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Information behavior, one of the central topics in information science research, holds a key position as a field of study of how people interact with information. As such it has many points of connection to a large number of neighboring fields from the study of human behavior to management and technical disciplines interested in developing technologies to support people in their endeavors. At the same time, information behavior researchers have a long tradition of self-critical debate on how to best engage with neighboring fields. As a part of the 2022 ISIC, the Information Behavior Conference, organized at the Berlin School of Library and Information Science at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, a panel session inquired into the interchange between information behavior research and neighboring fields (Huvila & Liu, 2022). The panelists participating in the discussion were professors Elke Greifeneder, Heidi Julien, J. Tuomas Harviainen, Christa Womser Hacker, Ying-Hsang Liu and Isto Huvila. The invited panelists and the audience that filled the room had a lot of hands-on experience on working with several neighboring fields. Greifeneder has conducted a lot of information behavior studies in the context of user experience research, Julien has worked extensively with professionals from a wide range of contexts whereas Harviainen's work covers design studies, interactive media and information practices. Womser Hacker's work span over information behavior, information retrieval and human-computer interaction communities. Liu's research lies at the intersection of information retrieval, knowledge organisation, and human information behavior, with a particular emphasis on the design and evaluation of interactive information retrieval systems. Huvila has worked extensively with archaeologists, library, archive and museum professionals and healthcare.

Introduction: This study investigates the implications of the interplay of multiple information infrastructures to learning and conducting work and to its related information work practices, and how the materialities of work and its infrastructures play into their intermingling. Method: The present study is based on an ethnography of a week-long archaeological teaching excavation conducted by the author. The excavation took place on a stone-age site in a Nordic country in Spring 2016. Analysis: The analysis of the ethnographic data was based on constant comparative method and close reading. Results: Four major information infrastructures were identified in the empirical setting. They and their diverging materialities were intimately linked to how information work was conducted at the excavation. The presence of two infrastructures designed for the same purposes of documenting the site and excavation process caused problems with scheduling and managing the work, but did at the same time make their associated premises and infrastructural obligations visible for the participants of the excavation. The older of these two infrastructures played a potentially important role as an "infrastructural stalwart," an infrastructure that stabilised another infrastructure. Conclusion: The presence of parallel, overlapping information infrastructures makes them visible and potentially less effective but also unveils their underpinnings for learning and insights in their role in information work.

Archaeology and archaeological work are tightly linked to contemporary societal challenges. Archaeology has much to contribute to the understanding, contextualising and working out of global challenges from migration to environmental change. In parallel to how archaeology impacts society, the society, societal changes, and challenges impact archaeology and its public mission of preserving and interpreting the physical and curating the informational archaeological record. Similarly, they impact archaeological practices, that is how archaeology is done in practice. This article draws attention to the need to comprehend what the increasing diversity and multiplicity of links between archaeological practices, knowledge work, and contemporary societal challenges implies for the understanding of how archaeology is achieved and archaeological knowledge is produced. The discussion is based on input collected from 50 members of the COST Action Archaeological Practices and Knowledge Work in the Digital Environment (www.arkwork.eu) who shared their views on how archaeology can contribute to solving contemporary societal challenges and what societal changes and challenges are likely to affect the field of archaeology during the next 5 years. In addition to a continuing need to increase the understanding of archaeological practices and their implications, distilling the outcomes of the state of the art into shared, validated, and actionable lessons learned applicable for societal benefit remains another major challenge.

Considerable investments have been made in Europe and worldwide for developing research data infrastructures. Instead of a general lack of data about data, it has become apparent that a pivotal factor that drastically constrains data use is the absence of contextual knowledge about how data was created and how it has been curated and used. This applies especially to many branches of social science and humanities research, where data is highly heterogeneous, both by its kind (e.g. being qualitative, quantitative, naturalistic, purposefully created) and origins (e.g. being historical/contemporary, from different contexts and geographical places). The problem is that there may be enough metadata (data about data) but there is too little paradata (data on the processes of its creation, curation and use). The aim of this position paper is to draw attention 1) to the need for a better and more systematic understanding and documentation of the contexts of creation, curation and use of research data to make it useful and usable for researchers and other potential users in the future, and 2) to specific obstacles that make the capturing of this particular type of metadata, known as paradata, especially difficult. Failing to understand what information about the creation, curation and use of research data is needed and how to capture enough of that information risks that the currently collected vast amounts of research data become useless in the future.

