Burnett book explores Information Worlds

Dr. Gary Burnett, Associate Professor at the School of Library & Information Studies of The Florida State University College of Communication & Information, has co-authored Information Worlds: Behavior, Technology, and Social Context in the Age of the Internet with FSU alumnus Dr. Paul Jaeger, Assistant Professor, University of Maryland.

Burnett’s academic research focuses on the intersection between information exchange, social norms, and social interaction in online settings, with a particular focus on textuality and interpretive practices. He teaches courses on Information Organization, Indexing and Abstracting, and the Information Needs of Adults at the School of Library & Information Studies. Learn more about Dr. Gary Burnett.

Information Worlds investigates how information creates our social worlds. The authors build a multi-level theory of “information worlds” upon the works of Library and Information Studies (LIS) scholar and theorist Elfreda Chatman, philosopher Jürgen Habermas, as well as theory and research from a wide range of other disciplines.

Testing their theory through application to a variety of real-world issues, Burnett and Jaeger tackle the topics of:

  • libraries and information provision,
  • the value assigned to information by differing social groups,
  • information access and exchange,
  • international information policies,
  • the role of information in democracy, and
  • technological change.

The book is published as in the Routledge Studies in Library and Information Science series.