INDEPTH
Information behaviour in drama: what use can be made out of it?
Librarians are a regular feature in fiction – from books, to TV and films. But less common is the role of Information Behaviour in fiction, and here Andrew K. Shenton explores one example and asks what we can learn to improve our own IB practice.
IN 2017 and 2018, Information Profes- sional published eight articles by Daniel Gooding devoted to librarians and libraries in fiction.1
a significant body of literature that ad- dresses the ways in which information professionals and their organisations have been imagined in stories. Much less attention appears to have been devoted to how information behaviour (IB) has been represented in such material. This is despite the fact that IB is fundamen- tal to tasks as varied as problem solving, decision-making, developing one’s career and succeeding in a range of endeavours in education. We can fairly say that we need information, and the skills required to exploit it, simply to cope with daily life. There are many reasons why we may want to look at how IB has been depicted in creative works within literature, film and television. We can, for example, use these portrayals to:
l understand in practical contexts issues that have been raised in the abstract – in IB models;
l construct new IB models, with the imagin ative works forming raw material for analysis;
l appreciate – or demonstrate to others – how IB took place in a particular era, in terms of either when the media product was
June 2024
The series is part of
Andrew K. Shenton (
shenton1@outlook.com) Curriculum and Resource Support Officer at Monkseaton High School and Consultant/Researcher.
created or when the plot was set;
l inform our own practice as information users or professionals.
IB theory may also serve as a vehicle to provide a fresh perspective on named stories. Åse Kristine Tveit takes this approach in relation to Roald Dahl’s children’s book, Matilda.2
A case study
Much of what follows in this article is concerned with uncovering the potential offered by a certain media product, here an episode of the 1960s science fiction (SF) television series, The Champions. At first glance, given the speculative nature of SF and its emphasis on “what if…?” scenar-
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