New Trends and Challenges in Information Science and Information Seeking Behaviour 9783030684655, 9783030684662

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Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems 193

Octavia-Luciana Madge   Editor

New Trends and Challenges in Information Science and Information Seeking Behaviour

Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems Volume 193

Series Editor Janusz Kacprzyk, Systems Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland Advisory Editors Fernando Gomide, Department of Computer Engineering and Automation—DCA, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering—FEEC, University of Campinas— UNICAMP, São Paulo, Brazil Okyay Kaynak, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey Derong Liu, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, USA; Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China Witold Pedrycz, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering University of Alberta, Alberta, Canada; Systems Research Institute Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland Marios M. Polycarpou, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, KIOS Research Center for Intelligent Systems and Networks, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus Imre J. Rudas, Óbuda University, Budapest, Hungary Jun Wang, Department of Computer Science, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong

The series “Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems” publishes the latest developments in Networks and Systems—quickly, informally and with high quality. Original research reported in proceedings and post-proceedings represents the core of LNNS. Volumes published in LNNS embrace all aspects and subfields of, as well as new challenges in, Networks and Systems. The series contains proceedings and edited volumes in systems and networks, spanning the areas of Cyber-Physical Systems, Autonomous Systems, Sensor Networks, Control Systems, Energy Systems, Automotive Systems, Biological Systems, Vehicular Networking and Connected Vehicles, Aerospace Systems, Automation, Manufacturing, Smart Grids, Nonlinear Systems, Power Systems, Robotics, Social Systems, Economic Systems and other. Of particular value to both the contributors and the readership are the short publication timeframe and the world-wide distribution and exposure which enable both a wide and rapid dissemination of research output. The series covers the theory, applications, and perspectives on the state of the art and future developments relevant to systems and networks, decision making, control, complex processes and related areas, as embedded in the fields of interdisciplinary and applied sciences, engineering, computer science, physics, economics, social, and life sciences, as well as the paradigms and methodologies behind them. Indexed by SCOPUS, INSPEC, WTI Frankfurt eG, zbMATH, SCImago. All books published in the series are submitted for consideration in Web of Science.

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/15179

Octavia-Luciana Madge Editor

New Trends and Challenges in Information Science and Information Seeking Behaviour

Editor Octavia-Luciana Madge Department of Communication Sciences Faculty of Letters and Doctoral School in Communication Sciences Faculty of Journalism and Communication Studies University of Bucharest Bucharest, Romania

ISSN 2367-3370 ISSN 2367-3389 (electronic) Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems ISBN 978-3-030-68465-5 ISBN 978-3-030-68466-2 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68466-2 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

Preface

This book has as its main purpose to bring to the attention of the scientific community important topics currently under investigation in information science research. It is intended for information science specialists and researchers, information professionals, librarians, undergraduate and postgraduate library and information science students, and anyone with an interest in new research in information science and the search for and use of information. The field of information science has undergone many changes over recent decades. From its beginnings as a discipline concentrating on the communication and organisation of information, it has expanded into information technologies, information behaviour, information retrieval, the Internet and, more recently, gaming and gamification. This has paralleled the elevation of information and knowledge to the status of key strategic resources with the development of a global digital society. Education in the field of information science has evolved alongside these changes in research and practice. The idea for this book grew out of an international conference held at the University of Bucharest in December 2018 entitled ‘Information Science: New Challenges, New Approaches’ - a major information science meeting to be held in Romania, and a milestone for the discipline in the country. Library and information science education was re-established in Romania in 1990, albeit under a human sciences umbrella in the Faculty of Letters. It was not until 2016 that the University of Bucharest’s Doctoral School in Communication Sciences, then in its eighth year, welcomed its neighbouring discipline of information science, thanks to a PhD supervisor specialising in library and information science. Information science thus finally found an appropriate home in Romania, at least for doctoral studies. It was within the framework of this Doctoral School that the ‘New Challenges, New Approaches’ conference was organised in 2018. The conference successfully outlined the current framework of information science, discussing the influence of new technologies on information needs, practices and behaviour, defining the current role of the information scientist and introducing the diverse research directions being pursued in the field. From the breadth of topics discussed at the conference came the idea for a volume that could capture some of the research concerns of information science scholars and mark the beginning of a new phase for the field in Romania. v

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Further events associated with the Doctoral School, covering such topics as the future challenges and possibilities for libraries, gamification, games and libraries, and changes in information seeking, strengthened the conviction that the time was right to publish a collection on the challenges and trends in the field. The contributors to this volume include information science professors, leading game development researchers, major theorists of gaming and play and experienced practitioners in the domain of libraries, information and communication. Although some of the authors participated in the 2018 conference, this book comprises new contributions, not papers presented at that event. The book is divided into three parts by general theme, but each chapter stands alone and variations in authorial style and article structure have been maintained as a strength of the collection, representing a stylistic diversity that should be encouraged alongside new methodological approaches. I would like to give thanks to all of the contributors to this volume for their work, but especially to Dr. Ari Haasio for his enthusiasm, support, encouragement and assistance at different stages of the shaping of this book, to Professors Jan Nolin, J. Tuomas Harviainen and Markku Mattila and to Dr. Arja Mäntykangas, former senior lecturer at the University of Borås, for her valuable comments and suggestions. I would also like to thank Mr. Titi Jalb˘a from E-nformation for his support in publishing this book. Bucharest, Romania

Octavia-Luciana Madge

Contents

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Octavia-Luciana Madge

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Information Science Challenged The Challenge of Challenges and Information Science . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jan Nolin

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Information Behaviour from a Social and Asocial Perspective Information Seeking Behaviour of the Socially Withdrawn . . . . . . . . . . . . Ari Haasio Identifying Hikikomori’s ‘Hidden’ Information Needs and Practices in Online Discussion Forums: Applying Dervin’s ‘Situation-Gap-Use’ and ‘Gap-Bridging’ Metaphors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hajime Naka Sharing Identity Information on Dark Web Drug Boards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Maria Hakalahti and J. Tuomas Harviainen Understanding the Information Behaviour of Parents Refusing Vaccination for Their Children: the Recent Measles Outbreak in Romania . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Octavia-Luciana Madge and Ioana Robu Fake News, Fake Media and Hate Speech in Finnish MV-Magazine—How Can Libraries Fight Against the Lies? . . . . . . . . . . . Markku Mattila and Ari Haasio Searching for New Pathways for Measuring Satisfaction of Children and Adolescent Users Regarding the Services Provided by the School Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Simona Maria Antonescu and Octavia-Luciana Madge

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Physicians Augment Knowledge with Emotion in Making Medical Decisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 Ioana R˘aduca Games and Gamification Games, Gamification and Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Ari Haasio, Octavia-Luciana Madge, and J. Tuomas Harviainen The Application of Gamification in the Medical Activity in Romania: A Perspective of Doctors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 Constantin Ciornei Jamography: How to Document and Reference Design Jams in Academia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 Annakaisa Kultima, Jaakko Stenros, and J. Tuomas Harviainen Author Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 Subject Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

Editors and Contributors

About the Editor Octavia-Luciana Madge (PhD) is an associate professor at the University of Bucharest, Faculty of Letters, Department of Communication Sciences where she has worked since 2000 and a PhD supervisor at the Doctoral School in Communication Sciences of the same university. She teaches at the Information and Documentation Sciences Programme courses on knowledge management, information users, fundamentals of information science, and theories of information behaviour. Between 2004 and 2019 she was the editor-in-chief of the journal Studii de Biblioteconomie s, i S, tiint, a Inform˘arii / Library and Information Science Research continued with the title Information and Communication Sciences Research. She graduated from library and information science programmes (BA and MA), has a PhD (2006) in Knowledge Management and the Info-Documentary Structures at the University of Bucharest and a Habilitation (2016) in Communication Sciences. She also graduated from the medical school (MD), working for her first specialty as family physician, and then continuing to specialise in general surgery. She has a PhD (2015) in the Surgical Stenting of the Bilio-Digestive Anastomoses at the Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy Bucharest. She has authored or edited eleven books and over 50 articles, and presented over 50 papers at international conferences on various aspects of library and information science and general surgery. She is an elected member of the European Association for Health Information and Libraries (EAHIL) Council and member of the Standing Committee of the Section Health and Biosciences Libraries (HBS) of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA). Her current main research interests are communication in healthcare, knowledge management, information users, and health information behaviour.

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Contributors Simona Maria Antonescu Department of Communication Sciences, Faculty of Letters, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania Constantin Ciornei Information and Documentation Sciences Programme, Faculty of Letters, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania Ari Haasio Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences, Seinäjoki, Finland Maria Hakalahti Finnish Academy of Science and Letters, Helsinki, Finland J. Tuomas Harviainen Tampere University, Tampere, Finland Annakaisa Kultima Aalto University, Espoo, Finland Octavia-Luciana Madge Department of Communication Sciences, Faculty of Letters & Doctoral School in Communication Sciences, Faculty of Journalism and Communication Studies, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania Markku Mattila Migration Institute of Finland (Turku) and Tampere University (Tampere), Turku and Tampere, Finland Hajime Naka Faculty of Education, Tokoha University, Shizuoka, Japan; The Graduate School of Library, Information and Media Studies, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan Jan Nolin Swedish School of Library and Information Science, University of Borås, Borås, Sweden Ioana Robu The Library of the Cluj Medicine and Pharmacy University, ClujNapoca, Romania Ioana R˘aduca Aleph News and Doctoral School in Communication Sciences, Faculty of Journalism and Communication Studies, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania Jaakko Stenros Tampere University, Tampere, Finland

Acronyms

ADHD ANOVA CD CDI DiGRA EFVV ELIS EU GDPR GP IB ICGJ ICU IFLA ISAGA IT LARP LIS NEET NGO PISA PSVR QR SDG SPSS TOR VR WHO YSQ-L3

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorders Analysis of variance Compact disc Documentation and information centres Digital Games Research Association European Forum for Vaccine Vigilance Everyday life information-seeking model European Union General Data Protection Regulation General practitioner Information behaviour International Conference on Game Jams, Hackathons and Game Creation Events Intensive care unit The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions The International Simulation and Gaming Association Information technology Live action role-playing games Library and information science Not in Education, Employment or Training Non-governmental organizations Programme for International Student Assessment PlayStation Virtual Reality Quick response Sustainable Development Goals Statistical Package for the Social Sciences The Onion Router Virtual reality World Health Organization Young Schema Questionnaire L-3

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List of Figures

Information Seeking Behaviour of the SociallyWithdrawn Fig. 1 Typical features, distributors and sources of disnormative information compared to normative information. Source Haasio 2015; Haasio 2019. Translation from Finnish by the author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Identifying Hikikomori’s ‘Hidden’ Information Needs and Practices in Online Discussion Forums: Applying Dervin’s ‘Situation-Gap-Use’ and ‘Gap-Bridging’ Metaphors Fig. 1 Example of a message posted in 5channel (left), and an English translation of the excerpts to be analysed in this study (right) . . . . . Fig. 2 Results of the structural narrative analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fig. 3 Gap topics determined by the thematic narrative analysis . . . . . . . . . Fig. 4 Information need topics determined by the thematic narrative analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fig. 5 Application of Dervin’s two sense-making metaphors to the narrative analysis results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fig. 6 Simplified framework of the sense-making practice of hikikomori . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jamography: How to Document and Reference Design Jams in Academia Fig. 1 Images are an important part of the documentation. For example, Edu Game Jam was held in a truck parked outside a conference for educational professionals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fig. 2 ASM Game Jam’19 took place at a demoparty. Again, one image can communicate much relevant documentary information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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List of Tables

The Challenge of Challenges and Information Science Table 1 Mainstreaming of various technologies during the 2020 as part of the fourth Industrial Revolution according to a wide survey of expert expectations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Table 2 Environmental impact of bitcoin technology as of September 9, 2020 according to https://digiconomist.net/bitcoin-ene rgy-consumption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Sharing Identity Information on Dark Web Drug Boards Table 1 Data categorisation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Table 2 Shared information types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Understanding the Information Behaviour of Parents Refusing Vaccination for Their Children: the Recent Measles Outbreak in Romania Table 1 Distribution of measles cases by age group and vaccine status . . .

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Searching for New Pathways for Measuring Satisfaction of Children and Adolescent Users Regarding the Services Provided by the School Library Table 1 Information about the participants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Physicians Augment Knowledge with Emotion in Making Medical Decisions Table 1 Internal consistency of used scales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Table 2 Items used for analysis and the questionnaire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Table 3 Items used for analysis and the questionnaire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Table 4 Respondents and their characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Table 5 Table 6 Table 7 Table 8

List of Tables

Average scores obtained by respondents on the cognitive schema scale: locus of control and real-life situations (n = 32) . . . Average scores obtained by respondents on measurement subscales: years of professional experience (n = 32) . . . . . . . . . . . Variance according to number of years of experience . . . . . . . . . . . Average scores according to gender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

116 117 118 119

Introduction Octavia-Luciana Madge

Today we live saturated with information, engaging with it at every step in our personal and professional lives. The combination of information and digital technology has transformed our lives and societies, not least by making access to information easier than ever before. Against this backdrop, there can be few fields as pertinent to so many aspects of contemporary life as information science, with its ability to shape the digital society, its openness to technological progress, and its support for examining and advancing the role of information in society. Information science is an interdisciplinary field of study that has grown out of library science and documentation; it is a social science (as described by Le Coadic [1]) that is closely related to the communication sciences. Shera defined the field of information science as ‘... involved with the whole concept of knowledge in whatever form its manifestations may take’ [2, p. 286], while Vickery considered it ‘The scientific study of the communication of information in society’ [3, p. 11]. My own understanding of information science, close to that of Saracevic [4], is that it deals with information and knowledge, with the management and transfer of these resources, and with all of the activities and technologies involved in their acquisition, collection, processing, organisation, storage, retrieval, use and dissemination to users. Information science is an open and dynamic field. As a meta-discipline, it has always welcomed specialists from a range of backgrounds, based only on their capacity to contribute their knowledge and views to its study and practice. In recent decades the field has undergone many changes and has expanded to cover areas that

O. L. Madge (B) Department of Communication Sciences, Faculty of Letters and Doctoral School in Communication Sciences, Faculty of Journalism and Communication Studies, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 O. L. Madge (ed.), New Trends and Challenges in Information Science and Information Seeking Behaviour, Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems 193, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68466-2_1

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were once considered outside of its scope. All of these changes are in need of exploration alongside a host of new topics of research interest among the information science community. There are a number of notable books dedicated to information science [5, 6, 7], information behaviour [8, 9] and information users [10, 11, 12]; these do an excellent job of introducing the discipline and its history and outlining the major concepts and theories used in the field, and make available many important contributions from eminent information scientists. New Trends and Challenges in Information Science and Information Seeking Behaviour differs from these texts in bringing together a series of studies that illustrate the current research concerns of specialists working in information science. The contributions give an insight into and invite reflection upon the current state of research in the field. Taken as a whole, the book presents the current trends, challenges and possibilities in the field. The topics vary from the future role of information science in society to the new concepts of ‘disnormative information’ and ‘jamography’, criminal activities in the dark web and hate speech on the internet, the hikikomori phenomenon, and gamification in libraries. The articles analyse different aspects of how people use information, of people’s needs for information and how these are being satisfied in a digital world, and of the negative effects of ready access to abundant information. Through its division into three parts, the volume proposes three major themes: the contribution of information science to society in the dual context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the UN strategic plan known as Agenda 2030; the information behaviour and practices of different groups in a variety of contexts (on and off the Web); and gamification, with the challenges that it brings to libraries and other fields of human activity. The first part of the book introduces the notion of a ‘challenge of challenges’ to describe the meta-challenge of connecting the Fourth Industrial Revolution with Agenda 2030. Information science has long contributed to the public sector, especially in regard to freedom of information, the cultural commons, inclusion and accessibility and the challenge of challenges provides opportunities for academic research in information science to reaffirm and consolidate this social role. Amidst these emerging processes, which will transform human civilisation, information science can make major contributions in such areas as sustainability targets and indicators, open science and sustainable information literacy. The second part of the book begins with a chapter on the information practices of socially withdrawn youth, also known as hikikomori, through an analysis of data collected from a Finnish discussion group. The information behaviour of this group is affected by the isolated life they lead and the time they spend engaged on the Web, which constitutes a central part of their life. The information behaviour of socially withdrawn people is characterised by a need for disnormative information - a concept introduced in this chapter to denote information that is in opposition to the values, norms and attitudes of the majority, and which the internet age has made more prominent and easier to find. A second chapter on the hikikomori phenomenon provides a methodological discussion about capturing the information needs of socially withdrawn people in

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Japan who use online discussion forums. From this study’s structural and thematic analysis, a framework for understanding the information needs of hikikomori is proposed, based on Dervin’s sense-making methodology and a narrative inquiry approach. The information practices on dark web image boards related to drug trading are examined in another chapter. Identity information sharing focuses on issues of trust and safety. Age, ethnicity and information sharing practices determine the way participants are seen - as outsiders or insiders - and the social norms of the community define many of the information practices on the forum. The findings reveal that the way of life of these drug users means they draw upon their everyday experiences and common wisdom as a baseline for evaluating what information ought to be accepted and possibly added to existing knowledge structures. Another chapter investigates the information behaviour of parents in Romania who are refusing to have their children vaccinated, contextualised within a recent measles outbreak. Based on the idea that the information behaviour of individuals is influenced by an intricate cluster of beliefs, political orientation and immediate social environment, the chapter reports on a qualitative study combining narrative analysis and autoethnography to analyse situations of vaccination refusal, as reported by Romanian information channels. It concludes that action is necessary to combat myths and falsehoods, with information and strategies capable of reaching marginalised or disadvantaged groups needed to promote the importance and the safety of vaccination among the population. The presently hot topics of fake news and hate speech, and the role of libraries in fighting these phenomena, are analysed in another chapter. The article draws upon a case study on fake news, fake media and hate speech in Finland’s MVMagazine to discuss the function of the library in teaching media literacy and how to use information reliably, and in combatting misinformation. Libraries promote democracy and freedom of expression and have the great advantage of being able to reach large segments of the population. A further chapter in this section deals with the expectations that children and adolescents in Romania hold towards their school libraries. Based on an analysis of in-depth interviews and questionnaire surveys on such topics as library collections, libraries and schools, library users, and the reading practices and use of leisure time among teenagers, the findings reveal a group of users who are unsure what to ask for from the school library. With the participants apparently treating anything provided by the school library as good and proper, specific standards need to be developed for measuring the satisfaction of children and adolescents with the school library. A mixture of medical knowledge, internal institutional rules, conformity and personal beliefs shape the information behaviour of physicians in their professional practice. The findings of a questionnaire-based study of Romanian physicians are analysed in another chapter, which discusses the correlations between specific elements and how they influence each other in affecting medical decisions. The chapter indicates the need for further research into medical decision-making and for refining the working protocols to better prepare healthcare professionals for challenging situations, such as pandemics, disasters or complex pathology cases.

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The third part of the book covers gamification, which is a trending topic in library and information science. The section begins by examining the opportunities and challenges that gamification presents to libraries. The opening chapter also considers the importance of games in a library collection, beginning with the observation that games can attract new customer groups and motivate youth to study. The authors advocate for the gamification of information retrieval and library usage guidelines, and of the teaching of particular types of cultural content, such as literary genres and the history of music. This chapter raises questions over the role of libraries as game developers, the customer experience and the significance of game-based learning events in libraries. The application of gamification in medical activities is explored in another chapter, starting from the idea that games could provide a new learning medium or serve as a replacement for books in libraries for the provision of education and information. The chapter presents the main findings of an interview-based study conducted in Romania among medical doctors, indicating a certain degree of openness towards game-based experiences in medical training activities and also in the areas of psychiatry and neuropsychiatry. The volume ends with a chapter that contributes to the subfield of information processing and organisation with the new concept of jamography - an innovation in the area of resource description or, more precisely, in providing identifiable details of design events. The chapter advocates for a jamography in game jam and hackathon research by discussing the importance of and challenges in documenting game jams. A framework for referencing jams in academic papers is proposed, comprising seven key pieces of information (name, place, time, duration, website, organiser and frequency) alongside other elements that are important for comparative approaches to such events. Individually, each chapter in this book approaches a new topic in interesting ways, sometimes extending to proposing new concepts or notions that can be taken up by the field. Together, they offer a wide-ranging perspective on the new trends and challenges in the field of information science in the digital world. ∗ ∗ ∗ New and valuable ideas often appear not when we follow the most well-known and well-trodden paths, but rather when we proceed differently. It is therefore important not to reject what does not fall into the generally considered norms of the scientific or non-scientific world. Innovation and discovery are not simple outgrowths of knowledge or technology, of what is fixed in the practice of a field; they relate to the way we look at the world, to the courage to see old things in different ways and to the trust to try new things. We must embrace the multiple means for advancing knowledge, and be willing to foster our creativity and openness to new approaches. In information science, as in other fields, scientists have talked about change for quite some time, but we must always remember that such change will never be complete without welcoming new ideas, methods and approaches to scientific discussion.

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References 1. Le Coadic YF (1994) La science de l’information. Presses Universitaires de France, Paris 2. Shera J (1973) Knowing books and men: knowing computers too. Libraries Unlimited, Littleton CO 3. Vickery BC, Vickery A (1987) Information science in theory and practice, 1st edn. BowkerSaur, London 4. Saracevic T (2009) Information science. In: Bates MJ, Maack MN (eds) Encyclopedia of Library and Information Sciences, vol 1, 3rd edn. Taylor & Francis, Abingdon, pp 2570–2586 5. Gilchrist A (ed) (2009) Information science in transition. Facet Publishing, London 6. Davis CH, Shaw D (eds) (2011) Introduction to information science and technology. ASIS&T, Medford, New Jersey 7. Bawden D, Robinson L (2012) Introduction to information science. Facet Publishing, London 8. Fisher KE, Erdelez S, McKechnie L (eds) (2005) Theories of information behaviour. ASIS&T, Medford 9. Case DO (2007) Looking for information. A survey of research on information seeking, needs and behavior. Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Bingley 10. Sutter E (1992) Services d’information et qualité: comment satisfaire les utilisateurs. ADBS, Paris 11. Le Coadic YF (1998) Le besoin d’information: formulation, négociacion, diagnostique. ADBS Editions, Paris 12. Le Coadic YF (2001) Usages et Usagers de l’Information. ADBS, Nathan, Paris

Information Science Challenged

The Challenge of Challenges and Information Science Jan Nolin

Abstract The 2020s is on track to become one of the most transformative decades in human history. On the one hand, numerous mature technologies will have their mainstream breakthrough in the years to come. As these are combined in various and innovative ways, all human endeavours are likely to be transformed. This has been talked about in terms of the fourth Industrial Revolution. On the other hand, unchecked exploitation of human resources, particularly in the form of climate change, needs to be efficiently dealt with during the 2020s. The United Nations has stipulated a strategic plan, Agenda 2030, to deal with these, including a strict deadline at the end of the decade. Curiously, few academic researchers work with both the fourth Industrial Revolution and Agenda 2030. The imperative of combining strategic work on these is in this article called the challenge of challenges. The chapter is concerned with the articulation of this meta-challenge as well as discussing the role of academic research, more specifically that of information science. It is argued that information science is well situated to make substantial contributions to the challenges of challenges. Three distinct areas within such contributions are outlined: sustainable targets/indicators, open science, and sustainable information literacies. Keywords Information science · The Fourth Industrial Revolution · Agenda 2030 · Academic research · Sustainable targets and indicators · Open science · Sustainable information literacy

1 Introduction What follows is a ‘big picture’ narrative of a type that is quite rare in contemporary scholarly texts. For most scholars, including the undersigned, research is a process of focusing narrowly demarcated phenomena, systematically devoting years of one’s career to highly specialized discussions. Climate scientists have for decades warned about ‘business as usual’ scenarios of greenhouse emissions, pointing to the need for J. Nolin (B) Swedish School of Library and Information Science, University of Borås, Borås, Sweden e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 O. L. Madge (ed.), New Trends and Challenges in Information Science and Information Seeking Behaviour, Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems 193, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68466-2_2

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a break with such seemingly intractable trajectories. Interestingly, academic research progresses in similar solid ‘business as usual’ trajectories wherein disciplines discuss their own traditional problems. The starting point of the current text is that from the perspective of this researcher, three fundamental trajectories within research can be identified as we enter the third decade of the 2000: (1) The fourth Industrial Revolution, as articulated by the World Economic Forum and its chairman Klaus Schwab, [1, 2] will create breath-taking transformation of the way humans relate to technology as well as broad scale changes of society itself. This involves public breakthrough of a wealth of technologies that already exist but have not yet become mainstream. Some of these are actually clusters of technologies such as Internet of things, robot technology, and biotechnology. Other technologies can function as platforms for a forum of innovations. Examples of this are 3D printers, augmented reality, blockchain technology, and artificial intelligence. Academic research will, business as usual, make broad and significant contributions to this revolution. Although other labels can be used to describe the ways technology will transform the 2020s, the fourth Industrial Revolution appears to be the most sophisticated and best grounded. Schwab emphasizes that the revolution will be broadly disruptive within all areas of human endeavour and change the very essence of what it means to be human [1]. (2) Climate change, extinction of species, degradation of land areas as well as various forms of pollution will continue to place stress on the natural environment as well as civilizations as they exist today. A substantial amount of necessary work needs engagement from the academic research community. The United Nations have through long-standing work pulled most of the involved challenges into the so-called Agenda 2030 with 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) to be effectively dealt with by 2030 [3]. Climate change alone may be broadly disruptive within all areas of human endeavour and change the very essence of what it means to be human. (3) Research, as well as other specialised discourses, on the fourth Industrial Revolution and Agenda 2030 are not clearly combined/coordinated. While there is a wealth of texts surrounding the first two trajectories, there is scant articulation of the third. As it stands, involved academic researchers are specialised, business as usual, to make contributions to either the fourth Industrial Revolution or Agenda 2030, but not to both. The much-needed simultaneous work on both of these is here called the challenge of challenges. The aim of the current text is to articulate this challenge of challenges and, thereafter, to identify a few ways in which information science can make such a contribution. The remainder of the text is structured accordingly. This means that the challenge of challenges is initially described. Thereafter, information science will be promoted as being well situated to make substantial contributions to the challenge of challenges. Finally, three different areas within which information science can make a contribution are briefly reviewed. The chapter ends with the conclusion.

