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Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems 193
Octavia-Luciana Madge Editor
New Trends and

Challenges in
Information
Science and
Information
Seeking Behaviour
Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems
Volume 193
Series Editor
Janusz Kacprzyk, Systems Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences,
Warsaw, Poland
Advisory Editors
Fernando Gomide, Department of Computer Engineering and Automation—DCA,
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering—FEEC, University of Campinas—
UNICAMP, São Paulo, Brazil
Okyay Kaynak, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering,
Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey
Derong Liu, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University
of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, USA; Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy
of Sciences, Beijing, China
Witold Pedrycz, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Alberta, Alberta, Canada; Systems Research Institute
Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
Marios M. Polycarpou, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
KIOS Research Center for Intelligent Systems and Networks, University of Cyprus,
Nicosia, Cyprus
Imre J. Rudas, Óbuda University, Budapest, Hungary
Jun Wang, Department of Computer Science, City University of Hong Kong,
Kowloon, Hong Kong
The series “Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems” publishes the latest
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Octavia-Luciana Madge
Editor
New Trends and Challenges

in Information Science
and Information Seeking
Behaviour
Editor
Department of Communication Sciences
Faculty of Letters
and Doctoral School in Communication Sciences
Faculty of Journalism and Communication Studies
University of Bucharest
Bucharest, Romania
ISSN 2367-3370 ISSN 2367-3389 (electronic)

Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems
ISBN 978-3-030-68465-5 ISBN 978-3-030-68466-2 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68466-2
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature
Switzerland AG 2021
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether
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of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and
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The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication
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The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book
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Preface
This book has as its main purpose to bring to the attention of the scientific commu-
nity important topics currently under investigation in information science research.
It is intended for information science specialists and researchers, information profes-
sionals, librarians, undergraduate and postgraduate library and information science
students, and anyone with an interest in new research in information science and the
search for and use of information.
The field of information science has undergone many changes over recent
decades. From its beginnings as a discipline concentrating on the communication and
organisation of information, it has expanded into information technologies, informa-
tion behaviour, information retrieval, the Internet and, more recently, gaming and
gamification. This has paralleled the elevation of information and knowledge to the
status of key strategic resources with the development of a global digital society.
Education in the field of information science has evolved alongside these changes in
research and practice.
The idea for this book grew out of an international conference held at the Univer-
sity of Bucharest in December 2018 entitled ‘Information Science: New Challenges,
New Approaches’ - a major information science meeting to be held in Romania, and
a milestone for the discipline in the country. Library and information science educa-
tion was re-established in Romania in 1990, albeit under a human sciences umbrella
in the Faculty of Letters. It was not until 2016 that the University of Bucharest’s
Doctoral School in Communication Sciences, then in its eighth year, welcomed its
neighbouring discipline of information science, thanks to a PhD supervisor special-
ising in library and information science. Information science thus finally found an
appropriate home in Romania, at least for doctoral studies.
It was within the framework of this Doctoral School that the ‘New Challenges,
New Approaches’ conference was organised in 2018. The conference successfully
outlined the current framework of information science, discussing the influence of
new technologies on information needs, practices and behaviour, defining the current
role of the information scientist and introducing the diverse research directions being
pursued in the field. From the breadth of topics discussed at the conference came the
idea for a volume that could capture some of the research concerns of information
science scholars and mark the beginning of a new phase for the field in Romania.
v
vi Preface
Further events associated with the Doctoral School, covering such topics as the
future challenges and possibilities for libraries, gamification, games and libraries,
and changes in information seeking, strengthened the conviction that the time was
right to publish a collection on the challenges and trends in the field.
The contributors to this volume include information science professors, leading
game development researchers, major theorists of gaming and play and experienced
practitioners in the domain of libraries, information and communication. Although
some of the authors participated in the 2018 conference, this book comprises new
contributions, not papers presented at that event. The book is divided into three parts
by general theme, but each chapter stands alone and variations in authorial style
and article structure have been maintained as a strength of the collection, repre-
senting a stylistic diversity that should be encouraged alongside new methodological
approaches.
I would like to give thanks to all of the contributors to this volume for their
work, but especially to Dr. Ari Haasio for his enthusiasm, support, encouragement
and assistance at different stages of the shaping of this book, to Professors Jan
Nolin, J. Tuomas Harviainen and Markku Mattila and to Dr. Arja Mäntykangas,
former senior lecturer at the University of Borås, for her valuable comments and
suggestions. I would also like to thank Mr. Titi Jalbă from E-nformation for his
support in publishing this book.
Bucharest, Romania Octavia-Luciana Madge

Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Information Science Challenged

The Challenge of Challenges and Information Science . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Jan Nolin
Information Behaviour from a Social and Asocial Perspective

Information Seeking Behaviour of the Socially Withdrawn . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Ari Haasio
Identifying Hikikomori’s ‘Hidden’ Information Needs
and Practices in Online Discussion Forums: Applying Dervin’s
‘Situation-Gap-Use’ and ‘Gap-Bridging’ Metaphors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Hajime Naka
Sharing Identity Information on Dark Web Drug Boards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Maria Hakalahti and J. Tuomas Harviainen
Understanding the Information Behaviour of Parents Refusing
Vaccination for Their Children: the Recent Measles Outbreak
in Romania . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Octavia-Luciana Madge and Ioana Robu
Fake News, Fake Media and Hate Speech in Finnish
MV-Magazine—How Can Libraries Fight Against the Lies? . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Markku Mattila and Ari Haasio
Searching for New Pathways for Measuring Satisfaction
of Children and Adolescent Users Regarding the Services Provided
by the School Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Simona Maria Antonescu and Octavia-Luciana Madge
vii
viii Contents
Physicians Augment Knowledge with Emotion in Making Medical

Decisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Ioana Răduca
Games and Gamification

Games, Gamification and Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Ari Haasio, Octavia-Luciana Madge, and J. Tuomas Harviainen
The Application of Gamification in the Medical Activity
in Romania: A Perspective of Doctors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Constantin Ciornei
Jamography: How to Document and Reference Design Jams
in Academia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Annakaisa Kultima, Jaakko Stenros, and J. Tuomas Harviainen
Author Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

Subject Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Editors and Contributors
About the Editor
Octavia-Luciana Madge (PhD) is an associate professor at the University of

Bucharest, Faculty of Letters, Department of Communication Sciences where she has
worked since 2000 and a PhD supervisor at the Doctoral School in Communication
Sciences of the same university. She teaches at the Information and Documentation
Sciences Programme courses on knowledge management, information users, funda-
mentals of information science, and theories of information behaviour. Between
2004 and 2019 she was the editor-in-chief of the journal Studii de Biblioteconomie
s, i S, tiint, a Informării / Library and Information Science Research continued with
the title Information and Communication Sciences Research. She graduated from
library and information science programmes (BA and MA), has a PhD (2006) in
Knowledge Management and the Info-Documentary Structures at the University of
Bucharest and a Habilitation (2016) in Communication Sciences. She also graduated
from the medical school (MD), working for her first specialty as family physician,
and then continuing to specialise in general surgery. She has a PhD (2015) in the
Surgical Stenting of the Bilio-Digestive Anastomoses at the Carol Davila Univer-
sity of Medicine and Pharmacy Bucharest. She has authored or edited eleven books
and over 50 articles, and presented over 50 papers at international conferences on
various aspects of library and information science and general surgery. She is an
elected member of the European Association for Health Information and Libraries
(EAHIL) Council and member of the Standing Committee of the Section Health
and Biosciences Libraries (HBS) of the International Federation of Library Associa-
tions and Institutions (IFLA). Her current main research interests are communication
in healthcare, knowledge management, information users, and health information
behaviour.
ix
x Editors and Contributors
Contributors
Simona Maria Antonescu Department of Communication Sciences, Faculty of

Letters, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania
Constantin Ciornei Information and Documentation Sciences Programme, Faculty
of Letters, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania
Ari Haasio Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences, Seinäjoki, Finland
Maria Hakalahti Finnish Academy of Science and Letters, Helsinki, Finland
J. Tuomas Harviainen Tampere University, Tampere, Finland
Annakaisa Kultima Aalto University, Espoo, Finland
Octavia-Luciana Madge Department of Communication Sciences, Faculty of
Letters & Doctoral School in Communication Sciences, Faculty of Journalism and
Communication Studies, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania
Markku Mattila Migration Institute of Finland (Turku) and Tampere University
(Tampere), Turku and Tampere, Finland
Hajime Naka Faculty of Education, Tokoha University, Shizuoka, Japan;
The Graduate School of Library, Information and Media Studies, University of
Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan
Jan Nolin Swedish School of Library and Information Science, University of Borås,
Borås, Sweden
Ioana Robu The Library of the Cluj Medicine and Pharmacy University, Cluj-
Napoca, Romania
Ioana Răduca Aleph News and Doctoral School in Communication Sciences,
Faculty of Journalism and Communication Studies, University of Bucharest,
Bucharest, Romania
Jaakko Stenros Tampere University, Tampere, Finland
Acronyms
ADHD Attention deficit hyperactivity disorders

ANOVA Analysis of variance
CD Compact disc
CDI Documentation and information centres
DiGRA Digital Games Research Association
EFVV European Forum for Vaccine Vigilance
ELIS Everyday life information-seeking model
EU European Union
GDPR General Data Protection Regulation
GP General practitioner
IB Information behaviour
ICGJ International Conference on Game Jams, Hackathons and Game Creation
Events
ICU Intensive care unit
IFLA The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions
ISAGA The International Simulation and Gaming Association
IT Information technology
LARP Live action role-playing games
LIS Library and information science
NEET Not in Education, Employment or Training
NGO Non-governmental organizations
PISA Programme for International Student Assessment
PSVR PlayStation Virtual Reality
QR Quick response
SDG Sustainable Development Goals
SPSS Statistical Package for the Social Sciences
TOR The Onion Router
VR Virtual reality
WHO World Health Organization
YSQ-L3 Young Schema Questionnaire L-3
xi
List of Figures
Information Seeking Behaviour of the SociallyWithdrawn

