Fiction as Informative and its Implications for Information Science Theory

摘要

Reading fiction is a neglected area of study in information behavior research, even as such research has expanded to include investigation of different kinds of behavior by more kinds of people, and an expanded repertoire of research methods and fields. Using data from a small empirical study (n=8) and research from five fields other than information science, the paper reports on participants' reading of fiction and those five fields' study of how reading fiction is informative. Considering fiction informative has two important outcomes: we (1) understand information behavior better and (2) address important problems in information science theory. Such problems include frustrated attempts to define information, the (generally hidden) gendered character of information science and information behavior research, the misguided conduit metaphor and an overemphasis on cognition at the expense of practice, documents and materiality.