rESEARCH & pUBLICATIONS
​My research is organized around the question: What is the nature of information in the pleasures of life?  I am investigating this matter through the concatenated study of serious leisure realms, which are crossroads of information and enjoyment. My empirical research explores the use and structure of leisure information on personal and social levels and my dissertation was a case study of information in the hobby of gourmet cooking.  I am a methodologist and practicing ethnographer with a particular interest in visual and creative techniques. I take an interdisciplinary approach and am involved in sociology and leisure studies, especially through collaboration with Dr. Robert A. Stebbins, architect of The Serious Leisure Perspective. As inspiration and for theoretical resources I draw heavily from northern European information scholarship. My goals are to generate basic knowledge about information in the pleasures of life; challenge existing ideas about information that have largely emerged from academic problem scenarios; establish positive models of organic, flourishing information environments; enliven classrooms with upbeat topics; and enrich the information experience for leisure enthusiasts. Selected publications are organized below by themes (with full text links when available).
Here is my current CV. 

And this is a non-academic overview of my research on serious leisure, without jargon!

​My writings on teaching are a separate page.

Information and the “Higher Things in Life”/Serious Leisure/Hobby of Gourmet Cooking 

Latham, K., Hartel, J., & Gorichanaz, T., (in press). Information and contemplation: A call for reflection and action. Journal of Documentation. [PDF forthcoming, Abstract]

Cox, A., Griffin, B. L., & Hartel, J. (2017). What every body knows: embodied information in serious leisure. Journal of Documentation, 73(3). [PDF]
 
Hartel, J., Cox, A.M. & Griffin, B.L. (2016). Information activity in serious leisure. Information Research, 21(4), paper728. Retrieved from http://InformationR.net/ir/21-4/paper728.html 
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Hartel, J. (2014). An Interdisciplinary platform for information behaviour research in the liberal arts hobby. Journal of Documentation, 70(5), 945-962. [PDF]
 
Hartel, J. (2011). Information in the hobby of gourmet cooking: Four contexts. In W. Aspray, & B. Hayes (Eds.), Everyday Information (pp. 217-248). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. [PDF]
 
Hartel, J. (2010). Managing documents at home for serious leisure: A case study of the hobby of gourmet cooking. Journal of Documentation, 66(6), 847-874. [Highly Cited Paper Award] [PDF]
 
Hartel, J. (2010). Leisure and hobby information and its users. In M. J. Bates, & M. N. Maack (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Library and Information Sciences (3rd Edition). New York: Taylor and Francis. [PDF]
 
Hartel, J. (2010). Time as a framework for information science: insights from the hobby of gourmet cooking. Information Research, 15(4) colis715. Retrieved from http://InformationR.net/ir/15-4/colis715.html 

Kari, J., & Hartel, J. (2007). Information and higher things in life: Addressing the pleasurable and the profound in information science. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 58(8), 1131-1147. [PDF]
 
Hartel, J. (2006). Information activities and resources in an episode of gourmet cooking. Information Research, 12(1) paper 281. Retrieved from InformationR.net/ir/12-1/paper282.html

Hartel, J. (2005). Serious leisure. In K. Fisher, S. Erdelez, & L. McKechnie (Eds.), Theories of Information Behavior: A Researcher’s Guide (pp. 313-317). Medford, NJ: Information Today. [PDF]
 
Hartel, J. (2003). The serious leisure frontier in library and information science: Hobby domains. Knowledge Organization, 30(3/4), 228-238. [PDF]

​History and Theory of Library and Information Science

Hartel, J. (2020), The red thread of information, Journal of Documentation, 76(3), 647-656. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-04-2019-0067
[PDF forthcoming]

Hartel, J. (2019). Turn, turn, turn. In Proceedings of CoLIS, the Tenth International Conference on Conceptions of Library and Information Science, Ljubljana, Slovenia, June 16-19, 2019. Information Research, 24(4), paper colis1901. Retrieved from http://InformationR.net/ir/24-4/colis/colis1901.html  [video, 11" by 17" visual summary]

Hartel, J. (2018). Social epistemology as theoretical foundation for information science: Supporting a cultural turn, Copenhagen, August 16-17, 2017. Knowledge Organization, 45(1), 79-84. [PDF]
 
Cox, A. M. & Griffin, B. & Hartel, J. (2018). Introduction to the Special Issue on Information and the Body. Library Trends 66(3), 219-222.

Hartel, J. (2018). The Case against information and the body in library and information science. Library Trends, 66(4), 585-588. [PDF]
 
Hartel, J. (2013). Castles and inverted castles: the work of Marcia J. Bates. Information Research, 18(3) paper C31. Retrieved from http://InformationR.net/ir/18-3/colis/paperC31.html 
 
Hartel, J. (2012). Welcome to library and information science. Journal of Education for Library and Information Science, 53(3), 165-175. [website version]
                     
Talja, S,. & Hartel, J. (2007). Revisiting the user-centred turn in information science research: an intellectual history perspective. Information Research, 12(4) paper colis04. Retrieved from http://InformationR.net/ir/12-4/colis/colis04.html 

Visual Studies of Information and Visual Research Methods

​​Hartel, J., Phutane, M., Posa, S., Shi, Z., Xu, A., & Bradshaw, S. (in press). Somewhere over the rainbow: The use of color in the draw-and-write technique. Visual Methodologies.
 
Hartel, J. & Hicks, D. (in press). Librarian, illustrated. In J. Webb & S. Bendi (Eds.),Visualizing the Library: A Primer on Visual Research Methods in Library and Information Science. London: Facet Publishing.

See also the iSquare Research Program, an arts-informed visual study of "information" using the draw-and-write technique.
​Hartel, J. (2019). Draw-and-write techniques. In P. Atkinson, S. Delamont, A. Cernat, J.W. Sakshaug, & R.A. Williams (Eds.), SAGE Research Methods Foundations. [PDF] doi: 10.4135/9781526421036853510
​
Hartel, J., and Nguyen, A. T. (2018). iSquare dancing: Visual analysis in the classroom and beyond. Education for Information, 34(1), 21-37. [PDF]
 
Hartel, J., Noone, R., Oh, C., Power, S., Danzanov, S. & Kelly, B. (2018). The iSquare protocol: Combining research, art, and pedagogy through the draw-and-write technique. Qualitative Research, 18(4), 433-450. [PDF]
 
Joseph, P. & Hartel, J. (2017). Visualizing information in the records and archives management (RAM) disciplines: Using Engelhardt’s graphical framework. Records Management Journal, 27(3), .234-255. [PDF]
 
Hartel, J. (2017). Adventures in visual analysis. The Visual Methodologies Journal (Special Issue: Fourth International Visual Methods Conference), 5(1), 80-91. [PDF]
 
Hartel, J. & Savolainen, R. (2016). Pictorial metaphors for information. Journal of Documentation, 72(5), 794-812. [PDF]
 
Hartel, J (2017). Information behaviour, visual research, and the information horizon interview: three ways. Information Research, 22(1), CoLIS paper 1635. Retrieved from http://InformationR.net/ir/22-1/colis/colis1635.html 
 
Hartel, J. (2014). Information behaviour illustrated. In Proceedings of ISIC, the Information Behaviour Conference, Leeds, 2-5 September, 2014: Part 1, (paper isic11). Retrieved from http://InformationR.net/ir/19-4/isic/isic11.html 
 
Hartel, J. (2014). An Arts-informed study of information using the draw-and-write technique. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 65(7), 1349-1367. [PDF]
 
Hartel, J. & Thomson, L. (2011). Visual approaches and photography for the study of immediate information space. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 62(11), 2214-2224. [PDF]