Purpose This conceptual paper proposes the Print Affordances Model, an integrative framework for understanding the continued use of printed books in three domains where digital alternatives are widely available: education, leisure reading and religious practice. The article seeks to identify recurring affordances that help explain why print remains valuable across these otherwise distinct contexts. Design/methodology/approach The article employs an integrative comparative literature review drawing on scholarship from psychology, education, sociology, media studies, documentation studies, religion and book history. Using technological affordance theory as a conceptual lens, the analysis examines recurring explanations for the persistence of print across three domains of book use: textbooks, leisure reading, and sacred texts. Findings The literature reviewed suggests that two affordance dimensions recur across diverse forms of print use: stability and differentiation. Rooted in readers' sensory engagement with books as material objects, these affordances arise through the combined experience of touch and vision. Stability refers to the perception of books as durable, fixed and spatially reliable objects. Differentiation refers to the perception of books as discrete material artifacts distinct from other texts and objects. These affordances emerge relationally through interactions among documentary form, readers, tasks, practices and social contexts. Research limitations/implications The proposed model may serve as a foundation for future research on books and other paper-based artifacts, including notebooks, photographs, certificates and documents. It also contributes to ongoing discussions within documentation studies, material media studies and book history concerning the relationship between material and digital forms. Originality/value Although a substantial body of scholarship has documented the continued use of printed books, explanations are often developed within specific domains and disciplines. This article offers a conceptual framework that synthesizes insights from multiple literatures and identifies common affordance dimensions that operate across educational, leisure and religious contexts.
Purpose This paper examines the relationship between John Desmond Bernal (1901–1971) and the Soviet approach to organize scientific information, focussing on the establishment of the All-Union Institute of Scientific and Technological Information (VINITI). Design/methodology/approach First, we highlight that the current science of science historiography carries a certain imbalance in acknowledgement of Western and Eastern contributions to the field during the Cold War. Then, we trace how Bernal was generally canonized in Anglophone histories of the science of science and how this canon was subsequently mapped onto and essentialized with the Soviet developments. Additionally, we reconstruct early Soviet initiatives in abstracting, indexing and information policy, highlighting the importance of the existing local scientific culture for future organizational innovations. Eventually, we engage with the archival materials from the Cambridge University Library (Bernal Archive) to support our argument in favour of a rather locally emerged approach than externally imposed influence. Findings Drawing on the newly consulted materials from the Cambridge “Bernal Archive”, we argue that the idea of VINITI and the general Soviet approach to the organization of scientific information may be better understood as the outcome of endogenous Soviet trajectories that emerged as a natural expansion of the Soviet scientific efforts. Originality/value This paper is a systematic attempt to balance the narratives in science of science canonical history to appreciate locally emerged scientific traditions instead of imposing explanation models based on Western external influence.
PurposeIn this article, we adopt an infrastructural approach to explore the role of information infrastructures in shaping social memory in a post-conflict context. We aim to extend prior research about the role of cultural heritage institutions as social infrastructures, showcasing these institutions' role within the larger grid of information infrastructures at a social remove. Design/methodology/approachAdopting a grounded theory approach and drawing from interviews and primary sources, we trace the emergence of an information infrastructure in post-war El Salvador (1992–2019). Two questions were explored: (1) What are the traits of memory-oriented information infrastructures? (2) How do memory activists adapt these infrastructures to meet their goals of memorialization, accountability and social change? To answer these, we build on the overlapping frameworks of information activism and memory activism. FindingsWe argue that cultural heritage institutions can serve as key nodes within the broader framework of an information infrastructure, enabling information activists to challenge information opacity and offer support to victims of human rights violations. Research limitations/implicationsWe analyzed the macro level of an information infrastructure using secondary data, and thus, we cannot speak to the motivations, beliefs and attitudes of policy-makers. Thus, we cannot ascertain whether the impacts of the analyzed policies reflect the intentions of policy-makers. Furthermore, while it is publicly known that victims' associations in our context participated in the domestic and international lawsuits against the amnesty and the State, we did not ask whether our participants were personally involved. Thus, we cannot speak to their motivations, beliefs and attitudes at the macro-level. Practical implicationsOur case study demonstrates that information activism can reshape existing information infrastructures in a post-conflict context. Future work should explore the reshaping of information infrastructures in electoral autocracies, given the global trend towards this form of governance. Originality/valueOur results extend ongoing conversations about how specific cultural heritage institutions function as social infrastructures, how activist work can realign information infrastructures toward the pursuit of justice, how these realigned infrastructures bear a positive affective impact on victims, and how cultural heritage institutions can serve as counter-power structures and the affective role of information in post-conflict contexts.
