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

The Drivers of Conversations About Dementia Risk Reduction: A Qualitative Study

Dementia prevention is an area of health where public knowledge remains limited. A growing number of education initiatives are attempting to rectify this, but they tend to reach audiences of limited size and diversity, limiting intervention-associated health equity. However, initiative participants tend to discuss these initiatives and the information they contain with members of their social network, increasing the number and diversity of people receiving dementia risk reduction information. In this qualitative study, we sought to understand the drivers of this information sharing. We interviewed 39 people from Tasmania, Australia who completed the Preventing Dementia Massive Open Online Course in May 2020. We identified themes from responses to semi-structured interview questions using reflexive thematic analysis. We identified three key drivers of information sharing: participants' personal course experiences; participants finding information sharing opportunities with people they expected to be receptive; and conversation partners' responses to conversation topics. These drivers aligned with existing communication theories, with dementia-related stigma effecting both actual and perceived conversation partner receptivity. Understanding the drivers of information sharing may allow information about dementia risk reduction, and other preventative health behaviors, to be presented in ways that facilitate information diffusion, increasing equity in preventative health education.

Thousands of examining eyes: credibility, authority and validity in biodiversity citizen science data production

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to contribute with knowledge about how valid research data in biodiversity citizen science are produced through information practices and how notions of credibility and authority emerge from these practices.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected through an empirical, interview-based study of the information practices of 15 participants active in the vicinity of the Swedish biodiversity citizen science information system Artportalen. Interview transcripts were analysed abductively and qualitatively through a coding scheme by working back and forth between theory and data. Values of credibility, authority and validity of research data were unfolded through a practice-oriented perspective to library and information studies by utilising the theoretical lens of boundary objects.

Findings

Notions of credibility, authority and validity emerge through participant activities of transforming species observations to data, supplementing reports with objects of trust, augmenting identification through authority outreach and assessing credibility via peer monitoring. Credibility, authority and validity of research data are shown to be co-constructed in a distributed fashion by the participants and the information system.

Originality/value

The article extends knowledge about information practices in emerging, heterogeneous scholarly settings by focussing on the complex co-construction of credibility, authority and validity in relation to data production.

Argumentative practices and patterns in debating climate change on Twitter

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate practices of argumentation on Twitter discussions about climate change.

Design/methodology/approach

Conversational threads were collected from the Twitter API. Fundamental concepts from argumentation theory and linking practices were operationalised through a coding schema for content analysis. Tweets were analysed in the context of the discussions and coded according to their argumentative approach, interaction type and argumentation stage. Linked and embedded sources were analysed in order to find how they were used in arguments, the plausibility and soundness of the message, the consistency and trustworthiness of the linked source and its adequacy with the target audience.

Findings

Among the interactions between arguers, this study found five typical practices and several patterns involving the dynamics of the conversations, the strategy of the argumentation and the linking practices. Although the rhetorical approach was prominent, the agreement was rarely achieved. The arguers used a variety of sources to justify or support their positions, often embedding non-textual content. These linking practices, together with the strategy adopted and the topics discussed, suggest the involvement of a multiple audience engaged in discussing ad lib scientific artefacts, topics and outputs.

Originality/value

While Twitter has been the focus for many research papers, the conversational threads have been given little attention so far. With the Twitter API making conversations more accessible for research, this paper does not only give insight into multiple audience group argumentation dynamics but also provides a method to study the conversations from an argumentation theory perspective.

Q&A participation and behavioral patterns on academic social networking sites: a comparative study of academic, corporate and government institutions on ResearchGate

Purpose

This paper aims to explore question and answer (Q&A) participation and behavioral patterns on academic social networking sites (ASNSs) from the perspective of multiple subjects such as academic, corporate and government institutions.

Design/methodology/approach

Focused on the Q&A service of ASNSs, this study chooses ResearchGate (RG) as the target ASNS and collects a large-scale data set from it, involving a sample of users and a Q&A sample about academic, corporate and government institutions. First, it studies the law of Q&A participation and the distribution of the type of user according to the sample of users. Second, it compares question-asking behavior and question-answering behavior stimulated by questions among the three types of institutions based on the Q&A sample. Finally, it discusses the Q&A participation and behavioral patterns of the three types of institutions in academic Q&A exchanges with full consideration of institutional attributes, and provides some suggestions for institutions and ASNSs.

