Familiar Categories and Documentary Forms: Readers’ Perspectives

Amanda Cossham

doi:10.35492/docam/2/1/12

Abstract

This paper presents an evaluation of the ways in which three different groups of readers (recordkeepers, teachers and secondary school students) categorise documents. This is used to show how they understand documents, documentary forms and genre. Drawing on a card sorting activity conducted around a set of cards of documents related to The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, the paper discusses the significance of familiar categories as cultural markers (closely linked to particular rhetorical genres). It considers the impact of domain knowledge on the process of sorting and naming of categories, and compares the approaches taken by participants with those of library catalogues. It finds that there is no single, consistent approach to categorising the cards, with different literary genres, rhetorical genres, reasons for using, format, accessibility, and form all affecting the final categories each participant developed.

Highlights

This paper presents an evaluation of the ways in which three different groups of readers categorise documents
The aim of the PhD research is to identify the ways in which library users understand the bibliographic universe in a continuously changing information landscape of new media and communications, and to identify what their understanding might mean for the development of library catalogues
Drawing on Rosch’s (1978) work on the principles of categorisation, this paper explores the extent to which the changing information landscape is reflected in the categories developed by these participants

Summary

Introduction

This paper presents an evaluation of the ways in which three different groups of readers (recordkeepers, teachers and secondary school students) categorise documents. It is part of an interpretive PhD that aims to explore and to understand the meaning that people ascribe to a socially constructed phenomenon: the bibliographic universe. The aim of the PhD research is to identify the ways in which library users (or readers) understand the bibliographic universe in a continuously changing information landscape of new media and communications, and to identify what their understanding might mean for the development of library catalogues. Drawing on Rosch’s (1978) work on the principles of categorisation, this paper explores the extent to which the changing information landscape is reflected in the categories developed by these participants

Results

Discussion

Conclusion