“The Eyes of the Power Company”: Workplace Information Practices of a Vault Inspector

Abstract

To date, LIS studies of workplace information practices have primarily focused on occupations that require a university education, and, consequently, little is known about the information practices of blue‐collar workers. This study uses a qualitative case study approach to examine the workplace information practices of a blue‐collar worker—a vault inspector at a hydroelectric utility company. Using social practice theory as a framework, this article argues that vault inspection is a practice involving situated judgment, embodiment, educated perception, finding and navigating, and classification. This article also asserts that the practice of vault inspection produces documents that act as “boundary objects” that dynamically connect disparate parts of the organization and meet a range of organizational information requirements. This suggests that vault inspection is an information practice.