Purpose This study examines classificatory decision-making as a situated ethical practice in knowledge organization, addressing the gap between theoretical discussions of ethics and their enactment in classificatory practice. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative, exploratory approach was adopted, analyzing outputs from 74 undergraduate Library and Information Science students engaged in problem-based activities using the Universal Decimal Classification (UDC). The corpus was examined through thematic analysis focusing on representation problems, decision types, representation strategies, ethical interventions and complexity. Findings The findings suggest that classification operates as an interpretive practice in which students mobilize syntactic and semantic strategies to address representational limitations of classification systems, particularly in culturally sensitive contexts. The study identifies five types of classificatory decisions, including “impossibility of representation,” and introduces a complexity–operability paradox that captures tensions between semantic expressiveness and practical applicability. Research limitations/implications The study is based on classificatory outputs produced in an educational context and therefore does not directly represent professional classificatory practice. Nevertheless, the focus on classificatory decisions as the unit of analysis enabled the identification of patterns relevant to ethical decision-making in knowledge organization. Future studies may test the framework in professional environments and in other classification systems. Practical implications The framework may support classification teaching, professional training, and the critical evaluation of knowledge organization systems. By making explicit the relationships among representational problems, classificatory decisions, operational strategies, and ethical considerations, it provides a tool for reflecting on how classification systems are applied in culturally sensitive and socially complex contexts. Social implications By highlighting the ethical dimensions of classificatory decision-making, the study contributes to ongoing discussions about inclusion, representation and cultural diversity in knowledge organization. The proposed framework may support more critical reflection on how classification systems shape the visibility of social groups, knowledge traditions and culturally situated perspectives within information environments. Originality/value The article proposes and empirically grounds an analytical framework structured around four interrelated dimensions – problematization of representation classificatory decision-making, representation strategies and ethical intervention – thereby advancing the integration of ethics into knowledge organization research and practice and contributing to ongoing discussions on ethics, cultural warrant and knowledge organization.
PurposeThe paper analyses the research in Library and Information Science (LIS) in 2025 and the evolution of LIS research longitudinally from 1965 to 2025. Design/methodology/approachThe study employs a quantitative intellectual content analysis of articles published in ∼30 scholarly LIS journals, following the design by Jarvelin and Vakkari (2022). In content analysis, articles are classified using a multi-dimensional faceted classification covering topical content and methodology. The classification schedules and the journal set are held stable through the years. The classification serves as an explicit definition of the scope of LIS. FindingsThe study indicates that the trend of diminishing focus in LIS on Library and information (L&I) services has accelerated, while scientific and professional communication (S&PC) has become the most popular topic. Information storage and retrieval (IS&R) has lost its earlier strong position toward the end of the analysed period. LIS research is methodologically increasingly varied since survey, scientometric methods, experiment, case studies and qualitative studies have all gained in popularity. Consequently, LIS may have become over the years more versatile in the analysis of its research objects. As concrete evidence of change, in all 41% of top-journal articles fell outside LIS topics in 2025. This reflects changing research paradigms and publisher interest. Originality/valueAmong quantitative intellectual content analyses of LIS research, the study is unique in its scope: length of analysis period (60 years); width (5 dimensions covering topical content and methodology) and depth (the annual batch of ∼30 scholarly journals).