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2 What is the Challenge of Challenges? The challenge of challenges is a problem not only for academic research, but for all specialised experts within society. The fundamental problem is that human civilisations are dealing with two vastly different trajectories that appear inevitable: we will make society much more technological and we will also destroy fundamental natural states which society relies upon. Discussions on these seemingly inevitable trajectories both touch upon the exploitation of natural resources of the Earth. In addition, they are both concerned with the latter within the same timescale. Schwab predicts mainstreaming of numerous technologies during the 2020s up until 2027 (see Table 1) [1]. Agenda 2030 has, of course, the deadline for human intervention by 2030. However, despite these similarities these discussions are held apart. The challenge of challenges is therefore to link together domain specific specialists working with one or the other of these trajectories and connect discussions on the same natural resources of the earth during the same time period, the 2020s. The challenge of challenges also involves combining the fundamentally optimistic ‘we will make tremendous technological advancements for the betterment of humanity’ narrative of the fourth Industrial Revolution with the pessimistic ‘we need to save the world from extreme forms of exploitation’ worldview underpinning Table 1 Mainstreaming of various technologies during the 2020s as part of the fourth Industrial Revolution according to a wide survey of expert expectations [1] Expected year of tipping point 2021

Robot and services

2022

Internet of and for things

2023

Implantable Big data for technologies decisions

Vision as the new interface

2024

Ubiquitous computing

3D printing and human health

Connected home

2025

3D printing and consumer products

AI and white-collar jobs

Sharing economy

2026

Driverless cars

AI and Smart cities decision-making

2027

Bitcoin and the Blockchain

Wearable Internet

3D printing and manufacturing Our Governments Supercomputer digital and the in pocket presence Blockchain

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Agenda 2030. This is not only a difference of the character of discourse, but also a separation of agency, drivers, and level of economic resources. The primary agency for the fourth Industrial Revolution lies within the private sector and the driver is mostly a matter of generating profits. This involves both large corporations such as Google, Apple and Microsoft and a torrent of start-ups with original ideas for generating profit. Involved stakeholders are strong and committed. As modern welfare states rely upon a high technological and competitive private sector, governments tend to further sponsor developments within the fourth Industrial Revolution quite extensively. The fourth Industrial Revolution will happen. In contrast, primary agency for Agenda 2030 resides within government agencies and NGOs working toward responsible use of common natural resources and of attending to a wide range of equity issues. The main drivers are grounded in public service, ethics, and a recognition that those living today are leaving sparse natural resources and many problems to future generations. There is much less of a profit generating element within this discourse and governments typically spend much less on the production of specialised knowledge connected to Agenda 2030 compared to the fourth Industrial Revolution. Strong commitment to Agenda 2030 during the 2020s is seemingly necessary for long-standing survival of contemporary civilisation as we know it today. It is striking that both Schwab and climate modelling researchers use similar language. For the fourth Industrial Revolution there are numerous tipping points in which a certain technology shifts from being used by early adopters to becoming mainstream instead [1]. Numerous such tipping points are expected during the 2020s. Climate modellers have similar long-standing discussions on tipping points in which slow warming reaches a threshold. Once the climate tips over that threshold rapid changes occur even if there is no additional forcing [4, 5]. Moving beyond a tipping point is therefore discussed as a point of no return, efforts to decrease CO2 may no longer be efficient. Schwab does not present an optimistic viewpoint of the 2020s as humans move into a symbiotic relationship with technology [1]. He expects the world as we know it to be turned upside down by technologically driven trajectories. However dire, this analysis does not take into account the parallel challenges of dealing with climate change and other issues of Agenda 2030. The main idea of sustainable development, as it was originally formulated by the Brundtland Commission in 1987 was that humankind for decades have dealt with social, economic, and ecological challenges on a global scale [6]. Before the Brundtland report different stakeholders worked diligently to attain political primacy for issues that they were passionate about. Consequently, NGOs striving to mitigate poverty could become pitted against environmental activists. The idea with sustainable development was to remove such conflicts and deal with the challenges of humanity together. The social, economic, and ecological problems needed to be dealt with within the same time period, not one after the other or in conflict with each other. The challenges of challenges for the 2020s is to revisit this idea of solving everything together during the same time period. There is an exciting opportunity here if it

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can be put into action. The fourth Industrial Revolution is a project that will rebuild societies and human actions as we know them. It is likely to force a break with business as usual. Curiously, such a break with business as usual is what is required for Agenda 2030. Rebuilding society because of an environmental crisis has never been an easy sell during the 2000. Nonetheless, if economic and technological drivers in any case are leading humanity this way, why cannot Agenda 2030 piggyback on that momentum? If only the ambitions of Agenda 2030 become integrated into this whirlwind of technological development, progress can become much swifter for many goals. But will this happen? The most practical strategy in dealing with the challenge of challenges involves, in various ways, injecting sustainability issues into discussions and developments of the fourth Industrial Revolution. Many disciplines should be involved in this. In the following, it will be argued that information science is well-positioned to play a substantial role in this process.

3 The Main Disciplines Supporting the Fourth Industrial Revolution Although not everything within the development of the fourth Industrial Revolution is a matter of exploiting new information technology, most of it is. This means that the primary academic support of the revolution resides within those four disciplines that deal with information/data, i.e. computer science, information systems, informatics, and information science. Of these, computer science is by far the most technologically oriented and important. Computer science is extremely well-funded globally and has in recent decades emerged as much more than a discipline, actually similar to a faculty of its own. The other three disciplines are much smaller and information science is the least well-developed institutionally. Informatics and information systems have a focus on human computer interaction and IT within organizations. The various breakthroughs of the fourth Industrial Revolution will supply a wealth of research opportunities for all these four disciplines. However, information science needs to find an identity, doing research within which the other three disciplines lack interest or competence. It is here suggested that the most valuable way of profiling in developing the identity of information science is to highlight the challenge of challenges by inserting Agenda 2030 into discussions of the fourth Industrial Revolution.

4 Information Science is Soft/Hard Becher and Trowler made a fundamental distinction between research disciplines that are soft, i.e. situated within the social and human sciences, or hard, i.e. positioned within natural or technological research [7]. Information science is one of these

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disciplines that is a little bit of both, but more on the soft side. Of the four disciplines dealing with information/data, Information science is clearly the softest. There are many advantages for discipline to have both a hard and soft side. This is particularly the case when there is a need to negotiate softer societal values of sustainability with the technologically driven ambitions of the fourth Industrial Revolution. As much of the developments within the fourth Industrial Revolution deals with advances within computer science, these four disciplines all appear to be well situated to contribute to the trajectory of the fourth Industrial Revolution. However, information science, as the softest, is arguably best placed to insert the concerns of Agenda 2030 into the discussions surrounding the fourth Industrial Revolution.

5 Information Science and the Public Sector As noted above, the trajectory of the fourth Industrial Revolution is driven by the private sector and fundamental concerns of economic profit. In this context, it should be noted that there is a difference between information science and the three other disciplines that deal with information/data. Contrary to the others, there is a strong tradition of making contributions to the public sector. This is largely a result of historical ties between information science and librarianship, frequently articulated in the disciplinary entity of Library and Information Science. Given this, information science is a discipline with substantial potential of connecting to policy ideas of Agenda 2030. Frequently, and increasingly, information science includes specialized policy research within areas such as cultural policy, information policy and research policy. These are all policy areas that in various ways can be connected to Agenda 2030. In contrast to the other three disciplines, information science has a strong tradition of dealing with freedom of information, public service, trusted information, cultural commons, inclusion and accessibility. Given this, information science is well-placed to be able to insert the concerns of Agenda 2030 into discussions surrounding the fourth Industrial Revolution.

6 Information Science and Sustainable Targets and Indicators Agenda 2030 contains 17 SDGs. [3] These are formulated loftily and broadly, e.g. no poverty, quality education, gender equity, climate action etc. However, to each of these there are targets and indicators. Altogether, there are 169 targets and 232 global indicators. It is here argued that research on sustainable targets and indicators can and should be a huge area for information science. We should in various ways be able to discuss these as crucial and central aspects of development of new information technology.

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Table 2 Environmental impact of bitcoin technology as of September 9, 2020 according to https:// digiconomist.net/bitcoin-energy-consumption Carbon footprint

Electrical energy

Electronic waste

Global footprint and comparable country

32.08 Mt CO2 Tunisia

67.54 Twh Czech Republic

10.12 kt Luxembourg

Footprint of individual transaction and comparable activities

283.66 kg CO2 709,146 VISA transactions

597.18 kWh average US household for 20.18 days

89.50 g 1.3 8 C-size batteries

For instance, target 7.1 states that by 2030 there should be universal access to affordable modern energy services. At a glance, this would appear to be a challenge for the energy sector and not IT. Nonetheless, the development of the fourth Industrial Revolution will undoubtedly place enormous stress on the existing energy system. Many new technologies are pushed on the market without any concern about compounded consequences for the energy system. A pertinent example is blockchain technology which is increasingly used in numerous innovative types of transactions, bypassing the traditional banking system. The most highlighted blockchain technology is the bitcoin which is designed with a mining system that releases a limited amount of bitcoins to the world market until 2140. Huge amounts of advanced mathematical calculations are used in order to ‘mine’ a bitcoin. De Vries aptly describes bitcoin as ‘extremely energy-hungry by design’ [8]. Table 2 illustrates the environmental impact of a technology that was designed without any thought about sustainability. There is currently no sustainability accountability for development of information technology with such huge consequences for the world’s energy consumption. A related target is 12.2: to achieve sustainable management and efficient use of natural resources by 2030. This refers back to the central message of the Brundtland Commission to not develop such exploitation of natural resources that there is scarcity for future generations [3]. However, for the context of the current argument, without clear connections to Agenda 2030, the fourth Industrial Revolution will take what is needed for the technological innovations of 2020 regardless of future scarcity issues. The main point is that the targets and indicators of Agenda 2030 supplies rich areas for information science research as well as for other disciplines to inject SDG discussions into the fourth Industrial Revolution.

7 Information Science and Open Science Target 7a within Agenda 2030 deals with the enhancement of international cooperation to make it possible for clean energy research and technology to be disseminated as quickly as possible. This connects to an important policy concept recently adopted by the European Commission vision for research as one of its three pillars: open science [9]. This can be seen as an umbrella concept that most crucially includes

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open access (to scholarly journal articles) and open research data. Open science is a vague and difficult concept, and it is challenging to identify various strategic initiatives that will be appropriate or successful for all types of research. Nonetheless, in the research most intimately tied to targets such as 7a it would appear to be a win–win solution for the scholarly community to promote as much openness as is ethically possible. Information science through its sub area of scholarly communication has a long tradition of investigating open access and increasingly today also open research data. It is important to emphasize that the current transformation of how researchers publicise the results as well as how they collect, store, manage and make available primary data are part of the fourth Industrial Revolution. It is therefore reasonable to expect future disruption of open science in the years to come. There is much to be gained by allowing some of this research to be connected to the goals of Agenda 2030. In particular, research on renewable and clean energy is developed in a multitude of countries, corporations and sectors. A major problem is that individual projects have difficulty benchmarking themselves against competing efforts. It becomes challenging to establish if the research one is involved in is ahead or behind other projects both in regards to sophistication and economic feasibility. It would be strategically sound for researchers within information science to investigate how opening up of relevant metadata could be facilitated as well as to improve searchability of different efforts ongoing. This could be a substantial focus within information science.

8 Information Science and Sustainable Information Literacies The E-handbook on Sustainable Development Goals Indicators is a central document to drive discussions and actions toward Agenda 2030 [10]. However, it is not an easily accessible text and the logics involved are not apparent. This is one of many examples in which the original discussions within information science regarding information literacy (or media and information literacy) could be expanded to also talk about sustainable information literacy. A broad range of professionals need to be educated on how to read and understand such documents. In particular, the focus in the current text is on those professionals who in various ways are engaged with the fourth Industrial Revolution. Take, for instance, Goal 13 on climate action. One would assume that this is the goal that those engaged in restriction of greenhouse gas emissions should be focused on. However, that is not the case. Goal 13 is concerned with mitigating the consequences of inevitable climate change, i.e. minimising number of people killed and loss of property in cases of disasters such as flooding. It should be noted that this is a bit strange as the full name of Goal 13 is ‘Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impact’. However, there is only one target in Goal 13, Target 13.1: ‘Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural

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disasters in all countries’. This appears to exclude the all-important ‘stop climate change from happening’, instead focusing on mitigating impact. The two indicators connected to Target 13.1 are also oriented in this narrow fashion. If we instead are interested in stopping uncontrolled warming of the world we have to look elsewhere in Agenda 2030. Restrictions of greenhouse gases are indirectly situated within three different Goals. First, Goal 7: affordable and clean energy deals with the transformation to clean and renewable energy but does not mention greenhouse gas emissions as target or indicator. Second, Goal 9 on resilient infrastructure has indicator 9.4.1 stipulating decreases of CO2 emissions connected to infrastructure. Third, Target 12c within Goal 12 (sustainable production and consumption) deal with removing subsidies for fossil fuels. All in all, it appears strange that these are the only targets that, although indirectly, ties to this central challenge of our time. Another difficulty of the targets and indicators is that many indicators are discussed through advanced mathematics, which many professionals will find daunting. Overall, there are huge opportunities here for information science to extend discussions on information literacy to sustainable information literacy. In addition, information scientists should critically engage with these core policy texts and identify problems, as has briefly been done above.

9 Conclusion The starting point of this chapter lies in the assumption that the 2020s is a crucial decade for the future of humanity. It can be expected that an avalanche of technological innovations will reach a tipping point of mainstream use in the decade to come. At the same time there is an urgent need to make drastic changes in the way we utilise the resources of the Earth. In a sense, the original divide between research dealing with nature, technology and society is no longer sustainable. The twofold aim of this chapter has been to articulate the challenges of challenges and thereafter to identify various ways in which information science can contribute. The challenge of challenges amounts to connecting the fourth Industrial Revolution with Agenda 2030 within the practices of academic researchers. Specifically, this text is concerned with the role of information science. On the face of it, it would appear to be too obvious to mention that such integration of two different civilisation transformative processes ongoing at the same time need to be locked into each other in a variety of ways. However, the experience of this author is that it is not obvious within the Academy and few researchers feel that the trajectories of their careers make it possible for them to take one, much less both, of these transformative processes into account. Rather, specialised researchers tend to continuously probe specialised issues without understanding, or concern, that fundamentally transformative processes lie in the near future. One obvious approach to these problems is to identify opportunities. There are, indeed, opportunities for information science here. I have argued that this disciplinary domain is well situated to investigate a broad range of issues related to the

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fourth Industrial Revolution from a variety of perspectives. I have also identified three different areas in which substantial value can be produced in order to inject Agenda 2030 into discussions of the fourth Industrial Revolution. These three areas were sustainable targets and indicators, open science and sustainable information literacy. This is far from a comprehensive list of opportunities. Rather, more research opportunities are bound to appear when information scientists engage more systematically with Agenda 2030. There is an additional challenge to the opportunities outlined above. Information scientists have so far to a lesser degree engaged with sustainable development. There has been only limited interest in concepts such as sustainable information [11], sustainable information services [12], sustainable information practices [13] and Agenda 2030. This is an unsustainable situation as we move into the 2020s.

References 1. Schwab K (2017) The fourth industrial revolution. World Economic Forum, Geneva 2. Schwab K, Davis N (2018) Shaping the future of the fourth industrial revolution. World Economic Forum, Geneva 3. United Nations (2015) Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development. https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/transformingourworld. Accessed 10 September 2020. 4. Hansen J, Sato M, Kharecha P, Beerling D, Berner R, Masson-Delmotte V et al (2008) Target atmospheric CO2 : Where should humanity aim? The Open Atmospheric Sci J 2(1):217–231 5. Lenton T, Held H, Kriegler, E, Hall J, Lucht W, Rahmstorf S, Schellnhuber, H (2008) Tipping Elements in the Earth’s Climate System. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 105(6): 1786–1793 6. Brundtland GH, Khalid M, Agnelli S, et al (1987) Our common future. New York, 8 7. Becher. (2001) Academic Tribes and Territories: Intellectual Enquiry and the Cultures of Discipline, 2nd edn. McGraw-Hill Education, London 8. de Vries A (2018) Bitcoin’s Growing Energy Problem 2:801–805 9. Open science, open innovation, open to the world: a vision for Europe (2016) European Comission, Brussels 10. E-Handbook on Sustainable Development Goals Indicators. https://unstats.un.org/wiki/dis play/SDGeHandbook/Home?preview=/34505092/38535788/SDGeHandbook-150219.pdf. Accessed 10 September 2020. 11. Nolin J (2010) Sustainable information and information science. Information Research 15(2):15–22 12. Chowdhury G (2012) Building environmentally sustainable information services: A green is research agenda. J Am Soc Inform Sci Technol 63(4):633–647 13. Nathan LP (2012) Sustainable information practice: An ethnographic investigation. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 63(11):2254–2268.

Jan Nolin (PhD) has a PhD and Habilitation in Theory of Science. Since 2010 he has been professor of library and information science and head of research at the Swedish School of Library and Information Science, University of Borås. His current research interests are broadly concerned with the development of library and information science/information studies both as a discipline in its own right and as a central interdisciplinary collaborator for handling the challenges

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of the 2020s. Nolin has published works focused on freedom of information, information practices, the expanded use of bibliometrics, and overall strategic development of information science. He has worked within several fields of policy studies including cultural policy studies, research policy studies, environmental policy studies and information policy studies. He has also published Internet studies and social media studies, focusing on ideologies of the Internet, social media policies, Internet of things, learning technologies and Twitter. Nolin has engaged in definition and critical scrutiny of transparency movements, including such entities as open science, open access, and open data. Nolin has also made contributions to specific areas of library research including on special librarianship and development of public libraries as community services. In 2010, Nolin introduced the concept of ‘sustainable information’ to information studies, situating this as a tool for information scientists to talk about their specific contributions to sustainable development. In 2015, in collaboration with the vice chancellor of his university, Nolin wrote the formative text for the development of University of Borås as a Sustainable University.

Information Behaviour from a Social and Asocial Perspective

Information Seeking Behaviour of the Socially Withdrawn Ari Haasio

Abstract This chapter discusses the information practices among Finnish socially withdrawn youth, aka hikikomori. The hikikomori phenomenon is originally Japanese, but there are hikikomoris all over the world. The term hikikomori is based on the Japanese word hikikomorou, which can be translated as ‘to be confined inside’. A hikikomori is a person who tries to avoid all social contacts. The theoretical framework is based on Reijo Savolainen’s concept of the everyday life information seeking model and Elfreda Chatman’s theory on information seeking in a small world. The data consists of 6,910 discussion board messages, which were collected from the Finnish website Hikikomero, a discussion group for socially withdrawn youth. The results show that peer information is appreciated among subcultures and people who live in a ‘small world’. Only information given by similar others who are also socially withdrawn is trusted. The chapter also introduces the concept of disnormative information, which is opposite to the majority’s values, norms, and attitudes. This kind of information is highly respected and sought from the discussion forum. Keywords Socially withdrawn · Hikikomori · Information behaviour · Information seeking

1 Introduction According to various estimates, there are 500,000 to 1,000,000 socially withdrawn people in Japan called hikikomoris [1]. Some researchers consider the hikikomori phenomenon to be caused by cultural problems in the Japanese society related to expressing failure, shame and guilt in an acceptable way and, partly, by the collision of the values of western culture and the traditional Japanese society [2]. Although the phenomenon originated in Japan, it has been recognized around the world. For example, the phenomenon has been recognized e.g. in Spain [3], Finland [4], Italy [5], South Korea, India and the USA [6, see also 7]. It is conceivable that A. Haasio (B) Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences, Seinäjoki, Finland e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 O. L. Madge (ed.), New Trends and Challenges in Information Science and Information Seeking Behaviour, Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems 193, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68466-2_3

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this is also partly a result of the new information society, which increasingly makes it possible to do things without leaving home. The term hikikomori is based on the Japanese word hikikomorou, which means ‘to be confined inside’ [2, 8]. The term can both signify a person and the phenomenon [2]. Hikikomoris try to avoid all social contacts [9, 10], and they may have been diagnosed with a mental illness, but not necessarily. Kato et al. [11] have proposed diagnostic criteria based on the following premises: (1) marked social isolation in the person’s home, (2) duration of continuous social isolation of at least 6 months, and (3) significant functional impairment or distress associated with social isolation. Although the phenomenon has often been considered a mental disorder, Tan et al. [12], for example, have referred to it as a person’s deliberate seclusion from mainstream society. The hikikomori phenomenon can also be understood as a choice to isolate oneself from society, and it can be, in some cases, compared to the rural hermits of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Due to this, we can assume that it is a subculture, which has its own features. Haasio [4] and Haasio and Naka [13] have studied the information behaviour of socially withdrawn individuals, a. k. a. hikikomoris. Their way of life and isolation from the rest of the world makes them a group that represents otherness in relation to the majority, which affects their information behaviour [4]. Most of hikikomoris’ contacts with other people, if they have any, take place on the Internet. The Web is a central part of a hikikomori’s life: it provides information, entertainment, and makes it possible to take care of everyday things [4, 14]. Information can be understood as a process of communication based on the social context where information is built [15]. Based on this perception of information, social relationships and environmental factors significantly influence an individual’s information behaviour. The theoretical framework of this article is based on Reijo Savolainen’s [16] Way of Life model and on the theories of information poverty and ‘small world’ proposed by Elfreda Chatman [17, 18]. The empirical results and examples are based on Haasio’s [4] dissertation about socially withdrawn hikikomoris’ information behaviour. For that study, 6,910 messages from a Finnish Hikikomero discussion forum [19] were analysed using quantitative and qualitative content analysis. Previous studies on hikikomoris have mostly concentrated on the psychiatric analysis of the phenomenon [e.g. 7, 20–22]. In this article, we analyse the special features their information behaviour has, what kind of information they trust, and what role disnormative information [see 4], a. k. a. dark knowledge [see 23], plays in their information behaviour.

2 Living in a Small Virtual World The life of hikikomoris is typically very restricted. While trying to avoid all social contacts, they leave their homes only for compelling reasons, such as a doctor’s appointment, and going to a convenience store to buy food.

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Although in many cases social withdrawal is also associated with mental health problems, it may also be a matter of a person’s own choice. Tan et al. [12] point out that hikikomori may be a person’s deliberate seclusion from mainstream society. Hikikomoris have their own subculture, where the Internet, games, manga and anime often play a key role. Most of the time is spent in front of a computer playing games and surfing the net. [4] Many Finnish hikikomoris also admire the Japanese hikikomori culture [14]. Finnish hikikomoris have described their daily routines in their discussion forum Hikikomero [19]. The daily rhythm is different from the traditional one. They wake up after noon and surf the web or play video games until midnight or later. Zechner and Haasio [24] have pointed out that satisfying sexual desires by surfing adult entertainment sites is part of many people’s daily lives. Sexual desires are channeled into the adult entertainment offerings of the Internet because hikikomoris have no social relationships. Loneliness is a typical feature: hikikomoris do not have any friends. For many, only parents and siblings are their only social contacts. Many hikikomoris have been bullied at school, and loneliness has continued throughout life. [14] Low social skills and awkwardness or anxiety in social situations is common among Finnish hikikomori [25]. In addition, a low self-esteem is typical of them, combined with a feeling of failure and passivity as hallmarks of their everyday life [13, 25, 26]. Some hikikomoris even consider suicide as a solution because of their experience of worthlessness [27, 28]. In Reijo Savolainen’s [16] ELIS model, mastery of life is one of the factors influencing the way of life. Hikikomoris represent the pessimistic-affective role of mastery of life. This role represents ‘learned helplessness’, as Savolainen describes it. He continues: One does not rely on his or her abilities to solve everyday life problems, but adopts a strategy of avoiding systematic efforts to improve his or her situation. Drifting from day to day and searching for instant pleasures are characteristic of this ideal type of mastery of life.

This description fits well to hikikomoris. They do not actively plan for their future, and most of them are dropouts, whose life drifts from day to day without any ambition or purpose of life. This way of life also reflects their information behaviour. Elfreda Chatman’s [29] theory of small world shows that, in some groups, people do not actively seek information outside their own life circles. The lower workingclass respondents whose information behaviour Chatman analysed were not active seekers of information outside of their most familiar social milieu. According to Chatman, this is based on the fatalistic attitude of the group under study – they do not believe in a better tomorrow [29]. Likewise, hikikomoris live in a ‘small world’ in terms of their information behaviour. The starting point is the idea that our social environment and way of life largely determine our information behaviour. ‘Small world’ is not so much a term related to socioeconomic deprivation or information poverty, but rather an individual’s world of life that describes his activity and contacts in everyday activities [30]. (Burnett, Besant, and Chatman [23] also brought up the idea of a virtual ‘small world’ as a forum for information seeking, which is actually used by hikikomoris.