Fig. 1 Typical features, distributors and sources of disnormative
information compared to normative information. Source
Haasio 2015; Haasio 2019. Translation from Finnish
by the author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Identifying Hikikomori’s ‘Hidden’ Information Needs and

Practices in Online Discussion Forums: Applying Dervin’s
‘Situation-Gap-Use’ and ‘Gap-Bridging’ Metaphors
Fig. 1 Example of a message posted in 5channel (left), and an English
translation of the excerpts to be analysed in this study (right) . . . . . 37
Fig. 2 Results of the structural narrative analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Fig. 3 Gap topics determined by the thematic narrative analysis . . . . . . . . . 38
Fig. 4 Information need topics determined by the thematic narrative
analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Fig. 5 Application of Dervin’s two sense-making metaphors
to the narrative analysis results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Fig. 6 Simplified framework of the sense-making practice
of hikikomori . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Jamography: How to Document and Reference Design Jams in

Academia
Fig. 1 Images are an important part of the documentation.
For example, Edu Game Jam was held in a truck parked
outside a conference for educational professionals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Fig. 2 ASM Game Jam’19 took place at a demoparty. Again,
one image can communicate much relevant documentary
information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
xiii
List of Tables
The Challenge of Challenges and Information Science

Table 1 Mainstreaming of various technologies during the 2020
as part of the fourth Industrial Revolution according
to a wide survey of expert expectations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Table 2 Environmental impact of bitcoin technology as of September
9, 2020 according to https://digiconomist.net/bitcoin-ene
rgy-consumption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Sharing Identity Information on Dark Web Drug Boards

Table 1 Data categorisation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Table 2 Shared information types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Understanding the Information Behaviour of Parents Refusing

Vaccination for Their Children: the Recent Measles Outbreak in
Romania
Table 1 Distribution of measles cases by age group and vaccine status . . . 65
Searching for New Pathways for Measuring Satisfaction of

Children and Adolescent Users Regarding the Services Provided
by the School Library
Table 1 Information about the participants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Physicians Augment Knowledge with Emotion in Making Medical

Decisions
Table 1 Internal consistency of used scales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Table 2 Items used for analysis and the questionnaire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Table 3 Items used for analysis and the questionnaire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Table 4 Respondents and their characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
xv
xvi List of Tables
Table 5 Average scores obtained by respondents on the cognitive

schema scale: locus of control and real-life situations (n = 32) . . . 116
Table 6 Average scores obtained by respondents on measurement
subscales: years of professional experience (n = 32) . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Table 7 Variance according to number of years of experience . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Table 8 Average scores according to gender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Introduction
Today we live saturated with information, engaging with it at every step in our
personal and professional lives. The combination of information and digital tech-
nology has transformed our lives and societies, not least by making access to infor-
mation easier than ever before. Against this backdrop, there can be few fields as
pertinent to so many aspects of contemporary life as information science, with its
ability to shape the digital society, its openness to technological progress, and its
support for examining and advancing the role of information in society.
Information science is an interdisciplinary field of study that has grown out
of library science and documentation; it is a social science (as described by Le
Coadic [1]) that is closely related to the communication sciences. Shera defined the
field of information science as ‘... involved with the whole concept of knowledge
in whatever form its manifestations may take’ [2, p. 286], while Vickery considered
it ‘The scientific study of the communication of information in society’ [3, p. 11].
My own understanding of information science, close to that of Saracevic [4], is that
it deals with information and knowledge, with the management and transfer of these
resources, and with all of the activities and technologies involved in their acquisi-
tion, collection, processing, organisation, storage, retrieval, use and dissemination to
users.
Information science is an open and dynamic field. As a meta-discipline, it has
always welcomed specialists from a range of backgrounds, based only on their
capacity to contribute their knowledge and views to its study and practice. In recent
decades the field has undergone many changes and has expanded to cover areas that
O. L. Madge (B)
Department of Communication Sciences, Faculty of Letters and Doctoral School in
Communication Sciences, Faculty of Journalism and Communication Studies, University of
Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania
e-mail: octavia.madge@litere.unibuc.ro
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 1

O. L. Madge (ed.), New Trends and Challenges in Information Science and Information
Seeking Behaviour, Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems 193,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68466-2_1
2 O. L. Madge
were once considered outside of its scope. All of these changes are in need of explo-
ration alongside a host of new topics of research interest among the information
science community.
There are a number of notable books dedicated to information science [5, 6, 7],
information behaviour [8, 9] and information users [10, 11, 12]; these do an excellent
job of introducing the discipline and its history and outlining the major concepts and
theories used in the field, and make available many important contributions from
eminent information scientists. New Trends and Challenges in Information Science
and Information Seeking Behaviour differs from these texts in bringing together a
series of studies that illustrate the current research concerns of specialists working
in information science. The contributions give an insight into and invite reflection
upon the current state of research in the field.
Taken as a whole, the book presents the current trends, challenges and possibili-
ties in the field. The topics vary from the future role of information science in society
to the new concepts of ‘disnormative information’ and ‘jamography’, criminal activ-
ities in the dark web and hate speech on the internet, the hikikomori phenomenon,
and gamification in libraries. The articles analyse different aspects of how people use
information, of people’s needs for information and how these are being satisfied in
a digital world, and of the negative effects of ready access to abundant information.
Through its division into three parts, the volume proposes three major themes:
the contribution of information science to society in the dual context of the Fourth
Industrial Revolution and the UN strategic plan known as Agenda 2030; the infor-
mation behaviour and practices of different groups in a variety of contexts (on and
off the Web); and gamification, with the challenges that it brings to libraries and
other fields of human activity.
The first part of the book introduces the notion of a ‘challenge of challenges’
to describe the meta-challenge of connecting the Fourth Industrial Revolution with
Agenda 2030. Information science has long contributed to the public sector, espe-
cially in regard to freedom of information, the cultural commons, inclusion and acces-
sibility and the challenge of challenges provides opportunities for academic research
in information science to reaffirm and consolidate this social role. Amidst these
emerging processes, which will transform human civilisation, information science
can make major contributions in such areas as sustainability targets and indicators,
open science and sustainable information literacy.
The second part of the book begins with a chapter on the information
practices of socially withdrawn youth, also known as hikikomori, through an
analysis of data collected from a Finnish discussion group. The information behaviour
of this group is affected by the isolated life they lead and the time they spend
engaged on the Web, which constitutes a central part of their life. The information
behaviour of socially withdrawn people is characterised by a need for disnormative
information - a concept introduced in this chapter to denote information that is
in opposition to the values, norms and attitudes of the majority, and which the internet
age has made more prominent and easier to find.
A second chapter on the hikikomori phenomenon provides a methodological
discussion about capturing the information needs of socially withdrawn people in
Introduction 3
Japan who use online discussion forums. From this study’s structural and thematic
analysis, a framework for understanding the information needs of hikikomori is
proposed, based on Dervin’s sense-making methodology and a narrative inquiry
approach.
The information practices on dark web image boards related to drug trading
are examined in another chapter. Identity information sharing focuses on issues of
trust and safety. Age, ethnicity and information sharing practices determine the way
participants are seen - as outsiders or insiders - and the social norms of the community
define many of the information practices on the forum. The findings reveal that the
way of life of these drug users means they draw upon their everyday experiences and
common wisdom as a baseline for evaluating what information ought to be accepted
and possibly added to existing knowledge structures.
Another chapter investigates the information behaviour of parents in Romania who
are refusing to have their children vaccinated, contextualised within a recent measles
outbreak. Based on the idea that the information behaviour of individuals is influenced
by an intricate cluster of beliefs, political orientation and immediate social environ-
ment, the chapter reports on a qualitative study combining narrative analysis and
autoethnography to analyse situations of vaccination refusal, as reported by Roma-
nian information channels. It concludes that action is necessary to combat myths
and falsehoods, with information and strategies capable of reaching marginalised or
disadvantaged groups needed to promote the importance and the safety of vaccination
among the population.
The presently hot topics of fake news and hate speech, and the role of libraries
in fighting these phenomena, are analysed in another chapter. The article draws
upon a case study on fake news, fake media and hate speech in Finland’s MV-
Magazine to discuss the function of the library in teaching media literacy and how
to use information reliably, and in combatting misinformation. Libraries promote
democracy and freedom of expression and have the great advantage of being able
to reach large segments of the population.
A further chapter in this section deals with the expectations that children and
adolescents in Romania hold towards their school libraries. Based on an analysis of
in-depth interviews and questionnaire surveys on such topics as library collections,
libraries and schools, library users, and the reading practices and use of leisure time
among teenagers, the findings reveal a group of users who are unsure what to ask for
from the school library. With the participants apparently treating anything provided
by the school library as good and proper, specific standards need to be developed for
measuring the satisfaction of children and adolescents with the school library.
A mixture of medical knowledge, internal institutional rules, conformity and
personal beliefs shape the information behaviour of physicians in their profes-
sional practice. The findings of a questionnaire-based study of Romanian physi-
cians are analysed in another chapter, which discusses the correlations between
specific elements and how they influence each other in affecting medical decisions.
The chapter indicates the need for further research into medical decision-making
and for refining the working protocols to better prepare healthcare professionals for
challenging situations, such as pandemics, disasters or complex pathology cases.
4 O. L. Madge
The third part of the book covers gamification, which is a trending topic in
library and information science. The section begins by examining the opportuni-
ties and challenges that gamification presents to libraries. The opening chapter also
considers the importance of games in a library collection, beginning with the obser-
vation that games can attract new customer groups and motivate youth to study.
The authors advocate for the gamification of information retrieval and library usage
guidelines, and of the teaching of particular types of cultural content, such as literary
genres and the history of music. This chapter raises questions over the role of libraries
as game developers, the customer experience and the significance of game-based
learning events in libraries.
The application of gamification in medical activities is explored in another chapter,
starting from the idea that games could provide a new learning medium or serve as a
replacement for books in libraries for the provision of education and information. The
chapter presents the main findings of an interview-based study conducted in Romania
among medical doctors, indicating a certain degree of openness towards game-based
experiences in medical training activities and also in the areas of psychiatry and
neuropsychiatry.
The volume ends with a chapter that contributes to the subfield of information
processing and organisation with the new concept of jamography - an innovation in
the area of resource description or, more precisely, in providing identifiable details of
design events. The chapter advocates for a jamography in game jam and hackathon
research by discussing the importance of and challenges in documenting game jams.
A framework for referencing jams in academic papers is proposed, comprising
seven key pieces of information (name, place, time, duration, website, organiser and
frequency) alongside other elements that are important for comparative approaches
to such events.
Individually, each chapter in this book approaches a new topic in interesting ways,
sometimes extending to proposing new concepts or notions that can be taken up by
the field. Together, they offer a wide-ranging perspective on the new trends and
challenges in the field of information science in the digital world.
∗ ∗ ∗
New and valuable ideas often appear not when we follow the most well-known
and well-trodden paths, but rather when we proceed differently. It is therefore
important not to reject what does not fall into the generally considered norms
of the scientific or non-scientific world. Innovation and discovery are not simple
outgrowths of knowledge or technology, of what is fixed in the practice of a field;
they relate to the way we look at the world, to the courage to see old things in
different ways and to the trust to try new things. We must embrace the multiple
means for advancing knowledge, and be willing to foster our creativity and openness
to new approaches. In information science, as in other fields, scientists have talked
about change for quite some time, but we must always remember that such change
will never be complete without welcoming new ideas, methods and approaches to
scientific discussion.
Introduction 5
References
1. Le Coadic YF (1994) La science de l’information. Presses Universitaires de France, Paris