Purpose This paper proposes intentionism as a fourth metatheoretical perspective for information science and documentation, addressing a theoretical gap revealed by the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) as a primary mediator of information creation, curation and provision. Existing metatheories, specifically constructivism, collectivism and constructionism, do not adequately account for the intent-laden, formative force that shapes information before and during its production, a dimension now structurally consequential in AI-mediated environments. Design/methodology/approach The paper adopts a theoretical and conceptual approach, drawing on Buckland's (1991) typology of information as ontological grounding and Bates' (2006) neurobiological framework as a biological-cognitive bridge. It reviews the three dominant LIS metatheories to identify what remains theoretically unaddressed, then develops intentionism as a metatheoretical response, with particular attention to AI-generated and AI-mediated information. Findings Intentionism foregrounds intent and context as constitutive dimensions of information, identifying the “Information Act” as a distinct analytical object theorising the formative moment between neural–cultural formation and exosomatic expression. Intentionism complements rather than displaces existing metatheories, responding to conditions in which large language models, recommendation algorithms and generative systems embed intent structurally, making questions of provenance and epistemic effect central to LIS theory and practice. Originality/value This paper conceptualises intentionism as an LIS metatheory to place intent at its theoretical centre, introducing the Information Act as a new analytical category and extending foundational work by Buckland and Bates in a direction not previously theorised within LIS metatheory.
Purpose Book review of two books by Melissa Adler: Peculiar Satisfaction: Thomas Jefferson and the Mastery of Subjects (Fordham University, 2025) and Surveillance in the Empire of Liberty: Why Thomas Jefferson Matters in Our Information Age (Bloomsbury, 2026).
Purpose This paper examines how information culture (IC) and data culture (DC) have been conceptualized and mobilized in library and information science (LIS), and clarifies the relational logics through which the two constructs intersect rather than compete. Design/methodology/approach A critical synthesis was conducted of 127 publications (2015–2025). The corpus was identified via searches across Scopus and Web of Science, complemented by AIS eLibrary, ACM Digital Library and the ASIS&T Digital Library. Studies were screened for conceptual centrality of IC/DC and appraised for theoretical relevance rather than methodological uniformity. Findings The synthesis shows that IC and DC are frequently positioned through substitutionist and technocratic framings, where DC is treated as either an upgraded successor to IC or as a managerial instrument detached from institutional meaning-making. Across LIS debates, IC foregrounds sensemaking, values and organizational memory, whereas DC foregrounds data practices, governance and infrastructural coordination. Treating the two as co-evolving cultural infrastructures helps reframe their relationship as reciprocal shaping across symbolic, organizational and socio-technical layers, enabling a more coherent map of convergences, tensions and boundary conditions. Originality/value By positioning IC and DC as partially overlapping yet analytically distinct cultural formations, the paper offers a conceptual alternative to substitutionist and technocratic narratives and articulates an agenda for future cross-cultural and interdisciplinary LIS research.
Purpose Individuals with concussions face numerous potentially lingering cognitive and physical impairments. Return-to-learn research has uncovered difficulties students with past concussions face in the classroom setting. Individuals with concussions have demonstrated impairments in information processing speed such as receiving fast pace incoming information and extraction of salient components. Minimal research to date has evaluated the impact of concussions on information behaviour (IB). Design/methodology/approach Pearl growing search technique and a standardized approach of keyword searching of six databases (Scopus, PubMed, PsycINFO, PsycArticles, Library Literature and Information Science Full Text (H.W. Wilson) and Library Information Science & Technology Abstracts) was performed in this literature review. Eighty articles are included within this literature review. Google search was performed to integrate relevant mentioned grey literature. Findings This literature review highlights a gap in evaluating how concussion symptoms could disrupt IB and theorizes how persistent concussion symptoms (PCS) such as physical impairments (visual and auditory) and cognitive impairments (deficits in memory, attention and processing speed) could impact IB. Potential IB disruptions are theorized using Kuhlthau’s (1991) Information Search Process Model. Library supports for conditions with similar physical and cognitive impairments are reviewed to theorize possible approaches that could be of benefit for individuals with PCS. Originality/value First paper in Library and Information Science and Technologies (LIS&T) to theorize possible difficulties individuals with concussions experience when engaging in IB.
