“This is really interesting. I never even thought about this.” Methodological strategies for studying invisible information work.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7146/njlis.v1i2.120437Keywords:
work, information work, invisible work, information practices, methodology, visual methods, institutional ethnographyAbstract
Significant information work (Corbin & Strauss, 1985; 1988) is often required to grapple with increasing quantities, types, and sources of information. Much of this work is invisible both to researchers and to the people undertaking it. As there are many axes along which informational work can be made invisible, researchers require flexible and creative methods in order to bring hidden information work to light. Each drawing on our own information practices research study, we introduce and reflect on four methodological strategies that have been effective in recognizing and revealing hidden aspects of informational work: (1) consider the local and the translocal; (2) attend to the material and the textual; (3) consider visual methods; and (4) (re)consider the participant’s role and expertise. We conclude by reflecting on the benefits and pitfalls of bringing visibility to invisible information work and conclude with a call for further research focused on the invisible.
References
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Barnes, M., & Henwood, F. (2015). Inform with care: ethics and information in care for people with dementia. Ethics and Social Welfare, 9(2), 147-163. doi.org/10.1080/17496535.2014.969753
Barry, C. A., Britten, N., Barber, N., Bradley, C., & Stevenson, F. (1999). Using reflexivity to optimize teamwork in qualitative research. Qualitative Health Research, 9(1), 26-44. doi.org/10.1177/104973299129121677
Bowker, G. C., & Star, S. L. (1999). Sorting things out: Classification and its consequences. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Campbell, M., & Gregor, F. (2002). Mapping social relations: A primer in doing institutional ethnography. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press.
Corbin, J., & Strauss, A. (1985). Managing chronic illness at home: Three lines of work. Qualitative Sociology, 8(3), 224-247. doi.org/10.1007/BF00989485
Corbin, J. M., & Strauss, A. (1988). Unending work and care: Managing chronic illness
at home. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Dalmer, N. K., & Huvila, I. (2020). Conceptualizing information work for health contexts in Library and Information Science. Journal of Documentation, 76(1), 96-108. doi.org/10.1108/JD-03-2019-0055
Davenport, E., & Cronin, B. (1998). Texts at work: Some thoughts on 'just for you' service in the context of domain expertise. Journal of Education for Library and Information Science, 39(4), 264-274. doi.org/10.2307/40324302
DeVault, M. L. (1991). Feeding the family. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
DeVault, M. L. (2014). Mapping invisible work: Conceptual tools for social justice projects. Sociological Forum, 79(4), 775-790. doi.org/10.1111/socf.12119
Ehrlich, K., & Cash, D. (1999). The invisible world of intermediaries: A cautionary tale. Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 8(1-2), 147–167. doi.org/10.1023/A:1008696415354
Frohmann, B. (2004). Deflating information: From science studies to documentation. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Gergen, K., & Gergen, M. M. (1991). Toward reflexive methodologies. In F. Steier (Ed.), Research and reflexivity (pp. 76-95). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Glaser, B. G. & Strauss, A. L. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research. Chicago: Aldine Publishers.
Glazer, N. Y. (1993). Women's paid and unpaid labor: The work transfer in health care and retailing. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
Griffith, A. I., & Smith, D. E. (2005). Mothering for schooling. London: Routledge.