2. Shera J (1973) Knowing books and men: knowing computers too. Libraries Unlimited, Littleton
CO
3. Vickery BC, Vickery A (1987) Information science in theory and practice, 1st edn. Bowker-
Saur, London
4. Saracevic T (2009) Information science. In: Bates MJ, Maack MN (eds) Encyclopedia of
Library and Information Sciences, vol 1, 3rd edn. Taylor & Francis, Abingdon, pp 2570–2586
5. Gilchrist A (ed) (2009) Information science in transition. Facet Publishing, London
6. Davis CH, Shaw D (eds) (2011) Introduction to information science and technology. ASIS&T,
Medford, New Jersey
7. Bawden D, Robinson L (2012) Introduction to information science. Facet Publishing, London
8. Fisher KE, Erdelez S, McKechnie L (eds) (2005) Theories of information behaviour. ASIS&T,
Medford
9. Case DO (2007) Looking for information. A survey of research on information seeking, needs
and behavior. Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Bingley
10. Sutter E (1992) Services d’information et qualité: comment satisfaire les utilisateurs. ADBS,
Paris
11. Le Coadic YF (1998) Le besoin d’information: formulation, négociacion, diagnostique. ADBS
Editions, Paris
12. Le Coadic YF (2001) Usages et Usagers de l’Information. ADBS, Nathan, Paris
Information Science Challenged
The Challenge of Challenges
and Information Science
Jan Nolin
Abstract The 2020s is on track to become one of the most transformative decades in
human history. On the one hand, numerous mature technologies will have their main-
stream breakthrough in the years to come. As these are combined in various and inno-
vative ways, all human endeavours are likely to be transformed. This has been talked
about in terms of the fourth Industrial Revolution. On the other hand, unchecked
exploitation of human resources, particularly in the form of climate change, needs
to be efficiently dealt with during the 2020s. The United Nations has stipulated a
strategic plan, Agenda 2030, to deal with these, including a strict deadline at the end of
the decade. Curiously, few academic researchers work with both the fourth Industrial
Revolution and Agenda 2030. The imperative of combining strategic work on these
is in this article called the challenge of challenges. The chapter is concerned with
the articulation of this meta-challenge as well as discussing the role of academic
research, more specifically that of information science. It is argued that informa-
tion science is well situated to make substantial contributions to the challenges of
challenges. Three distinct areas within such contributions are outlined: sustainable
targets/indicators, open science, and sustainable information literacies.
Keywords Information science · The Fourth Industrial Revolution · Agenda

2030 · Academic research · Sustainable targets and indicators · Open science ·
Sustainable information literacy
1 Introduction
What follows is a ‘big picture’ narrative of a type that is quite rare in contemporary
scholarly texts. For most scholars, including the undersigned, research is a process
of focusing narrowly demarcated phenomena, systematically devoting years of one’s
career to highly specialized discussions. Climate scientists have for decades warned
about ‘business as usual’ scenarios of greenhouse emissions, pointing to the need for
J. Nolin (B)
Swedish School of Library and Information Science, University of Borås, Borås, Sweden
e-mail: jan.nolin@hb.se

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68466-2_2
10 J. Nolin
a break with such seemingly intractable trajectories. Interestingly, academic research

progresses in similar solid ‘business as usual’ trajectories wherein disciplines discuss
their own traditional problems. The starting point of the current text is that from the
perspective of this researcher, three fundamental trajectories within research can be
identified as we enter the third decade of the 2000:
(1) The fourth Industrial Revolution, as articulated by the World Economic Forum
and its chairman Klaus Schwab, [1, 2] will create breath-taking transformation
of the way humans relate to technology as well as broad scale changes of society
itself. This involves public breakthrough of a wealth of technologies that already
exist but have not yet become mainstream. Some of these are actually clusters
of technologies such as Internet of things, robot technology, and biotechnology.
Other technologies can function as platforms for a forum of innovations. Exam-
ples of this are 3D printers, augmented reality, blockchain technology, and arti-
ficial intelligence. Academic research will, business as usual, make broad and
significant contributions to this revolution. Although other labels can be used
to describe the ways technology will transform the 2020s, the fourth Industrial
Revolution appears to be the most sophisticated and best grounded. Schwab
emphasizes that the revolution will be broadly disruptive within all areas of
human endeavour and change the very essence of what it means to be human
[1].
(2) Climate change, extinction of species, degradation of land areas as well as
various forms of pollution will continue to place stress on the natural envi-
ronment as well as civilizations as they exist today. A substantial amount of
necessary work needs engagement from the academic research community. The
United Nations have through long-standing work pulled most of the involved
challenges into the so-called Agenda 2030 with 17 sustainable development
goals (SDGs) to be effectively dealt with by 2030 [3]. Climate change alone
may be broadly disruptive within all areas of human endeavour and change the
very essence of what it means to be human.
(3) Research, as well as other specialised discourses, on the fourth Industrial
Revolution and Agenda 2030 are not clearly combined/coordinated.
While there is a wealth of texts surrounding the first two trajectories, there is scant
articulation of the third. As it stands, involved academic researchers are specialised,
business as usual, to make contributions to either the fourth Industrial Revolution
or Agenda 2030, but not to both. The much-needed simultaneous work on both
of these is here called the challenge of challenges. The aim of the current text is
to articulate this challenge of challenges and, thereafter, to identify a few ways in
which information science can make such a contribution. The remainder of the text
is structured accordingly. This means that the challenge of challenges is initially
described. Thereafter, information science will be promoted as being well situated to
make substantial contributions to the challenge of challenges. Finally, three different
areas within which information science can make a contribution are briefly reviewed.
The chapter ends with the conclusion.
The Challenge of Challenges and Information Science 11
2 What is the Challenge of Challenges?
The challenge of challenges is a problem not only for academic research, but for all
specialised experts within society. The fundamental problem is that human civilisa-
tions are dealing with two vastly different trajectories that appear inevitable: we will
make society much more technological and we will also destroy fundamental natural
states which society relies upon. Discussions on these seemingly inevitable trajecto-
ries both touch upon the exploitation of natural resources of the Earth. In addition,
they are both concerned with the latter within the same timescale. Schwab predicts
mainstreaming of numerous technologies during the 2020s up until 2027 (see Table
1) [1]. Agenda 2030 has, of course, the deadline for human intervention by 2030.
However, despite these similarities these discussions are held apart. The challenge
of challenges is therefore to link together domain specific specialists working with
one or the other of these trajectories and connect discussions on the same natural
resources of the earth during the same time period, the 2020s.
The challenge of challenges also involves combining the fundamentally opti-
mistic ‘we will make tremendous technological advancements for the betterment
of humanity’ narrative of the fourth Industrial Revolution with the pessimistic ‘we
need to save the world from extreme forms of exploitation’ worldview underpinning
Table 1 Mainstreaming of various technologies during the 2020s as part of the fourth Industrial
Revolution according to a wide survey of expert expectations [1]
Expected
year of
tipping
point
2021 Robot and
services
2022 Internet of Wearable 3D printing
and for Internet and
things manufacturing
2023 Implantable Big data for Vision as the Our Governments Supercomputer
technologies decisions new interface digital and the in pocket
presence Blockchain
2024 Ubiquitous 3D printing and Connected
computing human health home
2025 3D printing AI and Sharing
and white-collar economy
consumer jobs
products
2026 Driverless AI and Smart cities
cars decision-making
2027 Bitcoin and
the
Blockchain
12 J. Nolin
Agenda 2030. This is not only a difference of the character of discourse, but also a
separation of agency, drivers, and level of economic resources.
The primary agency for the fourth Industrial Revolution lies within the private
sector and the driver is mostly a matter of generating profits. This involves both large
corporations such as Google, Apple and Microsoft and a torrent of start-ups with
original ideas for generating profit. Involved stakeholders are strong and committed.
As modern welfare states rely upon a high technological and competitive private
sector, governments tend to further sponsor developments within the fourth Industrial
Revolution quite extensively. The fourth Industrial Revolution will happen.
In contrast, primary agency for Agenda 2030 resides within government agencies
and NGOs working toward responsible use of common natural resources and of
attending to a wide range of equity issues. The main drivers are grounded in public
service, ethics, and a recognition that those living today are leaving sparse natural
resources and many problems to future generations. There is much less of a profit
generating element within this discourse and governments typically spend much less
on the production of specialised knowledge connected to Agenda 2030 compared
to the fourth Industrial Revolution. Strong commitment to Agenda 2030 during the
2020s is seemingly necessary for long-standing survival of contemporary civilisation
as we know it today.
It is striking that both Schwab and climate modelling researchers use similar
language. For the fourth Industrial Revolution there are numerous tipping points in
which a certain technology shifts from being used by early adopters to becoming
mainstream instead [1]. Numerous such tipping points are expected during the 2020s.
Climate modellers have similar long-standing discussions on tipping points in which
slow warming reaches a threshold. Once the climate tips over that threshold rapid
changes occur even if there is no additional forcing [4, 5]. Moving beyond a tipping
point is therefore discussed as a point of no return, efforts to decrease CO2 may no
longer be efficient.
Schwab does not present an optimistic viewpoint of the 2020s as humans move
into a symbiotic relationship with technology [1]. He expects the world as we know
it to be turned upside down by technologically driven trajectories. However dire, this
analysis does not take into account the parallel challenges of dealing with climate
change and other issues of Agenda 2030.
The main idea of sustainable development, as it was originally formulated by
the Brundtland Commission in 1987 was that humankind for decades have dealt
with social, economic, and ecological challenges on a global scale [6]. Before the
Brundtland report different stakeholders worked diligently to attain political primacy
for issues that they were passionate about. Consequently, NGOs striving to mitigate
poverty could become pitted against environmental activists. The idea with sustain-
able development was to remove such conflicts and deal with the challenges of
humanity together. The social, economic, and ecological problems needed to be
dealt with within the same time period, not one after the other or in conflict with
each other.
The challenges of challenges for the 2020s is to revisit this idea of solving every-
thing together during the same time period. There is an exciting opportunity here if it
can be put into action. The fourth Industrial Revolution is a project that will rebuild
societies and human actions as we know them. It is likely to force a break with busi-
ness as usual. Curiously, such a break with business as usual is what is required for
Agenda 2030. Rebuilding society because of an environmental crisis has never been
an easy sell during the 2000. Nonetheless, if economic and technological drivers
in any case are leading humanity this way, why cannot Agenda 2030 piggyback
on that momentum? If only the ambitions of Agenda 2030 become integrated into
this whirlwind of technological development, progress can become much swifter for
many goals. But will this happen?
The most practical strategy in dealing with the challenge of challenges involves,
in various ways, injecting sustainability issues into discussions and developments
of the fourth Industrial Revolution. Many disciplines should be involved in this. In
the following, it will be argued that information science is well-positioned to play a
substantial role in this process.
3 The Main Disciplines Supporting the Fourth Industrial

