University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Leisure and Its Relationship to Library and Information Science: Bridging the Gap

Stebbins, Robert A.

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/13654

Description

Title
Leisure and Its Relationship to Library and Information Science: Bridging the Gap
Author(s)
Stebbins, Robert A.
Issue Date
2009
Keyword(s)
  • Leisure studies
  • Leisure activities
  • Information behavior
  • Information retrieval
  • Information dissemination
Abstract
The serious leisure perspective is introduced and its relationship to library and information science (LIS) set out. The relationship is twofold: the perspective offers a distinctive approach both to research and to practice in this discipline. That is, the perspective bridges a critical gap that has separated the fields of LIS and leisure studies, manifested in both as scant concern with the central interest of the other. This gap is bridged by providing the first with a conceptual framework for understanding leisure and leisure activities, which can help guide researchers and practitioners working on the retrieval and dissemination of information bearing on such activities. The serious leisure perspective is the theoretic structure that synthesizes three main forms of leisure. Serious leisure is the systematic pursuit of an amateur, hobbyist, or volunteer core activity that captivates the participant with its challenges and complexity. Casual leisure is an immediately, intrinsically rewarding, relatively short-lived pleasurable core activity, requiring little or no special training to enjoy it. Projectbased leisure refers to a short term, reasonably complicated, one-shot or occasional, though infrequent, creative undertaking carried out in free time. Serious leisure is the most complex of these three, offering thereby the richest lode for LIS researchers and practitioners to mine. The perspective is a vehicle for systematically exploring people’s use and dissemination of information during free time.
Publisher
Johns Hopkins University Press and the Graduate School of Library and Information Science. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
ISSN
0024-2594
Type of Resource
text
Language
en
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/13654
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 2009 Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Owning Collections

Library Trends 57 (4) Spring 2009: Pleasurable Pursuits: Leisure and LIS Research PRIMARY
Library Trends 57 (4) Spring 2009: Pleasurable Pursuits: Leisure and LIS Research. Edited by Crystal Fulton and Ruth Vondracek.