Greyson, D. L., & Johnson, J. L. (2016). The role of information in health behavior: A scoping study and discussion of major public health models. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 67(12), 2831-2841. doi.org/10.1002/asi.23392
Greyson, D., O'Brien, H., & Shoveller, J. (2017). Information world mapping: A participatory arts-based elicitation method for information behavior interviews. Library & Information Science Research, 39(2), 149-157. doi.org/10.1016/j.lisr.2017.03.003
Hartel, J., &. Thomson, L. (2011). Visual approaches and photography for the study of immediate information space. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 62(11), 2214-2224. doi.org/10.1002/asi.21618
Hatton, E. (2017). Mechanisms of invisibility: Rethinking the concept of invisible work. Work, Employment and Society, 31(2), 336-351. doi.org/10.1177/0950017016674894
Hicks, A. (2018). Developing the methodological toolbox for information literacy research: Grounded theory and visual research methods. Library & Information Science Research, 40(3-4), 194-200. doi.org/10.1016/j.lisr.2018.09.001
Hicks, A., & Lloyd, A. (2018). Seeing information: Visual methods as entry points to information practices. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 50(3), 229-238. doi.org/10.1177/0961000618769973
Hogan, T. P., & Palmer, C. L. (2005). “Information work” and chronic illness: interpreting results from a nationwide survey of people living with HIV/AIDS. Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 42, 1. doi.org/10.1002/meet.14504201150
Hochschild, A. (1983). The managed heart: Commercialization of human feeling. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Huvila, I. (2009). Ecological framework of information interactions and information infrastructures. Journal of Information Science, 35(6), 695-708. doi.org/10.1177/0165551509336705
Julien, H., Given, L. M., & Opryshko, A. (2013). Photovoice: A promising method for studies of individuals’ information practices. Library & Information Science Research, 35(4), 257-263. dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.lisr.2013.04.004
Kaziunas, E., Ackerman, M. S., & Veinot, T. C. (2013). Localizing chronic disease management: Information work and health translations. Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 50(1), 1-10. doi.org/10.1002/meet.14505001090
Muller, M. J. (1999). Invisible work of telephone operators: An ethnocritical analysis. Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 8(1-2), 31-61. doi.org/10.1023/A:1008603223106
Lloyd, A., & Olsson, M. (2019). Untangling the knot: The information practices of enthusiast car restorers. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 70(12), 1311-1323. doi 10.1002/asi.24284
Nardi, B. & Engeström, Y. (1999). A web on the wind: The structure of invisible work. Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 8(1-2), 1-8. doi.org/10.1023/A:1008694621289
Newell, S. (2015). Managing knowledge and managing knowledge work: What we know and what the future holds. Journal of Information Technology, 30(1), 1–17. doi.org/10.1057/jit.2014.12
Pilerot, O. (2014). Making design researchers' information sharing visible through material objects. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 65(10), 2006-2016. doi.org/10.1002/asi.23108
Pollak, A. (2017). Visual research in LIS: Complementary and alternative methods. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 39(1), 97-108. doi.org/10.1016/j.lisr.2017.04.002
Saldaña, J. (2016). The coding manual for qualitative researchers. London: Sage.
Senteio, C., & Veinot, T. (2014). Trying to make things right: Adherence work in high-poverty, African American neighborhoods. Qualitative Health Research, 24(12), 1745-1756. doi.org/10.1177/1049732314549027
Scott, J. (1987). Weapons of the weak: Everyday forms of peasant resistance. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Smith, D. E. (1999). Writing the social. Critique, theory, and investigations. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press.
Smith, D. E. (2005). Institutional ethnography: A sociology for people. Lanham, MD: Altamira Press.
Sonnenwald, D. H. (1999). Evolving perspectives of human information behavior: Contexts, situations, social networks and information horizons. In T. Wilson & D. Allen (Eds.), Exploring the contexts of information behaviour (pp. 176-190). Taylor Graham: London.
Souden, M. (2008). Information work in the chronic illness experience. Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 45(1), 1-6. doi.org/10.1002/meet.2008.14504503144
Star, S. L. (1991). The sociology of the invisible: The primacy of work in the writings of Anselm Strauss. In D. Maines (Ed.), Social Organization and Social Process: Essays in Honor of Anselm Strauss (pp. 265-283). Hawthorne, NY: Aldine de Gruyter.
Star, S. L., & Strauss, A. (1999). Layers of silence, arenas of voice: The ecology of visible and invisible work. Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 8(1), 9-30. doi.org/10.1023/A:1008651105359
Stooke, R. & McKenzie, P.J. (2009). Leisure and work in library and community programs for very young children. Library Trends, 57(4), 657-675. doi:10.1353/lib.0.0065
Suchman, L. (1995). Making work visible. Communications of the ACM, 38(9), 56-64. doi.org/10.1145/223248.223263
Thomson, L. (2018). The guided tour: A research technique for the study of situated, embodied information. Library Trends, 66(4), 511-534. doi:10.1353/lib.2018.0015
Trace, C. B. (2007). Information creation and the notion of membership. Journal of Documentation, 63(1), 142-163. doi.org/10.1108/00220410710723920
Veinot, T. (2007). “The eyes of the power company”: Workplace information practices of a vault inspector. The Library Quarterly, 77(2), 157-180. doi.org/10.1086/517842
Ancker, J. S., Witteman, H. O., Hafeez, B., Provencher, T., Van de Graaf, M., & Wei, E. (2015). The invisible work of personal health information management among people with multiple chronic conditions: Qualitative interview study among patients and providers. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 17(6), e137. 10.2196/jmir.4381
Barnes, M., & Henwood, F. (2015). Inform with care: ethics and information in care for people with dementia. Ethics and Social Welfare, 9(2), 147-163. doi.org/10.1080/17496535.2014.969753
Barry, C. A., Britten, N., Barber, N., Bradley, C., & Stevenson, F. (1999). Using reflexivity to optimize teamwork in qualitative research. Qualitative Health Research, 9(1), 26-44. doi.org/10.1177/104973299129121677
Bowker, G. C., & Star, S. L. (1999). Sorting things out: Classification and its consequences. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Campbell, M., & Gregor, F. (2002). Mapping social relations: A primer in doing institutional ethnography. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press.
Corbin, J., & Strauss, A. (1985). Managing chronic illness at home: Three lines of work. Qualitative Sociology, 8(3), 224-247. doi.org/10.1007/BF00989485
Corbin, J. M., & Strauss, A. (1988). Unending work and care: Managing chronic illness
at home. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Dalmer, N. K., & Huvila, I. (2020). Conceptualizing information work for health contexts in Library and Information Science. Journal of Documentation, 76(1), 96-108. doi.org/10.1108/JD-03-2019-0055
Davenport, E., & Cronin, B. (1998). Texts at work: Some thoughts on 'just for you' service in the context of domain expertise. Journal of Education for Library and Information Science, 39(4), 264-274. doi.org/10.2307/40324302
DeVault, M. L. (1991). Feeding the family. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
DeVault, M. L. (2014). Mapping invisible work: Conceptual tools for social justice projects. Sociological Forum, 79(4), 775-790. doi.org/10.1111/socf.12119
Ehrlich, K., & Cash, D. (1999). The invisible world of intermediaries: A cautionary tale. Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 8(1-2), 147–167. doi.org/10.1023/A:1008696415354
Frohmann, B. (2004). Deflating information: From science studies to documentation. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Gergen, K., & Gergen, M. M. (1991). Toward reflexive methodologies. In F. Steier (Ed.), Research and reflexivity (pp. 76-95). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Glaser, B. G. & Strauss, A. L. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research. Chicago: Aldine Publishers.
Glazer, N. Y. (1993). Women's paid and unpaid labor: The work transfer in health care and retailing. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
Griffith, A. I., & Smith, D. E. (2005). Mothering for schooling. London: Routledge.
Greyson, D. L., & Johnson, J. L. (2016). The role of information in health behavior: A scoping study and discussion of major public health models. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 67(12), 2831-2841. doi.org/10.1002/asi.23392
Greyson, D., O'Brien, H., & Shoveller, J. (2017). Information world mapping: A participatory arts-based elicitation method for information behavior interviews. Library & Information Science Research, 39(2), 149-157. doi.org/10.1016/j.lisr.2017.03.003
Hartel, J., &. Thomson, L. (2011). Visual approaches and photography for the study of immediate information space. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 62(11), 2214-2224. doi.org/10.1002/asi.21618
Hatton, E. (2017). Mechanisms of invisibility: Rethinking the concept of invisible work. Work, Employment and Society, 31(2), 336-351. doi.org/10.1177/0950017016674894
Hicks, A. (2018). Developing the methodological toolbox for information literacy research: Grounded theory and visual research methods. Library & Information Science Research, 40(3-4), 194-200. doi.org/10.1016/j.lisr.2018.09.001