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3 Information Needs of Hikikomoris According to Savolainen [16], the concept of way of life refers to the ‘order of things’ based ‘on the choices that individuals make in everyday life’. Values and attitudes, material capital, social capital, cultural and cognitive capital, as well as current life situation are elements on which the way of life is built. Haasio and Naka [13] have compared hikikomoris’ information needs in Finland and Japan. They proved to be very congruent, and only some differences were clearly noticeable. In Finland, ‘Economic problems/housing/livelihood’ (18.0%) and ‘Health and sickness’ (15.4%) were the most common topics of information needs. In Japan, the two biggest categories were social relations/marriage/family (14.7%), and death (13.2%). According to the authors, the differences were due to cultural differences. Although information needs are predominantly similar in Japan and Finland, they are partly expressed differently. In Finland, a need for information is expressed using explicit questions, while in Japan the matter is expressed more indirectly. The hikikomoris’ way of life is similar both in Japan and in Finland. They lead an isolated life, spend time surfing on the Web, and avoid social contacts. Also gaming and reading manga and anime is typical of both countries. According to Haasio and Naka [13], the differences can be explained by cultural differences between the societies. The subculture is similar, but the conventions and manners are different. This leads to different kinds of information behaviour among similar groups. The way of life only partly explains information behaviour in this case. The prevailing culture and its values impact the content of information needed. For example, in Finland, many hikikomoris live by themselves in rental studio flats and finance their living by social welfare. Most Japanese hikikomoris, by contrast, live with their parents due to the different traditions of society. This explains why Finnish hikikomoris had more livelihood issues. As Japanese youth, by contrast, move away from their parents after they get married, they again think more about matters related to marriage. Moreover, in Japan, sex was talked about very subtly, while it was discussed very openly on the Finnish discussion forum, in the Scandinavian way.

4 Peer Support and Peer Information Peer information and peer support play a significant role in the information acquisition of socially withdrawn hikikomoris. Experts’ views are not necessarily trusted, but information is sought from people with similar life situations who have similar problems and a similar way of life. When a virtual community has become an alliance of like-minded people, for example because of the subculture that unites them, the experience of otherness is similar. As a result, information obtained from individuals who share the same lifestyle is valued. Peer information is important and much valued. When acquiring

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peer information, it is important that the person from whom the information is obtained have experienced the same thing. Elfreda Chatman [17, 18, 29] has underlined that people sharing a similar ‘small world’ share similar values and trust the information they get from the others sharing the physical environment. The same goes for the virtual environment; for example, in discussion groups and other social media communities, virtual space is also a unifying factor from the information seeking perspective. People who share the same virtual space more often trust each other’s opinions when the forum is targeted at a special group such as hikikomoris [4]. In addition to peer information, a lot of peer support is also sought from the discussion forum. In order to be reliable, peer support requires the experience of similar otherness. Many participants share their own problems, dreams, and fears in discussions. For some, the discussion forum is almost the only place where they can anonymously talk about their worries and ask for some support. Many participants in the discussion forum do not clearly articulate the information need by asking a question. Instead, they talk about their lives and problems, waiting for comments from other members of the discussion group. By gaining peer support and peer information from the others in a similar life situation, peer support information seekers also try to legitimise and accept their own lifestyle. At the same time, the person’s selfunderstanding grows, and he receives information on an interesting topic, even if he does not consciously seek an answer to any individual problem. People may also participate in the discussion by ‘lurking’ the discussions on the forum. They do not necessarily write any posts, but just read them. These messages written by other hikikomoris may reinforce their own perceptions. At the same time, these messages can bring comfort in difficult moments, when a person knows that he is not the only one with similar problems. I think I am basically a cheerful, warm, social and empathetic person. But the problem is that my dad happens to be a crazy and narcissistic asshole. I still live here with my parents, and when I have to listen to him scream and when he teases my mother, I feel down. There are so many bad memories associated with him over the years. This somehow just makes me passive, and even my sexual desire disappears completely. My general joy of life disappears completely for a long time. When I was a little bit longer periods of time away from home, I noticed the reversible man I was last as a kid. My joy of life keeps me alive with a probable place of study in a whole new city and a whole new fresh start, for me a new opportunity as a person. But for a little while, you should be able to handle this s**t. Please be kind, friends, give me hope.

Reflecting on one’s own life situation by talking about one’s own feelings is also one way to seek peer support and, at the same time, an expression of otherness. It is often like an outburst, in which one’s feeling of anxiety or depression is reported on a general level. When other users read these expressions, they can identify with other conversations. ‘Lurking’ these posts can also be understood as active monitoring [see 31]. ‘Lurkers’ are interested in the topic but, for some reason, do not want to take part in the discussions.

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5 Disnormative Information One typical feature of socially withdrawn people’s information behaviour is the need of disnormative information. This can be explained by the fact that they represent a subculture where the norms and values differ from the mainstream ones. Haasio [32] has defined disnormative information as follows: ‘disnormative information is based on the assumption that people have an information need for the kind of information that can be either illegal or encourage illegal activities, or be morally questionable in the opinion of the majority, because it stands against the majority’s values.’ In Fig. 1, the typical features, distributors and sources of disnormative and normative information are compared. It is noteworthy that these sources may be both electronic and printed. Disnormative information is characteristically distributed in subcultures, and it promotes alternative values in society, working as a counterforce to consensus. Disnormative information may rely on pseudoscience. It may also promote subcultures that may even be illegal (e.g. outlaw bikers, drug addicts) [32]. There are two kinds of disnormative information: 1) information needed to do something against the law, and 2) information that is morally questionable by the majority of people, but still legal [4, 32]. This kind of information is typical of subcultures and countercultures such as drug users [33] and of hikikomoris [4]. Otherness and a different way of life create a sense of belonging among the hikikomoris on the Finnish Hikikomero discussion forum. It is the basis for the knowledge and peer support shared within the group.

Fig. 1 Typical features, distributors and sources of disnormative information compared to normative information. Source Haasio 2015; Haasio 2019. Translation from Finnish by the author

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Disnormative information is culturally and time bound. In different cultures, different things are a taboo, depending on the time and place. What is acceptable in the Western European culture may even be illegal, for example, in the Islamic culture. Attitudes towards sexuality issues are a good example of this. In those countries where attitudes are more conservative, seeking information about sexuality issues clearly equals search for disnormative information. Normative information, on the other hand, is the kind of information generally accepted by the majority of society. For example, in Finland, the use, possession and sale of drugs is criminalised. Normative information is information about the dangers of drugs that is disseminated to the public by the authorities and health professionals. Disnormative information, on the other hand, is information related to drug use, guidance on how to use drugs and purchase them [33]. In countries where the possession or use of drugs is not criminalised, this kind of information can be understood as normative information. On the discussion forum, some socially withdrawn hikikomoris wanted tips on drug use, which is clearly disnormative information. Hikikomoris acquired nonnormative information from their peers, for example, to start taking a drug they had been prescribed by a doctor. Have you ever taken Citalopram? I have about 200 tablets in the closet and I wonder if I should start eating them or not Any experience about Citalopram’s withdrawal symptoms, how long does this s**t last?

The experiences of the others were much valued, and decisions were made based on the information given by the other discussion board users. These examples show that the information given as answers was peer information and also disnormative information. Disnormative information is not a new phenomenon, as it has always occurred. With the Internet, it has become more easily accessible and, at the same time, it has become more visible. Political flyers are an example of disnormative, even revolutionary material. When analysing the essence of dark knowledge, Burnett and Lloyd [34] define it as having the potential to marginalise, exclude and isolate and ‘other’ people or communities who accept this type of knowledge. Based on this, it can be stated that some of the information needs of hikikomoris and the information they share on the forum are of such a nature. The question of whether this is disnormative information or dark knowledge requires more conceptual analysis and empirical research. In this case, the phenomenon can be tentatively described by both concepts. As an example, one could mention the discussions about suicide associated with these concepts on the Hikikomero discussion forum.

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6 Conclusions Two clearly typical features can be observed in the information behaviour of socially withdrawn hikikomoris. Firstly, peer information and peer support are trusted and, for example, in matters related to one’s own health, opinions of people who have had the same experience are needed to support decision-making. Authorities may not be trusted in the same way. Secondly, socially withdrawn people often seek disnormative information, for example, to obtain social benefits or to discuss the use of illicit drugs. The way of life has effects on the information behaviour of hikikomoris, but when comparing the information behaviour between two culturally very different countries, Finland and Japan, it is remarkable that the effect of the prevailing culture on information behaviour is significant. The influence of cultural features should be analysed more in depth in further studies. Especially subcultures need a closer look when the essence of disnormative information or dark knowledge can be found in them. The information world of the socially withdrawn is remarkably limited, because many sources are not available at home. If those people stay inside and do not leave their homes, e.g. libraries and many other channels cannot be used. The same applies to informal sources. Their main channel for retrieving information is the Internet. At the same time, it is the focal point of their life, which is used to such an extent that, in many cases, it can be regarded as an addiction. Hikikomoris live in a small virtual world, where their information sources and entertainment are focused on a small virtual bubble.

References 1. Tajan N, Yukiko Y, Pionnié-Dax N (2016) Hikikomori: The Japanese cabinet office’s 2016 survey of acute social withdrawal. The Asian Pacific J 15(5) 2. Ohashi N (2008) Exploring the psychic roots of Hikikomori in Japan. Ann Arbor, MI: Pro Quest, UMI Dissertation Publishing 3. Ovejero S, Caro-Cañizares I, de León-Martínez V, Baca-Garcia E (2014) Prolonged social withdrawal disorder: a hikikomori case in Spain. Int J Soc Psychiatry 60(6):562–565 4. Haasio A (2015) Abstract (Otherness, information needs and information sharing in the “small world” of the Internet: A study of socially withdrawn people’s information behavior). In: Toiseus, tiedontarpeet ja tiedon jakaminen tietoverkon “pienessä maailmassa”: Tutkimus sosiaalisesti vetäytyneiden henkilöiden informaatiokäyttäytymisestä. Tampere: Tampere University Press. https://trepo.tuni.fi/handle/10024/97938 5. Ranieri F (2015) When social withdrawal in adolescence becomes extreme: the “hikikomori” phenomenon in Italy. Psychiatria I Psychologia Kliniczna 15(3):148–151 6. Kato TA, Kanba S, Teo AR (2018) Hikikomori: experience in Japan and international relevance. World Psychiatry 17(1):105 7. Tajan N (2015) Social withdrawal and psychiatry: A comprehensive review of Hikikomori. Neuropsychiatrie De l’Enfance Et De l’Adolescence 63(5):324–331

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8. Krysinska D (2007) Hikikomori (Social Withdrawal) in Japan: Discourses of Media and Scholars; Multicausal Explanations of the Phenomenon. Doctoral dissertation. University of Pittsburgh 9. Saito T (1998) Hikikomori: Shakaiteki hikikomori: owaranai shishunki. Tokyo: PHP Institute. English edition: Saito T (2013) Adolescence without end. (trans: Angles, J.) Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press 10. Furlong A (2008) The Japanese hikikomori phenomenon: acute social withdrawal among young people. The Sociological Review 56(2):309–325 11. Kato TA, Kanba S, Teo AR (2020) Defining pathological social withdrawal: proposed diagnostic criteria for hikikomori. World Psychiatry 19:116–117 12. Tan M, Lee W, Kato T (2020) International experience of hikikomori (prolonged social withdrawal) and its relevance to psychiatric research. BJPsych International, 1–3 13. Haasio A, Naka H (2019) Information needs of the Finnish and Japanese hikikomori: A comparative study. Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in Libraries 8(4):509–523 14. Haasio A (2018) Hikikomorit. Avain, Helsinki 15. Tuominen K, Savolainen R (1997) A social constructionist approach to the study of information use as discursive action. In: Vakkari P, Savolainen R, Dervin B (eds) Information seeking in context: Proceedings of an International Conference on Research in Information Needs, Seeking and Use in Different Contexts, 14–16 August, 1996 Tampere, Finland (pp 81–96). Taylor Graham, London, UK 16. Savolainen R (1995) Everyday life information seeking: approaching information seeking in the context of way of life. Library & Information Science Research 17(3):259–294 17. Chatman EA (1996) The impoverished life-world of outsiders. Journal of the American Society for Information Science 47(3):193–206 18. Chatman EA (1999) A theory of life in the round. Journal of the American Society for Information Science 50(3):207–217 19. Hikikomero. Discussion forum. https://www.ylilauta.org/hikky. 20. Teo AR (2013) Social isolation associated with depression: A case report of hikikomori. Int J Soc Psychiatry 59(4):339--341. 21. Kondo N, Sakai M, Kuroda Y, Kiyota Y, Kitabata Y, Kurosawa M (2013) General condition of hikikomori (prolonged social withdrawal) in Japan: psychiatric diagnosis and outcome in mental health welfare centres. Int J Soc Psychiatry 59(1):79–86 22. Sarchione F, Santacroce R, Acciavatti T, Cinosi E, Lupi M, Di Giannantonio M (2015) Hikikomori, clinical and psychopathological issues. Res Adv Psychiatry 2:21–27 23. Burnett G, Besant M, Chatman EA (2001) Small worlds: Normative behavior in virtual communities and feminist bookselling. J American Soc Inf Sci Technol 52(7):536-547 24. Zechner M, Haasio A (2016) Sexuality of hikikomori in the discussion forum’s comments [in Finnish]. Seksologinen aikakauskirja, 2(1) 25. Kirjavainen H, Jalonen H (2020) The many faces of social withdrawal in Hikikomori. In: Cacace M, Halonen R, Li H, Orrensalo TP, Li C, Widén G, Suomi R (eds) Well-being in the information society. Fruits of respect (pp 156–168). Springer International Publishing, Cham 26. Husu HM, Välimäki V (2017) Staying inside: social withdrawal of the young, Finnish ‘Hikikomori.’ Journal of Youth Studies 20(5):605–621 27. Yong R, Nomura K (2019) Hikikomori is most associated with interpersonal relationships, followed by suicide risks: a secondary analysis of a national cross-sectional study. Frontiers in Psychiatry 10:247 28. Haasio A, Salminen-Tuomaala M (2020) Suicide motives and protective factors—contributions from a Hikikomori discussion board. Issues in mental health nursing, pp 1–13 29. Chatman EA (1991) Life in a small world: Applicability of gratification theory to information seeking behavior. J American Soc Inf Sci 42(6):438–449 30. Jaeger PT, Burnett G (2010) Information Worlds. Social context, technology, and information behavior in the Information age of the internet. New York, London: Routledge 31. McKenzie PJ (2003) A model of information practices in accounts of everyday life information seeking. Journal of Documentation. 59(1):19–40

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32. Haasio A (2019) What is Disnormative Information? Information and Communication Sciences Research 23(1):9–16 33. Haasio A, Harviainen JT, Savolainen R (2020) Information needs of drug users on a local dark Web marketplace. Inf Process Manage 57(2):102080 34. Burnett S, Lloyd A (2020) Hidden and forbidden: conceptualising dark knowledge. J Documentation, ahead-of-print

Ari Haasio (PhD, MA) is a principal lecturer at the Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences, Finland. His main research interest areas are information seeking, criminal activities over the internet, hate speech and hikikomori (socially withdrawn) phenomenon. Haasio has published over 50 books about the internet, Finland’s history, and literature. He wrote his thesis about Otherness, information needs and information sharing in the ‘small world’ of the Internet: A study of socially withdrawn people’s information behaviour. Haasio has been a member of the editorial board at Informaatiotutkimus (Information Science) which is a peer reviewed scientific journal published in Finland. He is also a member of the board of Informaatiotutkimuksen yhdistys (Association of Information Science), Finland. Haasio has also been the editor-in-chief of the Finnish Library Magazine (Kirjastolehti). He has worked at the Tampere University as a researcher and assistant professor. Haasio is also an active visiting lecturer in different organisations and universities.

Identifying Hikikomori’s ‘Hidden’ Information Needs and Practices in Online Discussion Forums: Applying Dervin’s ‘Situation-Gap-Use’ and ‘Gap-Bridging’ Metaphors Hajime Naka Abstract The central idea of this chapter is to describe useful methodological procedures for capturing the ‘hidden’ information needs of people in the social withdrawal situation of hikikomori who extensively use online discussion forums. The chapter aims to explore hikikomori users’ ‘hidden’ information needs that are embedded within their problematic situation by analysing the narratives they post in an online discussion forum. It also aims to describe how their hidden information needs can be captured through analysis. To accomplish these goals, this chapter describes two analytical steps. First, the pattern of the formation of the hikikomori’s information needs through the process of interaction was captured by utilising structural analysis in a narrative inquiry approach. Second, the subject of hikikomori’s information needs was explored by utilising a thematic analysis in a narrative inquiry approach. The results of these two analyses were then used to build an initial framework of hikikomori’s information needs and practices in context by applying Dervin’s situationgap-use triangle, in particular, the ‘gap-bridging’ metaphor. This chapter concludes that a narrative inquiry approach that includes a theoretical framework of information needs is an effective tool for holistically understanding hikikomori’s information needs in their specific situations. Keywords Hikikomori · Information need in context · Sense-making methodology · Gap-bridging · Narrative analysis

1 Introduction In Japan, a growing number of people are hiding from society to ‘be confined inside the [home]’ [1]. According to a 2019 report by the Japanese cabinet office, the H. Naka (B) Faculty of Education, Tokoha University, Shizuoka, Japan e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] The Graduate School of Library, Information and Media Studies, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 O. L. Madge (ed.), New Trends and Challenges in Information Science and Information Seeking Behaviour, Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems 193, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68466-2_4

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number of these so-called hikikomori was estimated to be 1,150,000: 540,000 were aged between 15 and 39 years, and 610,000 were within the 40–64 year range. In this report, the term ‘hikikomori’ is defined as the social status of remaining homebound for six months plus any of the following conditions; (1) leaving the home only to engage in hobbies and leisure activities; (2) going shopping only at nearby stores, such as a convenience store; (3) leaving their own room but not the home; and (4) spending most of their time alone in their own room. Hikikomori is, thus, a phenomenological concept representing people who avoid participating in any type of social activities, including going to school or the workplace or socialising with other people, and who spend most of their time at home [2, 3]. Due to their home-bound situation, long-term hikikomori have a tendency to avoid any social contact in the real world [4]; therefore, their physical courses of action cannot easily be observed in daily life. However, recent studies have shown that such people are actually not ‘static’ individuals but ‘active’ information seekers whose information practices can frequently be observed in online environments such as Twitter [5], other social networking sites [6], and online discussion forums [7, 8], through which they actively seek, acquire, use, and share information with others. Nevertheless, in the field of library and information science (LIS) there has been little research effort that has focused on the information practices of hikikomori, and their information needs in particular, except for a few studies [7, 8]. For example, Haasio and Naka [8] analysed messages posted by hikikomori users in online discussion forums in both Finland and Japan by using a qualitative content analysis tool. They found that hikikomori had similar types of information needs in everyday life, such as family-related, economic-related, and work-related information needs. The authors also observed a process of the transition of several information needs in accordance with the level of priority as the narrative/dialogue continued in some of the messages posted by Japanese users, and concluded that further study exploring the informational movement in which a user makes a choice regarding their information needs is required. The present study focuses on the information need ‘process’ of hikikomori as expressed in their narratives/dialogues in an online discussion forum.

2 Identifying the Information Needs of Hikikomori Identifying the information needs and practices of hikikomori, is necessary, however difficult, because ‘[information need and its movement] exists inside someone’s head and must be inferred by any interested observer while a search is in process or after it has taken place’ [9]. One study that aimed to support hikikomori pointed out that their situation should not be considered a static condition at a physical level, but rather as a dynamic ‘process’ at a cognitive level [10]. In fact, hikikomori tend not to act at all; most of the time when at home, they are in a continuous trial-and-error state of mind. This means that a practical problem arises when applying an existing approach, which often focuses on the information needed for problem-solving, to the context of hikikomori, whose need for information is for problem-formulation

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[11] in which ‘the outcomes cannot be a priori determined’ [11]. Given this situation, a researcher who wants to identify hikikomori’s information need should take into account that information needs may occur within the cognitive process and, therefore, must be inferred from their perspective and context. Identifying such ambiguous information needs requires the proper concepts to capture these needs and interpret their meaning in context, such as decision-making [12], problem-solving, and workrelated task performance [13–15], as well as the concept of sense-making [16]. The present study used Dervin’s sense-making methodology to identify the information needs and practices among hikikomori.

3 Dervin’s Two Sense-Making Metaphors ‘Sense-making’ is the methodological concept of ‘how people construct sense of their worlds and, in particular, how they construct information needs and uses for information in the process of sense-making’ [16]. Although different fields of study have dealt with the concept differently, Dervin’s approach to sense-making is not only metatheoretical, in that it provides a general perspective for examining the phenomenon of sense-making in terms of information, but is also an ‘explicated methodology and practice for studying and engaging sense-making […] designed to be useful in any context that involves communicating intrapersonally, interpersonally, or via mediated means’ [17]. From a practical viewpoint, Dervin’s sense-making methodology has thus far been used among LIS researchers to collect data (i.e. the Micro-Moment Time-Line interview approach) and to analyse data that aims at ‘[providing] contextually unique detail and a means of ordering unique lived experience in terms of universal categories of movement’ [18]. The present study is based on the latter practical approach. In this study, the author used Dervin’s two sense-making metaphors—the ‘situation-gap-use’ metaphor and the ‘gap-bridging’ metaphor—as a methodology for the ‘reflective analysis and development of the ‘hows’ of theorising, observing, analysing, interpreting [information need and information practice] ’ [19] in order to analyse data in the text-based messages of an online discussion forum. First, a metaphorical triangle of situation-gap-use was employed to represent the core concept of sense-making moments in time–space, in which ‘the actor defined and dealt with the situation, the gap, the bridge, and the continuation of the journey after crossing the bridge’ [20]. Second, the gap-bridging metaphor operated as an integral part of the situation-gap-use triangle ‘in that gap-bridging stands for the process which results in various outcomes of information seeking and use’ [21]. It should be noted that, although Dervin’s gap-bridging metaphor appears to conceptualise people’s information use process as always being goal-oriented, as Savolainen highlighted, ‘gap-bridging may occur in myriad ways and it may be entirely capricious’ [21], and that is exactly the case with the hikikomori’s trial-and-error process of dealing with their situation and information gaps and use. In other words, the

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specific information needs of hikikomori may be ‘information needed in problem formulation’, in which ‘the outcomes cannot be a priori determined’ [11].

4 Research Purpose This study offers methodological evidence that Dervin’s sense-making metaphor is applicable to the hikikomori context of trial-and-error and problem-forming processes, that is, gap-bridging processes, when a research purpose is to identify their unique nature of information needs and practices that tend to take place in the mind. The study’s purpose is, therefore, threefold: (1) to identify hikikomori’s information need and capture a temporal movement of situation, gap, and use (as a process) in their context in an online discussion forum by applying the ‘situationgap-use’ metaphor to the data; (2) to closely focus on the more specific situational movement of gap-bridging and capture how hikikomori engage in the activities of information seeking, sharing, and communicating in an online discussion forum by applying the gap-bridging metaphor to the data; and (3) to discuss the potential usability and limitations of applying Dervin’s sense-making methodology as a data analysis method for the present study’s specific research purpose.

5 Methods The data used in this study were collected from the text-based online message board Hikkyin5ch (https://matsuri.5ch.net/hikky/), which is specially designed for socially withdrawn people who stay mostly at home and have no particular social relationships with others. Due to space constraints, and because the present study is case-oriented, the author selected only one case of a written description posted by a hikikomori user, which included a relatively long individual narrative. Some LIS researchers have emphasized that a discourse analysis technique is well suited for the study of discursive constructions of information in order to capture the process of information practice from a question–answer dialogue [22]. However, the author of this chapter opted to utilise a narrative analysis technique in this study since the collected data was a dialogue in a question–answer format exchanged between two people and including a speaker’s long, text-based self-narrative. A narrative analysis technique is one of the analytical methods used ‘for interpreting texts that have in common a storied form’ [23] and is suitable for analysing an individual narrative to identify each element of the sense-making triangle, to more closely focus on the gap-bridging process, and to capture how people need, seek, interpret, and design information. I first examined the data using narrative analysis. To analyse both a narrative pattern and the narrative’s content itself, both structural and thematic narrative analyses were conducted. Thereafter, I applied Dervin’s two sense-making metaphors to

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Fig. 1 Example of a message posted in 5channel (left), and an English translation of the excerpts to be analysed in this study (right)

the results of the narrative analysis and evaluated them. Finally, I created a conceptual framework based on these results and reviewed the usability and limitations of applying Dervin’s sense-making methodology as a data analysis method to determine the information needs and practices of hikikomori in online discussion forums. Figure 1 includes an original description from the online discussion forum, written in Japanese and translated into English in the box on the right.