Findings

The results show that these three types of institutions generally have a low level of participation in the Q&A service of RG, and the numbers of questions and answers proposed by institutional users conform to the power-law distribution. There are differences in Q&A participation and Q&A behavioral patterns among academic, corporate and government institutions. Government and academic institutions have more users participating in the Q&A service and their users are more willing to ask questions, while corporate institutions have fewer users who participate in the Q&A service and their users are inclined to provide answers. Questions from corporate institutions attract much more attention than those from the other two types of institutions.

Originality/value

This study reveals and compares the Q&A participation and the behavioral patterns of the three types of institutions in academic Q&A, thus deepening the understanding of the attributes of institutions in the academic information exchange context. In practice, the results can help guide different institutions to use the Q&A service of ASNSs more effectively and help ASNSs to better optimize their Q&A service.

“Bouncing ideas” as a complex information practice: information seeking, sharing, creation, and cooperation

Purpose

“Bouncing ideas” is a phrase used colloquially to illustrate a way of advancing ideas in the workplace. While described by some as a key part of their information work, it has remained largely unexplored in the information science literature. As a metaphor used to depict information work, it describes a process of working on ideas in conjunction with others. This paper examines how early career academics use the term when describing their academic work.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper reports on one of the findings from a larger, in-depth study that examined the information behaviour of early career academics undergoing career transitions, which was carried out using constructivist grounded theory (CGT). CGT provides both a framework for the systematic collection (that included multiple interviews and check-ins with 20 early career academics) and analysis of the data (that consisted of multiple rounds of iterative, inductive coding).

Findings

The findings identify the component parts of bouncing ideas, which include three component in-formation activities – information seeking, information sharing and information creation – and are undertaken as cooperative information work (joint work for a shared purpose, but the benefits of the work may not be equal between participants).

Originality/value

Bouncing ideas is proposed as a complex information practice, defined as engaging in a temporary cooperative effort that involves social information exchange in order to gain help and/or support for an intellectual endeavour to create new information. The work identifies that more research into bouncing ideas is needed to more fully explore the distinct component behaviours that take place whilst bouncing ideas and the social conditions that foster this collaborative exchange.

Sense of coherence as influencing information sharing at the workplace

Purpose

This study introduces sense of coherence (SOC) as a factor in information sharing at the workplace.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected by a survey conducted on 311 respondents in a multinational organization, and analyzed using partial least square structural equation modelling.

Findings

SOC influenced information sharing both directly and indirectly as mediated by trust and employee learning orientation. Trust, moreover, influenced receiving information more strongly than sending it, while employee learning orientation more strongly affected sending information.

Originality/value

The findings underline the importance of a holistic understanding of information sharing, including individual differences and employee well-being.

Organizational changes, trust and information sharing: an empirical study

Purpose

While there is relatively plenty of evidence for the positive impact of communication on the perceptions of organizational change, how organizational changes affect information sharing is relatively unknown. The purpose of this paper is to investigate if a favorable perception of ongoing organizational changes has a positive impact on information sharing and whether trust mediates this relationship.

Design/methodology/approach

A questionnaire (n=317) was administered to the employees of a large Finnish multinational organization. Partial least square structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses based on earlier research findings.

Findings

The results show that a positive perception of recent organizational changes improves information sharing both directly and indirectly, mediated by trust. Consequently, when changes are perceived negatively, employees recoil from information sharing which is known to have negative implications for organizations.

Research limitations/implications

Data were collected in a single organization. The nature of the specific changes in the studied organization and its particularities undoubtedly had an effect on respondents’ perceptions.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to organizational information management research by elaborating on the relationship between organizational changes and interpersonal information sharing between employees. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first quantitative study confirming the impact of the perception of organizational changes on employee information-sharing behavior.

Modeling the interplay of information seeking and information sharing

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the creation of a holistic picture of information behavior by examining the connections between information seeking and sharing.

Design/methodology/approach

Conceptual analysis is used to focus on the ways in which the researchers have modeled the interplay of information seeking and sharing. The study draws on conceptual analysis of 27 key studies examining the above issue, with a focus on the scrutiny of six major models for information behavior.

Findings

Researchers have employed three main approaches to model the relationships between information seeking and sharing. The indirect approach conceptualizes information seeking and sharing as discrete activities connected by an intermediating factor, for example, information need. The sequential approach assumes that information seeking precedes information sharing. From the viewpoint of the interactive approach, information seeking and sharing appear as mutually related activities shaping each other iteratively or in a cyclical manner. The interactive approach provides the most sophisticated research perspective on the relationships of information seeking and sharing and contributes to holistic understanding of human information behavior.

