Time as a framework for information science: insights from the hobby of gourmet cooking

Introduction. A framework for information science based on time is proposed, derived from an exploratory, ethnographic study of information in the hobby of gourmet cooking. Method. Participant obseration of the social world of the hobby, plus twenty semi-structured interviews with hobby cooks, followed by a photographic inventory of their household culinary information collections. Analysis. Data were analysed using grounded theory facilitated by NVivo software. While coding information activities and resources, time emerged as a critical aspect of the hobby and its information phenomena. Results. The hobby unfolds as three temporal arcs. The career arc that lasts for years or decades and represents a lifetime experience; the subject arc, made up of shorter periods in which a topic organizes culinary activity; and the episode arc, which entails distinct cooking projects. Each arc serves as a context for certain information activities and harbours quintessential information resources. Conclusions. The temporal arcs are a springboard to entertain a time-sensitive framework of the discipline. Several research specialties in information science appear to have an affinity for one arc, where their concerns and problems come into sharpest view. Overall, information science research may seem unsynchronized because of differing temporal perspectives.