6 Findings 6.1 Structural Analysis The structural narrative analysis revealed three constituent elements within the process of hikikomori’s information practices: self-disclosure, gaps, and gap-related information needs. The narrative shown in Fig. 2 began with a direct question (‘How do you explain being hikikomori to your parents?’) and ended in an answer (‘You should explain being hikikomori to your parents honestly’). Between the first message (direct question) and the last message posted (answer), there were four units comprising three elements. Self-disclosure Many of the discursive interactions between the hikikomori users in the message board began with the practice of self-disclosure to others, through which a user disclosed their own problematic situation in everyday life. Self-disclosure sometimes

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Fig. 2 Results of the structural narrative analysis

appeared just after (or before) posting a specific question. Interestingly, the practice of self-disclosure regarding a problematic situation appeared not only in the first posts but also in several locations throughout dialogues, which resulted in a large amount of description of an individual’s life story or, in this context, ‘a narrative’ as a whole. Types of self-disclosure varied: some users confessed privacy-related issues, while some even revealed secrets about family members. The practice of self-disclosure was conducted honestly, which is understandable because of the anonymity of the online message board. In an example in Fig. 3, the poster began to pose a question to a listener

Fig. 3 Gap topics determined by the thematic narrative analysis

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(‘How do you explain being hikikomori to your parents?’) and then started to disclose their own hikikomori situation step-by-step and in detail as the narrative progressed: The poster disclosed that they had symptoms of social phobia and always felt afraid when communicating with other people, then disclosed that they were embarrassed to tell their parents about their social phobia-related hikikomori because this situation was the same situation as being bullied at school. Lastly, the poster complained that their parents did not understand such social phobia-related hikikomori nor the poster’s embarrassment. Gaps It was noteworthy that the user narratives contained not only self-disclosures (as well as a description in a question format in some cases) but also another type of description that can be called a ‘gap’. In the narrative shown in Fig. 2, a gap-type description often appeared after a self-disclosure. In most cases, a user’s narrative was composed of the sum of these two types of two description—self-disclosure (first) and gap (second)—although some gaps were hidden within the self-disclosures and could only be identified by analysing the context of the self-disclosure. In Unit #1, for example, the gap can easily be identified because the poster clearly presented a problematic situation by providing the expression of denial, ‘cannot’ in their narrative (‘I cannot tell my parents that I am unable to leave the house’). The gap in Unit #2 (Fig. 2) (‘I cannot communicate with other people because…’), on the other hand, was not a direct statement expressed by the poster, but one that the author inferred from the context of the self-disclosure (‘because I have such bad social phobia, and I am so scared of communication with other people’ in the first sentence in Unit #2), which was provided just before the gap. Furthermore, in one large portion of narrative, there were several units of selfdisclosure and of a gap, and these units appeared consecutively: The gap was located in between the first and second self-disclosures. According to the result of the structural narrative analysis, it is fair to say that each unit (Units #1–#4) were mediated by gaps, were linked with each other, and formed a process of narrative. Information Need The structural narrative analysis also revealed that there were several information needs in one narrative. For example, the information need in Unit #1 was obvious because the poster used the expression ‘want’ in the third sentence in Unit #1 (‘I want to know how to explain hikikomori to my parents’), which demonstrated that they were clearly articulating a need for information. In the same manner, in Unit #4, the poster’s information need can again be easily identified due to the use of the word ‘want’ (‘I want to make my parents understand…’). Conversely, it was difficult to find some information needs because they appeared to be embedded within a context of a problematic situation and a gap inferred from the context of this problematic situation. In the case of Unit #2, for example, the poster only provided the selfdisclosure part of a narrative (‘because I have such bad social phobia …’). Thus, in these instances, the author first inferred a gap (‘I cannot communicate with…’) from the context of a self-disclosure and then further inferred the information need,

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which the author termed a ‘hidden’ information need that inferred from a gap (e.g. ‘I want to receive some advice/support for social phobia from someone’; I want to build a social relationship with others’). In addition, the result from the structural narrative analysis revealed that once a user’s gap changed to the next one throughout the process of a narrative, their information need also changed: The structure in Fig. 2 clearly shows a specific pattern in which each information need part is followed by a gap part, even though they are hidden within the context of these parts.

6.2 Thematic Analysis While the structural narrative analysis revealed that several gaps and information needs appeared consecutively in one narrative as described above, the thematic narrative analysis revealed themes (and topics) by analysing the actual content of each gap and information need. Four gap topics (Fig. 3) and six information need topics (Fig. 4) were determined in the narrative. Gap Topics The thematic analysis revealed gap topics within the theme ‘Gaining parent’s understanding of being hikikomori’. As above mentioned, by conducting structural narrative analysis, each gap was identified in each message posted in which a poster included an expression of denial, such as ‘cannot’, in their narrative. The topics of Gap #1 and Gap #4 were easy to capture because, in both cases, the poster clearly described a difficulty and/or conundrum (e.g. ‘I cannot tell my parents that…’, ‘but

Fig. 4 Information need topics determined by the thematic narrative analysis

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they don’t understand my being hikikomori!’) . In contrast, the topics of Gap #2 and that of Gap #3 were more difficult to define because neither were presented by a poster in a narrative; rather, they were captured by the author through an indepth and careful content analysis. The topic of Gap #2 (‘Cannot communicate with people because I have a symptom called ‘social phobia”) is a topic inferred by the author from the content of a poster’s self-disclosure (‘because I have such bad social phobia, I am so scared of communicating with people’. Likewise, the topic of Gap #3 (‘Cannot tell parents about my social phobia-related hikikomori’) was inferred by the author from the content of the poster’s self-disclosure: ‘Hikikomori is kind of the same situation as being bullied in school, and I am too embarrassed to tell my parents about my situation’). Information Need Topics The thematic narrative analysis revealed six Information need topics captured from the narrative in which a poster presented an interest/need by using the expression ‘want’ or implied an interest or need. The first information need topic (‘Need for parents’ understanding about being hikikomori’) was easy to capture because the poster used the word ‘want’ and provided both a direct question (‘How do you explain…?’) and a description of the gap (‘I cannot tell my parents that…’). On the other hand, it was very difficult to capture the second to the fourth information need topics from the content because the poster provided neither a description of an interest/need by using an expression of ‘want’ nor a description of a gap by using an expression of ‘cannot’ in a narrative; rather, they only provided a description of self-disclosure. Consequently, the author carried out two levels of an in-depth content analysis by utilising a thematic narrative analysis tool: in the first step, I inferred the topic of a gap from the content of a self-disclosure, and then in the second step, I inferred the information need topic based on the gap topic that had already been inferred in the first step. Regarding the result of the thematic narrative analysis, it should be stressed that there were differences between the first and last information needs in terms of the quality of the content of an information need. The content of these two information needs seemed the same on the surface (i.e. both information needs indicated that the poster’s need was to gain their parent’s understanding of their being hikikomori) ; however, when reviewing the content of the last information need more deeply, it became clear that the poster wanting their parents to understand hikikomori may have been related to their social phobia, which did not appear in the first information need. As such, it can be said that a thematic narrative analysis not only captures theme/topic of a subject to be analysed in a narrative but also reveals how a quality of an information need becomes more explicit as a narrative progresses.

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7 Discussion The author then applied Dervin’s sense-making metaphors to the results from the study’s narrative analysis. First, I applied the three elements of ‘Situation-GapUse/Help’ and ‘Gap-bridging’ to obtain the result shown in Fig. 5. Thereafter, I created a simplified framework of the practice of sense-making of hikikomori (Fig. 6). ‘Situation-Gap-Use’ Metaphor: Results from the Structural Narrative Analysis The horizontal arrows in Figs. 5 and 6 indicate a certain pattern of sense-making processes through which a poster’s ‘situation’, ‘gap’, and ‘information need’ were connected in the structure of a narrative. On the right side of Fig. 5 is the ‘situation’ element of Dervin’s metaphor, which corresponds to the self-disclosure part of a poster’s narrative structure. In a poster’s narrative, their self-disclosure is a kind of personal background information on their problematic situation. For example, in Unit #2 in Fig. 5, a poster disclosed personal information that they feared communicating with other people because they had a social phobia. Likewise, the ‘gap’ element in the middle column of Fig. 5 corresponds to the gap in a structure that should be followed by a ‘situation’ element, giving weight to the premise of Dervin’s sensemaking metaphor that ‘patterns of human sense-making [are] responsive to changing situations’ as a predictor of a sense-making behaviour [16]. Since one poster’s selfdisclosure as a ‘situation’ including their background information changed at least three times through their narrative structure, the author assumed that this changing self-disclosure might be preceded by a ‘gap’, the second element of Dervin’s sensemaking process; although some gaps could easily be found, some could not.

Fig. 5 Application of Dervin’s two sense-making metaphors to the narrative analysis results

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Fig. 6 Simplified framework of the sense-making practice of hikikomori

Two differences between the three elements of Dervin’s triangle of ‘situationgap-use/help’ and a sense-making process derived from a structural analysis of a narrative should be mentioned. First, the ‘situation-gap-use/help’ triangle leaves no room for an element of information need because the ‘gap’ is seen ‘as needing bridging’, and gaps can be translated as ‘information needs’, as seen in most LIS studies [16]. Dervin’s triangle metaphor can easily be applied to data in which the three elements are clearly expressed. However, a poster in the current study tended to provide only the self-disclosure part of a narrative, from which the author decided to infer the poster’s gap, and, what is worse, the author was required to infer the poster’s information need from this gap, which had already itself been inferred by focusing on the linguistic expressions of ‘cannot’ and ‘want’. To avoid an abstraction brought about by this implied gap and information need, the author also decided that Dervin’s ‘gap’ element could be subdivided into two: gap refers to a more specific problematic situation, while information need relates to a solution to fill these gaps. Second, it was difficult to find a suitable location for the ‘use/help’ in Dervin’s triangle in the structure of the poster’s narrative. One possible reason is that several ‘hidden’ information needs seemed to fail to gain an appropriate answer in a narrative. For example, a poster implied an information need to solve their social phobia-related hikikomori in Unit #3; however, an answer to this need did not provide for a narrative. This suggested that a poster may face a problematic situation (selfdisclosure) and may have a direct/indirect need for information that could solve their problem (information need) but cannot find a solution/answer to this problem and satisfy their information need (gap).

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‘Gap-Bridging’ Metaphor: Results from the Thematic Narrative Analysis The vertical arrows in Figs. 5 and 6 indicate the cognitive process of ‘gap-bridging’ occurred in a poster in a narrative, which was identified by applying Dervin’s ‘gapbridging’ metaphor to the results of the thematic narrative analysis. Dervin’s gapbridging process is composed of gap-facing, gap-defining, and gap-bridging, aiming to define gap-bridging strategies and tactics for examining information use or the effects of information sharing and communicating [16]; however, the present framework focuses more on the detailed ‘trial and error’ process of gap-bridging in a cognition sphere, including not only the gap-facing and gap-defining but also ‘gapredefining’ stages in which a qualitative change of a sense-making may occur. In Fig. 5, in the gap-facing stage (1), a poster faces a gap (i.e. they cannot tell parents about being hikikomori) ; however, at this moment the poster does not provide information about why they cannot tell their parents to continue the narrative. In the gap-defining stage (2), a poster begins to disclose a more detailed personal reason by providing a self-disclosure to create a narrative that due to their social phobia, they cannot tell their parents about being hikikomori. The poster then moves from stage (2) to the gap-redefining stage (3), through which the poster redefines being hikikomori by trying to provide a reason (their social phobia) for it. In the gap-bridging stage (4), the poster finally provides a full version of their information gap and need. It is not an exaggeration to say, therefore, that as the quality of a gap changes from an abstract to a more detailed level, the quality level of an information need also changes in the same way. In fact, Fig. 5 shows that the poster’s general information need in the gap-facing stage (1)—that is, their need for understanding about hikikomori— becomes a more specific need for understanding about their social phobia-related hikikomori condition in the gap-bridging stage (4).

8 Conclusion This empirical study demonstrated that Dervin’s sense-making metaphor, when employed with a narrative analysis tool, is a useful analytical technique for identifying the information needs of hikikomori in a text-based narrative by applying its ‘situation-gap-use’ and ‘gap-bridging’ metaphors to provide both a structural and a thematic narrative analysis. A conceptual framework explicating the sense-making practice of hikikomori was also presented. This conceptual framework showed methodological evidence that Dervin’s two sense-making metaphors were suitable for the author to identify the information needs of hikikomori in online, text-based narratives when a narrative analysis tool was utilised prior to putting these metaphors into practice. First, the framework shows that when employed with a structural narrative analysis, Dervin’s ‘situation-gap-use’ metaphor can be useful for identifying a situation, gap, and information need and for capturing a temporal movement through a narrative in which these three elements appear consecutively and are connected with each

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other. Second, this framework shows that Dervin’s ‘gap-bridging’ metaphor, when employed with a thematic narrative analysis, can be useful for capturing the process of problem-forming in which a qualitative change of a gap and information need occur in a poster’s cognition. Third, more importantly, this framework shows that some reactions against gaps (problems) and information needs (desired outcomes by filling gaps) exist in only the speaker’s context of a ‘hidden area’; thus, ‘hidden’ problems, as well as ‘hidden’ desired outcomes, in a speaker’s context could only be captured in the author’s analysis by utilising Dervin’s sense-making metaphors in addition to a narrative analysis tool. This study, however, did not reveal how hikikomori relate to their gaps and information needs in cognition, how they prioritise gaps and information needs, and how they evaluate them. The study also did not reveal whether the poster in this study was able to achieve sense-making, and if not, why they ended up reaching senseunmaking. To understand these unrevealed parts, further insight is desperately needed on hikikomori’s practice of sense-making, something which could be accomplished by conducting a micro-moment timeline interview, as proposed by Dervin. This type of interview reveals the more detailed process of problem-forming and sense-making by ‘asking a respondent to detail what happened in a situation step-by-step in terms of what happened first, second, and so on’ [16]. Another further avenue for research is to explore the effectiveness of using Dervin’s sense-making metaphors with a narrative analysis tool as an analytical technique for identifying information needs. This can be employed with hikikomori in a virtual environment, as well as with people in other socially marginal situations, such as job seekers, NEETs, people with an actual or perceived deviant sexual orientation, and people with disabilities.

References 1. Ohashi N (2008) Exploring the psychic roots of Hikikomori in Japan. ProQuest, UMI Dissertation Publishing, Ann Arbor 2. Kaneko S (2006) Japan’s ‘Socially withdrawn youths’ and time constraints in Japanese society: management and conceptualization of time in a support group for ‘Hikikomori.’ Time Soc 15(2–3):233–249 3. Kato TA, Kanba S, Teo AR (2018) Hikikomori: experience in Japan and international relevance. World Psychiatry 17(1):105–106 4. Sait¯o T, Angles J (2013) Hikikomori: adolescence without end. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis 5. Pereira-Sanchez V, Alvarez-Mon MA, Asunsolo del Barco A, Alvarez-Mon M, Teo A (2019) Exploring the extent of the hikikomori phenomenon on twitter: mixed methods study of western language tweets. J Med Internet Res 21(5):e14167–e14167 6. Liu LL, Li TM, Teo AR, Kato TA, Wong PW (2018) Harnessing social media to explore youth social withdrawal in three major cities in china: cross-sectional web survey. JMIR Mental Health 5(2):e34–e34

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7. Haasio A (2015) Abstract (Otherness, information needs and information sharing in the “small world” of the Internet: a study of socially withdrawn people’s information behavior). In: Toiseus (ed) tiedontarpeet ja tiedon jakaminen tietoverkon “pienessä maailmassa”: Tutkimus sosiaalisesti vetäytyneiden henkilöiden informaatiokäyttäytymisestä. Tampere University Press, Tampere. https://trepo.tuni.fi/handle/10024/97938 8. Haasio A, Naka H (2019) Information needs of the Finnish and Japanese Hikikomori: a comparative study. Qual Quant Methods Librar 8(4):509–523 9. Case DO, Given LM (eds) (2016) Looking for information a survey of research on information seeking, needs, and behavior, 4th edn. Emerald, Bingley 10. Ishikawa R (2007) Hikikomori no goru: shuro demo naku taijin kankei demo naku. Seikyusha, Tokyo 11. Savolainen R (2012) Conceptualizing information need in context. Inf Res 17(4) 12. Fidel R (2012) Human information interaction: an ecological approach to information behavior. MIT Press, Cambridge 13. Vakkari P (1999) Task complexity, problem structure and information actions: integrating studies on information seeking and retrieval. Inf Process Manage 35(6):819–837 14. Vakkari P (2003) Task-based information searching. Ann Rev Inf Sci Technol 37(1):413–464 15. Savolainen R (2017) Information need as trigger and driver of information seeking: a conceptual analysis. Aslib J Inf Manage 69(1):2–21 16. Dervin B (1983) An overview of sense-making research: concepts, methods and results to date. Paper presented at the International Communication Association Annual Meeting, Dallas 17. Dervin B, Naumer C (2009) Sense-making. In: Bates M, Maack M (eds) Encyclopedia of library and information sciences, 3rd ed., vol 5. CRC Press, Boca Raton, pp 4696–4707 18. Dervin B, Frenette M (2003) Sense-making methodology: Communicating communicatively with campaign audiences. In: Dervin B, Foreman-Wernet L (eds) Sense-making methodology reader. Selected writings of Brenda Dervin. Hampton Press, Cresskill, pp 233–249 19. Dervin B (2003) Sense-making’s journey from metatheory to methodology to method: an example using information seeking and use as re-search focus. In: Dervin B, Foreman-Wernet L (eds) Sense-making methodology reader. Selected writings of Brenda Dervin. Hampton Press, Cresskill, pp 133–163 20. Dervin B (2003) From the mind’s eye of the ‘user’: the sense-making qualitative-quantitative methodology. In: Dervin B, Foreman-Wernet L (eds) Sense-making methodology reader. Selected writings of Brenda Dervin. Hampton Press, Cresskill, pp 269–292 21. Savolainen R (2006) Information use as gap-bridging: the viewpoint of sense-making methodology. J Am Soc Inf Sci Technols 57(8):1116–1125 22. Tuominen K, Savolainen R (1997) A social constructionist approach to the study of information use as discursive action. In: Vakkari P, Savolainen R, Dervin B (eds) Information seeking in context (ISIC): proceedings of an international conference on research in information needs, seeking and use in different contexts, Tampere, 14–16 August, 1996. Taylor Graham, London, pp 81–96 23. Riessman CK (2008) Narrative methods for the human sciences. Sage Publications, Los Angeles

Hajime Naka (MA) is an associate professor in the Department of Education at Tokoha University, Japan. He has a master’s degree in information studies (University of Toronto, Canada) and is currently in the third year of his PhD in Library, Information, and Media Studies (University of Tsukuba, Japan). The research topic for his doctoral dissertation is the information needs and practices of people in situations of social withdrawal, a.k.a. hikikomori, in online discussion forums. In this dissertation, he is trying to develop analytical methods and techniques for identifying the information need of hikikomori and the various types of socio-cultural barriers to information practices expressed in online discussion forums, taking a sociolinguistic approach via both narrative and discourse analysis. His special interest lies in exploring the effect of the socio-cultural

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barriers associated with social norms—including family norms, occupational norms, and marriage norms—on the information needs and practices of hikikomori. Based on the outcomes from his doctoral dissertation, he intends to further develop strategies and tactics for interviewing hikikomori to determine their information needs and usage processes in context. He is also working on an international comparative research project on the cultural impact of information behaviour on hikikomori in collaboration with a researcher in Finland.

Sharing Identity Information on Dark Web Drug Boards Maria Hakalahti and J. Tuomas Harviainen

Abstract This chapter uses Elfreda Chatman’s concept of small worlds and Reijo Savolainen’s concept of Way of Life to examine identity information sharing on a Finnish Dark Web drug trading image board. Based on a curated set of posts, it shows how people’s identity information sharing on such anonymous fora often centres around issues of trust and safety. The chapter discovers that like other small world virtual communities, these too are of information poor environments, where some participants are seen as outsiders and some as insiders, based on factors such as age, ethnicity, and information sharing. Keywords Information practices · Information sharing · Dark Web · Drug trading · Image board

1 Introduction This chapter examines the ways in which information practices take place on Dark Web image boards related to drug trading. The Dark Web is the visual part of the larger ‘darknet’ or ‘dark net’, a mostly non-indexed section of the World Wide Web, which requires specially configured browser software, such as the Tor browser, in order to be used [1]. Within the Dark Web, people can access spaces intended for e.g., whistleblower data dumps, support groups, hidden democracy movement discussions, the sharing of child exploitation images, and so forth [2]. Yet their most commonly known use is online drug trading. The most famous of these sites was the original Silk Road (2011–2013; see e.g., [3]), but many others have existed since. The Internet, particularly its Dark Web sections, has become an increasingly important channel for drug trading [4]. This is not, however, the whole picture, as for example social media M. Hakalahti Finnish Academy of Science and Letters, Helsinki, Finland e-mail: [email protected] J. T. Harviainen (B) Tampere University, Tampere, Finland e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 O. L. Madge (ed.), New Trends and Challenges in Information Science and Information Seeking Behaviour, Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems 193, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68466-2_5

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platforms on the indexed Clear Web, and various instant messaging systems, are also utilised by some user segments for both drug trading and drug-related information sharing [5–7]. Drug trading sites on the Dark Web can be roughly divided into two types: cryptomarkets and image boards, which may in some cases overlap. On the former, people make mail-order purchases by using cryptocurrencies, while using usernames to hide their actual identities, and can leave seller and/or buyer ratings [8; see also 9]. On the latter, they either state their purchasing needs, or what drugs they have available, and then set up face to face (f2f) sales via an instant messaging software such as Wickr or Telegram [10–12]. Image boards may sometimes also contain mail order sections, but that is not their primary function, and they may include discussion threads related to other crimes or the drug-using lifestyle (see [13] for examples). Likewise, some cryptomarkets have featured discussion forum like sections. Traffic on both types of drug trading sites is pseudo-anonymous, due to the Tor (The Onion Router) technology. Originally developed for secure military communication, Onion Routing has expanded to various areas of clandestine interaction. Very roughly put, the core idea is that Tor traffic takes place in a manner in which layers of information are ‘peeled’ at each step of the way, so that at most points only the preceding and the next router are known and can be traced (for technological details, see e.g., [14]). However, this does not, guarantee complete anonymity. If, for example, the police seize a drug trading site’s main server, or if someone owns enough computers in the volunteer network supporting Onion Routing, it is possible to track down individual users. People nevertheless use these sites, particularly cryptomarkets, because they think that making purchases on them is safer than f2f dealing, due to the possibility of supposed anonymity and the possibility to pay with e.g., Bitcoin [15, 16]. Because of the expected anonymity issues, our focus here, in this chapter, is especially on the sharing of personal information on drug-related Dark Web image boards (Internet forums that are based on initial image postings, but which also contain discussions; for example, 4Chan). On cryptomarkets, people may deal with physical mailing addresses, while trying to minimise the risk of detection [17]. On image boards, they can remain slightly more anonymous, but need to risk meeting a dealer or client (or a robber) face to face. They, therefore, prefer local trades by local partners, and can set several criteria (e.g., age, ethnicity) as pre-requisites for the meeting [12]. There is also the difference in that whereas cryptomarkets are typically business-to-business, i.e., sales for further distribution [18], image boards can include very minor sales [13]. On image boards, the traders post instant messaging service (in Finland, typically Wickr) usernames, either in the seller’s advertisement, or as buyers under an advertisement, and then move their further discussion to that more secure platform. Wickr names, for instance, are unique and cannot be re-registered, but a user may have more than one such username [12]. A seller’s reputation [19], community recommendations [20] and risk perceptions by all parties [21] therefore become the central elements for determining information sharing’s source reliability. Here, we examine identity information issues (including doxing, the revelation of

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personal identity information without consent), as examples of information sharing on a local image board.

2 Methodology Earlier research on Dark Web drug trading focused on topics such as market availability [22], the technologies involved (e.g., [14]), or criminology [23]. For an information studies contribution, many of those discussions are relevant, but would be unnecessary forays in a book chapter like this. Some earlier points, despite coming from very different disciplinary backgrounds, are however highly relevant here. For example, Nurmi et al. [19] and Bakken and Demant’s [21] work on seller reputations, Gehl’s [1] book on Dark Web fora, and Childs et al.’s [24] research on ‘direct dealing’, are all of interest to information scholars. This area of information practices has so far been addressed mainly with three concepts: disnormative information [25], Dark Knowledge [26], and Dark Web authenticity [1]. Here, we argue that these three concepts are interconnected. Access to disnormative information (information that may not be illegal, but goes against social norms or values) becomes a user’s Dark Knowledge (‘an epistemology that acknowledges both alternative knowledge and ways of knowing which are cognizant of the moral and ethical positioning of each’ [26]). Having Dark Knowledge, in turn, makes users seem credible, reliable and in-the-know on drug-related discussion fora [5], and makes them authentic members of the community (as per [1]). Similar findings have already been made decades ago, in offline contexts (see e.g., [27]). We approach this topic as a combination of the everyday-life information seeking model (ELIS) of Reijo Savolainen [28, 29], particularly the idea of a Way of Life, and the small worlds framework of Elfreda Chatman’s [30, 31]. As with Chatman’s observed communities of community outsiders and female prisoners, here, too, people have a situation which sets them apart from the conventions and practices of the surrounding world, and as with Savolainen’s Way of Life, building upon Bourdieu’s [32, 33] concept of habitus, drug use may become a defining, internalised set of practices which affects everyday life, including the involved information practices (see [13]). Furthermore, people act as a type of efficiency community, when possible, by sharing useful information (as per [34]). The data was gathered by using web scraping software. This is a contested approach, but also one considered amongst the most non-intrusive, alongside just lurking and observing, as far as Dark Web fora are concerned (e.g., [35, 36; see also 37, 38] for especially important counterpoints). This aspect is very important when studying disnormative information, as the anonymous or pseudo-anonymous participants on these fora are often members of vulnerable populations. At the same time, the approach contains several potential problems, especially regarding software configuration and optimal query formation. For example, Dolliver [39] gathered data

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on the drug trading site Silk Road 2, but faced severe critique on the accuracy of the material [40–42; see also [43]). For ethical reasons, this chapter uses a curated sample of 175 forum posts out of a total data set of roughly 9,300 on a Finnish drug trading image board. The reason for this selection was that of getting a randomised time period for data collection, and opting for a slice of what could be considered a ‘typical’ amount of data on the site at a given time. As the site destroys all but the last 150 posts on each of its areas, this can be considered representative (see [13]). Despite the board being image-based, only text was used, so as not to harm the subjects of the investigation. The posts were then screened from a set of threads and manually coded separately by both authors. Identity-related information was counted in direct, strong indirect, and indirect forms. For security reasons and GDPR compliance, all real names were removed from the data set before the analysis. Some indirect types of data were also excluded, as for example owning a driver’s license, or having a credit rating, being alone insufficient as potential identifiers. Eventually, 25 accepted categories were identified, based on a second coding done by Hakalahti [44] (Table 1). The ‘identity’ category contained, for example, the revelation of unreliable identifying marks of the seller (but not a name), as well as posts stating that someone else was a troll. And since the image board in question contained both locationbased (e.g., ‘Helsinki’) and content-based (e.g., ‘hormones’) areas, only posts which clearly stated that a person lived in an area were counted. Therefore, many posts of the type ‘good speed available in Kallio. W: [Wickr username]’ went into the discarded category. (All quotes and categories here were translated from Finnish by Harviainen.) Table 1 Data categorisation

Accepted categories

Discarded categories

Name Gender Age Ethnicity Identity Address-related information Shared Wickr usernames Appearance and physical characteristics Sexual orientation Personal relationships and family Profession and field of business Car license plate numbers Health and control over life A crime or the sentence of a crime Other personal records

Wealth and clean credit rating Driver’s license or driving skill Status on the job market Clean criminal records Experience in growing or selling drugs Experiences of using drugs Other life experiences Non-close relationships Values, attitudes and opinions Ideologies

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3 Findings Of the eventually curated 175 examined posts, taken from location-based areas and ‘work’, 136 contained identity information sharing, 48 contained information needs relating to identity, and six contained information needs relating to the selling of identity information. Some of these existed in the same overlapping posts and topics. The most commonly shared identifiers were gender (27.9%), age (21.3%) and ethnicity (19.1%). These too, at times, overlapped and, therefore, the total percentages exceeded 100% (see Table 2). Seven categories of sharing motives were identified: (1) Demonstrating trust or distrust, (2) employment and earning money, (3) trolling and provocation, (4) warning others about a person, (5) reaching a person, (6) selling and buying narcotics, and (7) other motives. The ‘work’ thread proved an exception to the common sharing patterns, as people there advertised their skills, or sought employment. This is to be taken in the context that this was nevertheless a drug forum and therefore the work being sought or offered was mostly of the illegal kind, such as fraud, drug sales, or prostitution (which is legal in Finland, but profiting from someone else’s prostitution is not). Mentions of age and gender were usually in a typical format, regardless of the job type. For example, ‘a twentysomething dude with credit rating still intact’. As noted in the earlier research (e.g., [12], these forums are also actively racist. A statement of being a native Finn, and only dealing with other native Finns, was quite common. This, combined with ethnic stereotyping and vulgar racial slurs, indicates Table 2 Shared information types Type of information shared

n

%

Gender

38

27.9

Age

29

21.3

Ethnicity

26

19.1

Wickr-username (for identifying someone or establishing trust)

21

15.4

Area or address

19

14.0

Other topics

14

10.3

Appearance and physical characteristics

10

7.4

Identity

9

6.6

Health and control over life

8

5.9

Name

6

4.4

Profession and field of business

5

3.7

Relationship and family

5

3.7

A crime or the sentence of a crime

4

2.9

Car license plate

4

2.9

Sexual orientation Total

3

2.2

136

149.1

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that some members of the community see ethnicity as a reliability factor usable for establishing trust. Certain ethnicities were considered as especially unreliable, while others, such as Swedes or Estonians got no mentions in warnings. All this emphasizes the ways in which people on this anonymous site appeared to share information first and foremost for the purpose of establishing trust, or warning about those who, in their opinion, were not worthy of it. Nevertheless, in this sample, this directly appeared in just 36% of the 136 sharing posts. For example, Wickr usernames of others were mostly disclosed for the sake of identifying treacherous individuals, for example: ‘wickr username [Wickr username]—clearly a Rat’. Likewise, address-related sharing followed the same principle: ‘I’ve only lived in Turku for a short while, so I’m not known’ or ‘Lives in Pähkinärinne, a total rat’. Some of the posts implied knowledge of exact addresses of others, such as ‘Cheater I luckily know where you live hahahaha ive followed you to your building door’. An example of a complex message could be found here, containing both a work offer and the naming of an individual, plus the personal information of having a restraining order regarding the named individual: easy job, good pay! Get from apartment X from person Y my laptop and phone. You will get paid at the same place, as also my stash is there! I’d gladly pay the slut a visit, but due to a R.order the end result is not nice.

