THE ILLICIT INFORMATION COMMUNITY
Björn EkströmM.A. Student in Library and Information Science, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden, [email protected]
Information-Practical Reflections on the Shadow Library AAARG
PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
A theoretical reflection on user community and informationpractices, empirically tied to the shadow library AAARG.
Delving into a part of the shadow library movement, embracing numerous theoretical angles.
Applying an overall conceptual theoretical analysis of a specific node within the field of shadow libraries in a library and information scientific context.
BACKGROUND
Guerilla open access
Originating from the institutionalised open access movement.
A call to students, researchers and librarians to leak the material which they had been provided through paywalled scientific databases and repositories (Aaron Swartz 2008).
Operating to extend the free distribution of academic texts by the means of the internet.
BACKGROUND
AAARG
Artists, Architects and Activists Research Group. Instated by Canadian artist Sean Dockray in 2009.
The content shared via AAARG can be related to classical fields within humanities disciplines.
Shadow library:• A digital text repository and community• Users can up and download literary and academic
material• The material is often copyrighted
THEORIES AND METHODOLOGY
Culture studies• Pierre Bourdieu: Cultural fields
Library and information science• Anna Lundh: Information needs in a social sense• Kimmo Tuominen: Discursive information needs• Donald Case: Constructionist information practices• David Weinberger: The order of orders
Netnographic analysis
ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS
AAARG as an actor in the cultural field of shadow libraries
AAARG can be understood as a webbased file and information sharing community and therefore creates a principal common habitus.
The purpose of the website has developed towards contributing knowledge distribution through free access to electronic versions of books and articles of a certain academic and artistic nature.
AAARG can be regarded as an actor in the community that is guerrilla open access.
But AAARG’s users should also be regarded as actors in the cultural field that AAARG is a part of.
ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS
Users’ information needs in a social sense
Robert S. Taylor’s (1968) Question Negotiation and Information Seeking in Libraries, applied to AAARG:
• Visceral need: Abstract need of understanding a certain subject
• Conscious need: Accessing a certain type of material.• Formalised need: AAARG could be used as the source of
the material.• Compromised need: Browsing AAARG’s database.
Anna Lundh (2010) stresses the importance of analysing information needs within the interaction of individuals.
Hence, social and cultural variables also needs to be taken into account.
ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS
Discursive information needs
Kimmo Tuominen (1997) stresses the discourseanalytical viewpoint for studies in information search and needs.
This enables an understanding of how meaning and structure is created within the need.
The endeavour towards free access to information material is one of the main political key factors to AAARG’s existence and use.
Thus, one may delve into the cultural rules created within the discourse/field and distinguish information needs in a social community.
ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS
Constructionist information practices
Donald O. Case (2007) uses the term constructionism to describe how individuals create meanings via dialogue.
Connecting constructionism to Bourdieu’s field theories, one may view AAARG’s practical information seeking processes.
One may understand how Dockray envisages AAARG and how Swartz (2008) entitles guerilla open access.
ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS
Decentralised user activities re-creating AAARG’s mission
Weinberger’s (2007) three order of orders:• First order: Physical order• Second order: Metadata• Third order: Networks and protocols in a digitized
platform
It is in the third order that AAARG as a social community is developed and maintained.
AAARG can therefore be regarded as a uniting social order which seeks to create and recreate itself.
Examining this social order makes it possible to understand the material published on AAARG and with which agendas it is published.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
By using the theories of Lundh (2010), one may understand AAARG’s information needs as a social interaction between individuals.
Tuominen (1997) deems that this need and meaning is created discursively.
According to Case (2007), we may understand AAARG itself and its relation to guerilla open access.
In alignment with Weinberger’s (2007) third order of orders, AAARG has overshadowed the two other orders as well as the material itself by existing as a community.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
AAARG plays by the rules of the movement. At the same time, AAARG has developed to a radical view of free access to copyrighted information.
AAARG can be understood as annexed by its users and become a politicaltechnological tool.
The users’ common fundamental interests have had an overall impact of the knowledge organization which AAARG creates.
These information practices have therefore reprofiled AAARG within the cultural field that is guerrilla open access.
REFERENCES
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Björn EkströmM.A. Student in Library and Information Science, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden, [email protected]