The Guided Tour: A Research Technique for the Study of Situated, Embodied Information

Abstract

This article introduces the guided tour as an appropriate research technique for studying situated and embodied information. The guided tour hybridizes aspects of observation and interviews, and involves a researcher's relatively shortened, nonspontaneous entry into a field site. During a guided tour, a participant leads the researcher through the location (often one that is personally meaningful for him or her) while describing and explaining its features, thinking-aloud the ideas, thoughts, and feelings to which it gives rise, and responding to the researcher's gentle inquiries. This article begins with a sustained background to the technique and descriptive breakdown of it in terms of other, related methods and techniques. It then reviews prior use of the guided tour in the information and library science field, where it is not prevalent per se, but has been used on an ongoing basis for at least three decades. It delineates practical steps and tips for carrying out a guided tour as well as strengths and limitations of the technique for studying situated, embodied information and information phenomena in general. The article concludes by briefly discussing researchers as embodied research instruments and the role of reflexivity in qualitative research.