Digital Information Contexts: Theoretical Approaches to Understanding Digital Information

Citation

Wallis, J. (2010), "Digital Information Contexts: Theoretical Approaches to Understanding Digital Information", Library Review, Vol. 59 No. 3, pp. 235-236. https://doi.org/10.1108/00242531011031241

In Digital Information Contexts Tredinnick draws on the overlaps and intersections between information science, cultural and media studies to provide a provocative reconceptualisation of the way in which we think about information itself. Comments by Tredinnick himself throughout the text, as well as the nature of the publisher, provide indications of the audience the author is aiming for. Chandos publishes primarily for the professional and academic library and information management community. Tredinnick is motivated by a desire to broaden the prevalent perspectives within information management around the ways in which information is perceived, valued, organised and distributed.

The narrative of the text moves through historical perspectives on information and its organisation: from print to digital, librarianship to computer science. Perhaps the real value of this text is Tredinnick's focus on the meaning of information. To this end he explores a range of theoretical perspectives – semiotics, post‐structuralism and post‐modernism – dealing with complex epistemological and ontological issues along the way. The text presents this complexity in an accessible manner, providing the potential for reframing the management of information within a professional context. It is in grappling with the meaning of information against its cultural background that provides depth to the text. Tredinnick frames the shift to digital information within the epistemology of philosophers from Wittgenstein to Baudrillard. The breadth of the author's reading around information, knowledge and culture is impressive, presenting a historical and holistic approach to understanding the factors that have shaped how we create and consume information.

This is an ideal text for students of information science, providing a theoretical framework that has been lacking in some aspects of the discipline. For those working towards higher degrees, this text would be particularly helpful in developing overarching theory around research into the role that information plays in society or the practice of information management. For Masters programs this would make an ideal set text.

Information management as a profession and academic discipline needs to reflect, reshape and evolve. Tredinnick knows this, noting the changing information and cultural environments in which knowledge is formed. Digital Information Contexts provides a valuable step (perhaps a push) in the right direction.