Accessing and Browsing Information and Communication

Citation

Line, M.B. (2002), "Accessing and Browsing Information and Communication", Library Management, Vol. 23 No. 3, pp. 173-174. https://doi.org/10.1108/lm.2002.23.3.173.1

Much of the lives of most of us is spent browsing. We browse as naturally as we breathe. Babies browse their surroundings as soon as they open their eyes for the first time. We browse when we enter a room full of strangers, for someone who looks approachable or interesting; we browse when we are confronted with new scenery, for attractive or exciting views; we browse as we overhear conversations, in the chance of hearing something new; we browse when we go into shops. Most of this is unconscious, or at best semi‐conscious; for information‐seeking in its broadest sense is a fundamental characteristic of mankind, which advanced by accessing and processing information, most of it initially not deliberately sought. We may be looking for material things, but first information about them and where they are is needed. Even when we seek specific information, and know how to do so – when we are researching, though we may not call it that – we browse; for as we search we explore, we keep our eyes and ears open. Some of the major discoveries have been due to browsing on the part of minds that are both open to receive information and prepared to recognise usefulness when it appears.

The present book deals with both accessing and browsing. I have started by discussing browsing because it is a more interesting topic; there are numerous definitions of it, and a fair amount of literature about it, but little detailed knowledge. This volume aims to fill some of the gaps in our knowledge. It adopts – as I have done in my first paragraph – a broad approach, examining not only research in the fields of access to books and information but also consumer research, audience research, organisational research and environmental planning, and identifying common features among these areas. For this reason it is of potential interest and importance to (to quote the Preface) “organizational managers, system designers, message designers, consumer researchers, policy‐makers, social psychologists, and others”, as well as reference librarians. Whether the existence of the book will become known to most of these people, and whether they will read it if it does, must unfortunately be rather doubtful: I fear it may be condemned to become yet another work restricted largely to study in LIS departments.

Whether or not it is read in them, the book is undoubtedly enriched by its coverage of these other areas. The study, based on doctoral dissertations by two of the authors, consists of a fairly thorough (but not comprehensive) review of the relevant literatures and an analysis thereof; these are in themselves of considerable value. They are followed by case studies of a number of students in the subject fields mentioned. In the case of access, numerous factors involved – physical, cognitive, affective, economic, social, political and mediative – are identified; frameworks of access and browsing are hypothesised, tested and refined; and a synthesis is offered. A similar approach is used for browsing, of which several types are identified.

The book closes with a chapter that is in the main section on browsing but in fact covers also the section on access. This proposes future research (inevitably) and puts forward implications for system designers and the other target audiences. First among those for access is the value of the frameworks “as the basis for development of a diagnostic evaluation tool” (p. 300). Those relating to browsing are more extensive, and likely to be of more practical interest.

I have some reservations. The case studies were conducted on students; they were admittedly of various ages and experience, but they cannot be representative either of the public at large (the mere fact of being a student makes that impossible) or of experienced researchers. The studies need to be replicated with other groups of people.

The book is also weak on serendipity. There are quite a few mentions of it in passing, most of them unindexed. It is nowhere defined, and it seems to be assumed that it (whatever it is) occurs during browsing. It often does, of course; my favourite definition of the distinction between browsing and serendipity is that browsing is like looking for a needle in a haystack, while serendipity is like looking for a needle in a haystack and finding the farmer’s daughter – or son, depending on sex or preference. But serendipity – accidental happy discovery – can occur at any time and in any place; farmer’s daughters can appear out of the blue. All that is required for success is a prepared mind. It is even possible to plan for serendipity; I knew a professor who noted the registration number of the first car he saw on entering the university car park, then looked on the library shelves under that number; if it proved in any way interesting or useful, serendipity had occurred.

I believe too that the work underestimates (though it does mention) factors such as the various degrees of curiosity and mental and emotional preparedness among users. Just as some animals within the same species are more “greedy” than others, so some human beings are more avid for experience and information (in the broadest sense) than others. Designing systems that suit (as compared with serve) everyone may not be possible, but the attempt should be made.

The literature review, as noted above, is not comprehensive, and the authors are wrong to claim it as such. Several works I (by no means an authority in the field) expected to find in the list of references were not there. Research seems to have been restricted mostly to the US literature and entirely to English‐language material; it is impossible to believe that there is no relevant literature in other languages.

I must make the same criticism as I have made of other books published recently by the MIT Press. Nicely as the book is produced, and carefully though it has been proofread (I spotted no errors at all, though there is some odd grammar here and there), it suffers from poor distinction between subheadings in chapters (lower‐case bold followed by a line space) and sub‐subheadings (lower‐case bold with no following space). This makes navigation harder, and could easily be corrected; please, MIT Press, correct it in future publications. The index is good but by no means perfect (see, for example, my comment on serendipity above); and why are the names of persons cited not indexed?

As is probably clear from this review, this is not a book to be scanned (or even browsed!); it needs to be read through from start to finish. The effort will be repaid for anyone seriously interested in the subject; for it sheds light on many dark corners, and no future research or writing on browsing will be complete without reference to it. The book is written with great clarity, but it is not easy going. The aura of doctoral dissertation hangs heavy over some parts. It might have been better if the authors had waited a few more months until their research had been fully absorbed and written a version that was less dense and more accessible by the audiences it aims to reach. As it is, it is very doubtful if any practitioner will make the necessary effort. I hope we can have soon a much shorter and more accessible version, oriented towards practice.