Revolution
Although not everything within the development of the fourth Industrial Revolution
is a matter of exploiting new information technology, most of it is. This means that the
primary academic support of the revolution resides within those four disciplines that
deal with information/data, i.e. computer science, information systems, informatics,
and information science. Of these, computer science is by far the most technologically
oriented and important. Computer science is extremely well-funded globally and has
in recent decades emerged as much more than a discipline, actually similar to a faculty
of its own. The other three disciplines are much smaller and information science is
the least well-developed institutionally. Informatics and information systems have
a focus on human computer interaction and IT within organizations. The various
breakthroughs of the fourth Industrial Revolution will supply a wealth of research
opportunities for all these four disciplines. However, information science needs to
find an identity, doing research within which the other three disciplines lack interest or
competence. It is here suggested that the most valuable way of profiling in developing
the identity of information science is to highlight the challenge of challenges by
inserting Agenda 2030 into discussions of the fourth Industrial Revolution.
4 Information Science is Soft/Hard
Becher and Trowler made a fundamental distinction between research disciplines that
are soft, i.e. situated within the social and human sciences, or hard, i.e. positioned
within natural or technological research [7]. Information science is one of these
14 J. Nolin
disciplines that is a little bit of both, but more on the soft side. Of the four disciplines
dealing with information/data, Information science is clearly the softest. There are
many advantages for discipline to have both a hard and soft side. This is particularly
the case when there is a need to negotiate softer societal values of sustainability with
the technologically driven ambitions of the fourth Industrial Revolution. As much of
the developments within the fourth Industrial Revolution deals with advances within
computer science, these four disciplines all appear to be well situated to contribute
to the trajectory of the fourth Industrial Revolution. However, information science,
as the softest, is arguably best placed to insert the concerns of Agenda 2030 into the
discussions surrounding the fourth Industrial Revolution.
5 Information Science and the Public Sector
As noted above, the trajectory of the fourth Industrial Revolution is driven by the
private sector and fundamental concerns of economic profit. In this context, it should
be noted that there is a difference between information science and the three other
disciplines that deal with information/data. Contrary to the others, there is a strong
tradition of making contributions to the public sector. This is largely a result of
historical ties between information science and librarianship, frequently articulated
in the disciplinary entity of Library and Information Science. Given this, informa-
tion science is a discipline with substantial potential of connecting to policy ideas of
Agenda 2030. Frequently, and increasingly, information science includes specialized
policy research within areas such as cultural policy, information policy and research
policy. These are all policy areas that in various ways can be connected to Agenda
2030. In contrast to the other three disciplines, information science has a strong
tradition of dealing with freedom of information, public service, trusted informa-
tion, cultural commons, inclusion and accessibility. Given this, information science
is well-placed to be able to insert the concerns of Agenda 2030 into discussions
surrounding the fourth Industrial Revolution.
6 Information Science and Sustainable Targets

and Indicators
Agenda 2030 contains 17 SDGs. [3] These are formulated loftily and broadly, e.g.
no poverty, quality education, gender equity, climate action etc. However, to each of
these there are targets and indicators. Altogether, there are 169 targets and 232 global
indicators. It is here argued that research on sustainable targets and indicators can
and should be a huge area for information science. We should in various ways be able
to discuss these as crucial and central aspects of development of new information
technology.
Table 2 Environmental impact of bitcoin technology as of September 9, 2020 according to https://

digiconomist.net/bitcoin-energy-consumption
Carbon footprint Electrical energy Electronic waste
Global footprint and 32.08 Mt 67.54 Twh Czech 10.12 kt Luxembourg
comparable country CO2 Tunisia Republic
Footprint of individual 283.66 kg CO2 597.18 kWh average 89.50 g 1.3 8 C-size
transaction and 709,146 VISA US household for batteries
comparable activities transactions 20.18 days
For instance, target 7.1 states that by 2030 there should be universal access to
affordable modern energy services. At a glance, this would appear to be a chal-
lenge for the energy sector and not IT. Nonetheless, the development of the fourth
Industrial Revolution will undoubtedly place enormous stress on the existing energy
system. Many new technologies are pushed on the market without any concern about
compounded consequences for the energy system.
A pertinent example is blockchain technology which is increasingly used in
numerous innovative types of transactions, bypassing the traditional banking system.
The most highlighted blockchain technology is the bitcoin which is designed with a
mining system that releases a limited amount of bitcoins to the world market until
2140. Huge amounts of advanced mathematical calculations are used in order to
‘mine’ a bitcoin. De Vries aptly describes bitcoin as ‘extremely energy-hungry by
design’ [8]. Table 2 illustrates the environmental impact of a technology that was
designed without any thought about sustainability. There is currently no sustain-
ability accountability for development of information technology with such huge
consequences for the world’s energy consumption.
A related target is 12.2: to achieve sustainable management and efficient use of
natural resources by 2030. This refers back to the central message of the Brundtland
Commission to not develop such exploitation of natural resources that there is scarcity
for future generations [3]. However, for the context of the current argument, without
clear connections to Agenda 2030, the fourth Industrial Revolution will take what is
needed for the technological innovations of 2020 regardless of future scarcity issues.
The main point is that the targets and indicators of Agenda 2030 supplies rich
areas for information science research as well as for other disciplines to inject SDG
discussions into the fourth Industrial Revolution.
7 Information Science and Open Science
Target 7a within Agenda 2030 deals with the enhancement of international coopera-
tion to make it possible for clean energy research and technology to be disseminated as
quickly as possible. This connects to an important policy concept recently adopted
by the European Commission vision for research as one of its three pillars: open
science [9]. This can be seen as an umbrella concept that most crucially includes
16 J. Nolin
open access (to scholarly journal articles) and open research data. Open science is a
vague and difficult concept, and it is challenging to identify various strategic initia-
tives that will be appropriate or successful for all types of research. Nonetheless, in
the research most intimately tied to targets such as 7a it would appear to be a win–win
solution for the scholarly community to promote as much openness as is ethically
possible. Information science through its sub area of scholarly communication has a
long tradition of investigating open access and increasingly today also open research
data. It is important to emphasize that the current transformation of how researchers
publicise the results as well as how they collect, store, manage and make available
primary data are part of the fourth Industrial Revolution. It is therefore reasonable
to expect future disruption of open science in the years to come.
There is much to be gained by allowing some of this research to be connected to
the goals of Agenda 2030. In particular, research on renewable and clean energy is
developed in a multitude of countries, corporations and sectors. A major problem is
that individual projects have difficulty benchmarking themselves against competing
efforts. It becomes challenging to establish if the research one is involved in is ahead
or behind other projects both in regards to sophistication and economic feasibility. It
would be strategically sound for researchers within information science to investigate
how opening up of relevant metadata could be facilitated as well as to improve
searchability of different efforts ongoing. This could be a substantial focus within
information science.
8 Information Science and Sustainable Information

