The liberal arts hobbies
In 2012, I will be conducting research on the liberal arts hobbies, one of the five major classes of hobbies in the Serious Leisure Perspective. The liberal arts hobbies entail the systematic and fervent pursuit of knowledge for its own sake (Stebbins, 1994). Put another way, the knowledge acquired is not background preparation for some other activity, but is a satisfying end in itself. For instance, a liberal arts hobbyist may study World War II airplanes without any intention to board or pilot a vintage aircraft. I have chosen to examine this hobby category because it is centred on knowledge acquisition and expression, and its enthusiasts manifest an unadulterated enjoyment of the process. Overall, it seems the liberal arts hobbies may be hotbeds of sophisticated and undocumented information phenomena. This hobby class has been the subject of the least research across the social sciences; in information studies, there have only been a few investigations of genealogists (Yakel, 2004), paranormal enthusiasts (Kari, 2001), museum visitors (Smith, 2006), and people engaged in self-development projects (Kari & Savolainen, 2007), which are useful points of reference. This project marks my second case study of a hobby class, enabling comparison across hobby types.
References
Kari, J. (2001). Information seeking and interest in the paranormal: Towards a process model of information action. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Tampere, Finland.
Kari, J., & Savolainen, R. (2007). Relationships between information seeking and context: a qualitative study of
Internet searching and the goals of personal development. Library & Information Science Research, 29(1), 47-69.
Smith, M. K. (2006). Art information use and needs of non-specialists: Evidence in art museum visitor studies(Ph.D. dissertation), University of Washington: Seattle, WA.
Stebbins, R. A. (1994). The liberal arts hobbies: A neglected subset of serious leisure. Society and Leisure, 17, 173-186.
Yakel, E. (2004). Seeking information, seeking connections, seeking meaning: genealogists and family
historians. Information Research,10(1), paper 205 [Available at http://InformationR.net/ir/10-1/paper205.html]
Kari, J., & Savolainen, R. (2007). Relationships between information seeking and context: a qualitative study of
Internet searching and the goals of personal development. Library & Information Science Research, 29(1), 47-69.
Smith, M. K. (2006). Art information use and needs of non-specialists: Evidence in art museum visitor studies(Ph.D. dissertation), University of Washington: Seattle, WA.
Stebbins, R. A. (1994). The liberal arts hobbies: A neglected subset of serious leisure. Society and Leisure, 17, 173-186.
Yakel, E. (2004). Seeking information, seeking connections, seeking meaning: genealogists and family
historians. Information Research,10(1), paper 205 [Available at http://InformationR.net/ir/10-1/paper205.html]
