Finding Pleasure in Information Seeking: Leisure and Amateur Genealogists Exploring Their Irish Ancestry

摘要

Genealogy may be characterized as serious leisure, that is an amateur or voluntary activity in which thernhobby forms a central life interest, with participants actively acquiring and expressing special skills,rnknowledge and experience (Stebbins, 1996; 1997). Information skills development and informationrnexchange are key features of genealogy. Amateur genealogists are very often older adults who haverntime to devote themselves to learning information and technical skills needed to navigate the complexrnmaze of resources that support this activity.rnThis paper explores the information seeking behaviour of amateur genealogists in their leisure. Amateurrngenealogists from around the world participated in telephone interviews about their hunt for their Irishrnancestors. Data were analyzed to identify patterns of communication and links between and amongrnamateur genealogists, groups, and resources. Findings reveal that amateur genealogists are a uniquerngroup of information seekers, who devote their spare time to information seeking and sharing amongrnlike-minded researchers. Findings suggest that leisure time is an important information seekingrncontext, in which people relate information seeking with pleasure, as opposed to a work-related orrnroutine life information need.