Abstract
AbstractThe purpose of this paper is to report on the seeking of deeply meaningful information, also including embodied information, connected to significant, intensely personal life changes having lifelong impacts. The concepts of “meaning‐making,” “transitioning,” and information seeking in “deeply meaningful and profoundly personal contexts” are used in order to understand transgender individuals' information seeking in the contexts of gender identity formation. Based on the literature, emotions and information seeking connected to a significant life change were divided into four phases to study how they could be identified in the 25 qualitative interviews with transgender individuals from Finland between the ages of 15 and 72. Based on the findings of this study, in significant life changes, an individual needs reliable, sensible and identifiable information. Serendipitous encounters and embodied experiences characterize information seeking during transitional stages. Peer communities are important for minorities in order to find places where interviewees feel safe to share information and experiences. These communities can also be found online. The concept of “deeply meaningful information” highlights the effect information has on information seekers. Deeply meaningful information can serve as a trigger for life change, helping people forward during the transitions.
Highlights
Separation of information seeking into everyday life and work-related information practices has been challenged (Clemens & Cushing, 2010; Dalmer & McKenzie, 2019) since the dichotomy does not take into account the diversity of information seeking activities
The purpose of this paper is to report on the seeking of deeply meaningful information, including embodied information, connected to significant, intensely personal life changes having lifelong impacts
This study aims to understand how the process of information seeking in a significant life change is formed among the identity construction of transgender individuals by combining the theory of transitions (Bronstein, 2019; Hicks, 2018; McKenzie & Willson, 2019; Willson, 2019; Willson & Given, 2020) with the concepts of deeply meaningful and profoundly personal context (Clemens & Cushing, 2010) and meaning-making (Ruthven, 2019)
Summary
Separation of information seeking into everyday life and work-related information practices (see Savolainen, 2010) has been challenged (Clemens & Cushing, 2010; Dalmer & McKenzie, 2019) since the dichotomy does not take into account the diversity of information seeking activities. In the context of significant life changes, information seeking has special meaning for the information seeker and happens in deeply meaningful and profoundly personal contexts where the “trigger” for information seeking is, for example, a personal crisis (Clemens & Cushing, 2010). Information seeking in life-changes can be understood through the concepts meaning-making (Ruthven, 2019) or transitioning (Chick & Meleis, 1986). The concept of transitioning refers to life events where an individual's life phase changes. This qualitative study aims to understand how the process of information seeking in a significant life change is formed among transgender individuals in the process of identity construction. The process of transition may involve several major changes, such as name, gender, and appearance (Haimson, 2018), causing information needs and strong emotions during the process
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
