Life transitions forms a rich area of scholarship for Information Science research. The last five years have seen a steady growth in the publication of empirical studies related to transition, including PhD work and longitudinal studies, in a variety of areas including health, social, academic and employment contexts. At the same time, emerging conceptual work has also started to re-examine transition through a historical lens, including how change and adjustment has been treated in historical Information Science scholarship. This adds significant scope for complex conceptual work. The breadth of interest further means that transition has the potential to unify various related fields of study, including information behaviour, practice, and literacy research as well as various disciplinary fields. This Special Issue will provide a platform for the exploration of life transitions from an information behaviour, information practice, or information literacy perspective.
Transitions are a natural state in everyday life. In a broader sense, individuals could be said to be in a constant state of transition, or 'transitioning' with every passage in life. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, transition is defined both as a noun and adverb: 'A passing or passage from one condition, action, or (rarely) place, to another; change' and, 'To make or undergo a transition (from one state, system, etc. to or into another); to change over or switch.' From a research perspective, transition is a complex topic that has been variously conceptualised and defined. Transitions can be personal (changes due to changes in life cycle), situational (changes in circumstances in personal or professional life), or environmental (changes in the organisational environment impacting individuals). These emphases mean that transition has been most comprehensively explored to date within the field of Education and Nursing.
Conceptual work in these areas has focused on the process through which people in transition move beyond a disrupted reality to construct a new reality. Information has been found to be a strong trigger in the transition process. Transitions fracture the individual’s information landscapes and require them to learn new 'ways of knowing', a process that often requires both seeking and avoiding information as a coping mechanism to reduce uncertainty.
Although transitions are permeated with information practices of many kinds, information behaviour/practices/literacy research has engaged only peripherally with ideas of transition and the concept remains underexplored. Consequently, the aim of this special issue is to extend these initial explorations of transition through an information lens. We invite empirical, conceptual or methodological submissions for this special issue that address one or more of these questions: