Sharing “happy” information

Joyful information activities in serious leisure: looking for pleasure, passion and purpose

Purpose

This paper provides selective findings from a broader research project on information behaviours in serious leisure. This paper focuses on the positive feelings of information seeking and sharing in this context, aiming to capture and contextualise the joy of information embedded in and inspired by leisure activities.

Design/methodology/approach

The required data were obtained using semi-structured interviews with 20 serious leisure participants from Wagga Wagga city in Australia, recruited via a maximum variation sampling technique. The data were fully transcribed and analysed based on a qualitative thematic analysis method.

Findings

The joy of information is embedded within a wide spectrum of information activities in serious leisure ranging from information seeking and browsing to information sharing and information creation. Among all these activities, information sharing with peers and a broader audience is the most joyful experience because it often generates social engagement, a sense of belonging and friendship. Moreover, serious leisure is a productive ground to transform hedonic wellness into eudaimonic well-being, while continuous information seeking and sharing play a significant role in achieving this goal.

Practical implications

Information system designers can use the findings to consider the emotional aspects of information seeking and sharing to improve the usability of their products. At the policy level, cultural policy writers and decision-makers can make more informed decisions to support serious leisure.

Originality/value

This study explores the joyful aspects of information behaviour in a unique context. Exploring the joy of information is an emerging topic in human information behaviour scholarship, and the existing knowledge on this issue is still limited. This paper can contribute to creating new knowledge in this emerging area.

“You make me miss Pune so much”: memory making and documenting in a Virtual Zenana

Purpose

The purpose of the study is to look at memory making and the documenting of memories, as a part of the document and information experience of women belonging to the Indian diaspora in a leisure context.

Design/methodology/approach

A qualitative research approach was inspired by institutional ethnography, and data are collected through semi-structured interviews and by collecting comments posted on five fan fiction blogs.

Findings

Early observations show that memory making and documenting of those memories is a part of the document experience of the research participants. It also points to the role of social interactions in that experience as well as the recording of one's document experience in the making or deriving of document meaning.

Originality/value

This study aims to contribute toward conceptual growth in the area of information and document experience. It also aims to address a gap in the literature that looks at cultural memory evocation and how it is documented, as well as looking at the interplay between affordances of new media, memory making and documentary practices especially with respect to virtual communities. And when looked at through the prism of migration and leisure, it can be even more interesting.