University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Keeping Track of Family: Family Practices and Information Practices

McKenzie, Pamela J.

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/113655

Description

Title
Keeping Track of Family: Family Practices and Information Practices
Author(s)
McKenzie, Pamela J.
Issue Date
2021
Keyword(s)
  • Family
  • Information Science
  • Information Practices
Date of Ingest
2022-03-30T15:44:13Z
Abstract
In this article, I describe what a practices approach offers to the study of both information and family. I present findings from an empirical study analyzing the intertwining of information and family in the work of “keeping track” in the family context. Findings highlight three interrelated and overlapping ways that the information practices family members engage in both “do” family and define family membership. First, family members may be the object of information practices: keeping track of family. Second, family members might be the audience for information practices: keeping track for family. Finally, family members may engage in collaborative family-related information practices: keeping track with family. Information practices such as keeping track enact family practices and reveal them, both to family members and to outsiders. Looking at the intersection of information and family practices helps information studies scholars to reflect on family life as a context within which information practices take place and prompts us to explore questions to better understand the situatedness of information practices within particular contexts. For information professionals, this work provides insight into the complexity of people’s everyday life information practices.
Publisher
Johns Hopkins University Press and the Illinois School of Information Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Series/Report Name or Number
Library Trends 70 (2). Fall 2021
ISSN
0024-2594
Type of Resource
text
Genre of Resource
article
Language
en
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/113655
DOI
10.1353/lib.2021.0016
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 2021 Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Owning Collections

Library Trends 70 (2) Fall 2021: Family Matters: Mapping Information Phenomena within the Context of the Family PRIMARY
Library Trends 70 (2) Fall 2021: Family Matters: Mapping Information Phenomena within the Context of the Family. Edited by Nicole K. Dalmer and Sarah Barriage.