Annual Review of Information Science and Technology (ARIST)
A special and important reference genre, the literature review is a survey of publications in a research area over a select period of time that summarizes major themes, developments, and findings. (Here, I am not talking about the literature review that exists within most scholarly papers, but to a separate free-standing work.) Literature reviews are time and effort saving devices for readers, who would otherwise have to identify and distill a literature on their own. Literature reviews are the capstone of Shera and Egan’s “bibliographic pyramid” (1952) that underlies academic knowledge production. The authors of literature reviews are typically seasoned experts in the topic.
The literature of information behaviour has been subject to review many times over the past 50 years. These chapters appear in the Annual Review of Information Science and Technology (ARIST), published by Information Today, Inc. on behalf of the American Society for Information Science and Technology. ARIST ran from 1966-2011, and is no longer published.
I have fond memories of my early days as a doctoral student at UCLA and diving headlong into ARIST chapters, eager to “get my mind around” the information behaviour literature. Each chapter proved to be a snapshot of information behaviour scholarship in its day. As I moved longitudinally through the ARIST series, I was able to make out the contours, evolution, and personality of the information behaviour domain.
In his textbook on information behaviour, Donald Case (2007, 240-242) provides a great overview of ARIST chapters, below. He states that ARIST is “the main vehicle by which interested scholars kept abreast of research on information behaviour” (p. 239). Still, he critically observes that the series is a real “patchwork” with “redundant” coverage and “underdetermination” of relevant documents (p. 241); further, he asserts that each review is not standardized but shaped by the predilections of the author. Case also notes that the early ARIST chapters (1966-1990) focus on “information behaviour” as a whole and later iterations target narrower topics as the speciality matured and diversified.
The literature of information behaviour has been subject to review many times over the past 50 years. These chapters appear in the Annual Review of Information Science and Technology (ARIST), published by Information Today, Inc. on behalf of the American Society for Information Science and Technology. ARIST ran from 1966-2011, and is no longer published.
I have fond memories of my early days as a doctoral student at UCLA and diving headlong into ARIST chapters, eager to “get my mind around” the information behaviour literature. Each chapter proved to be a snapshot of information behaviour scholarship in its day. As I moved longitudinally through the ARIST series, I was able to make out the contours, evolution, and personality of the information behaviour domain.
In his textbook on information behaviour, Donald Case (2007, 240-242) provides a great overview of ARIST chapters, below. He states that ARIST is “the main vehicle by which interested scholars kept abreast of research on information behaviour” (p. 239). Still, he critically observes that the series is a real “patchwork” with “redundant” coverage and “underdetermination” of relevant documents (p. 241); further, he asserts that each review is not standardized but shaped by the predilections of the author. Case also notes that the early ARIST chapters (1966-1990) focus on “information behaviour” as a whole and later iterations target narrower topics as the speciality matured and diversified.
Certain ARIST chapters mark important advances in scholarship that devotees of information behaviour should know. Paisely (1968)introduced the idea of information behaviour within several nested social contexts; the same approach was rediscovered decades later and became a mantra and banner over the “information seeking in context” movement and conference (ISIC). A spirited chapter by Dervin & Nilan (1986) was a call to action to focus on the human information user (versus the information system) and is probably the most highly cited work in the information behaviour literature. More recently, Pettigrew, Fidel and Bruce’s (2001) contribution captures the increased methodological sophistication and diversity in our community. The latest comprehensive ARIST chapter on information behaviour is a mammoth one by Fisher and Julien (2009), which invited the research community (via this mailing list) to nominate works for inclusion.
All the best wishes for your reading adventures in ARIST!
References
Case, D. (2007). Looking for information: A survey of research on information seeking, needs, and behaviour, 2nd ed. Elsevier: Amsterdam.
Shera, J. & Egan, M. (1952). Foundations of a theory of bibliography, Library Quarterly, 22, 125-137.
All the best wishes for your reading adventures in ARIST!
References
Case, D. (2007). Looking for information: A survey of research on information seeking, needs, and behaviour, 2nd ed. Elsevier: Amsterdam.
Shera, J. & Egan, M. (1952). Foundations of a theory of bibliography, Library Quarterly, 22, 125-137.