Research on how people look for and interact with information has a long history in the information field. The current literature has been repeatedly reviewed in earlier volumes of Annual Review of Information Science and Technology. In this review, we offer an overview of the research published in this area in the years 2016–2022 with a focus on the trends that have emerged in this period. We use the term “information behavior” as an umbrella for the research area interested in how people become informed and engage with information in diverse manners acknowledging that different researchers and subfields prefer other terms and frameworks, including information practices, information experience, and health information seeking, to name a few. We reviewed 1270 articles in the field published in the years 2016–2022 and identified seven emerging trends: The CoVID‐19 Pandemic, Diversity and Inclusion, Embodiment, Misinformation and Trust, Social Q&A Websites, Collaboration, and Information Creation. The reviewed literature and trends are discussed in relation to their significance for information, earlier review of information behavior research, and the long‐debated issue of theory‐driven versus atheoretical research in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: This paper analyses the work practices and perspectives of professionals working with archaeological archives and the social organization of archaeological archiving and information management in Sweden. Method: The paper is based on an interview study of Swedish actors in the field of archaeological archiving (N = 16). Analysis: The interviews were recorded and transcribed, then analysed using close reading. Results: We identified eight major work roles of archiving and managing archaeological information. Analysis of the recorded interviews show that there are multiple technical, legislative, conceptual and structural factors that influence and complicate the building, management and use of archaeological archives. Conclusions: Results show that the central challenge of archiving archaeology is the lack of efforts to influence and control the process by the involved actors. A mutual effort to be more explicit about concerns, needs and wishes of all participating organizations would help them to prioritise their work, take other actors' concerns into account and develop their work practices to support more effectively the preservation of archaeological information.

Introduction: We report results of a study of how ordering and reading of printouts of medical records by regular and inexperienced readers relate to how the records are used, to the health information practices of patients, and to their expectations of the usefulness of new e-Health services and online access to medical records. Method: The study is based on a combined postal- and Web-survey of a simple random sample of 1,000 patients who ordered a paper copy of their medical records from the Uppsala county council (Sweden) with a final analysed sample of 354 returned questionnaires. Analysis: The data were analysed using SPSS 21.0 using descriptive statistics, one-way analysis of variation (ANOVA) using Tamhane's T2 test, chi-squared tests and logistic regression analysis. Results: The analysis shows that individuals who had ordered a copy of their medical records in the past perceive their usefulness in broader terms than first-timers. The regular readers are also most concerned about their health and the quality of care. Conclusions: It seems that in addition to certain demographic factors, many of the variations in the data can be explained in terms of adaptive structuration theory. This is a result of a parallel structuration of patients, medical records and the paper-based and online technologies of access, and consequently how patients perceive records and the different methods of accessing and using them.

Archaeological practice is increasingly enacted within pervasive and invisible digital infrastructures, tools, and services that affect how participants engage in learning and fieldwork, and how evidence, knowledge, and expertise are produced. This article discusses the collective imaginings regarding the present and future of digital archaeological practice held by researchers working in two archaeological projects in the Eastern Mediterranean, who have normalized the use of digital tools and the adoption of digital processes in their studies. It is a part of E-CURATORS, a research project investigating how archaeologists in multiple contexts and settings incorporate pervasive digital technologies in their studies. Based on an analysis of qualitative interviews, we interpret the arguments advanced by study participants on aspects of digital work, learning, and expertise. We find that, in their sayings, participants not only characterize digital tools and workflows as having positive instrumental value, but also recognize that they may severely constrain the autonomy and agency of researchers as knowledge workers through the hyper-granularization of data, the erosion of expertise, and the mechanization of work. Participants advance a notion of digital archaeology based on do-it-yourself (DIY) practice and craft to reclaim agency from the algorithmic power of digital technology and to establish fluid, positional distribution of roles and agency, and mutual validation of expertise. Operating within discourses of labour vs efficiency, and technocracy vs agency, sayings, elicited within the archaeological situated practice in the wild, become doings, echoing archaeology’s anxiety in the face of pervasive digital technology.

