On the two conceptualizations of information experience as an object of study: a response to Yu and Liu
| Date | 06 September 2022 |
| Pages | 635-640 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-07-2022-0141 |
| Published date | 06 September 2022 |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Records management & preservation,Document management,Classification & cataloguing,Information behaviour & retrieval,Collection building & management,Scholarly communications/publishing,Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information management,Information & communications technology,Internet |
| Author | Tim Gorichanaz |
On the two conceptualizations
of information experience
as an object of study: a response
to Yu and Liu
Tim Gorichanaz
College of Computing & Informatics, Drexel University, Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, USA
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to further the scholarly discussion of information experience as an
object of study, including how this research area fits into library and information studies more broadly.
Design/methodology/approach –A conceptual discussion of certain issues raised in Yu and Liu’s recent
paper in this journal.
Findings –While Yu and Liu seem to suggest that only a priori information experience research belong in
library and information science (LIS), this paper suggests that a priori and a posteriori research have a
synergistic relationship and both have a home in LIS.
Originality/value –This paper clarifies how the two conceptualizations of information experience as an
object ofstudy relate to each other, as well as how these relate to information experience as a research approach,
and how all this fits within the metadisciplinary field of LIS.
Keywords Information research, Information experience, Information media, Information profession,
Information, Phenomenology
Paper type Viewpoint
Introduction
The term information experience refers to both a research approach and an object of study
(Partridge and Yates, 2014). As a research approach, information experience constitutes an
underlying philosophy that may guide a researcher’s questions and methodology. In other
words, it is a metatheory (Bates, 2005b). As an object of study, on the other hand, information
experience is a phenomenon that a researcher investigates. What exactly is the nature of that
phenomenon, and how does it differ from other sorts of experiences? That is the question Yu
and Liu (2022) take up in their recent concept analysis.
Yu and Liu’s (2022) paper is illuminating and detailed. At heart, they disambiguate two
conceptualizations of information experience as an object of study found in the literature: the
a priori conception and the a posteriori conception. Yu and Liu define these as follows:
(1) A priori:“experience of predesignated informational or communicative products and
associated phenomena”(Yu and Liu, 2022, p. 10)
(2) A posteriori:“experience of being informed by anything that a person regards as
informative”(Yu and Liu, 2022, p. 10)
While the authors introduce these terms “for lack of a better name,”I do think they are apt. In
a priori research on information experience, what is information is defined ahead of time
Information
experience as
an object of
study
635
The author is grateful to the anonymous reviewers of this manuscript, who helped point out some of his
misunderstandings of Yu and Liu’s arguments and suggested other places where it could be helpfully
improved.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0022-0418.htm
Received 1 July 2022
Revised 17 August 2022
Accepted 22 August 2022
Journal of Documentation
Vol. 79 No. 3, 2023
pp. 635-640
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0022-0418
DOI 10.1108/JD-07-2022-0141
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