An interesting case from the ‘Other’ category included something very rare on the site: an email address. Given how this was in a post by two gym-going 16year-olds offering debt collection services, this can be suspected as being a lack of experience. Since the post likewise could be trolling (14% of sharing posts were clearly identifiable as such), the motives are left unknown. Other identity details in the same category were a rare hobby, and a religious conviction. Real names were rare, but doxing at times took place, as did threats of knowing some username’s real identity. Family situation sharing typically included a mention of one’s spouse, and thus like some work applications formed somewhat of an exception to the idea of sharing for trust, but the category also contained some cases where for example a ‘known rat’s’ wife was named. Sexual orientation was mentioned both by people looking for company or customers, and as a slur on members of minorities. Marketing identity information for money was rare, but took place, for example: For sale two [ethnic slur] rats. One is about 185 cm really thin and the other 170 cm maybe 16 years and 20 years. These [ethnic slur] have been ratting on the board already for a long time. I will sell this both 200e.

This type of sharing serves both the financial interests of the sharer, but also functions as community policing within a disnormative small world. People who had been, in turn, cheated in deals sometimes posted their information needs, promising payment in return for finding the offending party. In those cases, they too would often share the Wickr names, as a form of warning.

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Users shared much more information about others (61% of posts, than of themselves (41.2%). This is understandable, given the way people on the site want to protect their own identities.

4 Discussion The data shows clear signs of information poverty (as per [30]), but not a completely small world situation, in which people involved in the drug subculture would reject certain information sources (as per [45, p. 31]. On the contrary, participants on image boards like this appear to take pride in their ‘outlaw’ status, same as some of Becker’s [27] informants did. This reflects the ways in which drug use has become a Way of Life for many (as per [28; see also [13]). Nevertheless, the social norms of the community (as per [45]; see also [46]) define many of the information practices on the forum. This is particularly interesting since in many ways, disnormative information effectively becomes the community’s normative information, reflecting several points from Haasio [25], Burnett and Lloyd [26] and Gehl [1]. As Chatman [45]) pointed out, a small world is not only a limitation on what kind of information is welcome, but also, it favours of certain familiar (‘insider’) sources over others. It would be easy to claim that this is the avoidance of cognitive dissonance (as per [47]) by avoiding conflicting information, but we believe that this explanation is insufficient. The Way of Life of these drug users makes them, as Chatman [45] noted, use their everyday experiences and common wisdom as the baseline for evaluating what information is accepted and what is possibly appended to existing knowledge structures. On this particular board, ethnicity, age and showing expertise in how one trades and for how often one uses drugs (see [12]) determines who gets to be one of the respected insiders.

5 Conclusions Members of this community both help and protect one another, but also fear and distrust each other at the same time. The analysed posts implied this tension, and earlier research suggests that they navigate this borderline constantly, especially if they are daily users of drugs. The site’s anonymity makes identity information sharing a powerful tool in many cases, but it may, for example in the case of minors, lead to their ostracism from the rest of the community. The way in which the practices on the site reflect a small world points towards a shared core understanding of the common Way of Life, yet also towards people recognising individual-level differences in habitus, and trustworthiness of that habitus. In sharing information, the users of the image board are also showing a sense of a disnormative community, where Dark Knowledge, especially on who can be trusted and who cannot, grants status and may also lead to better deals for the individual

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in-the-know. Many of the users will, despite setting up face to face deals via Wickr, never know most of the other community members behind the numerous Wickr usernames. This is, as Gehl [1] points out, a core part of the ideology of the Dark Web. The identity information sharing, while seemingly altruistic, in fact protects also the sharer in the long run, as long as it is not too common. Acknowledgements This research was partially supported by Academy of Finland grant 329342-5, Extremist Networks, Narcotics and Criminality in Online Darknet Environments.

References 1. Gehl RW (2018) Weaving the dark web: legitimacy on Freenet, Tor, and I2P. MIT Press, Cambridge 2. Moore D, Rid T (2016) Cryptopolitik and the darknet. Survival 58(1):7–38 3. Barratt MJ (2012) Silk road: Ebay for drugs. Addiction 107(3):683–684 4. Norbutas L (2018) Offline constraints in online drug marketplaces: an exploratory analysis of a cryptomarket trade network. Int J Drug Policy 56:92–100 5. Bilgrei OR (2018) Broscience. Creating trust in online drug communities. New Media Soc 20(8):2712–2727 6. Demant J, Bakken SA, Oksanen A, Gunnlaugsson H (2019) Drug dealing on Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram: a qualitative analysis of novel drug markets in the Nordic countries. Drug Alcohol Rev 38(4):377–385 7. Oksanen A, Miller BL, Savolainen I, Sirola A, Demant JJ, Kaakinen M, Zych I (2020) Illicit drug purchases via social media among American Young People. In: Social computing and social media, vol 12194. Springer, New York, pp 278–288 8. Martin J, Munksgaard R, Coomber R, Demant J, Barratt MJ (2020) Selling drugs on darkweb cryptomarkets: differentiated pathways, risks and rewards. Br J Criminol 60(3):559–578 9. Hämäläinen L (2015) User names of illegal drug vendors on a darknet cryptomarket. Onoma 50:43–68 10. Buxton J, Bingham T (2015) The rise and challenge of dark net drug markets. Policy Brief 7:1–24 11. Moyle L, Childs A, Coomber R, Barratt MJ (2019) #Drugsforsale: an exploration of the use of social media and encrypted messaging apps to supply and access drugs. Int J Drug Policy 63:101–110 12. Harviainen JT, Haasio A, Hämäläinen L (2020) Drug traders on a local Dark Web marketplace. In: AcademicMindtrek ‘20: proceedings of the 23rd international conference on academic mindtrek January 2020. ACM, New York, pp 20–26 13. Haasio A, Harviainen JT, Savolainen R (2020) Information needs of drug users on a local dark Web marketplace. Inf Process Manage 57(2) 14. Nurmi J (2019) Understanding the usage of anonymous onion services, vol 62. Tampere University, Tampere 15. Foley S, Karlsen JR, Putni¸nš TJ (2019) Sex, drugs, and bitcoin: how much illegal activity is financed through cryptocurrencies? Rev Finan Stud 32(5):1798–1853 16. Grimani A, Gavine A, Moncur W (2020) An evidence synthesis of strategies, enablers and barriers for keeping secrets online regarding the procurement and supply of illicit drugs. Int J Drug Policy 75 17. Aldridge J, Askew R (2017) Delivery dilemmas: how drug cryptomarket users identify and seek to reduce their risk of detection by law enforcement. Int J Drug Policy 41:101–109

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18. Aldridge J, Décary-Hétu D (2014) Not an ’eBay for drugs’: the cryptomarket “Silk road” as a paradigm shifting criminal innovation 19. Nurmi J, Kaskela T, Perälä J, Oksanen A (2017) Seller’s reputation and capacity on the illicit drug markets: 11-month study on the Finnish version of the Silk Road. Drug Alcohol Depend 178:201–207 20. Lorenzo-Dus N, Di Cristofaro M (2018) I know this whole market is based on the trust you put in me and I don’t take that lightly. Trust, community and discourse in crypto-drug markets. Discourse Commun 12(6):608–626 21. Bakken SA, Demant JJ (2019) Sellers’ risk perceptions in public and private social media drug markets. Int J Drug Policy 73 22. Scourfield A, Flick C, Ross J, Wood DM, Thurtle N, Stellmach D, Dargan PI (2019) Synthetic cannabinoid availability on darknet drug markets—changes during 2016–2017. Toxicol Commun 3(1):7–15 23. Duxbury SW, Haynie DL (2018) The network structure of opioid distribution on a darknet cryptomarket. J Quant Criminol 34:921–941 24. Childs A, Coomber R, Bull M, Barratt MJ (2020) Evolving and diversifying selling practices on drug cryptomarkets: an exploration of off-platform “Direct Dealing.” J Drug Issues 50(2):173– 190 25. Haasio A (2019) What is disnormative information? Inf Commun Sci Res 23(1):9–16 26. Burnett S, Lloyd A (2020) Hidden and forbidden: conceptualising dark knowledge. J Documentation, ahead-of-print 27. Becker HS (1963) Outsiders: studies in the sociology of deviance. MacMillan 28. Savolainen R (1995) Everyday life information seeking: approaching information seeking in the context of way of life. Libr Inf Sci Res 17(3):259–294 29. Savolainen R (2008) Everyday information practices. A social phenomenological perspective. Scarecrow Press, Lanham 30. Chatman EA (1996) The impoverished life-world of outsiders. J Am Soc Inf Sci 47(3):193–206 31. Chatman EA (1999) A theory of life in the round. J Am Soc Inf Sci 50(3):207–217 32. Bourdieu P (1979) La distinction: Critique sociale du jugement. Editions de Minuit, Paris 33. Bourdieu P (1990) The logic of practice. Polity, Cambridge 34. Sonnenwald D (2006) Challenges in sharing information effectively: examples from command and control. Inf Res Int Electron J 11 35. Christin N (2013) Traveling the silk road: a measurement analysis of a large anonymous online marketplace. In: Proceedings of the 22nd international conference on world wide web. Association for Computing Machinery, New York, pp 213–224 36. Martin J, Christin N (2016) Ethics in cryptomarket research. Int J Drug Policy 35:84–91 37. Ferguson R-H (2017) Offline ‘stranger’ and online lurker: methods for an ethnography of illicit transactions on the darknet. Qualit Res 17(6):683–698 38. Kaufmann M, Tzanetakis M (2020) Doing internet research with hard-to-reach communities: methodological reflections on gaining meaningful access. Qual Res 39. Dolliver DS (2015) Evaluating drug trafficking on the Tor Network: Silk road 2, the sequel. Int J Drug Policy 26(11):1113–1123 40. Aldridge J, Décary-Hétu D (2015) A response to Dolliver’s ‘evaluating drug trafficking on the Tor network: Silk Road 2, the Sequel. Int J Drug Policy 26:1124–1125 41. Van Buskirk J, Roxburgh A, Naicker S, Burns L (2015) A response to Dolliver’s ‘evaluating drug trafficking on the Tor Network.’ Int J Drug Policy 26:1126–1127 42. Munksgaard R, Demant J, Branwen G (2016) A replication and methodological critique of the study ‘evaluating drug trafficking on the Tor network.’ Int J Drug Policy 35:92–96 43. Dolliver DS (2015) A rejoinder to authors: data collection on Tor. Int J Drug Policy 26:1128– 1129 44. Hakalahti M (2019) Identiteettiin liittyvän tiedon jakaminen ja tiedontarpeet tor-verkon Sipulitorilla. MA thesis, Tampere University 45. Chatman EA (1991) Life in a small world. Applicability of gratification theory to informationseeking behavior. J Am Soc Inf Sci 42(6):438–449

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46. Burnett G, Besant M, Chatman EA (2001) Small worlds: normative behavior in virtual communities and feminist bookselling. J Am Soc Inform Sci Technol 52(7):536–547 47. Festinger L (1957) A theory of cognitive dissonance. Stanford University Press, Stanford

Maria Hakalahti (MSc, BBA) is a recent graduate of the Degree Programme in Information Studies and Interactive Media at the University of Tampere. Her MA thesis examined the characteristics and motives behind sharing identity information on a Finnish drug trading image board. J. Tuomas Harviainen (PhD, MBA) is Associate Professor of Information Practices at Tampere University, Finland. His research ranges from organisational information to Dark Web drug trades; from ethics in creative industries to sexuality as play. Harviainen is specialised especially on interpersonal information sharing between creative organisations, as well as the application of practice theories for understanding information sharing and use in marginalised communities.

Understanding the Information Behaviour of Parents Refusing Vaccination for Their Children: the Recent Measles Outbreak in Romania Octavia-Luciana Madge and Ioana Robu

Abstract The purpose of this chapter is to underline the importance of research methods such as discourse analysis in the study of the health information behaviour, in connection to the recent measles outbreak in Romania. A qualitative approach combining narrative and autoethnography was used to analyse situations of vaccination refusal for children in Romania, as reported by the Romanian information channels, the working hypothesis being that the information behaviour of individuals is influenced by a subjective bias of an intricate cluster of beliefs, political orientation, and immediate social environment. The analysis revealed an opposition to vaccination of a proportion of the Romanian population difficult to quantify, but strong enough to influence and to interfere with good healthcare practices. Proactive strategies should be carried out by Romanian authorities to promote to the population the importance and the safety of vaccination, along with pushing information campaigns in media and taking action to combat myths and false information. These efforts should also reach marginalised or disadvantaged groups of population. This study can help public health authorities and practitioners better understand the health information behaviour of the population and the profiles of those influenced by anti-vaccinationists and it would help identify and analyse the factors influencing population refusal of vaccination. Keywords Information behaviour · Healthcare information · Measles · Measles outbreak · Vaccination · Romania

O. L. Madge (B) Department of Communication Sciences, Faculty of Letters and Doctoral School in Communication Sciences, Faculty of Journalism and Communication Studies, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] I. Robu The Library of the Cluj Medicine and Pharmacy University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 O. L. Madge (ed.), New Trends and Challenges in Information Science and Information Seeking Behaviour, Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems 193, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68466-2_6

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1 Introduction Since the end of eighteenth century, when the first vaccine was developed by the English physician Edward Jenner and up until today, vaccination has proved to be one of the greatest triumphs of medical science. Nevertheless, despite its proven effectiveness in the prevention of infectious diseases it has been opposed by different groups, based on, but not limited to various scientific, ethical, political, medical safety, religious considerations [1, 2]. Considering the anti-vaccination movement as a unique and paradoxical form of anti-consumption,

Lee and Male found that the main reasons behind this movement are religion, freedom of choice, risk and uncertainty and this despite the medical establishment communicating immunization as being: crucial to children’s health, safe to administer, effective against vaccine-preventable diseases and free in most countries. [3]

Similarities and the transmission of core beliefs and attitudes over time

of anti-vaccinationists from the late nineteenth century and those from the late twentieth century have been noted by Wolfe and Sharp [4]. But such beliefs may also be found nowadays, in the twenty-first century, with parents who choose not to vaccinate their children. These parents are not only part of some disadvantaged groups, but sometimes they are highly educated and informed people, as a recent situation in Romania has shown. During the second part of 2016 the authorities in Romania officially announced a measles outbreak after the number of reported cases increased significantly. The basis of this outbreak was the decrease of the vaccination rate during the past few years, caused by various factors, among which a lack of awareness for the need to vaccinate children, low coverage of immunisation among disadvantaged groups, insufficient vaccine stocks, along with a fairly strong anti-vaccine movement. With the exception of the temporary problems related to vaccine supply, all the other factors are in fact related to the lack of health literacy and reliable healthcare information in Romania. This paper aims to increase the understanding of health information behaviour and of the attitude towards vaccination of parents in Romania refusing vaccination for their children, while focusing on the assessment of innovative research methods such as discursive research methods, e.g. narratives, traditional storytelling and (auto) ethnography when trying to understand the information behaviour of this group of population. These methods prove useful to analyse the situation of this recent epidemic, where ‘hard’ or ‘cold’ statistical investigative methods fail. And they fail because the trend of vaccination hesitancy itself goes ‘beyond rational explanation’ [5].

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61

Studies show that regardless of the context or the conditions discussed, people need information in a form that they can understand and access, they need information adapted for their use. And as Enwald et al. emphasized very well, Targeting and tailoring are means that can be used for increasing the effectiveness of health information by providing more user-centred information. [6]

Analysing the levels of trust people have for different healthcare information sources Sengupta and Wang find that Personal information sources are more effective than mass media sources in impacting both attitude and intention. While the impact of mass media weakens from the attitude stage to the intention stage, the impact of personal information sources increases from the attitude stage to the intention stage. [7]

The same specialists write that Providing timely, accurate information about the seriousness of the threat and the availability of a safe, effective vaccine through appropriate information channels could motivate individuals to get vaccinated and stay healthy during future pandemics. [7]

Information literacy and health literacy play an important role and they have an impact on the results of the information-seeking process. Health literacy, necessary in order to make decisions regarding healthcare and important for disease prevention, was defined as the ability of patients to access, understand and use information regarding their diagnosis to function effectively within the healthcare system [8]. The results of this study could be used for a better approach to improving the health literacy level and the health information behaviour of the population in Romania.

2 Information Behaviour The field of information behaviour (IB) has had a constant evolution over the last decades, owing to many theories issued and to many methods developed. Most researchers use the term information behaviour, but others, like Spink and Cole [9], Sonnenwald and Iivonen [10] and even Wilson [11], consider it is better to use the term human information behaviour (HIB). According to Bates [12] every human interaction with information can be considered as information behaviour. Wilson defines information behaviour as the totality of human behaviour in relation to sources and channels of information, including both active and passive information seeking, and information use. Thus, it includes faceto-face communication with others, as well as the passive reception of information as in, for example, watching TV advertisements, without any intention to act on the information given. [11]

Analysing the close relationship between information behaviour and information literacy, Shenton and Hay-Gibson note that information behaviour

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O. L. Madge and I. Robu explores the totality of a person’s experience as an information user

and that today [it] constitutes a ‘transdiscipline’. [13]

Sonnenwald formulates a framework for human information behaviour in which she includes information exploration, seeking, filtering, use and communication and she suggests social networks play an important role in human information behaviour through helping to define an individual’s information horizon and through actively participating in the human information process. [14]

Given et al. refer to an increase in the range and diversity of topics, settings and participant groups explored

and they note that New technologies, new social policies, new research methodologies, and other factors have shaped the evolution of HIB research in exciting ways. [15]

In the same line of noting that information behaviour is a well-established field of study today, Wilson writes that the study of human information behaviour is now a well-defined area of research within information science,

with a remarkable degree of cohesion (…) in the models and methods used to explore behaviour, and that some degree of integration of different models is now taking place. [11]

Discussing the trends and approaches of information behaviour research, Vakkari found in 2008 that there is an observable trend towards descriptive, qualitative studies using individual level variables and loose theoretical frames. There is a declining trend of theoretical, explanatory and quantitative studies. There is a shift of focus from the information behaviour of professionals to every-day-life information seeking [16].

Greifeneder noted in a study from 2014 that Qualitative methods still dominated information behaviour research and information seeking still was the major topic. [17]

In a study from 2011 Julien et al. noted that questionnaires and interviews were the most used methods for information behaviour research [18]. As Fourie and Julien note, making choices and making decisions are circumstances driven by emotion and where information has an impact. Emotional experiences are embedded in information behaviour and information behaviour can trigger or change emotional experiences. [19]

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63

and they underline the need to study information behaviour from an affective paradigm. [19]

Vaccination, the anti-vaccination movement and all the stories around the vaccination and its side effects are circumstances when human behaviour is strongly driven by emotion, especially when children are involved. That is why a new approach is needed, especially when the ‘hard’ methods— statistical assessment of population groups based on income analysis, education, environments, available service, so on, seem to fail or yield weak results. Other, more innovative methods such as analysing narratives, myths, storytelling and ethnography are much more adequate when assessing information behaviour.

3 Methods In this paper we started from the assumption that innovative research methods such as narratives, myths, storytelling and ethnography are the most efficient in order to study the health information behaviour of parents in Romania in the context of the recent measles epidemic. The anti-vaccination movement is an extremely complex issue that may be investigated from many angles, depending on the research domain—public health, sociology, psychology, ethnology. Information science is a domain that could help researchers—healthcare providers, sociologists, psychologists—by indicating the most suited and efficient information research methods of the phenomenon. Narrative research is a well-documented qualitative methodology which makes possible the documentation of various and shifting ways of understanding experience, both within and between individuals. Since multiple views on experience can co-exist as part of the narrative research report, it is also possible to provide a more generous and more plausible representation of life experiences [20]. The goal is to create a picture of a social segment or pattern. It is obviously mostly used in social sciences, but it can be very helpful in other areas as well. Ethnography, emerging from anthropology, and adopted by sociologists, is a qualitative methodology that lends itself to the study of the beliefs, social interactions and behaviours of small societies, involving participation and observation over a period of time and the interpretation of the data collected [21–23]. In our study these research tools were applied to the accounts and events related to the anti-vaccination movement that led to the measles outbreak: TV shows, social media, newspapers, tabloids, women magazines, web sites, personal conversations with people or indirect hearsay. TV shows were searched on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter by keywords or by names of people known as anti-vaccine campaigners, Google search engine was used to find websites, from which we then ‘crawled’, until the information multiplied to a level that became overwhelming, so we had to make a selection of the most relevant.

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4 The Measles Outbreak (2016–) in Romania In September 2016, the Romanian authorities announced the measles epidemic in the country after 675 confirmed cases of measles in 23 counties were recorded in the first eight months of the year. Unlike the situation in 2015 when there were seven confirmed cases of measles and no deaths, three children under one year old died by the end of September 2016 [24]. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control underlines that Immunisation is the only effective preventive measure against acquiring measles. [25]

Following the measles outbreak, the authorities broadcasted a series of public interest messages, in order to inform the population and they initiated information campaigns at a national level on all mass media channels, radio and TV, promoting vaccination against measles. Vaccinate your child against measles! Provide your child with a chance to a healthy life!

was the title of one of these messages [26]. On the 17th of July 2020, the number of confirmed cases of measles reported in Romania was 20,204, of which 64 died since the beginning of the epidemic. Of all these cases, only 1,424 had been vaccinated (974 with one dose and 450 with two doses), according to the statistics provided by the National Centre for Comunicable Diseases Surveillance and Control [27] (see Table 1). Distribution of measles cases by age group and vaccine status from the beginning of the epidemic is highlighted in Table 1. The WHO recommendation is for the immunisation of at least 95% of the population, with two doses of measles-containing vaccine [28], but unfortunately Romania recorded a decrease of the vaccination rate during the past few years, one of the lowest among the European countries, that is less than 84%. Aside the media campaigns, the authorities, mainly the Ministry of Health, intended to submit a bill to the Romanian Parliament, which would make it mandatory for the population to follow the National Immunisation Schedule. But some believe [29] the bill that would make vaccinations mandatory is not going to be discussed and voted too soon by the Parliament because politicians are afraid of the anti-vaxxer voting group. Moreover, vaccination hesitancy in the Western European countries has been recently found to be related to the growing populist politics [5]. A report published by the European Commission and authored by specialists in the field, led by a professor from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, identified a low level of confidence in vaccines among the population in the EU, which leads to increasing the risk of epidemics and requires action from the EU and the governments of the EU countries [30]. One of the proven reasons of this measles outbreak is specifically the low rate of vaccination. According to the WHO, alongside Romania, Italy and Ukraine were also affected during this epidemic [28].

