Conrad, Lettie Y., Bruce, Christine S., and Tucker, Virginia M. (2020) Constructing information experience: a grounded theory portrait of academic information management. Aslib Journal of Information Management, 72 (4). pp. 653-670.

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Abstract

This paper discusses what it means to consider the information experience of academic information management from a constructivist grounded theory perspective. Using a doctoral study-in-progress as case illustration, the authors demonstrate how information experience research applies a wide lens to achieve a holistic view of information management phenomena. By unifying a range of elements, and understanding information and its management to be inseparable from the totality of human experience, an information experience perspective offers a fresh approach to answering today’s research questions. The case illustration is a constructivist grounded theory study, using interactive interviews, an original form of semi-structured qualitative interviews combined with card-sorting exercises (Conrad & Tucker, 2019), to deepen reflections by participants and externalize their information experiences. The constructivist variant of grounded theory offers an inductive, exploratory approach to address the highly contextualized information experiences of student-researchers in managing academic information. Preliminary results are reported in the form of three interpretative categories that outline key aspects of the information experience for student-researchers. By presenting these initial results, we demonstrate how the constructivist grounded theory methodology can illuminate multiple truths and bring a focus on interpretive practices to the understanding of information management experiences. This new approach offers holistic insights into academic information management phenomena as contextual, fluid, and informed by meaning-making and adaptive practices. Limitations include the small sample size customary to qualitative research, situated within one situated perspective on the academic information management experience. We demonstrate theoretical and methodological contributions of constructivist information experience research to illuminate information management in an academic setting.

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