Taking Flight with Document Diffraction

Abstract:To address the shortage of research that examines positive information experiences, this post-qualitative study examines how a hobbyist artifact fosters joy. This research focuses on the entanglements between a single person and a single document—specifically, a birding life list. Drawing from research on serious leisure pursuits, information behavior, and document studies, this playful examination uses auto-methodologies and poststructural techniques. By plugging in theory with depictions of the artifact and corresponding self-reflections, the study presents five elements of joy that emerged from the process. Born out of a series of diffractions, joy appeared through reflection on the hobbyist arc, the excitement of searching and collecting, storytelling, memoralia (narrative keepsakes), and the bittersweet feeling of joy's transience. Although this study focuses on list making, a behavior inherently imbued with rigidity, it presents the possibilities of fluid methodologies to examine positive human experiences in information science.