3

0

0

1

2

Unknown

6,718

24

17

439

6,238

1–4 years

2,703

26

140

233

3,076

5–9 years

1,832

16

116

161

1,539

10–14 years

1,171

18

87

71

995

15–19 years

621

10

36

27

548

20–24 years

659

20

39

13

587

25–29 years

508

27

9

6

466

30–34 years

507

29

6

13

459

35–39 years

490

53

0

8

429

> 40 years

20,204

223

450

974

18,557

Total

Source Romanian National Institute of Public Health [27], ‘The situation of measles in Romania on 17.07.2020’, available at: https://www.cnscbt.ro/index.php/ informari-saptamanale/rujeola-1/1871-situatia-rujeolei-in-romania-la-data-de-17-07-2020, accessed 2 September 2020

4,223

4,220

0

Total

57

1

Haematology

2

AIC

3

ICU

4

General surgery

5

Internal medicine

6

Pharmacology

7

Stomatology

8

ENT

9

Orthopaedics

1

20 years

1

1

2

2

3

3

4

>4

1

No

2

Yes

Related activities (research, teaching)

1

No

2

Yes

Congress participation

1

No

2

Yes

1

No

2

Yes

1

No

Conference participation Workshop participation

2

Yes

Articles in national publications

1

No

2

Yes

Articles in international publications

1

No

2

Yes

1

≤10

2

20-Nov

Number of daily interactions with medical staff

(continued)

Physicians Augment Knowledge with Emotion …

115

Table 2 (continued)

Number of daily interactions with patients, their families or friends

Table 3 Items used for analysis and the questionnaire

Number of respondents = 32

3

21–30

4

31–40

5

41–50

6

>50

1

≤10

2

20-Nov

3

21–30

4

31–40

5

41–50

6

>50

Sex

Male, 14

Age

25–35 years, 10

Female, 18 36–46 years, 12 47–57 years, 6 >57 years, 4 Medical specialty

Haematology, 8 AIC + ICU, 14 General surgery, 1 Internal medicine, 1 Pharmacology, 2 Stomatology, 1 ENT, 1 Orthopaedics, 4

Number of years of experience

20 years, 4

Table 4 Respondents and their characteristics Percentile groups for locus of control sum

Frequency

Percent

Valid percent

Cumulative percent

Valid

1

13

40.6

40.6

40.6

2

19

59.4

59.4

100.0

Total

32

100.0

100.0

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I. R˘aduca

Table 5 Average scores obtained by respondents on the cognitive schema scale: locus of control and real-life situations (n = 32) Minimum

Maximum

Mean

Std. deviation

Abandonment

1.00

3.83

2.36

0.74

Mistrust

1.71

5.00

3.56

0.86

Failure

1.00

4.00

2.13

0.70

Dependence/incompetence

1.54

3.54

2.33

0.47

Fear of failure/shame

1.14

5.14

2.34

0.80

Unrelenting standards

1.00

5.50

3.00

1.06

Locus control sum

2.00

10.00

5.59

2.04

Real-life situations

2.76

4.14

3.45

0.34

3.22, SD = 0.92). Participants with 20 years

4

1.90

0.79

0.39

0.63

3.17

Total Failure

20 years

3

2.07

0.42

0.24

1.01

3.14

31

2.33

0.47

0.08

2.15

2.50

20 years

3 31

Total Real-life situations

10 years. A patient with a value >7 has a 0 chance of surviving up to 10 years. An analysis of over 1000 deaths in Romania correlated with COVID-19 showed that CCI varied between 0 and 16 with an average value of 5.85 and SD = 2.7. Based on our data analysis, we can conclude that the first hypothesis, that The physicians’ activity is influenced by their previous experience and is also based on previous knowledge and the internal rules and conformity with their personal beliefs is verified; but the second one, that The intensity of the physicians’ interaction with their patients and the medical staff influences decision-making is not. A possible explanation for this may be reflected in the first hypothesis itself. Physicians’ core beliefs are so strong and their conformity level is so high, that the number

122

I. R˘aduca

of daily interactions, especially with their peers, does not change their knowledge, but rather reinforces previous findings and medical information. The data from the study support the idea that physicians have more daily interactions with the medical staff than with patients and their families and friends, and that this could lessen the likelihood that they will be confronted with information that might contradict their previous knowledge or individual issues contrary to the established rules. Stereotyping as a method of reducing time and effort is more useful to the physicians than the re-evaluation of each case. To validate this explanation requires further research, a redesign of the questionnaire with more questions related to scales that measure emotional items, and also the recruitment of more than 50 respondents. This study confirms Daniel David’s analysis [13], which showed that the level of stress was higher in the public sector than in the private. As explanations, he proposed excessive pressure from management and lack of support from co-workers, limited resources for work tasks, and poor communication with management. His explanations may also support the reason presented above for the invalidation of the second hypothesis. Even though physicians have tens of daily interactions with the medical staff, those interactions seem to be meaningless in respect to error detection and the improvement of medical decision-making. Although the data regarding the physicians’ daily interactions are insufficient for correlation with other subscales, the data in this study indicate that the daily number of interactions with medical staff and peers is far greater than the number of interactions with patients, their families and friends (+55%). Those interactions would be beneficial for the patients if one of their purposes was to consider differential diagnoses. The current study does not identify the purpose and mechanisms for this type of interaction and more research is needed. All the arguments we have provided in support of the statement that physicians’ biases and common laws may lead to errors, as well as the data-based explanation that a physician’s activity is influenced not only by his/her previous knowledge, but also by internal rules, conformity and personal beliefs, prove the relevance of this topic in everyday medical practice. These findings may help us to determine the safest way to act under extraordinary conditions, such as pandemics.

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6. Hirschfeld LA (2013) The myth of mentalizing and the primacy of folk sociology. Navigating the social world: what infants, children, and other species can teach us. Oxford University Press, New York, NY, US, pp 101–106 7. Charles C, Gafni A, Whelan T, O’Brien MA (2006) Cultural influences on the physician-patient encounter: the case of shared treatment decision-making. Patient Educ Couns 63:262–267 8. Briley DA, Morris MW, Simonson I (2005) Cultural chameleons: biculturals, conformity motives, and decision making. J Consum Psychol 15(4):351–362 9. Trip S (2006) The Romanian version of young schema questionnaire—short form 3 (YSQ-S3). J Cognit Behav Psychother 6:173–181 10. Rotter J (2011) Rotter internal-external locus of control scale. Meas Locus Control 10 11. Ellis A (1997) The practice of rational emotive behavior therapy. Springer Publisher Company, US, pp 162–201 12. Smith PB, Trompenaars F, Dugan S (1995) The Rotter locus of control scale in 43 countries: A test of cultural relativity. Int J Pshycho 30 13. David D (2015) Psychology of the Romanian people. The psychological profile of Romanians in a cognitive-experimental monograph, vol 1. Polirom, Ias, i

Ioana R˘aduca (BA, MA) graduated from the Journalism School, University of Bucharest and has a Master’s degree in Philosophy of Cognitive Science. She is currently a PhD candidate in Communication Sciences at the University of Bucharest. She has been working for the past 20 years in the communication field. For more than 17 years she worked in the Newsroom as a reporter specialised in health issues, editor, anchor, editor in chief and she coordinated internationally awarded journalistic campaigns. For the past three years she has worked as a communication expert in the medical field.

Games and Gamification

Games, Gamification and Libraries Ari Haasio, Octavia-Luciana Madge, and J. Tuomas Harviainen

Abstract Games have become part of libraries’ material and in the same time, libraries have begun to gamify functions in both public and scientific libraries. This chapter discusses, on the one hand, the concept of gamification and how it can be used in libraries. On the other hand, the article considers the importance of games as part of a library collection. Games attract new customer groups and motivate youth to study. According to the authors, gamification can be used, for example, for information retrieval and for teaching the library’s use. They are also well suited for teaching different types of cultural content, such as different genres of literature and the history of music. The advantage of gamification is above all that it motivates users and it makes learning more interesting. On the other hand, games are cultural products and therefore they belong to libraries as much as music or movies. Keywords Games · Gamification · Libraries · Game education · Game culture · Game literacy

1 Introduction Games have nowadays become an important part of many public libraries’ collection. Aside from that, gamification is used for teaching different types of content and skills in libraries. We may at first think that games are just entertainment, but their A. Haasio (B) Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences, Seinäjoki, Finland e-mail: [email protected] O. L. Madge Department of Communication Sciences, Faculty of Letters & Doctoral School in Communication Sciences, Faculty of Journalism and Communication Studies, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania e-mail: [email protected] J. T. Harviainen Tampere University, Tampere, Finland e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 O. L. Madge (ed.), New Trends and Challenges in Information Science and Information Seeking Behaviour, Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems 193, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68466-2_10

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importance as a source of interest and a pedagogical tool is also noticeable as far as scientific libraries are concerned. Games can be both an entertainment tool and a way to learn new things. They have a century of history as educational tools in fields ranging from military to business (see e.g., [1]). Unfortunately, games and gaming are still associated with prejudice and may even be perceived as non-library content. The idea of gamification may not have been understood in libraries either. Gamification has become a trending topic during the 2010s [2]. Unfortunately, the gamification’s role in libraries has not been widely analysed even though libraries have actually used gamification in their work. According to Haasio and Madge [3], at the end of 2019, there were 21 peer reviewed articles about gamification in libraries. In addition to this, various practical guides have been published on the subject (e.g. [4]). In this article, we will look at the concept of gaming first and consider what it means. We will then create an overview of how games are used in libraries. We will use case examples to analyse various applications in which gamification has been used in public and scientific libraries. Finally, we will consider the opportunities and the challenges which gamification brings to libraries and the importance of games as part of the library’s collection. In addition to gamification, we will also discuss more broadly the role and the significance of games in libraries.

2 What is Gamification? The concept of gamification has several definitions and there is no single, accepted definition. The most often quoted ones come from Deterding et al. [5], and Huotari and Hamari [6]: the use of game design elements in nongame-contexts [5] a process of enhancing a service with affordances for gameful experiences to support user’s overall value creation [6].

According to Hamari, Koivisto and Sarsa [2] gamification has been defined as a process of enhancing services with (motivational) affordances in order to invoke gameful experiences and further behavioural outcomes.

In defining the concept of gaming, Huotari and Hamari [6] emphasize that gaming produces the same type of psychological experience as games. Vesa and Harviainen [7] have pointed out that despite the quite recent definition of gamification, using game-like elements to make nongame tasks more interesting has a much longer history. Kapp’s [8] definition underlines the educational features of gamification. According to him, gamification is using game-based mechanics, aesthetics and game-thinking to engage people, motivate action, promote learning and solve problems.

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In libraries, one of the main tasks is to support customers’ learning by giving them tools and contents, which make learning sufficient and effective. Rewards, patches, leader boards and other motivators are typical tools when gamifying different contents. Motivation is important when playing games and learning new things and it can be increased by gamification. According to Kim [9] gamification in libraries captures people’s attention, engages them in different activities and influences their behaviour. Csíkszentmihály’s [10] concept of flow explains us why gamification can increase motivation, for example, when learning new things. His concept of flow can be understood as the state of concentration and engagement that can be achieved when completing a task that challenges one’s skills. Gamifying the learning process supports self-paced learning and self-gratification [11]. The charm of games and the possibilities of playing them are based above all on the fact that an interesting game makes the players immerse themselves in it. When we think of library as a space and try to make it more attractive to new customers and especially to children and youth, games can play an important role. According to McMunn Tetangco [4] games make libraries a more welcoming and friendly place.

3 Games in Libraries According to Haasio and Madge [3], games in libraries can be understood as. 1. material to borrow 2. services to be played in libraries 3. having educational purpose, such as teaching library use, cultural phenomenon etc. Games and gamification in libraries seem to be a new trend, but actually, they are not. We have had games in many libraries for decades. Traditional board games are a good example of that. Chess and Monopoly have existed in many public libraries for customers’ use. When we talk about games in libraries, it should be noted that while the majority of today’s games are electronic, board games are still important. [3] Nicholson [12] stated that there have existed games in libraries for over one hundred years; in the 1800s some American libraries were providing gaming opportunities for their customers. Although board games have existed in libraries for a long time and customers have had the opportunity to play them on the library’s premises, digital games and their suitability for libraries have been the subject of debate in recent years. Adams [13] pointed out that video games can be seen to support the educational, recreational and democratizing goals of the library.

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Today, there is a growing perception that digital games are cultural products with a role in library collections similar to, for example, CDs or videos. Digital games are individual cultural pieces of work, equivalent to movies, music and literature. They can be seen as a popular and useful hobby and a source of stories. By using them, people can create their own stories and interact with others. Games can also be a way to express personality and deal with frightening themes. Often we think that games are just for kids, but actually games can be an activity shared by the whole family. They are technological innovations, but one has to remember that some games are also physical and they can be viewed as sports equipments. [14] It is possible to borrow video games from many public libraries in exactly the same way as borrowing any other material. Playing electronic games in libraries has also become more common during this millennium. Some twenty years ago, some public libraries restricted playing games on computers, nowadays libraries organise gaming events and many libraries have their own gaming corner. This is a good indication that libraries increasingly understand the importance of games and gaming and games are part of our culture in much the same way as, for example, movies. In fact, the advent of movies and popular music into public libraries once received as much critical reception as gaming. Since one of the important tasks of the library is to guarantee all citizens equal access to the various achievements of knowledge and culture, it now also offers access to different forms of game culture. From a media education perspective, libraries can also promote an understanding on which games have highly qualities and which are harmful. The library is also a promoter of the game culture by emphasizing the good aspects of gaming and investing, for example, in including high quality and high level games in their collection. Public libraries become more and more a gathering place where people can meet. They are not just providers of information and entertainment but also living rooms for all citizens. It is understandable that the library offers games which can be played on its premises. You will spend time in the library and meet friends. Playing can be one way to spend time on library premises. The library must offer games both for borrowing and playing on the library’s premises. However, that is not enough, as the library’s role as a media educator also focuses on games. The library plays a significant role as a game educator, which is part of the media education. Games are often discussed without adequate information or comprehension and they are seen as good or bad depending on the speaker [15]. What is it meant by game education? Meriläinen [15] points out that game education means to understand the game culture and to acquire game literacy. According to him ‘game literacy is familiarity with the different sections and properties of games, the ability to perceive gaming as a diverse cultural phenomenon, the ability to interpret the different signals games give out, and being aware of the role gaming plays in today’s society’. When we understand that games are a central part of contemporary culture, as much as movies or music are, the role of the public library as a game educator is logical. The mission of the library is to promote media literacy on a large scale, whether the cultural product is printed or electronic. The game education endorsed by libraries also promotes game knowledge and the elimination of false prejudices against games.

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The popularity of gamification is high, especially amongst the younger age groups. According to several studies there is a link between playing video games and enhanced well-being, problem-solving skills, intergroup relations and physical activity [16]. When games, as forms of learning and storytelling, are part of library collections and services, it is also possible to gain new customers. Young people may not find the traditional cultural assets offered by the library as interesting, but instead of literature, it can be games, for example, that can attract young people to visit the library. Swiatek and Grosse [17] underline that gamification should be formally included into library charts and it should become a department. According to them, it should not be regarded as merely a tool, but as an important part of the library’s activity.

4 Gamification in Libraries Gamification can be carried out either by game-like structures and processes grafted on to systems which libraries already have or by designing new games for the library’s use [18]. It should also be borne in mind that libraries and their needs, objectives and clientele differ considerably, for example as far as public and scientific libraries is concerned. Therefore, the starting point for gamification should be to support the main activities of the library and its goals and strategy. The user’s service experience can be enhanced by using gamification [19]. According to Prince [19], libraries may try to engage customers and enhance their experience by using gamification in library applications. Even though gamification is a fairly new concept, many libraries have actually done it for a long time. Spina [20] says that points and rewards have been given by libraries to motivate people to read, long before the concept of gamification was known. Scavenger hunts and so-called ‘big games’ have also been used to introduce youth to various library services (e.g., [21]). Huotari and Hamari [6] have pointed out that the idea is to produce ‘gameful experiences in order to support the user’s overall value creation’. In practice, this means, for example, making information retrieval guidance. Various information relative to the library’s main activities can also be gamified: for example, information related to literature or music can be turned into games, thus helping customers deepen their knowledge of these areas. There are three ways to implement library-related gamification [3]: 1. Overall computer-mediated gamification, when customers are using their mobile devices, computers or tablets. 2. Partial computer-mediated gamification. 3. Gamification where computers are not used at all. Library customers may use their own devices or borrow tablets from the library. It is also becoming more common for customers to use their own mobile devices

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and play games specifically on smartphones. Whether you use your own smartphone or a library tablet it also depends on whether the game is freely available online or whether the customer should use an application that is available only on the library’s computers. Overall computer-mediated gamification can also be implemented entirely virtually. [3] While libraries hope that customers will also visit the library’s physical facilities, in some cases, providing customers with purely virtual game-enabled educational materials and other similar content, it makes sense. For example, games related to learning information retrieval skills are a good example of this. Learning motivation can be increased by using badges, which often motivates particularly younger learners. In some cases, libraries have consciously sought to avoid gaming through purely digital means. Because children and young people spend so much time online, the idea has been to provide game-like experiences, for example, by accessing library collections using a hybrid model. [3] For example, library orienteering is one of these hybrid model games. Customers use their mobile phones and get hints and questions from QR-codes. However, the answers must be found by searching books or other non-digital material, so that the users familiarise with the collection. QRorienteering motivates children to perform the given assignment, because they can use their smartphones [3]. Non-digital gamification has been used for a long time in libraries. Different kind of quizzes is a good example. Also, the diplomas awarded for reading is, actually, based on the idea of gamification. The aim is to obtain a diploma that can be compared, for example, to passing the level of a video game or earning a prize after completing a number of tasks. Escape rooms have become popular in libraries nowadays. One example of gamifying things without computers is the library LARPs (Live-Action Role-Playing Games) [22]. Similar to library orienteering or scavenger hunts, live-action roleplays can be used to encourage participants to explore the library’s space from new, often task-oriented perspectives, with the hope that they will come back again as regular customers or at least appreciate library services more than before. LARPs are also used in education where they are sometimes named edu-LARPS (educational live action role-playing). For example, according to Brekke [23], they can be successfully used as pedagogical approaches to teaching writing. However, when deploying any sort of gamification for educational purposes one must keep the educational content at heart [24]. The LARPs and escape rooms themes used in libraries vary a lot. For example, they can send to literature references, such as Harry Potter’s escape rooms or to film industry, such as the famous film industry franchise ‘Star Trek’. [25] According to Felker [18] gamification is one way in which libraries can compete with a digital environment to maintain their position. Google’s dominance in information retrieval and the entertainment provided by the network are competitors of the library. Supporting the learning process and the information retrieval skills by gamification, makes library and its services more interesting to the customers. Felker also points out that games make learning new things possible by making people active during the learning process. In addition, gamification makes it possible to introduce

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the information in a contextualised framework. In addition, as Kim [26] has stated, for example, gamifying makes learning fun. This motivates customers and encourages them to study. Several different studies support this view. For example, Chapman and Rich [27] have found that the vast majority of the students they studied saw gaming as increasing interest in learning. Majuri et al. [28] found in their systematic literature review that in almost all their research about games on learning the result has been positive. Gamifying increases students’ engagement and enhances learning [29]. New generations have started working online and for many it is the most natural and meaningful way to work. For them, gaming has been one of the main pastimes on a very young age and games have become important cultural products for this generation. Once you are used to spending your free time with games, it is clear that they are a natural way to study and learn. Nistor and Iacob [30] have pointed out that traditional motivational methods are less and less efficient. For what purposes can games be used in libraries? Development of information literacy, literature and other cultural knowledge, together with teaching the use of the library and of its collection databases are the most common uses [18]. However, the range application of gamification is not limited to these most common topics, which have been primarily applied in libraries. Games are a great tool for learning using imagination. Kim [9] has pointed out that libraries have semi-business-like functions where gamification can also be used: for example, when marketing their services and raising awareness on everything libraries offer to citizens. In some libraries, gamification is linked with digital badges [31] (Gamification n.d.). When a customer has completed a certain level of the game, they will receive a badge from it. The badge is an indication of a certain competence and it’s used, for example, by universities and other education institutions to teach online skills and collections information. In public libraries, most of the gamified solutions target children and youth (see e.g. [3]). On the other hand, in academic libraries, games and gamification have been used extensively, above all in teaching information retrieval and media literacy. IFLA has, on several occasions, emphasized the cultural significance of games and the importance of gamification in library activity, for example in teaching media literacy [32]. There are great many examples of good results all over the world where gamification has been used effectively. For example, according to Chan [33], when gamifying reading, the positive impact was clear. Games and gamified services can also be used as marketing and outreach tools to reach the Y-generation which is used to playing games as part of their everyday life (see [31]). Gamifying libraries’ websites is one goal for certain libraries. It can provide customers with a more meaningful way to explore the collection. According to Battles et al. [34] gamifying the library web pages ‘may have intensive effect on users/players and could engage them more in library processes’. Customers may, for example, get points from booking and lending a book (see e.g. [35]). Nevertheless, the use of games in public libraries varies widely in different countries. In some cases, games are common, and gaming is aimed at promoting media

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literacy, for example, while in others, games may still be perceived as material unsuitable for libraries. The difference between countries and their attitudes towards games and gamification appeared, for example, when comparing the views of Finnish and Romanian libraries, on the value of games in libraries and the experiences enhanced by using them [3]. Scientific libraries have increasingly made use of gamification, for example in teaching information retrieval and assessing the reliability of information sources. Gamification can also be used to teach the use of the library and to be acquainted with the collection databases.

5 Conclusions The history of games in libraries dates back to the nineteenth century. Today, they have become an important part of the public libraries’ collection and the use of games in teaching various forms of media literacy, information retrieval and culture has also increased. Gamification has enabled earning prizes, which, for example, motivates children and young people much more than traditional methods. The use of gamification in libraries varies from country to country. Its importance has been emphasized in recent years, for example by IFLA, due to good learning outcomes. It can be successfully used to motivate the customers, by both public and academic libraries. Games in libraries can be understood as a service or material to borrow when they are to be played in libraries. They can also be used for education purposes when some of the library’s activities are gamified. There are still some prejudices against games and gamification in libraries, but they are declining as the importance of games as cultural products and their potential in motivating customers is better understood. In order to remove prejudices and increase the expertise of the library’s staff in relation to games, it is important that the staff is also provided with gamification training. As one of the tasks of the library staff is to act as media educators, in the future, they will also provide game education for their clients. This must also be taken into account by universities, as far as the librarian’s education is concerned. The role of libraries as game developers needs to be discussed and analysed. In most cases, the libraries’ resources are scarce and therefore game designing is often impossible. However, different collaborative projects play a key role in this, as the same gamified content can be used extensively, even globally. The use of games in libraries has been studied on a low scale. In the future, for example, the customers’ experiences and the significance of libraries game-based learning events will be one of the topics of interest for research.

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References 1. Keys B, Wolfe J (1990) The role of management games and simulations in education and research. J Manage 16(2):307–336 2. Hamari J, Koivisto J, Sarsa H (2014) Does Gamification work?—A literature review of empirical studies on gamification. In: Presented at the proceedings of the annual Hawaii international conference on system sciences 3. Haasio A, Madge OL (2020) Gamification and games in libraries. In: The 16th international scientific conference elearning and software for education, Bucharest, 23–24 Apr 2020. https:// proceedings.elseconference.eu/. 4. McMunn-Tetangco E (2017) Gamification: a practical guide for librarians. Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham, MD 5. Deterding S, Dixon D, Khaled R, Nacke L (2011) From game design elements to gamefulness: Defining gamification. In: Proceedings of the 15th international academic MindTrek conference: envisioning future media environments. Academic MindTrek Conference, New York, NY, pp 9–15 6. Huotari K, Hamari J (2012) Defining gamification—A service marketing perspective. In: 16th International academic Mindtrek conference. Presented at the ACM J, New York 7. Vesa M, Harviainen JT (2019) Gamification: concepts, consequences, and critiques. J Manage Inquiry 28(2):128–130 8. Kapp KM (2013) The gamification of learning and instruction fieldbook: ideas into practice. Wiley, NY 9. Kim B (2015) Gamification in education and libraries. Library Technol Rep 51(2):20–28 10. Csikszentmihályi, M (1990) Flow: the psychology of optimal experience. Harper & Row 11. Pappas C (2014) The science and the benefits of gamification in elearning. https://elearningind ustry.com/science-benefits-gamificationelearning 12. Nicholson S (2013) Playing in the past: a history of games, toys, and puzzles in North American libraries. Library Quart: Inf Commun Policy 83(4):341–361 13. Adams SS (2009) The case for video games in libraries. Library Rev 58(3):196–202 14. Harviainen JT, Meriläinen M, Tossavainen T (2015) Introduction. In: Harviainen JT, Meriläinen M, Tossavainen T (eds) The game educator’s handbook. Revised international edition. https:// www.pelikasvatus.fi/en/game-educators-handbook/ 15. Meriläinen M (2015) What is game education and why is it needed?. In: Harviainen JT, Meriläinen M, Tossavainen T (eds) The game educator’s handbook. Revised international edition. https://www.pelikasvatus.fi/en/game-educators-handbook/ 16. Adachi PJ, Willoughby T (2017) The link between playing video games and positive youth outcomes. Child Dev Perspect 11(3):202–206 17. Swiatek C, Gorsse M (2016) Playing games at the Library: seriously? Liber Quarterly 26(2) 18. Felker K (2014) Gamification in libraries: the state of the art. Ref User Serv Quart 54(2):19 19. Prince JD (2013) Gamification. J Electr Resour Med Libraries 10(3):162–169 20. Spina C (2014) Gamification in libraries. In: Kirsch B (ed) Games in Libraries: essays on using play to connect and instruct. McFarland & Company, Inc., Jefferson, NC, pp. 62–79. 21. Grief T (2014). Big games at Reidland High School. In: Scordato J, Forsyth E (eds) Teen games rule! A librarian’s guide to platforms and programs. ABC Clio/Libraries Unlimited, pp 55–61 22. Harviainen JT (2014). Larps (live-action role-playing games) in libraries. In: Scordato J, Forsyth E (eds) Teen games rule! A librarian’s guide to platforms and programs. ABC Clio/Libraries Unlimited, pp 103–111 23. Brekke KM (2018) Edu-larp: a new pedagogy for writing. Minot State University 24. Landers RN (2014) Developing a theory of gamified learning: linking serious games and gamification of learning. Simul Gaming 45:752–768 25. Kroski E (2019) Escape rooms and other immersive experiences in the library. ALA Editions, Chicago 26. Kim AJ (2011). Gamification 101: Designing the player journey. https://youtu.be/B0H3AS bnZmc

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27. Chapman JR, Rich PJ (2018) Does educational gamification improve students’ motivation? If so, which game elements work best? J Educ Bus 93(7):314–321 28. Majuri J, Koivisto J, Hamari J (2018) Gamification of education and learning: a review of empirical literature. In: Proceedings of the 2nd international GamiFIN conference, GamiFIN 2018. CEUR-WS. https://trepo.tuni.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/104598/gamification_of_education_ 2018.pdf 29. Buckley P, Doyle E (2016) Gamification and student motivation. Interact Learn Environ 24(6):1162–1175 30. Nistor GC, Iacob A (2018) The advantages of gamification and game-based learning and their benefits in the development of education. In: The international scientific conference eLearning and software for education, vol 1. Carol I” National Defence University, pp 308–312 31. Gamification. Libraries transform. American Library Association. https://www.ilovelibraries. org/librariestransform/gamification 32. Cowing J, Lee S, Pun R (2018) Level up for learning: integrating video game concepts into information literacy and student engagement activities. In: Presented at the IFLA WLIC 2018—Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia—Transform Libraries, Transform Societies in Session 75— Audiovisual and multimedia with information technology. https://library.ifla.org/id/eprint/ 2131 33. Chan MYH (2019) Benefits of gamified reading for the students of Lam Tin methodist school in Reading Battle. Paper presented at the IFLA WLIC 2019—Athens, Greece—Libraries: dialogue for change in Session 113c—IFLA Poster Session. https://library.ifla.org/2629/1/197chan-en_poster.jpg 34. Battles J, Glenn V, Shedd L (2011) Rethinking the library game: creating an alternate reality with social media. J Web Librarian 5(2):114–131. https://www.tandfonline.com, https://doi. org/10.1080/19322909.2011.569922 35. Bigdeli Z, Haidari G, HajiYakhchali A, Basirian Jahromi R (2016) Gamification in library websites based on motivational theories. Webology 13(1)

Ari Haasio (PhD, MA) is a principal lecturer at the Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences, Finland. His main research interest areas are information seeking, criminal activities over the internet, hate speech and hikikomori (socially withdrawn) phenomenon. Haasio has published over 50 books about the internet, Finland’s history, and literature. He wrote his thesis about Otherness, information needs and information sharing in the ‘small world‘ of the Internet: A study of socially withdrawn people’s information behaviour. Haasio has been a member of the editorial board at Informaatiotutkimus (Information Science) which is a peer reviewed scientific journal published in Finland. He is also a member of the board of Informaatiotutkimuksen yhdistys (Association of Information Science), Finland. Haasio has also been the editor-in-chief of the Finnish Library Magazine (Kirjastolehti). He has worked at the Tampere University as a researcher and assistant professor. Haasio is also an active visiting lecturer in different organisations and universities. Octavia-Luciana Madge (PhD) is an associate professor at the University of Bucharest, Faculty of Letters, Department of Communication Sciences where she has worked since 2000 and PhD supervisor at the Doctoral School in Communication Sciences of the same university. She teaches at the Information and Documentation Sciences Programme courses on knowledge management, information users, fundamentals of information science, and theories of information behaviour. Between 2004 and 2019 she was the editor-in-chief of the journal Studii de Biblioteconomie s¸i S¸ tiin¸ta Inform˘arii/Library and Information Science Research continued with the title Information and Communication Sciences Research. She graduated from library and information science programmes (BA and MA), has a PhD (2006) in Knowledge Management and the InfoDocumentary Structures at the University of Bucharest and a Habilitation (2016) in Communication Sciences. She also graduated from the medical school (MD), working for her first specialty

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as family physician, and then continuing to specialise in general surgery. She has a PhD (2015) in the Surgical Stenting of the Bilio-Digestive Anastomoses at the Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy Bucharest. She has authored or edited eleven books and over 50 articles, and presented over 50 papers at international conferences on various aspects of library and information science and general surgery. She is an elected member of the European Association of Health Information and Libraries (EAHIL) Council and member of the Standing Committee of the Section Health and Biosciences Libraries (HBS) of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA). Her current main research interests are communication in healthcare, knowledge management, information users, and health information behaviour. J. Tuomas Harviainen (PhD, MBA) is Associate Professor of Information Practices at Tampere University, Finland. His research ranges from organisational information to Dark Web drug trades; from ethics in creative industries to sexuality as play. Harviainen is specialised especially on interpersonal information sharing between creative organisations, as well as the application of practice theories for understanding information sharing and use in marginalised communities.

The Application of Gamification in the Medical Activity in Romania: A Perspective of Doctors Constantin Ciornei

Abstract This chapter approaches gamification and its application in medical activities and presents the results of an interview-based study conducted in Romania among medical doctors. Our main objective was to investigate whether these specialists were open and how they reacted to new gamified experiences in their medical activities. The main findings revealed a certain degree of openness for game-based experiences in training activities and also in areas such as psychiatry and neuropsychiatry. There is a community of specialists in Romania open to new ways of treating patients, as well as to new types of instruction and research. There is an interest in the application of gamification in medical activity, in a country where the healthcare system faces several problems. Keywords Gamification · Medical doctors · Medical activity · Medical instruction · Medical treatment · Romania

1 Introduction Gamification in medical activities is present mainly at the therapeutic level, games being encountered in the form of treatment for mental deficiencies, but also for physical disabilities. The topic of gamification in health systems also includes training processes, specific organisational processes. This topic is of interest because, in the context of the continuous increase of the requests for medical services, it has become necessary to design personalised experiences, both for patients and specialists, in order to ensure modern care conditions. In order to observe the way in which new experiences such as gamification are implemented in specific hospitals and healthcare environments, we conducted a qualitative research. C. Ciornei (B) Information and Documentation Sciences Programme, Faculty of Letters, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 O. L. Madge (ed.), New Trends and Challenges in Information Science and Information Seeking Behaviour, Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems 193, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68466-2_11

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Games are the new learning medium, the new books in libraries from which we learn and receive information. Libraries are creating new spaces for games, media and gaming laboratories. These types of places will be created in medical libraries and in hospitals, for instruction, research and information. This qualitative research based on interviews with Romanian medical specialists aimed to observe their openness to the gamification of medical activities. The main questions of this research were: Is there a future in Romania for gamification in the field of medical activities? Is there a favourable context for game-based activities in the medical field? Have the Romanian medical specialists encountered such methods in their work? How familiar are they with such methods? The reaction of Romanian physicians was monitored. We presented next the first results of a larger ongoing study. We conducted interviews with specialists in the medical field, given the contextualisation of the subject in an advanced scientific area.

2 Literature Review A recurring theme of the literature that analyses games is their ability to treat psychopathologies. Lumsden et al. explains that games can contribute to the increase of the mental abilities of learning, to memorising and self-control, stating that on the subject of cognitive gamification, there is no extensive literature, perhaps because gamification is a recent, uncertain topic, with numerous renames and redefinitions [1]. Mercado et al. proposed a new name for cognitive training games through contests and interactive activities: brain training [2]. Games are considered beneficial for patients, from two major points of view, behavioural change and involvement in the treatment process, as Peñuelas-Calvo notes, demonstrating that video games can contribute to the treatment of ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) [3]. Lister et al. expose the fact that over half of the new healthcare projects use gamified methods [4]. One of the most studied health conditions for gamification in digital healthcare services is the Alzheimer’s disease games having a role in rehabilitation, in treating mental disorders [5]. Sardi et al. note that the research on publications about games in healthcare demonstrates that there are two mental conditions as main scientific papers subject, Anxiety and ADHD [5]. It is recognized that gamification will have one of the most significant places in the healthcare, as strategy for mental disorders [6]. By using games, patients adhere more strictly to their treatment plans, they are willing to fight against diseases [7]. The implementation of game-specific systems has more visibility in the business area, to motivate customers [8]. There is a whole science behind gamification in the business area, with many resources on this topic, which has led to a close link between gamification and the business environment. In medical activities, gamification is still a process that seeks a scientific identity, although there is a relevant scientific literature on this subject, which proposes new

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treatment tools, new methods for training doctors, and broad analyses of the benefits of gamification. In a TED conference on games and gamification, Oberprieler defined this process as a layer of play applied to the real world, as a new vision of looking at the world. Oberprieler exemplified, noting that commercial air flights are gamified, thanks to the interactive system of flight scheduling, route automation and points, that the area of restaurants is also marked, that food services or cafes propose a number of products to receive another product for free, all these techniques being called game mechanisms [9]. We can say that gamification is the transformation into games of different elements or processes in the world. Young explains that any game consists of rules, objectives, players and rewards, while gamification is the use of game elements in a non-gaming context [10]. The term gamification was invented in 2008, becoming known in 2010 [11]. Huotari and Hamari define gamification as the application of gaming experience design elements to a service, in order to attract new users [12]. Hamari et al. go deeper into the gamification subject, exploring this process as a means for creating organisations, as Badgeville helps other companies and services in gamifying their activities. [13] Hamari et al. consider that this process will become the next generation main method for increasing interactivity with clients [13]. Regarding the usefulness of game-like experiences in medical libraries, games can play an important part in attracting researchers, students, and patients. For the end users, gamification can have an important role in saving patients, motivating them in completing their treatments, using, for example, digital applications that use gaming elements, as Cechetti et al. demonstrate [14]. In general, games can play three main roles in libraries, as Hassio and Madge explain: they can be borrowed as products, they can be played in libraries as fun activities, and they can have an educational purpose [15]. Gamification is useful as a method of popularisation among young people, although games have a historical tradition, going beyond the sphere of the current generation. Games overcome the barriers of the ages, proposing a new experience for training and treatment, an experience that can become fun. An example of international representation of gamification in the new media is the film Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library [16], which depicts the fantastic world of a library where an escape room game takes place. The participants are school students, who go through the most intense moments of their lives, along with characters who transcend from the world of books to the real world. There is no literature in Romania on the topic of gamification in the medical activities. García-Sánchez et al. demonstrate through a bibliometric study the fact that most publications on the topic of video games are those in the medical field [17]. Reed explains that through gamified learning, nurses too become more empathetic with patients with disabilities, are better prepared in risky situations at the decisionmaking level. vSim for Nursing [18] is an example of a simulation video game, through which nurses are trained to deal with cases they may encounter in reality,

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they are trained to care for fictitious patients, through real medical methods and techniques.

3 Methods We conducted 15 interviews with physicians and surgeons. The 15 respondents were chosen according to their training in the field, one of the first questions referring to their medical specialisation. This provided the answers with more relevance, thanks to the competence of these specialists in their area of practice. We decided to conduct these structured interviews through e-mail using a questionnaire. We used the interview technique [19], exploring the different opinions and feelings of the specialists, to observe how the answers and reactions to questions vary, depending on the medical specialisations of the interviewees. The questions were sent by e-mail, and the answers were received from specialists also by e-mail. Respondents’ ages range from 25 to 75 years, seven women and eight men participating in our research. Additional telephone interviews lasted between five and twelve min. The interviews captured trends, positive or negative, at behavioural level, regarding the level of openness to gamified experiences in this field. We were interested in capturing the attitude towards the use of games in the activities of those who work in the healthcare sector. The open-ended questions from the four additional telephone semi-structured interviews, with other impromptus questions emerging from the conversation, were related to the same topics, focusing more on personal examples, personal histories marked by the experimentation of gamification in the professional activities. This method of semi-structured interview is recommended within the scientific literature, being the most used method in the qualitative research [19]. The interviews were conducted in Romanian language and relevant quotations, selected for this paper, were translated from Romanian. Another reason at the basis of this research was to establish an initial framework for a broader approach to the analysis, observation, interpretation, broader visualisation of gamification in the medical activities in Romania, given that most respondents are renowned professors and specialists in the medical field (e.g. associate professor of neurology or professor and head of thoracic surgery clinic). It is noteworthy that among the participants in the study, there was also a great personality of the medical science in Romania. The respondents were thus selected according to the criterion of professional competence, that is their medical expertise and recognition in Romania. The aim of this research was to find out the way medical doctors and specialists react to the introduction of experiences based on gamification in the medical area. In addition to the feedback provided in a structured, punctual manner, we recorded various other forms of response, additional comments, or suggestions for conducting such research in other areas. The data obtained refer to medical services and experiences based on gamification in Romania.

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Starting from their different opinions and statements related to the research topic, interpretations and identification of common themes and common reactions of the respondents could be made. The interview questions, from a thematic point of view, were related to the following aspects, for observing the gamification process in the healthcare sector: behaviours, experiences, examples, opinions, interests, personal histories. The answers were related to the following questions of the structured interview: How do you feel about using games which would contribute to your medical activity? Have you ever had such an experience, which involved characteristics specific to games in the medical field (video games, simulators, team games, training games, contests, themed games)? Have you heard of such systems, gamified experiences (having game features or transformed into a game) in the medical field? Do you think that such experiences, systems, funny methods of training, treatment, research could bring benefits to the medical field? What do you consider to be the structures and the activities in the medical field in which games can be integrated? Are you passionate about games (video games, board games, other types of games)? Have you ever used games during your career in the medical field? To what extent do you think games can help treat patients? In what form this contribution could be? What medical field(s) are you specialised in?

4 Results During the conduct of this research, we could notice if there is an interest for games at the level of specialists in Romania. We started from the assumption that this phenomenon would be encountered only among young specialists, but the interviews disproved this assumption. There is openness for the use of gamification in healthcare activities, given that all respondents agreed that gamification could contribute to their medical practice, the general feeling being a positive one. The findings of our study demonstrate that in Romania progress was made in this respect and gamification is already present in training and even treatment activities. For example, a consultant in interventional neuroradiology, head of clinic, stated: I participated in medical competitions, and used simulators for endovascular procedures. Such systems are used during medical congresses, especially workshops, where cardiovascular simulators are used, to perform operations, as accurately as possible, in the shortest possible time. The competitions take place either in the hospital or in specialised institutions or companies that have mobilised for this purpose, such as the company LifeSIM [20], which has simulators and organises workshops for both medical students and physicians. I participated, in particular, in general medical culture competitions, individually or as member of a medical team. Starting from some images, according to some cases, the winner managed to provide the correct diagnosis.

A general surgeon mentioned too the use of simulators, as forms of gamification, but also other types of games: Pelvitrainer, POP-trainer - for initial training and practice in laparoscopic surgery but also competitions by using Kahoot!

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A pelvitrainer is a training system for doctors, which simulates surgery on mannequins in the pelvis of the human body. Chung et al. noted that such a system integrated a fiberglass box, an optical laparoscope, a fibre optic light source, an endoscopic camera and a video monitor [21]. The laparoscopy operation, performed using the Pelvitrainer system, contributes to the efficiency of the real diagnostic process. POP (Pulsating Organ Perfusion) Trainer is a device in which a pulsating organ is inserted, it is infused [22] by means of pumps, which allows the simulation of a real operation at organ level. Given that simulators are a recurring response in research on experiences in terms of gamification in the medical environment, we note that Rassweiler et al. consider three types of such simulators, depending on the technologies involved: mechanical simulators are boxes in which video monitorable organs are inserted, hybrid simulators bring in addition the monitoring performed by a computer, while virtual reality digitises the entire operation, at the graphic, three-dimensional level [23]. All these systems and devices are not very recent but they are used frequently and they are just one example of gamified experiences and activities. Kahoot! is an application that can be installed on the phone, through which anyone can organise a quiz or true and false game. This application has several themes, including those for students and teachers, through which they can make interactive contests, in order to make the learning process more fun. In the medical activities, the advantage is clear for stimulating students and for training doctors; through fun learning, groups of doctors can connect from their smartphones to the same quiz. A specialist in orthopaedics-traumatology talked about simulations on different plastic objects. They are beneficial, they are part of the primary training, before they worked on corpses, now they work on devices. There are dolls on which techniques are made, for anaesthesia, intubation, cardiology. A mannequin costs $ 300,000. These devices can be very expensive. In state-of-the-art techniques, they are necessary for training, because advanced studies are done after you have studied the basics, if you do not learn how to use devices, how to put plates, you cannot overspecialise, to further develop.

At the level of simulators, we can also catch a reaction of disagreement with the use of the term game in Romanian, to refer to these devices, as mentioned by one of the most famous surgeons in Romania. He suggested that another term must be found, because game, in Romanian, is a word with historical tradition and it is not very exact, and a compound word could be more useful and suitable. So, in medicine, said the surgeon, it is not enough to call these systems games, a new, compound word must be invented.

We believe that this statement can be extended internationally, to emphasize that terms such as game, gamification, cannot include all new forms of gamification. For example, the new simulators, of which we have presented a few examples, go beyond the scope of the term game (though, they go under the term of gamification), a term that, as the surgeon mentioned, has a historical tradition, is perhaps an anachronistic term that needs updating.

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McGonigal presented a possible historical origin of the game, which was about 2500 years ago, by inventing a dice game [24]. In any case, the Romanian term for game comes from the Latin iocus. Indeed, it is an almost universal term with a strong historical significance, a term that has remained unchanged, although the technology behind the new forms of games has evolved, and they have become medical tools. On the other hand, during the research, we noticed that a recurring theme of the answers was the psychiatric sphere, a medical field of interest for gamification, as a means of supporting treatment, (…) improving patients’ compliance with treatment by better understanding the pathology they suffer from and the treatment methods / mode of action of prescribed treatments, as well as the consequences of non-compliance with it, implicitly the prognosis and evolution of the disease. It can contribute as a direct treatment for certain categories of patients (in the field of psychiatry or para psychiatry by drawing attention to other information, activities, interests),

as a specialist in emergency and disaster medicine said. In this line, Marchiori et al. demonstrate through a study among medical students that video games contribute significantly to the acquisition of knowledge about life-sustaining manoeuvres, being a cheap way, because it does not depend on an instructor, and can be distributed in schools and institutions free of charge [25]. In another article, suggested by the respondent, Boada et al. present a digital game they created to increase the chances of survival in case of cardiac arrest, through an alternative training for first aid in the form of cardiopulmonary resuscitation; the game can also be installed on the smartphone [26]. Participants mentioned as an advantage the possibility offered by games to stimulate creativity and fast, analytical thinking. The answers provided by participants referred to the fact that gamified systems can be applied in cases of mental disorders. It contributes to the improvement of the mental state of paediatric patients and to their faster recovery.

explained a specialist in interventional neuroradiology. Patients with mental illness - depression, attention disorders, behavioural disorders in children.

In addition to supporting the treatment of different forms of depression and other disorders, a specialist in family medicine and palliative care referred to the ability of games to capture attention, to streamline the learning process. One of the interviews was with another personality in the medical field of Romania, a paediatrician, overspecialisation in immunology and paediatric allergology. In his clinical practice, he used gamified methods, even having a systematisation of these types of activities. I appreciate positively and with great interest the approach of games that would contribute to the medical care of some children, games adapted to the different ages of childhood: infants (0-1 years), ante pre-schoolers (2-3 years), pre-schoolers (4-5 years), school children (7-14 years) and teenagers (15-18 years).

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The level of openness to games in the medical practice can, therefore, be assessed as advanced. I had such experiences in medical practice at the Alessandrescu - Rusescu Institute for Maternal and Child Health in Bucharest in order to stimulate motor development, but especially neuropsychic development for children under the age of seven, especially pre-schoolers with disabilities in psychomotor development. I know and I am convinced that the therapeutic methods of neuropsychic stimulation of some patients have been largely beneficial in the process of their recovery or, in the case of other diseases without neuropsychic deficiencies, contribute to their healing through the neuropsychic balance they achieve. Games can be integrated into all categories of care structures (institutions) for children of all ages and in all areas of pathology, from abandoned children to serious cases (oncological diseases, etc.). Games help to treat and can make them smile again despite a severe diagnosis up until some can walk again and develop their speaking skills.

During each interview, the positive side of the answer was not lacking, the openness to gamified experiences in the medical field is unanimously shared, among all the interviewed specialists, no matter their field of specialisation in medicine.

5 Discussion This research opens a path to future research. From this point of view, there is no extensive literature on specialists in the Romanian medical fields, and their openness to gamification. A larger and more in-depth study of the way in which gamification is perceived by the medical community in Romania is necessary. The process of gamification of medical activities was presented and debated at international events. Cole made a presentation in 2009 at the TED Conference, in which he proposed video games as an alternative method of overcoming cancer, by motivating the patient to defeat the last cancer cells, to continue their treatment until the end, by using a video game called Re-mission [27]. In this game, the user was put into the protagonist’s skin, who glides through the human body, at the cellular level, to identify cancer cells, and to annihilate them, shoot them, being a Shooter game. This type of game is popular among young people, other examples in the category of Shooters, known and practiced worldwide, being Overwatch [28] and Valorant [29]. Such a game has not only a role to motivate the patient in overcoming the ailments in the body and in continuing his treatment. It is also a fun, captivating source of information, learning through play, fun, but fun practiced in a serious educational way, in which we can learn about our own body, about the risks to which the human body is prone and about the way a body can heal. Thus, the experience of gamification of medical activities can design a new type of doctor, the one in us, through selfeducation, through training based on games such as video games, which are hugely successful among young people. We believe that through video games, medical learning environments can be created through which the motivation to learn, to know and to discover new elements about the human body is aroused and sustained. The example of the video game Project Remedium can also be mentioned. This accurately illustrates the human body, introduces participants inside a human body.

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The example of this video game is provided to expose a case in which medical training goes beyond the boundaries of hospitals and health centres, reaching the level of young people passionate about video games. Basically, physicians are part of the same process of annihilating barriers, reaching the gaming consoles and computers of young people, through video games. The video game method is a common learning environment for the new generations, which are very visual and require visual learning in the training process, thus considering the new generations of physicians. Young physicians can be trained directly on their own computers, in any context, for example a university, hospital or library. In a film about the game Project Remedium segments of the game are presented, correlated with the three-dimensional worlds of the inside of the human body: blood flow, lungs, liver, stomach, gastric acid, heart [30]. Thus, anatomy lessons have become interactive visual shows, through which the rules of the real world are broken, through which real time is forgotten, leaving room for virtual time, which takes place according to an inner life of the human body. Such an experience cannot be matched by classical training methods in hospitals and medical centres. An experience similar to the one presented in Project Remedium can take place anywhere, it can be downloaded to your computer. A game like Project Remedium can lead to significant changes in video game categories and a new category can be invented. This could include all video games designed for medical training or which could contribute to medical training, such as Project Remedium, and this would give rise to a new question: will the video gaming platforms become medical platforms, through which specialists in the medical fields will communicate, interact with users, patients or those who request medical information through these platforms? Can Romania contribute to accelerating the process of creating a new category of video games, the category of medical games, through its communities of gamers and its communities of physicians specialising in gamification? Human Anatomy is an example of another video game, this time of VR type, more precisely PSVR (PlayStation Virtual Reality), which apparently could only contribute to the work of a professional doctor, or to the work of a medical student. Human Anatomy is an educational virtual reality game, through which anatomy lessons are transformed into educational visual performances as well. For example, the trailer of the game shows the visual potential of the educational application which is meant to popularise medical training among young people, not least, being noticed the background music that awakens a spirit of change, a spirit of advancement to the new category of medical video games [31]. Brett-MacLean et al. pointed out that in order to have more and more medical specialists, you need to convince young people to learn about science and medicine, the easiest way being through fun games and educational activities, such as the thematic exhibitions ‘Harry Potter’s World: Renaissance Science, Magic and Medicine’, presented by the National Library of Medicine in several medical institutions in the USA [32].

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In a film presenting this exhibition from the University of Florida Health Science Centre Library, participants of all ages are surprised, being very happy, laughing wide, dressed in favourite characters from the Harry Potter series [33]. It is obvious that they are much more involved in the learning process, in the process of discovery through fun methods, than they would be in the regular study hours in traditional educational institutions. Romania contributed to the implementation of a European project, an institutional partnership in which the Romanian Alzheimer’s Society also took part, a project called SUCCESS (Successful Caregiver Communication and Everyday Situation Support in Dementia care), through which social workers of people with dementia can be trained (discover information about dementia, learn how to assist sick people), the instructor appearing in the form of an avatar, a role play [34]. Such actions demonstrate that healthcare institutions in Romania are open, and even contribute internationally to the expansion of gamified experiences in the medical system, that they support specific movements and projects. Further research can analyse more the current situation and can focus on the country’s image from an international perspective. The findings of our study relative to the question we started with in this research support the fact that Romanian physicians are open to gamification experiences in their practice. The applicability of gamification in the medical field in Romania, especially in the area of treatment of psychiatric diseases is in line with the international project SUCCESS. This project is one of the few of this kind, about which there is public information, at institutional, scientific level. Probably, the psychiatric area has more visibility in Romania in terms of gamification, perhaps due to the fact that gamification is a process that involves elements of psychology, motivation. A new question arising from the current findings can be analysed in a future research. Is Romania a country where gamification can be introduced in medical activity? Through interview, focus group and observation methods, such gamified activities can be experienced and relevant information can be extracted through specialists. Given the small number of participants in our study the findings cannot be generalised. The most important finding is that there is an appropriate context conducive to the implementation of gamification in medical activities and practice in Romania. Having in view that all respondents were from Bucharest may have also affected the results of the research, as there is a large discrepancy between the urban healthcare system such as the one in Bucharest, and that in small towns.

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6 Conclusion Medical specialists in Romania are open to the experience of gamification in their practice, most often this process being identified in the area of psychiatry, neuropsychiatry, and the devices identified in these experiments are the simulators, but also in medical training activities. There is a community of specialists in the medical fields in Romania, which has the capacity to contribute to the expansion of gamification. They have the capacity to create in Romania a favourable context, open to the exploration of gamified medical experiences. Acknowledgements I would like to thank all the medical doctors who agreed to participate in this study, and who generously gave some of their time for the interview. I also want to express my thanks to all the medical doctors who continued the discussion over the phone, especially to Professor Teodor Horvat, Head of the Thoracic Surgery Clinical Department, Oncology Institute Bucharest.

