The purpose of this paper is to consider the role that technology may play in the future of experiential tourism. This viewpoint paper begins to question future developments in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to consider the role that technology may play in the future of experiential tourism. This viewpoint paper begins to question future developments in technological mediation and how these may challenge the author’ view of experiences and their construction in a period of immense and rapid technological development.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a short viewpoint paper driven by theoretical perspectives in the existing academic literature and the author’s personal stance on the future of experiential tourism.
Findings
This paper suggests that while there is considerable research into the role and application of technology within tourism, there is a lack of future-orientated debate. The views expressed within the paper argue that three potential directions exist for the future of technological mediation in experiential tourism: mass acceptance and customisation; experiential convergence or “rewinding the clock”, each with significant implications for the management of technological mediation in experiential tourism.
Originality/value
The paper provides an initial insight into future directions of the tourism industry in a period of immense technological development. Based on existing theoretical perspectives, these viewpoints indicate three potential routes for the industry and act as a catalyst for further dialogue within tourism scholarship.
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– The purpose of this paper was to investigate how PhD students discover, choose and use information and literature for their research.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper was to investigate how PhD students discover, choose and use information and literature for their research.
Design/methodology/approach
Eight PhD students at the Norwegian Business School (BI) were interviewed. The interviews were based on a phenomenological approach.
Findings
The use of both library databases and Google Scholar is frequent and contextual. The informants ranked the library databases as more useful than Google Scholar. Methods for keeping up to date varied and were contextual. Although formal information seeking in library databases was seen as more academic than the tracking of references, this latter method was more widespread. Students felt they mastered the tools associated with formal information seeking, which constituted a continuous activity in their research practices. Wilson’s (1983) theory on cognitive authority may give a better understanding of the findings.
Practical implications
Acquiring knowledge about the information practices of PhD students in a specific discipline will help libraries to improve their services and acquire relevant resources for their users.
Originality/value
This paper examines PhD students’ ranking of information resources, identifies preferred methods for keeping up to date and reveals in which contexts the informants use either formal or social information-seeking practices.
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Purpose – The purpose of the chapter is to provide an analytical overview of information research in the United Kingdom and of the role of the Research Assessment Exercises (RAE…
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of the chapter is to provide an analytical overview of information research in the United Kingdom and of the role of the Research Assessment Exercises (RAE) in shaping the form and structure of that research.
Design/methodology/approach – The approach adopted is a detailed content analysis of the submissions made to the last UK RAE. This analysis is carried out in relation to four broad subject categorisations, and specific analysis of accounts of research carried out in the departments and research groups.
Findings – The RAE have played a key role in promoting research specialisms in library and information studies (LIS) research in the United Kingdom. The former general approach to research in information studies has been replaced by more focused research activities carried out in a variety of research groups spread across a diverse range of disciplines and departments, from LIS, to business and management, information systems, and computing and engineering.
Research implications – The prospects for general LIS research departments may be increasingly limited, as research becomes concentrated in sub-groups within larger organisational structures, subverting both departmental lines and conventional subject boundaries.
Originality/value – This overview provides a novel synthesis of information research in the United Kingdom in relation to four broad categories of research in information studies and information science, information management and social informatics, information systems and information interaction, and social computing and computational informatics. The account brings together a fragmented field of research in a compact and intelligible form.
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Nujoud Al‐Muomen, Anne Morris and Sally Maynard
This paper seeks to report the results of research conducted to model the information‐seeking behaviour of graduate students at Kuwait University and the factors influencing that…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to report the results of research conducted to model the information‐seeking behaviour of graduate students at Kuwait University and the factors influencing that behaviour.
Design/methodology/approach
The research employed a number of different approaches: a questionnaire survey to 800 graduate students studying at Kuwait University; a questionnaire survey to 180 academics at the university; semi‐structured interviews with eight academics; face‐to‐face and online interviews with 11 university library staff, four focus groups with 24 students and three focus groups with ten faculty staff.
Findings
Significant factors influencing students' information‐seeking behaviour were found to be related to library awareness, information literacy, organisational and environmental issues, source characteristics, and demographics (specifically gender and nationality).
