Foreword

Robbins, Brent Dean

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/121604 Copy

Description

Title

Foreword

Author(s)

Robbins, Brent Dean

Issue Date

2022

Keyword(s)

joy of information

Date of Ingest

2023-12-20T00:46:16-06:00

Abstract

At first glance, the juxtaposition of joy and information may appear an odd pairing. Joy is an affective state which, when habitual, can become a personality trait or enduring disposition (Robbins 2021). The business of information may, rather, conjure images of sober, detached analysis of data. Joy tends to be associated with experiences of free play and an affective open expanse upon a seemingly infinite field of possibility. The processing of information, on the other hand, may seem to imply a contrary inclination to get serious and constrain one's possibilities through interpretations of the world harnessed by careful attention to systematic organization and structures of linguistic categories of understanding. Information may elicit an attitude of work, labor, and concentrated effort, whereas joyful states evoke experiences of time freed up for leisure and spontaneous excursions. What then can joy tell us about information or, for that matter, information about joy?

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 (4). Spring 2022

ISSN

0024-2594

Type of Resource

text

Genre of Resource

article

Language

eng

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1353/lib.2022.0009

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2022 Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

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