A lot of different concepts have been utilised to elucidate diverse aspects of archaeological practices and knowledge production. This article describes how the notion of choreography can complement the existing repertoire of concepts and be used to render visible the otherwise difficult to grasp physical and mental movements that make up archaeological work as a practical and scholarly exercise. The conceptual discussion in the article uses vignettes drawn from an observation study of an archaeological teaching excavation in Scandinavia to illustrate how the concepts of choreography, choreographing, and choreographer can be used to inquire into archaeological work and data production. In addition to how explicating physical, temporal, and ontological choreographies of archaeological work can help to understand how it unfolds, the present article suggests that a better understanding of the epistemic choreographies of archaeological, scientific, and scholarly work can help to unpack and describe its inputs and outputs, the data it produces, what the work achieves, and how it is made in space and time.

Archaeological heritage administrators hold a key position as managers of archaeological information production. This article reports findings of an interview study conducted in Sweden (N=10) that focuses on providing an in-depth description of archaeology heritage administrators’ work with a focus on their information work practices and factors that influence how it unfolds. The findings show that its critical success factors focus on the adequacy and availability of resources, personal experience and functioning collaborations with key stakeholders and colleagues, and balancing between following and interpreting formal guidelines, boundaries and standards of the work. Based on a reading of the findings inspired by Luhmann and White, it is suggested that the administrators’ ability to balance between standards and ambiguity and regulate their personal contextual distance to the projects they were working on helped them switch between acting as subject experts and relying on others to maintain a control over their information work-as-whole.

Purpose: The purpose is to investigate the professional identity of public library, archive and museum (LAM) professionals in Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Norway and Sweden. Design/methodology/approach: The data have been gathered through the administration of three questionnaires. A comprehensive analysis is conducted to explore the variations in the professionals' perceptions of their professional proximities to the other LAM professions and other related professions, considering demographic factors such as age, education, gender and immigrant background of participants. Findings: Through a lens of micro- and macro-professional identities, the findings underscore both clearly perceived role separation between the LAM professions and notable points of convergence, suggesting opportunities for collaborative efforts. The implications of these discoveries are discussed, offering a foundation for future research endeavors. Originality/value: The study highlights the professions perceived to have the most and least similarity to LAMs based on questionnaire responses, providing valuable insights into the interplay between various professional domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Recent personal information management literature has underlined the significance of the contextuality of personal information and its use. The present article discusses the applicability of the records continuum model and its generalisation, continuum thinking, as a theoretical framework for explicating the overlap and evolution of the diverse contexts of personal information and their implications for personal information management practices. Method: This article is based on three empirical case studies on 1) the personal information management practices of sound artists (qualitative semi-structured interviews), 2) graduate students' management of scholarly articles (web survey of Swedish students) and 3) the management of personal archives at Swedish archival institutions (qualitative semi-structured interviews). Analysis: The empirical material was analysed using the constant comparative method (case 1), non-parametric statistical tests including Friedman's test, Kruskal-Wallis analysis, Wilcoxon-Signed Rank test, Mann-Whitney-U test and Chi-square test in SPSS version 20.0 (case 2), and thematic analysis (case 3). Results: The continuum approach and the conceptualisation of diverse contextual aspects of personal information management as axes on a Giddensian spatio-temporal continuum can help to understand the contextual changes and continuities of personal information management and use. Conclusions: The records continuum model provides a useful theoretical basis for explicating personal information management as a process of Giddensian time-space structuration similarly to how Upward argued that the theory is useful in the context of explicating the record-keeping process and, in more general terms, providing a framework for theorising particular types of document-centric management processes.

Introduction: Meta-games and meta-gaming refer to various second-order conceptions of games and gaming. The present article discusses the applicability of the notions of meta-game and meta-gaming in understanding the patterns of how people use, misuse, work and work-around information and information infrastructures. Method: Twenty-two qualitative interviews of archives, library and museum professionals conducted in two Nordic countries in 2009-2011. The interviews were semi-structured and based on the thematic interview approach of Hirsjärvi and Hurme as a part of a larger study of the information work of such professionals. Analysis: An exploratory qualitative analysis based on constant comparative method was carried out on the interview data. Results. The analysis shows that the information work of the interviewed professionals contained a large number of examples of different types of meta-gaming. Conclusions: The analysis suggests that the notions of meta-games and meta-gaming can be used to explain peripheral and second-order information activities and to analyse the aspects of work that relate to gameplay and playfulness. [This paper was published as part of: Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Conceptions of Library and Information Science, Copenhagen, Denmark, 19-22 August, 2013.]

