Citation - Rosenbaum, H. (1996). Structure and action: Towards a new concept of the information use environment. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the 59th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Information Science.

Rosenbaum 認為，系統導向的資訊行為研究過於受限於既有系統框架，但使用者導向的資訊行為研究又過於流於個人主義，缺乏對社會結構面向的解釋力。因此，Rosenbaum 建議以Taylor的IUE為基礎，並參考Giddens的結構化理論，以建立一整合的資訊行為研究的理論性框架。

Background -

• LIS: understand the social context within which the generation and dissemination of information takes place in organizational settings.

Questions: -

• to find a advanced conceptual framework for better understanding the working world of information professional from Robert S. Taylor's theory of information use environment and Anthony Giddens's theory of social structure.

Arguments -

• the relation between social structure and action is LIS's fundamental issue:
  • “The determination of the relationship between structure and action is a fundamental issue in any discipline that seeks to understand something about the social world [Giddens, 1984:219] and library and information science [LIS] is no exception.”
• 根據近來的文獻，此問題仍未被妥善解決 [Savolainen, 1993][Taylor, 1991][Hewins, 1990][Dervin & Nilan, 1986]
  • [note]: further reading: [Hjorland, 2000][Pettigrew, 2001][Wilson, 2003]
• 社會科學中相關領域也正在處理結構與行動整合的問題
  • [note]: 於社會學、經濟學理論中找基礎，比往哲學(抽象)找基礎更具體，也比往各個社會學子領域(傳播、管理、教育、政治、組織研究、人類學、文化研究)找理論更具整合力
• LIS's information seeking and use 研究是以結構或系統取向的，忽略了使用者，其關係也限於結構(資訊系統)決定行動(使用者的行為)。 [Taylor, 1986][Dervin & Nilan, 1986][Cole, 1994][Savolainen, 1993]
  • LIS's information seeking and use 研究是以行動導向或使用者中心取向的 [Hewins, 1990][Dervin & Nilan, 1986]
• LIS 這兩種取向的研究，累積了許多成果，但仍然無力解決一些實務困境。[Taylor, 1986]
  • 此困境來自於兩種取向無法互相處理彼此的議題。
    • 系統或結構取向主張結構與行動的關係是「結構決定、由上而下」的。此取向無法處理個人行動與互動層次的能動性，使用者的需求是由「結構」所決定的，因此此取向研究的資訊需求其實是「結構的需求」而非「個體的需求」。
    • 使用者或行動取向採「由下而上」的策略詮釋結構與行動的關係。社會個體間的互動是其他社會「顯現(emerges)」：機構、社會結構、宏觀社會秩序的基礎。因此資訊不再是一種「客觀實體」，而是一種「人類建構」。其批評是，流於方法論上的個人主義，而無法處理現有的社會結構現象。
• Taylor (1986, 1991)的研究提出一種整合結構與行動關係的可能: information use environment

• Taylor's IUE 以使用者為中心，處理其社會脈絡中的資訊。
  • “It focuses on the study of information in its social contexts and explicitly places the user at the center of its conceptual framework, a move which has been long called for in information science.” [36, 37, 38, 39, 40].
• IUE 的四元素
  • sets of people[人]: 人口統計，已決定的社會特性：經濟上的社會定位、產業社會學的政治與文化結構
  • the structure and thrust of problems[問題]: 由結構對使用者的認知、資訊需求所起的決定性作用
  • assumptions about the resolution[方案前提]: 對問題類型列出可行性解決方案的前提
  • characteristics of settings[場所特徵]: 環境的物質與場所的社會脈絡

• problems: Taylor's IUE isn't fully developed (to accommodation between structure and action)
• solution: add Giddens' structuration approach 結構化理論
• IUE ver.Giddens: Organizational information use environment[組織性的資訊使用環境]: a component of organizational structure composed of rules and resources which affect information flow in the organization and which hold potential criteria used to value information, typical information-based problems faced by organizational members, and acceptable resolutions to those problems.
  一個組織性結構的單元，此單元由對組織中資訊流產生影響的規則與資源(ie. Giddens' structure)所組成，此單元也掌握了潛在的對資訊加值、對資訊問題的分類、以及對問題解決方案的判準。
  • rule[角色]: a generalizable procedure or technique that can be used to form, sustain, change, terminate, and recreate information behaviors;
    一能被用於形成、承擔、改變、終結、與創造資訊行為的概化程序或技巧；
  • resource[資源]: a social or material element of the organizational setting that can be used to carry out information behaviors; resources allow command over objects and processes (allocative) and people (authoritative);
    一組織性場所(setting)的社會性或物質性的元素。此元素可以被用於實現資訊行為。資源(resource)包含物體或工具程序(配置性資源)與人(權威性資源)。
  • problematic situation[問題情境]: some portion of a manager's experience that is attended to and given boundaries by a manager, who labels it as a single entity that requires attention and possible action and which centers on information;
    某些管理者由經驗中標明與劃界的部份，這些問題情境被標明為一個單一的實體，以加以注意與對應可能行動。
  • problem resolution[問題解決]: when that portion of the manager's experience that gave rise to the problematic situation no longer requires attention and action.
    某些管理者由經驗中標明與劃界的部份。此部份使解決已浮現的問題情境。
    • [note]: 此處未太多著墨如何由 Giddens 改造 IUE。需見其博士論文。

• Dervin, B. and Nilan, M. (1986). Information needs and uses. In Williams, M. (ed.). Annual Review of Information Science and Technology, 21. White Plains, NY: Knowledge Industry Publications. p. 3-33
• Taylor, R. S. (1986). Value-Added Processes in Information Systems. Norwood, N.J.: Ablex Publishing.
• Taylor, R. S. (1991). Information use environments. In Dervin, B. and M.J. Voight (Eds.). Progress in Communication Sciences, Vol. 10. Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing Corp. 217-255.
• Hjorland, B. (2000). Information seeking behaviour: What should a general theory look like? The New Review of Information Behaviour Research, 1, 19-33.
• Pettigrew, K. E., Fidel, R., & Bruce, H. (2001). Conceptual frameworks in information behavior. Annual Review of Information Science and Technology(ARIST), 35, 43-78.
• Wilson, T. D. (2003). Philosophical foundations and research relevance: Issues for information research. Journal of Information Science, 29(6), 445.
• Rosenbaum, H. (1996). Managers and information in organizations: Towards a structurational concept of the information use environment of managers. Unpublished Dessertation, Syracuse University.

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