Information creation and the notion of membership

Purpose – This article aims to examine a particular sub‐set of human information behavior that has been largely overlooked in the library and information science (LIS) literature; how people are socialized to create and use information.Design/methodology/approach – Naturalism and ethnomethodology were used as theoretical frameworks to examine what a group of fifth grade students were taught about documents, how this information was imparted to them, and how social factors were manifested in the construction and form of those documents. Two concepts are shown to be critical in the explication of students as document creators and users: the notion that there is a “stock of knowledge” that underlies human interaction (some of which relates to recorded information), and that this socialization process forms part of a school's “hidden curriculum.”Findings – Students were socialized to be good (in the sense of being competent) creators and users of documents. Part of the role of “being a student” involved learn...

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