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Constantin Ciornei (BA) graduated from the Faculty of Communication and Public Relations, the National School of Political and Administrative Sciences, and from Information and Documentation Sciences Programme at the Faculty of Letters, University of Bucharest. He is now pursuing a master’s degree in Information and Documentation Sciences. He works within the General Directorate of Social Assistance and Child Protection and he is involved in research on gamification in the medical field.

Jamography: How to Document and Reference Design Jams in Academia Annakaisa Kultima, Jaakko Stenros, and J. Tuomas Harviainen

Abstract In this chapter, we propose that academic papers on ephemeral development events, such as game jams and hackathons, pay more attention when providing identifiable details of the events, or have a dedicated reference section (‘jamography’) detailing the referenced events in an identifiable manner in order to improve transparency and sustainability of the publications. Game jams are organised in a global context, and depite the similarities of jams, important differences can be noted in terms of how jams are implemented, what their formats are, and what culture and context are surrounding them. Furthermore, game jam names are not always unique. This means that, when identifying game jams in an academic study, one can find it impossible to tell two events apart. Since the game jams topic is an emerging and still poorly documented area in research, it is hard to know what kind of game jams are being discussed. Apart from this, whereas game jams are ephemeral, vanishing as soon as they are completed, documentation is key - website references do not always suffice. In this chapter, we propose and argue the key information and format. Keywords Jamography · Design jams · Hackathons · Identifiable details of ephemeral development events · Documentation

A. Kultima Aalto University, Espoo, Finland e-mail: [email protected] J. Stenros · J. T. Harviainen (B) Tampere University, Tampere, Finland e-mail: [email protected] J. Stenros e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 O. L. Madge (ed.), New Trends and Challenges in Information Science and Information Seeking Behaviour, Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems 193, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68466-2_12

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1 Introduction For the past two decades, short-time design events, such as game jams and hackathons, have become a popular format for engaging people all over the world in making games. Game jams, such as Global Game Jam and Ludum Dare, attract tens of thousands of participants every year, to create games in a shared time–space. Likewise, similar data-based design jamming events, sometimes known as hackathons, have been increasingly prominent over the past decade. The same phenomenon also exists in service design, in the form of the design pressure cooker [1] or the ‘design jam’. Game jams have been the most thoroughly researched of all, with a steady rise in output since 2010 [2]. As a result, in this chapter, we discuss these phenomena by way of documenting and referencing game jams, but the same principles apply to hackathons and design pressure cookers. We, therefore, use the word ‘jam’ for the sake of convenience in order to refer to all of these event types together. One can find it challenging to provide enough information about ephemeral events to future readers, both in terms of volume and precision, so as to enable them to critically evaluate such events, as well as their contribution. Game jam organisers (or game journalists) do not necessarily document game jams - or, even if they do so, it’s for a different audience. Organisers and active participants should not be the only source for the event they have organised themselves. Critical readings are needed, even if securing trustworthy information is challenging. The most common form of documentation is a website, and the continuous upkeeping thereof is notoriously labile. Moreover, many game jams and hackathons do not have an official website that can be archived. This problem is especially reflected in the emerging academic literature regarding game jams. Many game jam studies are not documented in enough detail with respect to the context in which other researchers from different countries or communities are able to critically evaluate the results of the study. The game jam method is touted to be relatively uniform, even though there are many differences in terms of organising, even within the same country or overall umbrella (see [3, 4]). Part of the motivation for writing this chapter is to explain the very clear differences between the different kinds of game jams and jamming cultures. While game jams tend to be grouped together in academic analyses, a remarkable variance exists when it comes to different events. This heterogeneity of game jams is a strength when speaking about form, but an analysis of a month-long serious games jam, which was organised as part of the expensive formal education might not be of much relevance for a free two-hour long online game jam on autobiographical recreational games. Obviously, not all the articles about game jams can be compared, which means that the needs of jamography vary. However, without any kind of jamography comparative metaanalysis of game jam, the research is difficult.

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In this chapter, we discuss the need for a jamography in game jam and hackathon research, and we contextualise it through the emergence of ludographies [5] in game studies. We review what could be included in a jamography and we provide a list of seven key pieces of information (name, place, time, duration, website, organiser, and frequency). We also discuss a number of other elements that may be relevant for the comparative approaches to such events—and to the general documentation of a jam scene. Such details should eventually be explained in the articles themselves.

2 Context and Background Academic texts obviously contain bibliographies, which enable readers to find the quotes and follow the argumentation and research that an article is building. Reference lists may also include lectures, videos, tweets, and other sources. Sometimes, reference lists are divided based on what is being referenced. Filmographies are an example. An example more similar to the topic of game jams is that of ludographies [5]. As the contemporary study of digital games was emerging around the turn of the Millennium, ludographies were coming to light. Game scholar, Frans Mäyrä, wrote about the importance of referencing games: The existing guidelines for academic writing and referencing rarely take into account all the needs of games-focused research. In addition to a list of bibliographic references, many researchers are including a ludography, or detailed list of games into their reference section. An entry in such list needs to include at least the name of the game, year of publication and usually the studio responsible for its design. However, research projects discuss game production related issues with a varying level of detail, and in some case seven minor differences between the various released versions of a game are significant. Thus, a more thorough ludography might include also publisher, names of such key individuals as the main designer, programmer, writer or artist, as well as version information including the platform such as PlayStation2 or Xbox. In the end, in this as generally in formal details, it is most important to be consistent, whatever the adopted reference practice is [5].

Mäyrä points out how important is for readers to be able to correctly identify not only the game that is being discussed, but also the version of the game. What specific information should be included in a ludography (Designers? Publisher? Distributor?) is not solved here by Mäyrä—nor by the practice since his publication. Over a decade later, ludographies are still not always required for publications about games, but they are getting more common. Likewise, so are jams of many types, deployed for purposes such as service development, education, or cultural knowledge (e.g., [6–9]). Thus, the necessity for systematic documentation practices.

3 What Kind of Information Should Be Included? The goal of a jamography is to ensure that the readers of an article are able to specifically identify which event is being discussed, and that they have access to key

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information about the jam so as to better contextualise the discussion about it. Furthermore, not all game jam organisers document the key information about their jams, at least not in a publicly accessible manner. Thus, jamography serves both as a reference and as a concise documentation. Of course, brevity is the soul of wit—and the word counts in academic publications are tight. A jamography should be as short as possible. Only relevant information should be included. Next, we will discuss the key elements which could, or even should, be included in a jamography. We are not proposing a rigid format akin to the bibliography sections in the various academic style guides [10, 11], but we are offering a list of elements which could be included. It is too early to create a strict system. Name The most important information identifying a game jam is its name. The name used should be the actual name of the jam, as used, in the original language. If the name of the game jam was originally in a language other than the language in which the article was written (for example, Sala(ja)mit was a jam conducted in Finnish), then a translation of the name may prove useful. Sometimes, translations fail to provide new information—while on other occasions, the names of jams are difficult or even impossible to accurately translate (for example, if the name of the jam is a pun). When reporting the name of the jam, the report is accurate, even if the name breaks the conventions of grammar (e.g., features weird capitalisation). Place The most interesting and useful piece of identification information is the place where the game jam was held. Here, we recommend that the country and city where the game jam took place should be put on the list. In some cases, it is also advisable to include other identification information. The name of the State might be relevant if there are numerous cities with the same name in a country, or the name of the District or even the building should be specified, if there are numerous jams taking place in a city (this is relevant, for example, for identifying Global Game Jam sites). Also, it is important to note whether the jam was run as an online event only. Time Thirdly, the time when the jam took place should be written down. Specific date or dates are preferable, but at the very least the year of the event should be listed, in a manner similar to conference dates.

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Duration Jams vary in terms of duration and time structuring. A 48-h long jam is often considered the standard, but there are all kinds of jams, from one-hour jams to month-long jams, where jamming takes place during office hours. Frequency Some jams have been institutionalised, and are organised on a regular basis, while others are singular events, never to be repeated. This can be noted in the jamography. If an event is annual, taking place every January, it is a useful piece of information. Another notable aspect could be given by the date when an event was organised for the first time. Website If the game jam has some kind of online presence, then it could be useful to provide a link. This could be the game jam website, the Facebook event page, an Itch.io page, or whatever is useful. Organiser Finally, the jamography should mention the event organiser, be it a private person, a community, or an organisation. It is common for game jams to be organised by a group of people and organisations, and finding the right balance when it comes to who we should list when space is an issue is an important consideration, as this reference may be the only place where such listing will endure. The information concerning the organiser can be important during a critical discussion about the jams (cf. [4]). We consider the above seven elements as the most relevant core information which should be included as a minimum. However, if the jams being discussed in an article are variable, then we also recommend considering the inclusion of a further description. In addition to our seven key points, a description might list if an event is global, regional, or local, if it is organised at a specific site or in the online environment, if there is a key theme or an external goal, and if the results were publicly shared. Finding out all relevant information about all of the jams under discussion can be cumbersome, but necessary, depending on the scope of the article. Jamography Examples ASM Game Jam. Annually since 2013, in August. Finland: Helsinki. Duration: four days. Type: single site jam, no online option. Website: https://www.finnishgamejam. com/. Organizer: Finnish Game Jam. 0hJam. Annually since 2011, in October. Online: English. Duration: 1 h. Type: online jam. Website: https://0hgame.eu/. Organizer: Mikolaj Kaminski (Sos Sosowski). Sami Game Jam. Feb 21–25. 2018 Finland: Utsjoki. Duration: 5d. Type: single site jam, no online option. Website: https://samigamejam.com/. Organizer: Outi Laiti, Annakaisa Kultima, Finnish Game Jam, Utsjoki Municipal.

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4 What Kind of Needs Do Jamographies Address? In order to understand an emerging phenomenon, we need to first describe it, systematise that data, and then attempt to make sense of it also theoretically. In order to understand how game jams function or what kind of effects they may have, we need to be able to document and compare data. This will not be possible, if we can’t tell different kinds of game jams apart or if we do not know how they are different. A jamography is an attempt to overcome this problem by addressing the following challenges: Identification As jams are often given rather general names (for example Junior Game Jam, Edu Game Jam, Climate Game Jam, Retro Game Jam, or simply Game Jam), it becomes more and more important to tell one game jam apart from another. Documentation Just like the cultures of game development [12], jams are also moving targets. We should not assume that the studies regarding game jams, design pressure cookers or hackathons will be understandable in the next ten years, as many changes can happen within the field, and much more variety can be introduced to the cultures. Attribution The work of intermediaries within the relevant ecosystem is often invisible and not attributed. It is important for the academia to play a part in making the event organisers visible, acknowledging their work, and also examining their activities with a critical eye. Transparency Jam papers are referenced in other studies and make up building blocks of arguments. It is important that this becomes more transparent, so that the critical evaluation of the studies and their basis for comparisons can be more reliably examined. Critical Discussion Not all game jams are similar. Neither are design events or hackathons. If one event causes critique, the better our documentation of the differences between the events and their contexts, the clever the critical discussions. For instance, if competitive jams are found to support problematic development cultures, we can see if the same happens within non-competitive events. Likewise, the surrounding national cultures and contexts of the jams can affect the dynamics they contribute to. Even though the phenomenon has global reach, it does not mean that it has global power over local cultures.

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5 When is a Jamography Needed? Some jams are widely known, such as Global Game Jam and Ludum Dare. If an article mentions only these two jams superficially, there is no need to provide further information. But, for instance, in a multi-site event such as the Global Game Jam, the claims can easily still draw from a limited number of experiences from the local sites of the authors and the researchers. Depending on the study, it becomes important to describe the local events themselves (Fig. 1). On such outlets, as the International Conference on Game Jams, Hackathons and Game Creation Events (ICGJ), dedicated to jam studies, there is more room for jamography. Even if such approach will not be preferred in other outlets, due to word counts, it should be kept similarly, like ludographies within the DiGRA, ISAGA and the game design studies communities.

Fig. 1 Images are an important part of the documentation. For example, Edu Game Jam was held in a truck parked outside a conference for educational professionals

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6 Documenting Jams in General Many papers discussing jams only mention them briefly, indicating the name of the event. Even though a proper jamography gives sufficient details about the event and improves the transparency of the research, this might not be always enough. It may be the case that a particular academic article is the only document regarding such event, especially if the scholars observed the event on site. There are some things which should be given a bit more space in the articles. If possible, the lengthy details may be also provided in an appendix. For instance, it might be worth mentioning how the event was facilitated—if it was run in a single space, or whether it had competition, judges or mentors. It is the participants who give most of the spirit of the jam [8], so it may be important to know what their background is, and, for instance, whether they were experienced jammers (cf. [13]) or professional game developers. It is also noteworthy that the organisers of game jams could encourage jammers themselves to document more of their processes, for instance by writing down on the jam game submission page the total number of hours spent for making the particular jam game (many jammers do not spend the entire jam duration for the development of their game—for instance, in online game jams). Also, what the jam production documentation is lacking, in comparison to a local past or current design scene, is the array of tools that were used for production. The more the participants self-document their processes, the better will the future researchers understand the historical events. Concise Description A very short description of the event can be added, for example ‘Multisite game jam aiming to bridge intergenerational collaboration’ or ‘Online game jam targeting nonhuman players.’ The wording or taglines used by the organisers could be used here. Participants One key element in jams is represented by the participants. Is the jam open for anyone, or is it by-invite only? Did the organisers target a specific demographic in their recruitment? Did people sign up individually or in teams? Was this a jam for expert jammers, or was it an involuntary part of formal education? How many people participated, in total? Participation Fee What was the fee for participating in the game jam? Was it free of charge, was it part of a larger package (like another event), or was there a specific price tag? (Fig. 2)

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Fig. 2 ASM Game Jam’19 took place at a demoparty. Again, one image can communicate much relevant documentary information

Incentives Was there some kind of a prize given out at the end of the jam, or some other incentives were given to motivate participants? If there is an award, how was its recipient decided? Do incentives have a strong influence not only on the motivations of the participants, but also on the culture of jamming? Is the jam a competition or a collaboration? Layout Jams have varying floor plans, which will have an effect on the constellation of the event. Was the event run in a single hall or, for instance, were the teams gathered in separate meeting rooms? Did the interior stimulate the game-making, or did the facilities provide, for example, a professional audio studio or mock-mapping spaces? Facilitation Game jams can be run in many different ways. Sometimes, organisers just take care of booking a space (physical jam) or of setting a website (online jam). Other times, the entire event is fully facilitated, from brainstorming to the end presentations. The events can differ drastically from a game jam where, for instance, a person teaching a game development course organises the students in groups and provides facilitation and structure to the process. Design Constraint(s) Jams can have varying levels of external design constraints. At the Global Game Jam, the theme is presented at the beginning of the jam, typically as a single word

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and accompanied by an additional list of constraints (‘diversifiers’). At Ludum Dare, the community votes the theme. Sometimes, game jams can be hackathon-like challenges or can provide technology platforms or materials that are compulsory for the participants to use. Design constraints and how they are dealt with can vary a lot (see [2, 14, 15]).

7 Discussion The reality of most academic reports is that there are limitations on how much text can be included in the publication. To ease the need of stealing space from the research setting, a separate publication for documenting game jams, focusing only on the descriptive work, could also be used. For instance, the ICGJ conference used the event reports format as part of the conference programme. The problem was that it was not used for recording the game jams, but to propose innovative formats for game jams ‘We are particularly interested in concepts to inspire organizers and educators to innovate new jam formats and improve existing methodologies.’ [16]. An interesting comparison point can be found in another ephemeral play community, i.e. Nordic larp (live-action role-playing). The Nordic larp community started the documentation of their larps a decade ago. Jaakko Stenros and Markus Montola reflected on this para-academic practice: Nordic larp has not undergone the processes of productization and standardization that are typical for mass-marketed products of the culture industry. […] The reasons for this include the low level of commercialization, the disinterest towards attracting mainstream audiences, and the lack of need for mass distribution. As a result, there is no standard format of Nordic larp: The games included in the Nordic Larp lasted from hours to over a month, had from six to a thousand participants, and were created with budgets ranging from negligible to hundreds of thousands of euros. This lack of standardization runs through all the processes of play; production, design, game mastering and playing. To capture this plurality, we collected the key data into an infobox, enabling comparisons between the different larps. The fields in the box are: name, credits, date, location, length, players (number of participants), budget, participation fee, game mechanics and other material. Providing such data builds an illusion of objectivity, even though the ‘hard’ data is constructed through a surprising number of normative decisions. Even after the initial decisions were made, some points of data were difficult to fit into these categories [17].

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The comparison is not a full fit, since game jams are not community-driven only, because the professionalisation of game jams is further along than in Nordic larps (in 2011). However, the plurality and lack of standardisation are similar. Comparisons between game jams, such as comparisons of Nordic larps, require significant contextual and structural cues. Moreover, Stenros & Montola’s caveat against illusory objectivity is relevant in game jams, as well. The name, place, and timing of a game jam are relatively unproblematic, but many other pieces of data are subject to interpretation. For example, both a jam where people do not sleep, but push through for two days with coffee and energy drinks, and a jam where people break for two eight-hour nights would be listed as 48-hour long jams. The website of a game jam can run through significant changes after the event ends, especially if the event is a regular one. The choice of the name of the organiser to be placed on the list, as pointed out above, will always be a choice—and possibly a very loaded one.

8 Conclusion In this chapter, we proposed a framework for referencing jams in academic papers, and we discussed the importance and the challenges of documenting game jams in general. Seven key factors are essential: Name, Place, Time, Duration, Website, Organiser, and Frequency. In addition to that, we identified the Concise Description, Participants, Participation fee, Incentives, Layout, Facilitation, and the Design Constraint(s) as additional important factors necessary to explain the discussed jams. We argue that these are important to highlight within jam studies, due to the fact that they are able to identify one jam from another, to provide a place for documentation to the future researchers, to push the attribution of intermediaries as an important part of the industry ecosystem, as well as to provide transparency and a basis for critical examination. Furthermore, these points are crucial for information sciences nowadays, as the development of new concepts, prototypes, ideas and even ideals is increasingly moving towards being produced in ephemeral events such as jams. To keep quoting the correct sources for new steps in our field, we need to be able to quote those sources in a proper manner. Acknowledgements This research was partially funded by the Strategic Research Council of the Academy of Finland through the Growing Mind research project (grant number 312527). Special thanks go also to the Finnish Game Jam Association, and to the participants of the Jamology seminar organised at Aalto University in the spring of 2019.

References 1. Van der Lugt R (2009) Service design pressure cookers. In: Miettinen S, Koivisto M (eds) Service design pressure cookers. Kuopio Academy of Design, Finland, pp 200–219

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2. Kultima A (2015) Defining Game Jam. In: Proceedings of the 10th international conference on the foundations of digital games (FDG 2015), 22–25 June 2015, Pacific Grove, CA, USA 3. Grace L, Gold S (2018) Global Game Jam stories 4. Kultima A (2018) Design values of Game Jam organizers. Case: Global Game Jam 2018 in Finland. In: Proceedings of the international conference on Game Jams, Hackathons, and game creation events, pp 21–27 5. Mäyrä F (2008) An introduction to game studies: games in culture. Sage, London 6. Arya A, Chastine J, Preston J, Fowler A (2013) An international study on learning and process choices in the global Game Jam. Int J Game-Based Learn 3:27–46 7. Harviainen JT, Meriläinen M (2019) Educational gamification: challenges to overcome—And to enjoy. In: Hamada R, Soranastaporn S, Kanegae H, Dumrongrojwatthana P, Chaisanit S, Rizzi P, Dumblekar V (eds) Neo-simulation and gaming toward active learning. Springer, Singapore, pp 553–560 8. Laiti, O., Harrer, S., Uusiautti, S., Kultima, A. (2020). Sustaining intangible heritage through video game storytelling—The case of the Sami Game Jam. Int J Heritage Stud 1–16 9. Meriläinen M, Aurava R, Kultima A, Stenros J (2020) Game Jams for learning and teaching: a review. International Journal of Game-Based Learning 10(2):54–71 10. AMA Manual of Style Committee (2009) AMA manual of style, 10th edn. https://www.ama manualofstyle.com/ 11. Harper RD (2017) The Chicago manual of style online. https://www.chicagomanualofstyle. org/home.html 12. Kultima A (2018) Game design praxiology. Acta Electronica Universitatis Tamperensis 1885. Tampere University Press 13. Kankainen V, Kultima A, Meriläinen M (2019) Motivations of Game Jam organizers: case of Finnish Game Jam Community. In Proceedings of the 14th international conference on the foundations of digital games: Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA 14. Kultima A, Alha K, Nummenmaa T (2016) Building Finnish Game Jam community through positive social facilitation. In: Proceedings of the 20th international academic Mindtrek conference. ACM, New York, NY, USA 15. Kultima A, Alha K, Nummenmaa T (2016) Design constraints in game design. Case: survival mode Game Jam 2016. In: GJH&GC ’16 proceedings of the international conference on Game Jams, Hackathons, and game creation events. ACM, New York, NY, USA, pp 22–29. 16. ICGJ 2019 (2018) Call for papers. https://icgj19.gameconf.org/p/call-for-papers.html. Accessed June 2019 17. Stenros J, Montola M (2011) The making of Nordic Larp: documenting a tradition of ephemeral co-creative play. In: Proceedings of think design play, Digra 2011 conference. Digra Digital Library

Annakaisa Kultima (PhD) is a postdoctoral researcher at Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture. She has published over 70 academic papers on game design, industry trends and development cultures since 2006. Kultima is an active member of the game ecosystem in Finland and internationally: she works as a judge in several game competitions, running game jams as well as curating exhibitions on games. She is also a member of the founding team of The Finnish Museum of Games and founder of the non-profit organisation Finnish Game Jam advocating the game making hobby and indie cultures in Finland. Jaakko Stenros (PhD) studies norm-defying play, game jams, queer play, role-playing games, and game rules at the Centre of Excellence in Game Culture Studies (Tampere University). He has published nine books, over 50 articles and reports, and has taught game studies for over a decade.

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J. Tuomas Harviainen (PhD, MBA) is Associate Professor of Information Practices at Tampere University, Finland. His research ranges from organisational information to Dark Web drug trades; from ethics in creative industries to sexuality as play. Harviainen is specialised especially on interpersonal information sharing between creative organisations, as well as the application of practice theories for understanding information sharing and use in marginalised communities.

Author Index

A Antonescu, Simona Maria, 89

C Ciornei, Constantin, 139

M Madge, Octavia-Luciana, 1, 59, 89, 127 Mattila, Markku, 75

N Naka, Hajime, 33 Nolin, Jan, 9

H Haasio, Ari, 23, 75, 127 Hakalahti, Maria, 49 Harviainen, J. Tuomas, 49, 127, 153

R R˘aduca, Ioana, 107 Robu, Ioana, 59

K Kultima, Annakaisa, 153

S Stenros, Jaakko, 153

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 O. L. Madge (ed.), New Trends and Challenges in Information Science and Information Seeking Behaviour, Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems 193, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68466-2

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Subject Index

A Academic research, 9–11 Agenda 2030, 2, 9–18

C Children and adolescents, 3, 89 Common laws, 109, 110, 112, 121, 122

D Dark Web, 49–51, 56 Design jams, 142 Documentary structure, 89, 92, 105 Documentation, 1, 63, 90, 93, 141–144, 146– 148, 150, 151, 154–156, 158, 162, 163 Drug trading image board, 3, 49–52

F Fake media, 3, 75, 76, 78, 84, 85 Fake news, 3, 75–78, 80, 81, 83–85

G Game culture, 130 Game education, 130, 134 Game literacy, 130 Games, 4, 25, 127–134, 139–147, 150, 154, 155, 162 Gamification, 2, 127–129, 131–134, 139– 149 Gap-bridging, narrative analysis, 33, 35, 36, 42, 44, 45

H Hackathons, 4, 141, 142, 146, 147, 149, 153–155, 158, 159 Hate speech, 2, 3, 75, 76, 78–80, 82–85 Healthcare information, 60, 61, 68–70 Health information, 59–61, 63, 67, 69 Hikikomori, 2, 23–30, 33–37, 39–45 Human interaction, 61, 107, 108

I Identifiable details of ephemeral development events, 141 Information behaviour, 2, 24–26, 28, 30, 59–63 Information need in context, 33–36, 39, 40, 45 Information practices, 2, 3, 18, 23, 34–37, 49, 51, 55 Information science, 1, 2, 4, 9, 10, 13–17, 34, 62, 63, 151, 163 Information seeking, 2, 23, 25, 27, 35, 36, 51, 61, 62, 69 Information sharing, 3, 44, 49–51, 53, 55, 56

J Jamography, 2, 4, 141–147, 153–160

L Libraries, 2, 4, 30, 75, 76, 84, 85, 89–91, 96, 127–134, 140, 141

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 O. L. Madge (ed.), New Trends and Challenges in Information Science and Information Seeking Behaviour, Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems 193, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68466-2

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170 M Measles, 63–67, 69 Measles outbreak, 3, 59, 60, 63, 64, 66, 69 Media literacy, 3, 75, 84, 130, 133, 134 Medical activity, 4, 139–144, 148 Medical decision-making, 107, 121, 122 Medical doctors, 4, 139, 142, 149 Medical instruction, 139, 140 Medical knowledge, 121 Medical treatment, 109 Misinformation, 76, 77, 83, 84 MV-Magazine, 76, 78, 80–84

Subject Index R Romania, 3, 4, 59–61, 63–70, 89–91, 119– 121, 139–149

S Satisfaction criteria, 89 School library, 89–94, 105 Sense-making methodology, 3, 35, 37 Socially withdrawn, 2, 23, 24, 26, 28–30, 36 Sustainable information literacy, 2, 9, 16–18 Sustainable targets and indicators, 14, 18

T The fourth Industrial Revolution, 9–18 O Open science, 2, 9, 15, 16, 18

P Professional values, 109

V Vaccination, 3, 59, 60, 63, 64, 66–68

W Work relationships, 107, 108