Research limitations/implications
The research focused on graduate students at a Kuwait University which is affiliated to the government sector, however, the information seeking model is more widely applicable, particularly to other developing countries.
Originality/value
Proposed is an information‐seeking model that extended two other relevant and influential models of information‐seeking behaviour. The extended model shows promise for its intended utility in identifying factors that influence the information behaviour of graduate students.
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David Ellis and Christine Urquhart
The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of research in the Department of Information Studies at the University of Wales Aberystwyth and an introduction to the papers…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of research in the Department of Information Studies at the University of Wales Aberystwyth and an introduction to the papers in the special issue.
Design/methodology/approach
A narrative review of the previous research activities and contemporary research environment of the Department of Information Studies.
Findings
There is more to be learnt about the future of the research assessment exercise, whether it is moving to a metrics‐based system, or whether the system will look more favourably on departments that attract a range of research funding.
Originality/value
Identifies how changes in the scope of research activities in a department reflect changes in research funding and structures for the information sector, as well as changes in staff interests.
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Amanda Spink and Jannica Heinström
Ever since our cognitive make-up allowed it, human beings have used their information behaviour abilities to help them survive. Information behaviour evolved in response to the…
Abstract
Ever since our cognitive make-up allowed it, human beings have used their information behaviour abilities to help them survive. Information behaviour evolved in response to the need by early humans to benefit from information that could not be immediately accessible in the nearby environment or obtained through communication. Humans developed an information behaviour ability, including processes of information sense making, foraging, seeking, organising and using. Information behaviour brought several benefits to early humans, including greater influence and control over their environment, and the degree in which they could use the environment for their own gain and survival. Information behaviour thus brought several advantages for the survival of early humans, and consequently emerged as a genetically favoured trait (Spink, 2010).
Yosef Solomon and Jenny Bronstein
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of serendipity in legal information seeking behavior of family law advocates, whom act in a challenging information…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of serendipity in legal information seeking behavior of family law advocates, whom act in a challenging information environment that lacks published court rulings.
Design/methodology/approach
A quantitative research using a web-based structured questionnaire, among Israeli family law advocates. Single stage systematic sampling, with random starting point and no recurring pattern of each sixth family law advocate on the Israel Bar Advocates List, was applied. Data from 135 Israeli family law advocates were used for analysis.
Findings
Electronic information sources were found as most serendipitous; family law advocates were identified as super encounterers; four types of professional background concerns and seven legal professional contributions of the unexpected encounters with court rulings, were identified. Furthermore, findings support several frameworks presented on earlier information encounter literature.
Research limitations/implications
Data absence on demographic and professional variables distributions of Israeli family law advocates was a limiting factor, compensated by the systematic sampling method used, thus can be regarded to reflect the views of the entire study population. Surveys’ reliance on self-reporting recalls of serendipitous events is also a limiting factor, though predicted and acceptable in this matter since chance encounters occur unexpectedly and are complex to capture.
Practical implications
Chance encounters may expose lawyers to meaningful information it is unlikely they were able to find because its limited publication, and assist them keep up with current law for better serves their clients.
Originality/value
The study augments the current empirically based knowledge on serendipity and provides insights into legal information chance encounters among a little-studied group of knowledge workers: family law advocates.
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Allen Edward Foster and David Ellis
– The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of serendipity and approaches to its study particularly in relation to information studies.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of serendipity and approaches to its study particularly in relation to information studies.
Design/methodology/approach
The origins of the term serendipity are described and its elaboration as an exploratory and explanatory concept in science and the social sciences are outlined. The distinction between serendipity and serendipity pattern is explained and theoretical and empirical studies of both serendipity and the serendipity patterns are explored. The relationship between information encountering is described. Empirical studies of serendipity using Citation Classics and other research approaches in information studies are described.
Findings
The discrepancy between occurrences of serendipity in studies using Citation Classics and reported serendipity in philosophy of science, research anecdotes, information encountering and information seeking by inter-disciplinary researchers is highlighted. A comparison between a process model of serendipity and serendipity as an emergent behavioural characteristic are indicates directions for future research.
Originality/value
The paper provides and original synthesis of the theoretical and empirical literature on serendipity with particular reference to work in information studies and an indication of the methodological difficulties involved in its study.