Seven information practices for alleviating information vulnerability
| Date | 09 November 2021 |
| Pages | 835-852 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-05-2021-0106 |
| Published date | 09 November 2021 |
| 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 | Devendra Dilip Potnis,Joseph Winberry |
Seven information practices for
alleviating
information vulnerability
Devendra Dilip Potnis
School of Information Sciences, The University of Tennessee Knoxville,
Knoxville, Tennessee, USA, and
Joseph Winberry
College of Communication and Information, The University of Tennessee Knoxville,
Knoxville, Tennessee, USA
Abstract
Purpose –This literature review aims to identify conscious, intentional, repetitive and transferrable
information-related decisions and activities (i.e. information practices) for individuals to alleviate their
information vulnerability. Information vulnerability refers to the lack of access to accurate, affordable,
complete, relevant and timely information or the inability to use such information,which can place individuals,
communities or society at disadvantage or hurt them.
Design/methodology/approach –Conceptual literature review.
Findings –This review presents seven conscious, intentional, repetitive and transferrable information
practices to alleviate information vulnerability.
Practical implications –Due to the transferability potential of the seven information practices, diverse
populations in varied contexts could refer to, adapt and benefit from appropriate combinations of information
practices and their manifestations. The framework can be used by individuals for alleviating information
vulnerability. Thus, this paper responds to the call for conducting action-driven research in information science
for addressing real-world problems. Information professionals can help individuals select and implement
appropriate combinations of seven information practices for alleviating information vulnerability.
Originality/value –We propose (1) a parsimonious, episodic framework for alleviating information
vulnerability, which depicts the inter-relationship among the seven information practices and (2) a three-
dimensional plot with information access, use and value as three axes to map the manifestation and outcome of
alleviating information vulnerability.
Keywords Information vulnerability, Information practices, Information literacy, Information access,
Information use, Value of information
Paper type Literature review
1. Introduction
This paper presents seven conscious, intentional, repetitive and transferable information
practices to alleviate information vulnerability. Vulnerability refers to a state in which
individuals, communities or society can be at a disadvantage or get hurt (Aday, 1994;Potnis
and Gala, 2020). The lack of access to accurate, affordable, complete, relevant and timely
information or the inability to use such information, can place individuals, communities or
society at disadvantage or hurt them, which we refer to as “information vulnerability.”For
instance, farmers in remote, rural parts of developing countries lack access to timely and
relevant information in their native language, which illustrates information vulnerability
(Chengalur-Smith et al., 2021). Gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender plus individuals, who do
not possess affirming channels through which they can obtain their identity specific health
information, also experience information vulnerability (Kitzie et al., 2020).
1.1 Need to alleviate information vulnerability
One’s inability to identify and alleviate information vulnerability can reinforce pre-existing
inequalities in their life. For instance, if farmers in developing countries do not have timely
Alleviating
information
vulnerability
835
Received 26 May 2021
Revised 20 October 2021
Accepted 21 October 2021
Journal of Documentation
Vol. 78 No. 4, 2022
pp. 835-852
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0022-0418
DOI 10.1108/JD-05-2021-0106
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0022-0418.htm
access to crop prices and weather conditions, information related to emergency funds
allocated by the government in regions experiencing natural disasters and knowledge of the
latest trends and techniques in farming, they are likely to remain trapped in low productivity,
food insecurity and poverty (Rahman and Bhuiyan, 2016).
Information vulnerability can also force users to experience other types of vulnerabilities.
Children’s inability to formulate and use queries with the right keywords can lead to failed
searches for information on the desired topic, which can have long-lasting, negative
psychological and affective consequences (Nahl and Bilal, 2007). If refugees are unable to
discern what information is truthful, they may be tricked by misinformation and lose out on
valuable social and economic opportunities in foreign contexts (Ruokolaine and Wid
en, 2020).
1.2 Motivation for the review
Negative consequences of information vulnerability heighten the need to alleviate it, which is
the primary motivation for this conceptual literature review (Thomas and Hodges, 2010).
Tang et al. (2021) call for conducting action-driven and impact-oriented information research
so that individuals, communities and society can get research-based solutions for solving
real-world problems. A growing number of information science scholars (e.g. Marcella and
Chowdhury, 2020;Potnis et al., 2017;Zhao et al., 2020) have called for everyday life
information solutions for equipping individuals to alleviate information vulnerability
(Savolainen, 1995).
1.3 Goal of the review
Alleviating information vulnerability is not a one-time event (Chengalur-Smith et al., 2021;
Ruokolainen and Wid
en, 2020). It requires a combination of information-related decisions and
activities that can help individuals improve their relationship with information and then
alleviate the disadvantage or hurt caused by the information. Hence, this study adopts an
“information practice”perspective that involves repeat actions capturing people’s
relationships with information (McKenzie, 2003). Information practices are “socially and
culturally established ways to identify, seek, use, and share the information available in
various sources”(Savolainen, 2008, p. 2). Information practices portray and represent
everyday life contexts in which people interact with information (Kitzie et al., 2020;
Thompson, 2007).
Yu (2010,2012) proposes that conscious and intentional information practices can help
individuals develop an information resource base and obtain information from it, enriching
their information worlds and addressing information vulnerability. However, the social-
constructivist nature of information practices suggests that they are influenced by the
context in which individuals devise those practices. As a result, it is a common practice to
assume that information practices lack representation generalizability that deals with if
“what is found in a research sample can be generalised to, or held to be equally true of, the
parent population from which the sample is drawn (Lewis and Ritchie, 2003, p. 264).”
We argue that information practices can have inferential generalizability (Lewis and
Ritchie, 2003), also known as transferability (Tracy, 2010) or case-to-case generalization
(Chenail, 2010), which deals with “whether the findings from a particular study can be
inferred to other settings or contexts beyond the sampled one (Lewis and Ritchie, 2003,
p. 264).”The focus is not on if different contexts are congruent and fit (Lincoln and Guba,
1985), but rather to what extent and how individuals in one context can learn, modify and
benefit from the experiences of individuals in different contexts (Smith, 2018). For instance,
individuals’information practices in response to experiencing information vulnerability in
one context can inform and benefit others experiencing information vulnerability in a
different context. Individuals in different contexts can learn from each other’s experiences
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