phenomenology