Purpose This systematic review evaluates the use of grounded theory methodology (GTM) in library and information science (LIS) research, emphasizing methodological rigour, adherence to foundational principles and the ability to generate substantive theories. Design/methodology/approach A systematic review of 62 peer-reviewed articles from Scopus, LISA and LISTA was conducted. Data extraction and quality assessment adhered to GTM-specific guidelines, evaluating criteria including theoretical sampling, constant comparison, coding processes and integration with the existing literature. Findings Although GTM is commonly employed in LIS research, notable variability in methodological rigour was identified. Key deficiencies include limited theoretical sampling, limited memo writing and inconsistent reporting of theoretical saturation. Most studies appeared to prioritise descriptive summaries of research findings over explanatory models, with only three providing formal theories. Originality/value This study evaluates the methodological rigour of grounded theory applications in LIS research, highlighting gaps in adherence to essential GTM principles. It identifies significant methodological limitations and offers practical recommendations to enhance rigour, such as iterative data collection, reflexivity through memo writing and improved theoretical sampling. These insights aim to strengthen qualitative research by promoting robust, context-sensitive theories within LIS.
Purpose This study aims to provide an integrative understanding of information overload (IO) in digital environments by examining how the construct has been conceptualized, what antecedents drive it across levels of analysis, which behavioral consequences emerge, and what theoretical and methodological gaps remain in the literature. Design/methodology/approach A systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted following PRISMA guidelines using the Web of Science Core Collection. The final sample consists of 146 peer-reviewed articles published between 2010 and 2025. The study combines qualitative synthesis with bibliometric analysis and applies the Theory–Context–Characteristics–Methodology (TCCM) framework to organize findings across theoretical, empirical, and methodological dimensions. Findings The results show that IO is not a single construct but a multi-level phenomenon encompassing cognitive limitations, affective responses, and structural features of digital environments. Antecedents operate across individual, platform, and systemic levels, although the literature is heavily biased toward user-centered explanations. Behavioral consequences are predominantly negative, such as avoidance, discontinuance, and impaired decision-making, but are also context-dependent, with evidence of heuristic adaptation and, in some cases, pro-social responses. Methodologically, the field is dominated by cross-sectional quantitative designs, limiting causal and dynamic understanding. Originality/value This study advances the literature by integrating fragmented streams of IO research into a coherent multi-level framework. It moves beyond descriptive synthesis by clarifying conceptual boundaries, identifying analytical imbalances, and positioning IO as a dynamic process embedded in socio-technical systems. The findings provide a foundation for future research to develop more theoretically integrated and methodologically diverse approaches to IO in digital environments.
Purpose This study examines nutrition communication on X (formerly Twitter) during a health promotion campaign as a form of social media-mediated information behavior. Building on Wilson's (1997) model, it adapts the framework to a platform environment by analyzing how campaign context, participant roles, thematic focus and posting purpose shape the production, circulation and engagement of nutrition information. Design/methodology/approach A content analysis is conducted on 1,015 English-language tweets tagged with #nutrition and campaign-related hashtags during March 1–7, 2021. Tweets are coded by participant role, theme and communicative purpose and linked to engagement indicators including favorites, retweets, potential reach and impact. Descriptive statistics, chi-square tests and post hoc comparisons are used to examine how content characteristics and participant types relate to dissemination outcomes. Findings Nutrition communication on X is shaped by the interaction of campaign context, actor roles and message characteristics. Food- and medicine-related tweets dominate the discussion, and providing information is the most common posting purpose. Organizations are more likely to post promotional and research-oriented content, whereas individuals are more likely to share information and personal experience. Individuals generated slightly higher impact and greater following-based connectivity, while individuals and organizations achieved comparable reach on X. Audience engagement is highest for informational tweets, especially those focused on food and medicine. Originality/value This study contributes to information behavior theory by adapting Wilson's model to a social media campaign context during the post COVID-19 health crisis. It demonstrates how campaign conditions, participant roles, content characteristics and engagement outcomes shape nutrition communication on X.