Literacies
The E-handbook on Sustainable Development Goals Indicators is a central document

to drive discussions and actions toward Agenda 2030 [10]. However, it is not an
easily accessible text and the logics involved are not apparent. This is one of many
examples in which the original discussions within information science regarding
information literacy (or media and information literacy) could be expanded to also
talk about sustainable information literacy. A broad range of professionals need to
be educated on how to read and understand such documents. In particular, the focus
in the current text is on those professionals who in various ways are engaged with
the fourth Industrial Revolution.
Take, for instance, Goal 13 on climate action. One would assume that this is
the goal that those engaged in restriction of greenhouse gas emissions should be
focused on. However, that is not the case. Goal 13 is concerned with mitigating the
consequences of inevitable climate change, i.e. minimising number of people killed
and loss of property in cases of disasters such as flooding. It should be noted that this
is a bit strange as the full name of Goal 13 is ‘Take urgent action to combat climate
change and its impact’. However, there is only one target in Goal 13, Target 13.1:
‘Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural
disasters in all countries’. This appears to exclude the all-important ‘stop climate
change from happening’, instead focusing on mitigating impact. The two indicators
connected to Target 13.1 are also oriented in this narrow fashion.
If we instead are interested in stopping uncontrolled warming of the world we have
to look elsewhere in Agenda 2030. Restrictions of greenhouse gases are indirectly
situated within three different Goals. First, Goal 7: affordable and clean energy deals
with the transformation to clean and renewable energy but does not mention green-
house gas emissions as target or indicator. Second, Goal 9 on resilient infrastructure
has indicator 9.4.1 stipulating decreases of CO2 emissions connected to infrastruc-
ture. Third, Target 12c within Goal 12 (sustainable production and consumption)
deal with removing subsidies for fossil fuels. All in all, it appears strange that these
are the only targets that, although indirectly, ties to this central challenge of our time.
Another difficulty of the targets and indicators is that many indicators are discussed
through advanced mathematics, which many professionals will find daunting.
Overall, there are huge opportunities here for information science to extend discus-
sions on information literacy to sustainable information literacy. In addition, infor-
mation scientists should critically engage with these core policy texts and identify
problems, as has briefly been done above.
9 Conclusion
The starting point of this chapter lies in the assumption that the 2020s is a crucial
decade for the future of humanity. It can be expected that an avalanche of technolog-
ical innovations will reach a tipping point of mainstream use in the decade to come.
At the same time there is an urgent need to make drastic changes in the way we utilise
the resources of the Earth. In a sense, the original divide between research dealing
with nature, technology and society is no longer sustainable.
The twofold aim of this chapter has been to articulate the challenges of challenges
and thereafter to identify various ways in which information science can contribute.
The challenge of challenges amounts to connecting the fourth Industrial Revolution
with Agenda 2030 within the practices of academic researchers. Specifically, this
text is concerned with the role of information science. On the face of it, it would
appear to be too obvious to mention that such integration of two different civilisation
transformative processes ongoing at the same time need to be locked into each other
in a variety of ways. However, the experience of this author is that it is not obvious
within the Academy and few researchers feel that the trajectories of their careers make
it possible for them to take one, much less both, of these transformative processes into
account. Rather, specialised researchers tend to continuously probe specialised issues
without understanding, or concern, that fundamentally transformative processes lie
in the near future.
One obvious approach to these problems is to identify opportunities. There are,
indeed, opportunities for information science here. I have argued that this disci-
plinary domain is well situated to investigate a broad range of issues related to the
18 J. Nolin
fourth Industrial Revolution from a variety of perspectives. I have also identified three
different areas in which substantial value can be produced in order to inject Agenda
2030 into discussions of the fourth Industrial Revolution. These three areas were
sustainable targets and indicators, open science and sustainable information literacy.
This is far from a comprehensive list of opportunities. Rather, more research oppor-
tunities are bound to appear when information scientists engage more systematically
with Agenda 2030.
There is an additional challenge to the opportunities outlined above. Information
scientists have so far to a lesser degree engaged with sustainable development. There
has been only limited interest in concepts such as sustainable information [11],
sustainable information services [12], sustainable information practices [13] and
Agenda 2030. This is an unsustainable situation as we move into the 2020s.
References
1. Schwab K (2017) The fourth industrial revolution. World Economic Forum, Geneva
2. Schwab K, Davis N (2018) Shaping the future of the fourth industrial revolution. World
Economic Forum, Geneva
3. United Nations (2015) Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for sustainable devel-
opment. https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/transformingourworld. Accessed 10
September 2020.
4. Hansen J, Sato M, Kharecha P, Beerling D, Berner R, Masson-Delmotte V et al (2008) Target
atmospheric CO2 : Where should humanity aim? The Open Atmospheric Sci J 2(1):217–231
5. Lenton T, Held H, Kriegler, E, Hall J, Lucht W, Rahmstorf S, Schellnhuber, H (2008) Tipping
Elements in the Earth’s Climate System. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of
the United States of America, 105(6): 1786–1793
6. Brundtland GH, Khalid M, Agnelli S, et al (1987) Our common future. New York, 8
7. Becher. (2001) Academic Tribes and Territories: Intellectual Enquiry and the Cultures of
Discipline, 2nd edn. McGraw-Hill Education, London
8. de Vries A (2018) Bitcoin’s Growing Energy Problem 2:801–805
9. Open science, open innovation, open to the world: a vision for Europe (2016) European
Comission, Brussels
10. E-Handbook on Sustainable Development Goals Indicators. https://unstats.un.org/wiki/dis
play/SDGeHandbook/Home?preview=/34505092/38535788/SDGeHandbook-150219.pdf.
Accessed 10 September 2020.
11. Nolin J (2010) Sustainable information and information science. Information Research
15(2):15–22
12. Chowdhury G (2012) Building environmentally sustainable information services: A green is
research agenda. J Am Soc Inform Sci Technol 63(4):633–647
13. Nathan LP (2012) Sustainable information practice: An ethnographic investigation. Journal of
the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 63(11):2254–2268.
Jan Nolin (PhD) has a PhD and Habilitation in Theory of Science. Since 2010 he has been
professor of library and information science and head of research at the Swedish School of Library
and Information Science, University of Borås. His current research interests are broadly concerned
with the development of library and information science/information studies both as a disci-
pline in its own right and as a central interdisciplinary collaborator for handling the challenges
of the 2020s. Nolin has published works focused on freedom of information, information prac-
tices, the expanded use of bibliometrics, and overall strategic development of information science.
He has worked within several fields of policy studies including cultural policy studies, research
policy studies, environmental policy studies and information policy studies. He has also published
Internet studies and social media studies, focusing on ideologies of the Internet, social media poli-
cies, Internet of things, learning technologies and Twitter. Nolin has engaged in definition and
critical scrutiny of transparency movements, including such entities as open science, open access,
and open data. Nolin has also made contributions to specific areas of library research including on
special librarianship and development of public libraries as community services. In 2010, Nolin
introduced the concept of ‘sustainable information’ to information studies, situating this as a tool
for information scientists to talk about their specific contributions to sustainable development.
In 2015, in collaboration with the vice chancellor of his university, Nolin wrote the formative text
for the development of University of Borås as a Sustainable University.
Information Behaviour from a Social
and Asocial Perspective
Information Seeking Behaviour
of the Socially Withdrawn
Ari Haasio
Abstract This chapter discusses the information practices among Finnish socially
withdrawn youth, aka hikikomori. The hikikomori phenomenon is originally
Japanese, but there are hikikomoris all over the world. The term hikikomori is based
on the Japanese word hikikomorou, which can be translated as ‘to be confined inside’.
A hikikomori is a person who tries to avoid all social contacts. The theoretical frame-
work is based on Reijo Savolainen’s concept of the everyday life information seeking
model and Elfreda Chatman’s theory on information seeking in a small world. The
data consists of 6,910 discussion board messages, which were collected from the
Finnish website Hikikomero, a discussion group for socially withdrawn youth. The
results show that peer information is appreciated among subcultures and people who
live in a ‘small world’. Only information given by similar others who are also socially
withdrawn is trusted. The chapter also introduces the concept of disnormative infor-
mation, which is opposite to the majority’s values, norms, and attitudes. This kind
of information is highly respected and sought from the discussion forum.
Keywords Socially withdrawn · Hikikomori · Information behaviour ·

Information seeking
1 Introduction
According to various estimates, there are 500,000 to 1,000,000 socially withdrawn

people in Japan called hikikomoris [1]. Some researchers consider the hikikomori
phenomenon to be caused by cultural problems in the Japanese society related to
expressing failure, shame and guilt in an acceptable way and, partly, by the collision
of the values of western culture and the traditional Japanese society [2].
Although the phenomenon originated in Japan, it has been recognized around the
world. For example, the phenomenon has been recognized e.g. in Spain [3], Finland
[4], Italy [5], South Korea, India and the USA [6, see also 7]. It is conceivable that
A. Haasio (B)
Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences, Seinäjoki, Finland
e-mail: ari.haasio@seamk.fi

