Social Information Research

Citation

Bawden, D. (2013), "Social Information Research", Library Review, Vol. 62 No. 1/2, pp. 81-82. https://doi.org/10.1108/00242531311328195

Part of Emerald's Library and Information Science series, this book addresses the rather wide area of research into social information, explained as “different aspects of social information as part of information behaviour research”. This is a very broad remit, even when most – though not all – of the contributors to the book place a strong emphasis on social media, and other tools of social informatics. And herein lies both the strength and the weakness of this book, and indeed of all other books of its type; multi‐authored texts addressing themes with a broad scope and a rapidly changing technological and social environment. With 11 main chapters, written by a total of 19 well‐qualified authors from eight countries, the book addresses many interesting topics, so that it would be a very demanding reader indeed who found nothing of interest in it. On the other hand, the breadth of the topic, and the diverse interests and approaches of the chapter authors, impose the risk of an uneven and fragmented treatment. It is to the credit of the book's editors that this danger is to a large extent avoided.

The range of the topics covered is indeed great. From the social sense‐making of Shakespearean theatre professionals to social tagging for cancer patients' information sources, from students' wiki creation to information behaviour in social media associated with computer games, and from Twitter as a research tool to friends‐of‐friends in academic web resources, this book gives a rather breathless run through a wide variety of socially‐oriented information behaviour and social media use.

In doing so, it very well illustrates one of the aspects of information behaviour research which has received negative comments: the lack of any agreement as to the right way of approaching such research, still less any generally accepted body of theory guiding research and enabling cumulative progress. In the introduction to this book, the editors note, rather mildly, that “the many concepts in this area are challenging”, and so it proves. In various chapters here, we find studies based on Dervin's sense‐making, on Chatman's normative behaviour, on practice theory, and on social constructivism. We find others which are essentially theory‐free, and based on common sense considerations, or on technical capabilities and environments. This may well prove frustrating for the reader who seeks to work their way through the book to find out just what social information behaviour is, and what research tells us about it. On the other hand, such a reader will have gained an accurate understanding of the current rather messy situation of this field of research; and, some would say, of information behaviour research generally. It is commendable that the editors have not tried to sanitise the picture by imposing their own preferred methods and approaches, and have let the various chapter authors speak for themselves.

The intended readership for this book is suggested to be “researchers, educators and practitioners”, as is usual for books of this kind. It is likely to be of most value to someone beginning research or advanced study in information behaviour; such a person would certainly gain a wide appreciation of the topics and methods within the field, and would benefit from studying the book cover to cover. Others will probably wish to skim, and focus on chapters and topics of particular interest; academic librarians will find those chapters dealing with the way in which students use social media of particular relevance. I found David Stuart's chapter on the ways in which friend‐of‐a‐friend information can be incorporated and used within a semantic web environment, and the study of collaborative wiki‐writing by Jannica Heinström and Eero Sormunen, of particular note. It would, I think, be a dull person, who had some academic or professional interest in information behaviour, who found nothing of interest in this book, and that perhaps is its principle merit.