Purpose The study examines information behaviour (IB) patterns within religious narrative texts. Using Surat Yusuf (Chapter 12) of the Holy Quran as a primary text, it analyses how information engagement, sharing and avoidance are narratively represented and examines how these behaviours align with and extend established IB theories.Design/methodology/approach The study employs an abductive qualitative content analysis (CA) of a single text to examine IB practices articulated in Surat Yusuf of the Holy Quran. The analysis incorporates quantitative procedures, including frequency counts and inter-coder reliability measures.Findings The CA of Surat Yusuf identifies 47 verses containing explicit information-related content, yielding 80 attributes. The findings distinguish information sources (divine, oral, written and empirical) from information behaviours, which cluster into seven categories: information seeking (n = 11), use (n = 7), avoidance (n = 4), dissemination (n = 4), awareness (n = 3), sharing (n = 23) and knowledge provenance (n = 4). Information sharing was the most frequent category (23 attributes) and included both (1) human social exchange (e.g. gossip and consultation) and individual IB and (2) divine information transmission and sharing (e.g. revelation and non-revelatory modes such as visions and dreams). Divine information channels were predominantly one-way transmissions within the analysed text and involved the transmission of knowledge and wisdom, with a significant presence of deferred disclosure and long-term outcomes.Practical implications Theoretically, this study introduces a classification of information sharing and behaviour patterns derived from the Holy Quran, thereby creating a bridge between religious - particularly Islamic - textual analysis and IB frameworks and potentially enriching existing models.Originality/value The study provides a novel interdisciplinary application of contemporary IB theories to the Quranic narrative, an area rarely investigated in information science research. It further advances understanding of divine information engagement by systematically analysing non-human-centred epistemic practices within religious texts.
Purpose This paper analyses the emergence of generative artificial intelligence (AI) not as a further tool in the automation of search but as an epistemic institution that produces, validates and distributes knowledge. It examines the structural mechanisms through which this transition marginalises academic libraries, displacing them from the epistemic functions of synthesis, evaluation and curation they have historically performed. Against the assumption that marginalisation is a technological inevitability, the paper argues that it is conditional and articulates the institutional conditions under which academic libraries can recover epistemic agency and reposition themselves as active participants in the knowledge infrastructure of the AI era. Design/methodology/approach The paper adopts a conceptual, abductive approach, employing the Tron film trilogy as an analytical model of epistemic infrastructure transition rather than as a cultural metaphor. It integrates Science and Technology Studies, the philosophy of technology and library and information science scholarship. The historical reconstruction proceeds inductively, deriving three phases of library infrastructure development from particular technologies, from card catalogues to commercial scholarly platforms. The diagnosis proceeds deductively, deriving specific mechanisms of marginalisation from the premise that generative AI internalises epistemic functions. The recovery programme then translates that diagnosis into the institutional conditions under which academic libraries can respond. Findings Generative AI constitutes a qualitative break in the history of knowledge infrastructure, crossing from the category of retrieval tool to that of epistemic institution that organises the conditions under which knowledge is produced and validated. Three mechanisms drive library marginalisation: disintermediation of the institutional mediator, dependency on training infrastructures beyond library governance and the transfer of epistemic authority from accountable institutions to opaque algorithmic systems. Scenario analysis yields three possible futures, full marginalisation, coexistence and co-authorship of epistemic infrastructure. The third is not inevitable but contingent on libraries claiming roles in data stewardship, AI governance and critical AI literacy. Research limitations/implications As a conceptual contribution, the paper develops an analytical framework rather than empirical findings; its three mechanisms and three scenarios are theoretically derived and await empirical testing. The evidence base draws substantially on Anglophone, predominantly US LIS scholarship, which may limit transferability to other national and institutional contexts. Future research should operationalise and empirically validate the proposed mechanisms of marginalisation, assess the conditions for epistemic recovery across diverse library settings and examine longitudinally whether libraries that invest in data stewardship, AI governance and critical AI literacy realise the co-authorship scenario the framework identifies. Practical implications Academic libraries should pursue three mutually reinforcing strategies. First, they should reposition themselves as active participants in the governance of the data ecosystems on which