Research limitations/implications

As the study focuses on information seeking and sharing, no attention is devoted to other activities constitutive of information behavior, for example, information use.

Originality/value

The study pioneers by providing an in-depth analysis of the connections of information seeking and information sharing.

Exploring sensings in practice: affect and knowledge sharing

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the nature of knowledge sharing and what is experienced as being shared as knowledge sharing unfolds. In particular, the paper explores affect as a key aspect of knowledge sharing in an organisational context.

Design/methodology/approach

A practice theoretical approach is applied to the study combined with a phenomenological research methodology that focusses on the “lived experience” of participants.

Findings

Knowledge-sharing practice was found to encompass cognitive, social, bodily and affective dimensions. Affect was found to be a significant component of the practice as revealed by participant emotion and the use of conversational humour.

Research limitations/implications

In light of the findings, the researcher recommends a focus on participant sensings in practice theoretical research, in combination with sayings, doings and relatings.

Originality/value

The approach to the study is significant in that, in contrast to previous practice-based research in information studies, it applied a methodology adapted from phenomenology. This combination of approaches opened the investigation to the multi-dimensional experiential nature of knowledge-sharing practice highlighting the significant role of affect in knowledge sharing.

Applicability of solitary model of information behavior in students’ collaborative learning assignments

Purpose

This paper aims to present results of a study which examined students’ collaborative information behavior (CIB) in comparison with behavioral patterns illustrated in Wilson’s (1996) model of information behavior.

Design/methodology/approach

A total of six groups of undergraduate students; four from Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) and two from Ardhi University (ARU) were purposively selected. Data were collected using semi participant observation, critical incident interviews and focus group discussion methods.

Findings

Results indicate that students’ CIB is mainly shaped by collaborative learning environment, learning tasks objectives and requirements. Despite its wider applicability in different domains and contexts, Wilson’s (1996) model is partially appropriate in modeling students’ group-based learning information behavioral activities. Person(s) in context and active and passive information seeking are aspects of the model which are observed to be relevant in students’ CIB.

Practical implications

The study has implications on teaching and learning practices in higher learning institutions.

Originality/value

The study provides new insights on how students exhibit different information behavioral patterns during collaborative learning. The study fills a gap on how solitary models of information behavior can be used to model students’ information behavior in team-based learning.

Transitions in workplace information practices and culture

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate how new healthcare professionals engage with information practices and information culture in their workplace, and the resulting influences on development and change.

Design/methodology/approach

A longitudinal study was conducted on a hospital training programme. Three series of focus groups provided data from 18 recently qualified nurses, supported by observations. Data were thematically analysed applying a framework consisting of six approaches to information use.

Findings

Newcomers take a proactive approach to seek, use and share scientific information, which is negotiated within existing information practices and organisational information culture. Their competencies, such as research skills, values, motivation and sense of integrity to use and share scientific information, often differ from those existing workplace practices. For this reason, they drive towards renewal and change.

Practical implications

Examination of organisational approaches to information use indicates clearly the necessity for improvements to meet the needs of information proactiveness and thus be able to face challenges and changes in an organisation.

Originality/value

This work sheds new light on newcomers’ information use, as they integrate into a workplace and interact with information practices and organisational approaches to information use. A significant contribution is the identification of the dynamics and interdependencies between newcomers’ individual agency in their way of seeking, using and sharing information, and the established community’s social agency promoting existing information practices and the organisational agency represented by information culture.

A Knowledge Lens for information literacy: conceptual framework and case study

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a Knowledge Lens for information literacy. This lens shifts the focus and potential outcomes of information literacy in three ways. First, it promotes self-reflection as a means of integrating information. Second, it promotes creation, emphasizing it as a social process. Third, it promotes the ability and value of working with imprecision and lack of direction.

Design/methodology/approach

The author designed a Community of Practice (CoP) with a loosely structured guidebook to operationalize the Knowledge Lens. The initial stated purpose of the CoP was to provide innovative solutions to issues of race relations in South Carolina. A group of 19 participants – representing four churches – met twice a month for one year. After one year, a core group of 6 participants were interviewed to identify elements of this new lens.

Findings

Participants indicated that they changed in many ways after the CoP, suggesting that the Knowledge Lens increases the impact of literacy work. In particular, they were able to utilize internal tension to spark innovation, found value in direct engagement with one another without the need to first codify their thinking, and increased their reliance on information encountering.