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68466-2_3
24 A. Haasio
this is also partly a result of the new information society, which increasingly makes
it possible to do things without leaving home.
The term hikikomori is based on the Japanese word hikikomorou, which means ‘to
be confined inside’ [2, 8]. The term can both signify a person and the phenomenon
[2]. Hikikomoris try to avoid all social contacts [9, 10], and they may have been
diagnosed with a mental illness, but not necessarily. Kato et al. [11] have proposed
diagnostic criteria based on the following premises: (1) marked social isolation in
the person’s home, (2) duration of continuous social isolation of at least 6 months,
and (3) significant functional impairment or distress associated with social isolation.
Although the phenomenon has often been considered a mental disorder, Tan et al.
[12], for example, have referred to it as a person’s deliberate seclusion from main-
stream society. The hikikomori phenomenon can also be understood as a choice to
isolate oneself from society, and it can be, in some cases, compared to the rural
hermits of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Due to this, we can assume that it
is a subculture, which has its own features.
Haasio [4] and Haasio and Naka [13] have studied the information behaviour of
socially withdrawn individuals, a. k. a. hikikomoris. Their way of life and isolation
from the rest of the world makes them a group that represents otherness in relation
to the majority, which affects their information behaviour [4]. Most of hikikomoris’
contacts with other people, if they have any, take place on the Internet. The Web is a
central part of a hikikomori’s life: it provides information, entertainment, and makes
it possible to take care of everyday things [4, 14].
Information can be understood as a process of communication based on the
social context where information is built [15]. Based on this perception of informa-
tion, social relationships and environmental factors significantly influence an indi-
vidual’s information behaviour. The theoretical framework of this article is based
on Reijo Savolainen’s [16] Way of Life model and on the theories of information
poverty and ‘small world’ proposed by Elfreda Chatman [17, 18]. The empirical
results and examples are based on Haasio’s [4] dissertation about socially withdrawn
hikikomoris’ information behaviour. For that study, 6,910 messages from a Finnish
Hikikomero discussion forum [19] were analysed using quantitative and qualitative
content analysis.
Previous studies on hikikomoris have mostly concentrated on the psychiatric anal-
ysis of the phenomenon [e.g. 7, 20–22]. In this article, we analyse the special features
their information behaviour has, what kind of information they trust, and what role
disnormative information [see 4], a. k. a. dark knowledge [see 23], plays in their
information behaviour.
2 Living in a Small Virtual World
The life of hikikomoris is typically very restricted. While trying to avoid all social
contacts, they leave their homes only for compelling reasons, such as a doctor’s
appointment, and going to a convenience store to buy food.
Information Seeking Behaviour of the Socially Withdrawn 25
Although in many cases social withdrawal is also associated with mental health
problems, it may also be a matter of a person’s own choice. Tan et al. [12] point out
that hikikomori may be a person’s deliberate seclusion from mainstream society.
Hikikomoris have their own subculture, where the Internet, games, manga and
anime often play a key role. Most of the time is spent in front of a computer playing
games and surfing the net. [4] Many Finnish hikikomoris also admire the Japanese
hikikomori culture [14].
Finnish hikikomoris have described their daily routines in their discussion forum
Hikikomero [19]. The daily rhythm is different from the traditional one. They wake
up after noon and surf the web or play video games until midnight or later. Zechner
and Haasio [24] have pointed out that satisfying sexual desires by surfing adult
entertainment sites is part of many people’s daily lives. Sexual desires are channeled
into the adult entertainment offerings of the Internet because hikikomoris have no
social relationships. Loneliness is a typical feature: hikikomoris do not have any
friends. For many, only parents and siblings are their only social contacts. Many
hikikomoris have been bullied at school, and loneliness has continued throughout
life. [14] Low social skills and awkwardness or anxiety in social situations is common
among Finnish hikikomori [25]. In addition, a low self-esteem is typical of them,
combined with a feeling of failure and passivity as hallmarks of their everyday life
[13, 25, 26]. Some hikikomoris even consider suicide as a solution because of their
experience of worthlessness [27, 28].
In Reijo Savolainen’s [16] ELIS model, mastery of life is one of the factors
influencing the way of life. Hikikomoris represent the pessimistic-affective role of
mastery of life. This role represents ‘learned helplessness’, as Savolainen describes
it. He continues:
One does not rely on his or her abilities to solve everyday life problems, but adopts a strategy
of avoiding systematic efforts to improve his or her situation. Drifting from day to day and
searching for instant pleasures are characteristic of this ideal type of mastery of life.
This description fits well to hikikomoris. They do not actively plan for their future,
and most of them are dropouts, whose life drifts from day to day without any ambition
or purpose of life. This way of life also reflects their information behaviour.
Elfreda Chatman’s [29] theory of small world shows that, in some groups, people
do not actively seek information outside their own life circles. The lower working-
class respondents whose information behaviour Chatman analysed were not active
seekers of information outside of their most familiar social milieu. According to
Chatman, this is based on the fatalistic attitude of the group under study – they do
not believe in a better tomorrow [29]. Likewise, hikikomoris live in a ‘small world’
in terms of their information behaviour. The starting point is the idea that our social
environment and way of life largely determine our information behaviour. ‘Small
world’ is not so much a term related to socioeconomic deprivation or information
poverty, but rather an individual’s world of life that describes his activity and contacts
in everyday activities [30]. (Burnett, Besant, and Chatman [23] also brought up the
idea of a virtual ‘small world’ as a forum for information seeking, which is actually
used by hikikomoris.
26 A. Haasio
3 Information Needs of Hikikomoris
According to Savolainen [16], the concept of way of life refers to the ‘order of things’
based ‘on the choices that individuals make in everyday life’. Values and attitudes,
material capital, social capital, cultural and cognitive capital, as well as current life
situation are elements on which the way of life is built.
Haasio and Naka [13] have compared hikikomoris’ information needs in Finland
and Japan. They proved to be very congruent, and only some differences were
clearly noticeable. In Finland, ‘Economic problems/housing/livelihood’ (18.0%) and
‘Health and sickness’ (15.4%) were the most common topics of information needs. In
Japan, the two biggest categories were social relations/marriage/family (14.7%), and
death (13.2%). According to the authors, the differences were due to cultural differ-
ences. Although information needs are predominantly similar in Japan and Finland,
they are partly expressed differently. In Finland, a need for information is expressed
using explicit questions, while in Japan the matter is expressed more indirectly.
The hikikomoris’ way of life is similar both in Japan and in Finland. They lead an
isolated life, spend time surfing on the Web, and avoid social contacts. Also gaming
and reading manga and anime is typical of both countries. According to Haasio
and Naka [13], the differences can be explained by cultural differences between the
societies. The subculture is similar, but the conventions and manners are different.
This leads to different kinds of information behaviour among similar groups. The way
of life only partly explains information behaviour in this case. The prevailing culture
and its values impact the content of information needed. For example, in Finland,
many hikikomoris live by themselves in rental studio flats and finance their living by
social welfare. Most Japanese hikikomoris, by contrast, live with their parents due to
the different traditions of society. This explains why Finnish hikikomoris had more
livelihood issues. As Japanese youth, by contrast, move away from their parents after
they get married, they again think more about matters related to marriage. Moreover,
in Japan, sex was talked about very subtly, while it was discussed very openly on the
Finnish discussion forum, in the Scandinavian way.
4 Peer Support and Peer Information
Peer information and peer support play a significant role in the information acquisi-
tion of socially withdrawn hikikomoris. Experts’ views are not necessarily trusted,
but information is sought from people with similar life situations who have similar
problems and a similar way of life.
When a virtual community has become an alliance of like-minded people, for
example because of the subculture that unites them, the experience of otherness
is similar. As a result, information obtained from individuals who share the same
lifestyle is valued. Peer information is important and much valued. When acquiring
peer information, it is important that the person from whom the information is
obtained have experienced the same thing.
Elfreda Chatman [17, 18, 29] has underlined that people sharing a similar ‘small
world’ share similar values and trust the information they get from the others sharing
the physical environment. The same goes for the virtual environment; for example, in
discussion groups and other social media communities, virtual space is also a unifying
factor from the information seeking perspective. People who share the same virtual
space more often trust each other’s opinions when the forum is targeted at a special
group such as hikikomoris [4].
In addition to peer information, a lot of peer support is also sought from the
discussion forum. In order to be reliable, peer support requires the experience of
similar otherness. Many participants share their own problems, dreams, and fears in
discussions. For some, the discussion forum is almost the only place where they can
anonymously talk about their worries and ask for some support. Many participants
in the discussion forum do not clearly articulate the information need by asking a
question. Instead, they talk about their lives and problems, waiting for comments from
other members of the discussion group. By gaining peer support and peer information
from the others in a similar life situation, peer support information seekers also try
to legitimise and accept their own lifestyle. At the same time, the person’s self-
understanding grows, and he receives information on an interesting topic, even if he
does not consciously seek an answer to any individual problem.
People may also participate in the discussion by ‘lurking’ the discussions on the
forum. They do not necessarily write any posts, but just read them. These messages
written by other hikikomoris may reinforce their own perceptions. At the same time,
these messages can bring comfort in difficult moments, when a person knows that
he is not the only one with similar problems.
I think I am basically a cheerful, warm, social and empathetic person. But the problem is
that my dad happens to be a crazy and narcissistic asshole. I still live here with my parents,
and when I have to listen to him scream and when he teases my mother, I feel down. There
are so many bad memories associated with him over the years. This somehow just makes me
passive, and even my sexual desire disappears completely. My general joy of life disappears
completely for a long time. When I was a little bit longer periods of time away from home, I
noticed the reversible man I was last as a kid. My joy of life keeps me alive with a probable
place of study in a whole new city and a whole new fresh start, for me a new opportunity
as a person. But for a little while, you should be able to handle this s**t. Please be kind,
friends, give me hope.
Reflecting on one’s own life situation by talking about one’s own feelings is also
one way to seek peer support and, at the same time, an expression of otherness. It is
often like an outburst, in which one’s feeling of anxiety or depression is reported on
a general level. When other users read these expressions, they can identify with other
conversations. ‘Lurking’ these posts can also be understood as active monitoring [see
31]. ‘Lurkers’ are interested in the topic but, for some reason, do not want to take
part in the discussions.
28 A. Haasio
5 Disnormative Information
One typical feature of socially withdrawn people’s information behaviour is the need
of disnormative information. This can be explained by the fact that they represent a
subculture where the norms and values differ from the mainstream ones.
Haasio [32] has defined disnormative information as follows: ‘disnormative infor-
mation is based on the assumption that people have an information need for the kind
of information that can be either illegal or encourage illegal activities, or be morally
questionable in the opinion of the majority, because it stands against the majority’s
values.’
In Fig. 1, the typical features, distributors and sources of disnormative and norma-
tive information are compared. It is noteworthy that these sources may be both
electronic and printed. Disnormative information is characteristically distributed in
subcultures, and it promotes alternative values in society, working as a counterforce
to consensus.
Disnormative information may rely on pseudoscience. It may also promote subcul-
tures that may even be illegal (e.g. outlaw bikers, drug addicts) [32]. There are two
kinds of disnormative information: 1) information needed to do something against
the law, and 2) information that is morally questionable by the majority of people,
but still legal [4, 32].
This kind of information is typical of subcultures and countercultures such as
drug users [33] and of hikikomoris [4]. Otherness and a different way of life create
a sense of belonging among the hikikomoris on the Finnish Hikikomero discussion
forum. It is the basis for the knowledge and peer support shared within the group.
Fig. 1 Typical features, distributors and sources of disnormative information compared to

normative information. Source Haasio 2015; Haasio 2019. Translation from Finnish by the author
Disnormative information is culturally and time bound. In different cultures,