AI systems are trained, extending research data management towards stewardship of training corpora. Second, they should secure inclusion in university AI governance structures, from which information professionals are frequently absent despite directly relevant competencies in information ethics, source evaluation and quality assurance. Third, they should reconceptualise critical AI literacy, the capacity to evaluate not only what AI produces but how, as a defining institutional mission rather than a supplementary digital skill. Social implications If generative AI becomes the default mediator of scholarly knowledge, the consequences extend beyond libraries to the epistemic commons on which science, scholarship and democratic deliberation depend. Unaccountable, non-transparent knowledge production risks normalising narrow epistemic positions, eroding epistemic pluralism and widening inequalities in knowledge access already stratified by institutional wealth. Positioning academic libraries as public-interest guarantors of accountable curation, epistemic equity and critical AI literacy helps safeguard citizens' capacity to evaluate AI-generated knowledge, sustains diverse knowledge traditions and protects the reliability of the shared information environment on which informed public life increasingly rests. Originality/value The paper offers a novel integrative framework that combines Science and Technology Studies, the epistemology of AI and library and information science scholarship. Its central contribution is to reframe library marginalisation not as a contingent service challenge to be met by incremental adaptation, but as a structural consequence of AI's emergence as an epistemic institution. Methodologically, it advances the use of the Tron trilogy as an analytical model rather than an illustrative metaphor. It provides one of the first systematic articulations of academic libraries as potential co-architects, rather than residual beneficiaries, of the knowledge infrastructure of the AI era.
Purpose - This paper investigates how innovation teams construct shadow archives, defined as unauthorised, machine-readable knowledge bases that circumvent copyright restrictions, to fuel retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) systems under competitive time pressure. The study examines whether such evasion measurably improves innovation outcomes and how institutional actors, specifically academic librarians, enable or tolerate these practices. Design/methodology/approach - A computational digital ethnography was conducted during a two-week university bootcamp for 20 student teams (N = 60) preparing for the 2025 Mathematical Contest in Modelling. The research triangulated (1) SBERT vector-space comparison of each team's shadow archive against official library holdings, (2) RAG query-log analysis to quantify shadow dependency and (3) participant observation and post-competition interviews to trace data-laundering routines and librarian mediation. Findings - Shadow archives diverged semantically from licensed collections (mean cosine d = 0.47, p < 0.001) and incorporated 68% grey literature, preprints and pirated texts. Teams with higher shadow dependency achieved significantly better competition scores (beta = 0.62, p < 0.001, R-2 = 0.68). Librarians facilitated this outcome through studied ambiguity: teaching digital rights management (DRM) removal tools while disclaiming legal responsibility, thereby normalising a five-stage data-laundering pipeline (acquisition, DRM circumvention, OCR, format conversion, vectorisation). Originality/value - The study reconceptualises copyright not as a binary compliance variable but as a socio-material boundary that spawns parallel knowledge subsystems. It introduces data laundering as an empirical process and quantifies an innovation premium from copyright evasion, demonstrating that rigid licensing paradoxically undermines the knowledge resilience it purports to protect.
Purpose Research supports the need for college literacy skills for prospective and new college students. Expanding the literacy landscape to include the information needs of college-bound patrons aligns with the mission and vision of public libraries as lifelong learning institutions while supporting educational attainment and workforce development in less privileged communities. This paper reports on library staff awareness of college planning resources to provide quality services. This study may also enhance public library staff's college literacy and understanding of today's college-going population.Design/methodology/approach An online survey questionnaire was administered in this cross-sectional study of library staff in the Southeastern United States.Findings The findings indicate that public library staff encounter inquiries that reflect the college literacy needs of the community. These include questions from prospective students about entrance exams, financial aid and scholarships, college admissions requirements and deadlines, and options for career advancement. Respondents also emphasized meeting the academic needs of currently enrolled college students through providing support with learning management systems and proofreading assignments.Originality/value This research serves as a starting point for understanding the demand for and awareness of college planning resources with public libraries. This work extends existing regional literature on public library services through its emphasis on Appalachia.