Originality/value

Information literacy has attempted to move beyond stale concepts, and the Knowledge Lens facilitates this movement. It takes information literacy beyond the mere provision of access to existing information. It recognizes barriers to information integration. And it involves individuals in co-creation to solve problems that lack an existing codified solution.

The embeddedness of collaborative information seeking in information culture

Professionally, people often conduct their work in settings containing a range of different collaborative situations and work practices in which people handle information and work activities. Still, work tasks are usually considered and perceived as individual activities although the technology and the characteristics of the tasks require collaborative and cooperative handling processes. This viewpoint still produces technologies that, in general, assume individual information management and decision-making. Based on previous research on information culture (IC) and collaborative information seeking (CIS), this paper proposes an integrated framework where both environmental (cultural) as well as collaborative aspects of organisational information behaviour are present. This kind of framework would be useful in studies looking into how information is retrieved, how information is organised and managed, and how information is used as a resource in collaborative settings. It gives a more holistic perspective to information use and practices in organisations where culture, collaboration and awareness are especially brought to common attention for effective information management in organisations.

Teacher trainees’ information sharing activities and identity positioning on Facebook

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to extend the knowledge of how identity is connected to information sharing activities in social media during pre-school teacher training.

Design/methodology/approach

An ethnographic study is performed where 249 students at a Swedish pre-school teacher-training programme are followed through participant observations from November 2013 to January 2014, and from September 2014 to January 2015. The material produced includes 230 conversations from a Facebook Group used by 210 students and several teachers, field notes and transcribed interviews with nine students. Comparative analysis is used to analyse the Facebook conversations to identify ways of positioning identity and engaging in information sharing activities. Interviews with students are analysed to contextualise and validate the findings from the online interactions.

Findings

Three identity positions are identified: discussion-oriented learner, goal-oriented learner and customer-oriented learner. The way a student commits to others, to ideas and to a career choice affects their identity positions and information sharing activities. Results suggest that information sharing with social media should be understood as a powerful device for identity development in pre-school teacher training.

Research limitations/implications

This study is designed to provide detailed accounts with high validity on the expense of a high degree of representativeness.

Originality/value

No previous library and information science-studies have been presented that explore the relationship between the identity of learners and the information sharing activities in which they engage, in the context of social media or in relation to teacher training.

The Information Seeking and Communication Model

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.

To open or not to open? Determinants of open government data

In recent years, open government data has become an important movement among government administrations around the world. While there is still limited open data research conducted in East Asia, this study explores the complexity of open data initiatives in Taiwan. In particular, the influential factors and their impacts on open data initiatives are investigated from four perspectives: technology, organization, legislation and policy, and environment. Legislation and policy is found to have the most significant impact while agencies’ existing regulations and policies act as constraints. The factors residing in organizational and environmental perspectives follow as the secondary impacts. Technological factors also exist but are considered to be relatively more easily resolved with sufficient support. While the identified factors act as determinants to influence government agencies’ intentions towards open data participation, it is also found that open data is closely related to interagency information sharing, and the two activities in the long term are expected to reinforce to each other iteratively. In addition, practical implications are discussed to provide practitioners with insights. Lastly, the contributions, limitations and potential future research of the current study are listed in the Conclusion section.

Exploring the determinants of cross-boundary information sharing in the public sector: An e-Government case study in Taiwan

This paper explores the complexity of cross-boundary information sharing in the public sector. In particular, determinants influencing interagency information sharing are investigated and discussed, and a case study of Taiwan e-Government is employed. Four perspectives, including technology, organization, legislation and policy, and environment, are used to conduct this exploratory inquiry. Legislation and policy is found to be the most influential factor among government agencies participating in information-sharing initiatives. Organizational factors are also found to be significant, but less so than legislation and policy. Technological factors are considered relatively more easily addressed when compared with legislation and policy and organizational factors. Finally, situational factors are also found to have respective impacts on interagency information sharing. In addition to factors that are discussed in the current literature, newly identified factors are illustrated to provide insights. Moreover, in order to better conceptualize how identified factors determine agencies’ intentions towards cross-boundary information sharing, theory of planned behaviour is used to form a theoretical discussion by integrating the identified factors of the study. Practical implications are also provided to address how cross-boundary information sharing among government agencies can be better achieved. Lastly, the conclusion outlines the contributions and limitations of this research and suggests future studies related to the current work.