This article describes one of the research methods used in my dissertation: the photographic inventory of a home library. The paper won the DIALOG/ALISE Methodology Competition (2006).

See also the workshop Snap Happy Research...

 

 

Abstract

To study the emerging phenomena of the personal space library (Miksa, 1996) in everyday life this paper presents an approach from visual anthropology (Ruby, 1996) called a photographic inventory (Collier & Collier, 1986). It entails systematically photographing information rich spaces in the home to document their features, allowing careful analysis of information resources and structures, and the practices they enable. The metatheoretical implications of studying personal libraries in the home are discussed, and the line of inquiry is located among existing research programs. The nearest methodological precedents (studies of academic and professional offices) are surveyed, with attention to their data gathering. Then, the field of visual anthropology and the photographic inventory are described, followed by a case study of personal libraries in the hobby of gourmet cooking. To stimulate refinement of the proposed approach, its limitations and outstanding questions are acknowledged. An Appendix contains a concise guide to the process of the photographic inventory and tips for photographing domestic information phenomena.

 

Collier, J. & Collier, M. (1986). Visual anthropology: Photography as a research method. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico.

Miksa, F. (1996). The Cultural legacy of the ‘Modern Library’ for the future, The Journal of Education for Library and Information Science 37(2), 100-119. [ Full text is available online at: http://www.gslis.utexas.edu/~miksa/modlib.html ]

Ruby, J. (1996). Visual anthropology. In D. Levinson & M. Ember (Eds.) Encyclopedia of Cultural Anthropology, Vol. 4. (pp. 1345-1351). New York: Henry Holt and Company.