CITATION AND COPYRIGHT INFORMATION:
Cite as: Dervin, B. (2003). Human studies and user studies: A call for methodological interdisciplinarity. Information Research, [On-line serial] 9 (1), paper 166.
© Brenda Dervin (2003).

ABSTRACT:
Drawing on extensive literature reviews focusing, in particular, on user (and audience) research in the fields library and information science and communication studies, Dervin describes the increasing chaos of human studies and user studies-the plethora of theories, concepts, approaches, methods, and findings which plague researchers within and between fields and bewilder policy maker and practitioner observers. Dervin traces the origins and symptoms of these disciplinary overloads and the usual forms of interdisciplinarity brought to bear on them. Dervin argues that most usual approaches to interdisciplinarity act as more of the same and contribute to overload conditions. She calls for a methodological approach to interdisciplinarity based on fundamental communicative principles. For library and information science, which as a field has traditionally drawn on multi-disciplinary sources, Dervin cautions that as the field sets itself to the task of assisting the interdisciplinary needs of its constituencies, it is especially important that the field also attend to interdisciplinary needs within its own walls, between its many disparate and disconnected discourse communities.

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