different things are a taboo, depending on the time and place. What is acceptable in the
Western European culture may even be illegal, for example, in the Islamic culture.
Attitudes towards sexuality issues are a good example of this. In those countries
where attitudes are more conservative, seeking information about sexuality issues
clearly equals search for disnormative information.
Normative information, on the other hand, is the kind of information generally
accepted by the majority of society. For example, in Finland, the use, possession
and sale of drugs is criminalised. Normative information is information about the
dangers of drugs that is disseminated to the public by the authorities and health
professionals. Disnormative information, on the other hand, is information related to
drug use, guidance on how to use drugs and purchase them [33]. In countries where
the possession or use of drugs is not criminalised, this kind of information can be
understood as normative information.
On the discussion forum, some socially withdrawn hikikomoris wanted tips on
drug use, which is clearly disnormative information. Hikikomoris acquired non-
normative information from their peers, for example, to start taking a drug they had
been prescribed by a doctor.
Have you ever taken Citalopram? I have about 200 tablets in the closet and I wonder if I
should start eating them or not
Any experience about Citalopram’s withdrawal symptoms, how long does this s**t last?
The experiences of the others were much valued, and decisions were made based
on the information given by the other discussion board users. These examples show
that the information given as answers was peer information and also disnormative
information.
Disnormative information is not a new phenomenon, as it has always occurred.
With the Internet, it has become more easily accessible and, at the same time, it
has become more visible. Political flyers are an example of disnormative, even
revolutionary material.
When analysing the essence of dark knowledge, Burnett and Lloyd [34] define
it as having the potential to marginalise, exclude and isolate and ‘other’ people or
communities who accept this type of knowledge. Based on this, it can be stated that
some of the information needs of hikikomoris and the information they share on the
forum are of such a nature. The question of whether this is disnormative information
or dark knowledge requires more conceptual analysis and empirical research. In this
case, the phenomenon can be tentatively described by both concepts. As an example,
one could mention the discussions about suicide associated with these concepts on
the Hikikomero discussion forum.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
and prospered marvellously in succeeding centuries was
thoroughness, the conviction that any work, however humble, if
thoroughly done must bear excellent fruit, and a certain solidity
which finds little satisfaction in feeding beggars precariously, but
great satisfaction in setting them to work on the land.
Perhaps, then, it may come as a surprise that King Dinis was also
a poet, one of the greatest of Portugal’s early poets. We have nearly
one hundred and fifty poems under his name. He may not have
written them all, some may have been composed by the palace
jograes, but he showed his good taste and inclination for the national
and popular elements in writing or collecting not only poems in the
Provençal manner, then on the wane in Portugal, but that older,
indigenous poetry which is the most charming feature of early
Portuguese literature.
And King Dinis’ poems are among the most charming of all. Here
is one of his quaint popular songs, the fascination of which is only
faintly discernible in translation:
Friend and lover mine
—Be God our shield!—
See the flower o’ the pine
And fare afield.
Friend and lover, ah me!

See the flower on the tree
And fare afield.
See the flower o’ the pine

Saddle the colt so fine
And fare afield.
See the flower on the tree

The bay horse fair to see
And fare afield.
Saddle the little bay
—Be God our shield—
Hasten, my love, away,
And fare afield.
The horse so fair to see

