Conceptions of Everyday Life in Information Science

This panel examines conceptions of everyday life in Information Science. Several theories about everyday life and its information phenomena will be reviewed and analyzed for their origins, distinctions, and divergent claims. Four expert panelists who have published on these matters will encapsulate their ideas, and there will be a video interlude, as well. By design, the panel Agenda features short opening statements, leaving 40 minutes to discuss: How do existing notions of everyday life within Information Science bring information into focus in different ways? Are informational conceptions of everyday life adequate or wanting of critical re-examination? In keeping with ASIS&T's multiperspective community, inputs will be sought from students, practitioners, first-time conference attendees, and other groups, in turn. If, as Marcia J. Bates claims, we are “…always looking for the red thread of information in the social texture of people's lives” (1999, p. 1048) then we need to individually and collectively reflect on the nature of everyday life.