Hicks, A., & Lloyd, A. (2018). Seeing information: Visual methods as entry points to information practices. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 50(3), 229-238. doi.org/10.1177/0961000618769973
Hogan, T. P., & Palmer, C. L. (2005). “Information work” and chronic illness: interpreting results from a nationwide survey of people living with HIV/AIDS. Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 42, 1. doi.org/10.1002/meet.14504201150
Hochschild, A. (1983). The managed heart: Commercialization of human feeling. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Huvila, I. (2009). Ecological framework of information interactions and information infrastructures. Journal of Information Science, 35(6), 695-708. doi.org/10.1177/0165551509336705
Julien, H., Given, L. M., & Opryshko, A. (2013). Photovoice: A promising method for studies of individuals’ information practices. Library & Information Science Research, 35(4), 257-263. dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.lisr.2013.04.004
Kaziunas, E., Ackerman, M. S., & Veinot, T. C. (2013). Localizing chronic disease management: Information work and health translations. Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 50(1), 1-10. doi.org/10.1002/meet.14505001090
Muller, M. J. (1999). Invisible work of telephone operators: An ethnocritical analysis. Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 8(1-2), 31-61. doi.org/10.1023/A:1008603223106
Lloyd, A., & Olsson, M. (2019). Untangling the knot: The information practices of enthusiast car restorers. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 70(12), 1311-1323. doi 10.1002/asi.24284
Nardi, B. & Engeström, Y. (1999). A web on the wind: The structure of invisible work. Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 8(1-2), 1-8. doi.org/10.1023/A:1008694621289
Newell, S. (2015). Managing knowledge and managing knowledge work: What we know and what the future holds. Journal of Information Technology, 30(1), 1–17. doi.org/10.1057/jit.2014.12
Pilerot, O. (2014). Making design researchers' information sharing visible through material objects. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 65(10), 2006-2016. doi.org/10.1002/asi.23108
Pollak, A. (2017). Visual research in LIS: Complementary and alternative methods. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 39(1), 97-108. doi.org/10.1016/j.lisr.2017.04.002
Saldaña, J. (2016). The coding manual for qualitative researchers. London: Sage.
Senteio, C., & Veinot, T. (2014). Trying to make things right: Adherence work in high-poverty, African American neighborhoods. Qualitative Health Research, 24(12), 1745-1756. doi.org/10.1177/1049732314549027
Scott, J. (1987). Weapons of the weak: Everyday forms of peasant resistance. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Smith, D. E. (1999). Writing the social. Critique, theory, and investigations. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press.
Smith, D. E. (2005). Institutional ethnography: A sociology for people. Lanham, MD: Altamira Press.
Sonnenwald, D. H. (1999). Evolving perspectives of human information behavior: Contexts, situations, social networks and information horizons. In T. Wilson & D. Allen (Eds.), Exploring the contexts of information behaviour (pp. 176-190). Taylor Graham: London.
Souden, M. (2008). Information work in the chronic illness experience. Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 45(1), 1-6. doi.org/10.1002/meet.2008.14504503144
Star, S. L. (1991). The sociology of the invisible: The primacy of work in the writings of Anselm Strauss. In D. Maines (Ed.), Social Organization and Social Process: Essays in Honor of Anselm Strauss (pp. 265-283). Hawthorne, NY: Aldine de Gruyter.
Star, S. L., & Strauss, A. (1999). Layers of silence, arenas of voice: The ecology of visible and invisible work. Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 8(1), 9-30. doi.org/10.1023/A:1008651105359
Stooke, R. & McKenzie, P.J. (2009). Leisure and work in library and community programs for very young children. Library Trends, 57(4), 657-675. doi:10.1353/lib.0.0065
Suchman, L. (1995). Making work visible. Communications of the ACM, 38(9), 56-64. doi.org/10.1145/223248.223263
Thomson, L. (2018). The guided tour: A research technique for the study of situated, embodied information. Library Trends, 66(4), 511-534. doi:10.1353/lib.2018.0015
Trace, C. B. (2007). Information creation and the notion of membership. Journal of Documentation, 63(1), 142-163. doi.org/10.1108/00220410710723920
Veinot, T. (2007). “The eyes of the power company”: Workplace information practices of a vault inspector. The Library Quarterly, 77(2), 157-180. doi.org/10.1086/517842
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Published
2020-10-27
How to Cite
McKenzie, P. J., & Dalmer, N. K. (2020). “This is really interesting. I never even thought about this.” Methodological strategies for studying invisible information work. Nordic Journal of Library and Information Studies, 1(2), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.7146/njlis.v1i2.120437
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