Introduction. Failure to find information is common. An exploratory analysis of cases when family members or friends were asked for information can provide better understanding of when, how and why interpersonal information seeking within a close network of individuals fails. Method. A sample of utterances (in form of "I asked my mum, but") was harvested from the Web using LexiURL Searcher software. Analysis. The material (327 utterances) was analysed with content analysis and categorised using the constant comparative method. Results. People utter on the Web different types of, mostly fact-related, questions they have asked earlier of their family members and friends. Multiple factors were found to affect interpersonal information seeking including a major barrier, bashfulness, which has not been discussed earlier in the literature. Conclusions. Success in asking questions of family and friends is a broad issue of mastering information content, social environment and other contexts of information seeking rather than a technical ability. (Contains 3 tables.)

Introduction: The complexity of human information activity is a challenge for both practice and research in information sciences and information management. Literature presents a wealth of approaches to analytically structure and make sense of human information activity including a faceted classification model of information interactions published by Cool and Belkin in 2002, which is discussed in this paper. Method: The Cool and Belkin classification scheme and the version adopted by Huvila in 2006 for a study of archaeologists are compared and new qualitative empirical interview material is analysed by using the latter version of the scheme. Analysis: Literature studies and qualitative analysis of interview material was carried out. Results: The discussed revisions proposed in the present study and earlier by Huvila broaden the scope of the classification system from information seeking to the broad scope of information activity and from description of interaction instances to their contexts. Conclusions: It is important to consider the consequences of classifying information interactions, to balance between complexity and simplicity and to consider when it is significant to strive for complexity of classifications and when a generic level of description is enough. (Contains 4 tables.)

Archaeology and material cultural heritage enjoys a particular status as a form of heritage that, capturing the public imagination, has become the locus for the expression and negotiation of regional, national, and intra-national cultural identities. One important question is: why and how do contemporary people engage with archaeological heritage objects, artefacts, information or knowledge outside the realm of an professional, academically-based archaeology? This question is investigated here from the perspective of theoretical considerations based on Yuri Lotman’s semiosphere theory, which helps to describe the connections between the centre and peripheries of professional archaeology as sign structures. The centre may be defined according to prevalent scientific paradigms, while periphery in the space of creolisation in which, through interactions with other culturally more distant sign structures, archaeology-related nonprofessional communities emerge. On the basis of these considerations, we use collocation analysis on representative English language corpora to outline the structure of the field of archaeology-related nonprofessional communities, identify salient creolised peripheral spaces and archaeology-related practices, and develop a framework for further investigation of archaeological knowledge production and reuse in the context of global archaeology.

Human resources and intellectual capital are best utilised through an ongoing interaction between individual and social processes. Still there is a research gap of empirical multilevel studies, focusing both on individual and organisational aspects of knowledge processes. To fill this gap, this article reports on a quantitative study, where the relationship between information literacy and social capital, representing the individual and social contexts affecting organisational knowledge processes, is explored. Structural equation modelling-based analysis of 378 employees working in different companies in Finland demonstrated that information literacy supports all three dimensions of social capital at workplace. Strong information handling skills enable better access to knowledge beyond the resources of an individual, that is, social capital. The results of the study contribute to a better understanding of how to manage human resources and the information and knowledge processes that employees are expected to be involved in. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land developers are significant stakeholders of archaeological work in the developed world. A better understanding of their information practices is crucial for the preservation and management of archaeological heritage. This study investigates land developers’ use, needs and conceptions of the usefulness- value of archaeological information and their views of development-led archaeological process. The findings are based on a survey of Finnish and Swedish land developers (N=34) that have contracted and financed archaeological fieldwork. The results show that the most useful information for land developers is data on the spatial location of archaeological sites but that the situation is much more nuanced than often suggested. Even if the most of the respondents were rather satisfied with the current situation, the lack of information can have major consequences and there are several obstacles to obtain relevant information. Extensive reliance on people sources can be seen both a symptom of the current problems and an indication of the importance of closer collaboration between archaeologists and land developers. Further, the study shows that the different levels of the perceived usefulness of specific types of archaeological information can be explained by the different regimes determining their worth in the two communities.

Library 2.0 is a change in the way libraries interact with their users. Technological developments on the Web have had a major influence on these changes. The change also places new requirements on librarians' competencies and skills. This research investigates how librarians themselves see this change in terms of their work identity and working knowledge. The research shows what kinds of qualities and characteristics are expected from a "Librarian 2.0," according to a group of professional librarians. The results associate "Librarian 2.0" firmly with the Web, although some of the more traditional characteristics of librarianship have retained their relevance. This research also shows that the change towards a "Librarian 2.0" can be seen as intimidating by some librarians, a fact that has to be taken into account when libraries develop their future strategies.

Even though the concept of information literacy typically embraces an idea of a complete participation in an information community, its definitions have tended to underline the phases of seeking, searching and evaluation instead of creating information. Shortcomings of information creation can, however, explain many of the difficulties of finding information. This article develops the notion of information literacy with a specific focus on integrating creation and organization of information as central aspects of being information literate and discusses the implications of developing information creation processes from the point of view of information professionals and users. Finally, suggestions are made for how information creation might be improved in practice.

The article focuses on the interchange between information behavior research and neighboring fields. Topics include the challenges of explaining information behavior to colleagues from the similarities and differences between information behavior research and closely related fields such as user experience, human-computer interaction, and information retrieval; and the need for information behavior researchers to recognize added value they bring to interdisciplinary collaborations.

The article by Isto Huvila explores the implications of developing digital infrastructures for archaeological knowledge, echoing Jeremy Huggett's concerns about their influence and the need for critical scrutiny. Topics include questioning the necessity and helpfulness of digital infrastructures, the importance of understanding their impact on archaeological knowledge, and the need for transparent and elastic infrastructures that consider future generations' diverse research needs.

Information behavior and practices (IBP) research has been repeatedly criticized for having little impact on information systems development (ISD). Claiming that there is a complete disconnect would be an exaggeration but it is apparent that it is not always easy to translate findings of IBP research to workable design recommendations. Based on a reading of earlier literature and a closer investigation of three illustrative example contexts, this article underlines that the value of IBP research for ISD lies in its capability to inform ISD of the variety of ways people deal with information beyond individual systems, their own wants and designers' assumptions. Moreover, it highlights that the implications of information systems go beyond their primary users. Instead of overemphasizing the contextuality of findings, a part of IBP research would benefit from an increased focus on explicating its epistemological extents and limits and identifying, which findings are transferable, what distinguishes specific contexts, what are their defining constraints and priorities, and what aspects of their uniqueness are assumptions and simple clichés. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To explicate how experiences with patient-accessible electronic health records correspond to the expectations of the users, we present qualitative results of older adults' experiences with the Finnish national patient-accessible health record My Kanta and similar services. 24 persons, 17 women and 7 men aged 55–73, took part in the study. We interviewed six focus groups of 3–5 participants with previous experience of My Kanta, in two cities in Finland. We used a convenience sample and video- and audio-recording as well as note taking. The interviews were transcribed verbatim. The inductive analysis was based on content analysis. We identified major uses, enablers, barriers, and outcomes of My Kanta. In addition to earlier reported barriers and enablers, the findings show that launch-time lack of useful content and features in systems still under development can cause frustration and hinder their effective use at the time and in the long run. Concerns and barriers relating to use were socio-techno-informational and tightly associated with the contents of the system. Improved security, usability and additional information and functions might increase use. Furthermore, coherent and timely information from health-care providers should be available in the e-health services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report findings of the project Taking Health Information Behaviour into Account: implications of a neglected element for successful implementation of consumer health technologies on older adults (HIBA) based at Åbo Akademi University. The results stress that a key reason for digital health services (e-health) not being used or considered useful is that they are developed without fully considering how they align with the life-context and everyday-information behaviours of their intended users. Older adults' (50-70y) experiences of technologies and the information they convey vary and should be treated as two distinct facets of whether a particular service is found useful. Instead of focussing on specific systems, the emphasis of developing e-health services should be put on solving people's changing needs relating to their everyday challenges, well-being, and access to information they themselves find useful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction. People face often situations when the available information is fragmentary and epistemically and ontologically different stemming from multiple incongruous systems of knowledge. While this is obvious on the basis of the vast corpus of information behaviour research to date, relatively little attention has been conducted so far to explicate the mechanisms of how people routinely manage to use such unsatisfactory sources in their pursuits. Method. The conceptual paper describes two theoretical concepts identified in the literature. Results. The paper discusses the applicability of the notions of representational exchange and edgework to explain the mechanisms of how people parse together heterogeneous and fragmentary information together in a meaningful whole. Conclusion. The theory of representational exchange explains how people are capable of translating epistemically and ontologically incongruous types of information to work in concert. Edgework describes a type of information work necessary to parse together different forms of previous knowledge and new information with the help of (meta) information and knowledge on the two and their processes of becoming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]