Saturation, acceleration and information pathologies: the conditions that influence the emergence of information literacy safeguarding practice in COVID-19-environments
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-08-2021-0162 |
| Published date | 21 December 2021 |
| Date | 21 December 2021 |
| Pages | 1008-1026 |
| 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 | Annemaree Lloyd,Alison Hicks |
Saturation, acceleration and
information pathologies:
the conditions that influence the
emergence of information literacy
safeguarding practice in
COVID-19-environments
Annemaree Lloyd and Alison Hicks
Department of Information Studies, University College, London, UK
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this second study into information literacy practice during the COVID-19 pandemic
is to identify the conditions that influence the emergence of information literacy as a safeguarding practice.
Design/methodology/approach–The qualitative research design comprised one to one in-depth interviews
conducted virtually during the UK’s second and third lockdown phase between November 2020 and February
2021. Data were coded and analysed by the researchers using constant comparative techniques.
Findings –Continual exposure to information creates the “noisy”conditions that lead to saturation and the
potential for “information pathologies”to act as a form of resistance. Participants alter their information
practices by actively avoiding and resisting formal and informal sources of information. These reactive
activities have implications for standard information literacy empowerment discourses.
Research limitations/implications –The paper is limited to the UK context.
Practical implications –Findings will be useful for librarians and researchers who are interested in the
theorisation of information literacy as well as public health and information professionals tasked with
designing long-term health promotion strategies.
Social implications –This paper contributes to our understandings of the role that information literacy
practices play within ongoing and long-term crises.
Originality/value –This paper develops research into the role of information literacy practice in times of
crises and extends understanding related to the concept of empowerment, which forms a central idea within
information literacy discourse.
Keywords Information literacy, COVID-19, Saturation, Information avoidance, Resistance
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
This paper reports on Phase Two of the multiphase study titled Risk and Resilience (Lloyd
and Hicks, 2021). This phase of the research picks up from recent research and examines the
longer-term implications of operating in crisis mode as the UK returned to lockdown
conditions in November 2020 (Lockdown 2) and January–April 2021 (Lockdown 3). The
unabating nature of this crisis represents an opportunity to explore how practices, which are
generally characterised as stable and routine, unfold and evolve to accommodate fluid times
of uncertainty. It also forms an opportunity to examine transition in greater detail, including
how it is enabled and constrained during ongoing crisis situations. Overall, we are interested
in understanding what comes into view in relation to information literacy practice, which we
define as a social practice that is enacted in a social setting and composed of a suite of
activities and skills that reference structured and embodied knowledges and ways of
knowing, relevant to context (Lloyd, 2010,2017;Lloyd and Hicks, 2021).
This phase of the research, which ran from November 2020 through February 2021 and is
still ongoing, also permits a more detailed interrogation of the theme of safeguarding, which
JD
78,5
1008
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 24 August 2021
Revised 18 November 2021
Accepted 23 November 2021
Journal of Documentation
Vol. 78 No. 5, 2022
pp. 1008-1026
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0022-0418
DOI 10.1108/JD-08-2021-0162
formed the overarching theme of our first study. In particular, the transitional space between
the intensification and maintaining phases (Figure 1) of the safeguarding practice became the
focus of attention because the information strategies being reported in this phase appeared to
represent “pathologies”(Bawden and Robinson, 2009) that have potential relevance to
information literacy practice. Centred on desensitisation and saturation, these strategies
stood out because of the marked shift in emphasis from the proactive mediation and
documentation of the intensification phase. They also attracted our attentionbecause they led
us to consider the reactive elements of information literacy practice, or how people act in
response to rather than in preparation for the conditions that create the practice. The typical
focus of information literacy research and practice on proactive, anticipatory activities
means that reactive elements have often previously been associated with deficit and an
unwillingness to become informed (Hicks and Sinkinson, 2021).
In general terms, a crisis represents a spatial and temporal point in an intense, difficult, or
dangerous event. The event that initiates the crisis (for example, a terror attack, fire, flood,
earthquake) is generally short in terms of time but may have long term consequences in term
of recovery. In contrast, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to be an ongoing global crisis
event with broad and yet to be understood social, economic and health implications. This
makes it different from other crises, both in terms of the information that flows outward from
authorities and in terms of the information practices that people employ to deal with the high
levels of complex information that is being disseminated via a wide range of sources and
across multiple social and technological platforms.
2. Context: previous study
Phase One of the risk and resilience study (Lloyd and Hicks, 2021) was guided by the
following question: What has informed the UK public’s understanding about the COVID-19
pandemic and what information practices and literacies of information came into view during
the early days of the pandemic and the subsequent countrywide lockdown? During this
study, we were interested in understanding the ways in which information literacy practice
was constructed and enacted in relation to the unfolding crisis; how participants drew from
Figure 1.
The transitional space
between intensification
and maintenance
IL and
COVID-19
1009
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