Purpose This conceptual paper develops a framework for explaining how human–AI interaction unfolds in generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) environments and why the same interaction can support cognitive enhancement in some cases yet contribute to cognitive atrophy in others. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on a distributed cognition perspective, the paper treats human–AI interaction as a coupled cognitive system rather than an isolated individual act. It integrates distributed cognition, the gulf of envisioning and research on cognitive affordances to trace how representations move across the user, interface, AI and external representations. Findings The framework models interaction as a five-phase cycle: intent envisioning, representation externalization, generative reasoning, outcome assessment and cognitive update. It identifies three recurrent gaps – capability, instruction and intentionality – as structural points where representational coordination may break down. Divergent cognitive outcomes depend not only on output quality but also on whether the human-AI interaction supports the completion of the full cognitive cycle. Originality/value The contribution is not a new standalone theory, but a synthesis that re-specifies common interaction difficulties as system-level problems of representational coordination. This provides a clearer basis for analyzing design, evaluation and longer-term cognitive consequences in GenAI-mediated information interaction.
Purpose This study aims to reveal the information practice of elderly people in the context of social welfare access and to examine how they seek, use and share information from the perspective of policy information reach.Design/methodology/approach Qualitative research was adopted with data triangulation. First, two cities and three venue types were selected as research sites. Second, 24 elderly participants (aged 60 years and above) were recruited, with data collected through 17 one-to-one interviews, 2 focus group interviews and 3 observations. Third, thematic analysis was applied to data until theoretical saturation.Findings This study identified the elderly's policy information needs and available information sources and elaborated their behaviors of policy information acquiring, using and sharing. A theoretical model for their information practice in social welfare access was further developed, indicating that their welfare needs drive policy information practice, and available information sources and reachable information channels determine the extent of their welfare policy utilization.Originality/value This study addressed the previously under-explored area of elderly people's information practice in social welfare access, and not only enriched information practice theory through a targeted theoretical model for this scenario but also advanced research on government information delivery through a new theoretical perspective of policy information reach.
Purpose This paper connects memetics – the cultural study of ideas expressed across a plurality of artifacts – to perspectives on documentation. We theorize how memetics and documents share a common interest in accounting for cultural organization. Design/methodology/approach We develop a conceptual history of memes in parallel with document theory to synthesize a documentalist interpretation of memetics. Findings We outline how memes might be viewed or take on the status of a document. Doing so advances a novel approach to representing documents and the cultural ideas they carry, as memes. Originality/value We place memetics within the library and information science domain, alongside documentation. The conceptually rich history of memes invites an interrogation of the ways memes might extend document theory. Yet, minimal prior contributions connect memes and documentation, without asserting the documentality of memetic memory. This contribution leverages insights from memetics to analyze the extant limitations of documentation and provide a speculative ontology of cultural transmission.
Purpose This study aims to explore older adults' online health information seeking (OHIS) based on the theory of satisficing behavior and bounded rationality. Design/methodology/approach The paper adopts a qualitative survey design. Data were collected through interviews with 34 older adults from China with experience seeking health information online and analyzed following qualitative data analysis approach. Findings A theoretical model is established based on satisficing behavior, bounded rationality and their relationships, all emerging from the empirical data. It reveals two major satisficing behaviors that older adults conduct to manage their individual investment in OHIS: reduction and termination. Their decisions regarding OHIS were made under bounded rationality and so are shaped by time constraints, cognitive limitations, physical constraints, value derecognition, conscious/unconscious not-knowing and a shrinking field of general information activities. Bounded rationality affects older adults' decisions via the cognitive path and the practice path. Research limitations/implications The paper urges LIS researchers to go beyond assuming older adults' rationality when examining their OHIS behaviors and to go beyond actions to also examine values, knowledge states and social practice. Practical implications The paper calls for information professionals to take a novel perspective to understand older adults' OHIS behavior and reform their services and training campaigns accordingly. Originality/value The paper's model presents the non-optimal OHIS behavior of older adults and provides a novel explanation for their behavior; it identifies six components of bounded rationality and reveals that bounded rationality impacts older adults' decisions to adopt satisficing strategies through the thoughts of reducing information seeking investment, holding low expectation of return, avoiding personal loss and the fact that participants bear unfulfilled or unknown cognitive gap.
