LAUSR

The set of articles in this special issue bring together a diverse set of scholars concerned with research that illuminates people’s experiences with and perceptions of information within the traditions of information behavior (Wilson, 1999) or information practice (Savolainen, 2007). While there is a well-established body of frameworks and models (Case & Given, 2016; Fisher, Erdelez, & McKechnie, 2005) which support theorizing information behavior and information practice, there are questions about how these help conceptualize the changing relationship between technology and information. In proposing this special issue, we were particularly interested in new theoretical perspectives and theoretical developments. These include the “practice-turn,” affordances and sociomateriality (Gibson, 1977; Orlikowski, 2007; Schatzki, Knorr-Cetina, & von Savigny, 2001). We were particularly interested in the ways in which these theories contribute to information studies and demonstrate that the discipline offers a fertile landscape for expanding these theories. We expected that scholars would present articles that used or developed these theories to focus on the ways people engage with information technology and the way it changes how people interact with information. What we found, however, was that most of the submissions looked towards other forms of materiality and interaction providing a theoretically rich, stimulating, and novel set of alternative understandings. In the first article, “Information Experience in Personally Meaningful Activities,” Gorichanaz uses interpretative phenomenological analysis to understand three domains of personal meaning: Bible reading, ultramarathon running, and artmaking. Identifying that there is an emerging body of work that focuses on personally meaningful information activities, he notes that this has not yet been fully theorized, particularly from the perspective of what it means to be human and reflecting on ethical notions of “craft.” In this article he addresses this gap by asking the question: How do people experience information in personally meaningful activities? Although readers will find links between this article and other contexts of everyday-life information seeking, including studies of serious leisure activities, Gorichanaz’s work is unique in that he illuminates four unique themes to address the research question: identity, central practice, curiosity, and presence. The technological implications are to consider how technologies (such as social media) contribute to and/or detract from the ways that people cultivate deep, personal meaning in their lives. The second article, by Lloyd and Olsson, “Untangling the Knot: The Information Practices of Enthusiast Car Restorers,” similarly explores a chosen activity; however, the article takes a different methodological position. Rooted in scholarship focusing on information practice, Lloyd and Olsson provide a thoughtful contribution to our understanding of the materiality in information practice and extend their earlier work on the embodied nature of practice. They do this through the study of the information practices of a community of enthusiasts engaged in the restoration of vintage and classic cars. A significant contribution of the article is the way in which they explore objects and tools made and manipulated by humans, illustrating how they are entangled in practice and shape practical and symbolic understanding. Interestingly they indicate that digital tools took a secondary and limited role in this practice. As such, the article not only makes an interesting methodological contribution but also contributes to the growing literature on “serious leisure,” illuminating the gendered narratives of a community of practice. Received August 20, 2019; accepted August 21, 2019