My friend, come speedily
To fare afield.
It was King Dinis’ affection for his illegitimate son, Dom Affonso
Sanchez, also a poet, that brought trouble on the latter years of his
reign. His eldest son and the heir to the throne, Affonso, jealous of
the regard, the lands, and privileges bestowed upon Dom Affonso
Sanchez, afraid perhaps that the King might devise a way of leaving
him the throne, rose in rebellion in 1320 and advanced through
Minho to Leiria and Coimbra, ravaging the country as he came. The
King, now nearly sixty years old, set out against him and several
engagements were fought: it was not till 1322 that Queen Isabel
succeeded after strenuous exertions in bringing about peace.
The reconciliation was but temporary. Dom Affonso Sanchez
retired to Spain, but returned, and the Prince Affonso rose in arms
again in 1323. Again Queen Isabel, going from one to the other,
exerted herself to make peace. King Dinis, his anger now thoroughly
roused, was not easily appeased. Finally he agreed to increase the
Prince’s income, and, much against his will, to part once more from
Dom Affonso Sanchez.
Not many months after this settlement King Dinis fell ill at Lisbon,
where he had been born, and which he made the real centre of his
kingdom (his instinct unfailing in this as in other matters concerning
the future greatness of his country). Prince Affonso was summoned
from Leiria, and a sincere reconciliation followed. The Queen
watched day and night by her husband’s bedside, and to her his last
words were spoken when on January 7, 1325, one of the greatest of
Portugal’s kings died. He was buried according to his wish in the
Convent of São Dinis de Odivellas, which he had founded near
Lisbon.
Three hundred years after his death it was still the custom in
Portuguese law-courts for a prayer to be said for his soul; and if we
consider how far-reaching, how immense were the results of the
measures taken by this strong-willed, wise, and energetic ruler, we
may conclude that the custom might well be continued in the
twentieth century. Humane and affable (conversavel, the quality of
so many great men), he won the personal love of his people and
gave them immediate prosperity, but he also, apparently, saw deep
into the future.
II
NUN’ ALVAREZ
(1360-1431)
Mas quem podera dignamente contar os louvores deste
virtuoso barom, cujas obras e discretos autos seemdo todos
postos em escrito ocupariam gram parte deste livro?—
Fernam Lopez, Cronica del Rei Dom Joam.
Fifty years after the death of King Dinis it seemed as if the
kingdom that he had so carefully built up was to crumble away like
dry sand. The disorders and extravagances of King Ferdinand’s
reign had brought it to the verge of ruin, and the marriage of his only
child Beatrice with the King of Castille in 1383 appeared to destroy
the last hope of an independent Portugal.
It is ten years before that date that Nun’ Alvarez Pereira, to whom
mainly Portugal was to owe her continued existence as a separate
nation, first comes on the scene. His father was the powerful Prior of
Crato, Dom Alvaro Gonçalvez Pereira, in high favour at Court, son of
the Archbishop of Braga and descendant of a long line of nobles. His
mother, Iria Gonçalvez, was lady-in-waiting to the Princess Beatrice.
In 1373 there was war between Portugal and Castile, and a
rumour spread that the enemy was approaching Santarem. The Prior
sent Nuno and one of his brothers with a few horsemen to
reconnoitre. On their return they were received by the King and
Queen. Queen Lianor, struck by the bearing of the shy, precocious
boy of thirteen, took him for her squire, and the King knighted him,
after a suit of armour of his size had at last been found, belonging to
the king’s half-brother John, the Master of Avis, he who was king
thereafter.
For three years in the palace the Queen’s squire gave his days to
riding and the chase, and to the reading of books of chivalry, of Sir
Galahad and the knights of the Round Table. Then his father
arranged a marriage for him with the rich and noble Dona Lianor
d’Alvim, a young widow of Minho.
Marriage was not in Nuno’s thoughts, but Dona Lianor had
consented, the King approved, and reluctantly he yielded. His life on
their estate was happy. Fifteen squires and thirty henchmen were in
attendance in their house, and after hearing his daily mass Nun’
Alvarez would spend long days hunting the boar and the wolf in the
wooded hills of Minho or exchanging visits with the Minhoto nobility.
Of their three children two sons died in infancy; the daughter,
Beatriz, was married to the Count of Barcellos, son of King João I,
and through her Nun’ Alvarez was the ancestor of that line of kings
which was still reigning in 1910.
It was a life too quiet for the times, and a few years later Nuno was
ordered to Portalegre to defend with his brothers the frontier against
the Spanish. As they marched from Villa Viçosa to Elvas, Nuno, the
wish father of the thought in his keenness to encounter the enemy,
mistook the glint of the morning sun on the lances of their own
footmen, who had been sent on ahead, for the enemy advancing and
gave the alarm. To his vexation there was no fighting, and when he
challenged the son of the Master of Santiago to combat, ten against
ten, the king forbade the encounter, and the Earl of Cambridge, then
at the Portuguese Court, to whom Nun’ Alvarez appealed, pleaded
for him in vain.
In 1382 a powerful Spanish fleet besieged Lisbon. The defence of
the city was entrusted to Nun’ Alvarez and his brothers. It was in late
summer, quando l’uva imbruna, and parties from the fleet would land
to gather grapes and other fruit. Nun’ Alvarez saw his opportunity
and, leaving the city one night with some fifty horse and foot, lay in
ambush in the vines by the bridge of Alcantara. The first boatload of
twenty Spaniards to land was driven headlong into the sea, but a
larger force came ashore and the Portuguese, seeing themselves
outnumbered five to one, fled.
Nun’ Alvarez, left alone, spurred his horse to a gallop and dashed
into the midst of the enemy. His excellent armour stood him in good
stead, but his lance was shattered, his horse cut down, and one of
his spurs caught in the saddle as he fell. Thus disabled he still fought
on, and then for very shame his followers turned to assist him. The
first to come up was a Lisbon priest, afterwards Canon of Lisbon
Cathedral.
Nun’ Alvarez, hearing a few months later that the King was to
engage the enemy between Elvas and Badajoz, proposed to his
elder brother Pedr’ Alvarez, who had succeeded their father as Prior
of Crato, that they should have a hand in the fighting. Pedro, who
had orders to defend Lisbon and intended to obey them, refused,
and, having previous acquaintance of Nuno’s methods, gave
instructions that no armed persons should be allowed to leave the
city. Nuno with a few attendants dashed past the guard at the gate
and rode post-haste to Elvas. He was well received by the king, but
again there was no fighting. Peace and the betrothal of Beatrice
were celebrated in a banquet at Elvas. King Ferdinand was too ill to
attend, but King Juan was present.
Nun’ Alvarez, in his bitterness at seeing Portugal given over to
Castille, for once forgot his manners. He and his brother Fernão,
going in more leisurely than the rest, found all the tables crowded,
and, unable to obtain a place, he pushed away the support from one
of the tables, which went crashing to the ground, and calmly went
out. King Juan remarked that he who so acted had a heart for
greater things, but, in the words of the old chronicle, had they been
Castilians he might have spoken differently.
After King Ferdinand’s death Nun’ Alvarez, brooding over his
country’s wrongs, keenly took the part of the young Master of Avis.
He was not present at the murder of the Queen’s favourite, the
Count Andeiro, but he approved the act, and when news of it
reached him at Santarem he hastened to Lisbon to the Master of
Avis.
It was at Santarem one evening as he sauntered along the banks
of the Tagus after supper that he chanced to pass the door of an
armourer and sent for his sword to be sharpened. The alfageme
refused any payment till he should return as Count of Ourem. Hail to
thee, Thane of Cawdor! The story adds that Nun’ Alvarez, returning
Conde de Ourem to Santarem after the battle of Aljubarrota, found
the armourer in prison as a friend of Castille and his property
confiscated, and was able, by protecting him, to pay his debt.
Nun’ Alvarez now became one of the Prince of Avis’ Council, his
most loyal and most trusted counsellor to the end of their lives. His
first important command was in Alentejo, and after delaying in order
to take part in a fight with eight Spanish ships in the Tagus he set out
at the head of his two hundred horsemen. Henceforth Evora, the
ancient walled city in the wide plain of Alentejo, was his
headquarters. He instilled confidence into his men and increased his
army, although it rarely exceeded five hundred horse and as many
thousand foot, and was often very much below that number.
The war continued with varying success. At one time Nun’ Alvarez
advanced to Badajoz, at another the Spanish were at Viana, but a
couple of leagues from Evora across the flowered charneca. But
Nun’ Alvarez seized town after town and more than once defeated
the enemy in the open field. Monsaraz was taken by a wile, for some
cows were driven temptingly beneath the walls and when the
commander sallied out to seize them the Portuguese rushed in
through the open gate. Nun’ Alvarez’ favourite method was to ride all
night across the charneca and appear unexpectedly before a town in
the early dawn, so that the enemy called him “Dawn Nuno,” Nuno
Madrugada.
Thus he attacked Almada. He had but recently taken Palmella on
the height overlooking the Tagus, and, hunting in the neighbourhood,
had slain a boar and sent it as a present to the commander of
Almada, promising to pay him a visit soon. He now set out to ride
thither by night across the charneca, but they lost their way in the
many paths, and the sun was up when Nun’ Alvarez, in his
eagerness outriding his companions, advanced alone into the town.
Four squires presently came up to his support, and Almada was
taken without difficulty.
The Master of Avis had summoned Nun’ Alvarez to Lisbon or Nun’
Alvarez had determined to see the Master. From Palmella one night
looking across the river he saw the whole city apparently in flames.
Not knowing that the fires were lit by the King of Castille, whom
plague in his camp had forced to raise the siege, and aware that the
Master had powerful enemies within the walls, he watched the
conflagration in dismay, but next morning the city reappeared in all
its beauty.
The Spanish fleet remained in the Tagus, and a squire besought
Nun’ Alvarez not to cross, saying that he had dreamt that the enemy
had captured him as he passed through their fleet. Nun’ Alvarez
went on his way, leaving the squire with his dream on the further
shore. When he was in mid-stream, still perhaps thinking of the timid
escudeiro, he bade his trumpets blow the enemy a challenge. But
the Castilians little imagined what a prey was within their grasp, and
his small boat passed through safely to Lisbon.
A little later he joined the Master of Avis at Torres Vedras and
together they advanced to Coimbra, where the Master was crowned
king as João I. His first act was to appoint Nun’ Alvarez his
Constable.
At Oporto, whither he went to organise a fleet, Nun’ Alvarez found
his wife and daughter, who had been prisoners of the Castilians for a
time at Guimarães.
From Oporto he set out on a pilgrimage to Santiago de
Compostela. His purpose was threefold, “to serve God in
pilgrimage,” to reduce Minho on the way, and to secure mounts for
his men. But the River Minho was too swollen to cross, and the news
that Braga was wavering thus came opportunely. Leaving Viana do
Castello he turned east along the beautiful valley of the Lima and
seized the little granite town of Ponte do Lima and Braga on its steep
hill. The King had also come north, but the news that King Juan had
crossed the Beira frontier and was advancing rapidly into the heart of
Portugal brought them south again.
At Abrantes the King held a council. Many were of opinion that he
should not advance further against the enemy. Nun’ Alvarez—the
same Nuno who had ridden alone into two hundred and fifty of the
enemy on the banks of the Tagus and advanced alone into Almada
—thereupon set out with his men, and in the name of God and Saint
George sent a challenge to the King of Castille. Each fresh success
of Nun’ Alvarez had raised him envious backbiters in Portugal, and
here was a new opportunity to accuse him of arrogance. King João
silenced his accusers by following him to Thomar.
They then went west to Ourem and took up a position towards
Leiria. The advance of the King of Castille caused them to turn the
front of their battle towards the little village of Aljubarrota. The
Portuguese, barely 5,000 strong, were outnumbered seven to one,
but they were drawn up on foot in a small compact force and
desperate, flight being practically cut off. On the right was the Ala
dos Namorados, the lovers’ wing, pledged to yield no inch of ground;
on the left fought a few hundred English archers, gens-d’armes
Anglois si peu qu’il en y avoit, says Froissart.
The Spanish chronicler and poet, Pero Lopez de Ayala, and Nun’
Alvarez’ brother Diogo rode over before the battle and asked to
speak with him alone, but succeeded neither in winning him to their
side nor in casting suspicion on his loyalty. As he had said when
fighting against his brothers earlier in Alentejo, for the land that gave
him birth he would fight against his own father.
At nine o’clock on the morning of August 15, 1385, the battle
began with a great hurling of stones, followed by fighting with the
lance, and then at still closer quarters with axe and sword. Nun’
Alvarez was constantly where the fight raged most fiercely, and his
words “Fight, Portuguese, fight for king and country” kept ringing out
above the din. The flower of Castilian chivalry fell that day and many
Portuguese nobles fighting for Castille. Nun’ Alvarez saw his brother
the Master of Calatrava fall pierced by a lance, but was never able to
find his body. The King of Castille fled to Santarem. The Convent of
Alcobaça still preserves a huge cauldron taken from the enemy at
Aljubarrota, but the noblest memorial of Nun’ Alvarez’ victory is the
Church and Monastery of Batalha.
Nun’ Alvarez, not yet as old as Napoleon when he conquered Italy,
crossed the Guadiana with a few hundred horse and a few thousand
foot and advanced into Castille. All the nobles from the south of
Spain who had not been present at Aljubarrota collected to give him
battle. The enemy, he was told, were as the grass of the field in
number. “All the greater will be our honour,” said Nun’ Alvarez.
A trumpeter with a bundle of rods knelt before Nun’ Alvarez seated
to receive him: “My Lord Constable, the Master of Santiago, my lord,
sends to defy you with this rod,” and the Master of Calatrava, the
Master of Alcantara, the Count of Medina Celi and many another had
sent him rods of defiance. The Constable received them one by one
patiently, gave the messenger a hundred gold pieces and bade him
thank the senders for the rods with which he would presently come
and beat them.
The battle of Valverde that followed was an attack of several hills
from which the enemy had to be dislodged. “If Portuguese kneel in
battle,” said a later, sixteenth-century historian, “it is to the Cross of
Christ”; and certainly it was from no fear or weakness that Nun’
Alvarez, wounded by an arrow in the foot, knelt to pray in the thickest
of the fight. Anxious messengers came up with news that his men
were hard pressed, imploring his presence, but he, without
answering, still knelt in prayer. At last rising with a look of great joy
he ordered on his standard to the attack, and a few hours later no
Spaniard was to be seen.
It was in memory of this battle that the Constable built the Church
and Convent of Carmo, still in its ruins one of the most beautiful of
Lisbon’s buildings. This was the last of his great battles, although he
saw much more fighting (for peace with Castille did not come for
many years), and when fifty-five years old took part in the expedition
that conquered Ceuta.
But his abiding fame was won when he was twenty-five. His
success was due to his singleness of purpose. The independence of
Portugal was his object, and to secure that object he put forth his
whole strength not only ungrudgingly, but with a passionate
eagerness, his strength based on deep piety and faith. A keen judge
of men, he was terrible in his calm disdain to those whom he
suspected of shirking or treachery; without a word of abuse on his
part he made their humiliation unbearable. But he inspired his
followers with extraordinary devotion. His clear, piercing eyes and his
self-possession gave them confidence—des yeux pleins de mitraille
et un air de tranquillité—and he was always generous in rewarding
constancy and valour. His energy, fearless courage and fervent
serenity won many a fight against overpowering odds.
His fame extended throughout Spain. One evening near Caceres
ten henchmen appeared before him. The Count received them
kindly, and on hearing that they were from Castille asked how they
were so bold as to come without safe-conduct. Relying on his great
goodness, they said. He then asked what he could do for them, and
they announced that their only object in coming was to see him, and
now they had seen him; and so, refusing the supper he ordered for
them, they departed as they had come.
Many incidents show his power over his own men. Once, when
they were unwilling to go forward to attack a superior force, he just
stepped across a stream and bade those who were willing to follow
him cross it, and not one held back.
On another occasion an uproar arose in his camp owing to the fact
that the day’s booty had consisted of “many and good wines.” The
Constable came unarmed from his tent, but many soldiers, seeing
him thus and hearing the noise, rushed forward to protect him and
formed a canopy of swords over his head.
The irregular pay and supplies received for his men made it
difficult to maintain strict discipline; for some days they lived entirely
on figs, then as now one of the principal fruits south of the Tagus; for
one whole day Nun’ Alvarez’ own food consisted merely of a piece of
dry bread, a turnip, and a drink of wine from the flask of a common
soldier. Another time there was no bread in the whole camp except
five small loaves reserved for Nun’ Alvarez’ table; five starving
Englishmen came up, and he entertained them to dinner, giving each
a loaf of bread.
It was impossible in such circumstances to forbid or prevent
plunder when it was obtainable. But, although he was obliged to
allow his followers to live on the land, he set his face against any
unnecessary pilfering, and one squire, convicted of taking a chalice
from a church, he sentenced to be burnt—indeed, the wood was
piled and the fire lit before he pardoned him at the instance of his
captains.
In the teeth of great opposition, too, he resolutely forbade the
presence of women in his camp.
He was not less renowned for his chivalry towards the weak,
women, prisoners, and peasants, than for his victories in battle. He
provided pensions for “women who had been honoured and
prosperous and were now poor.”
But his chivalry went further. A countess at Coimbra who had held
out against him, and then plotted to seize his person by treachery, he
secured from the reprisals of his followers; the wife of the
commander of a captured town he sent away free to Castille. And
these were no isolated instances; his conduct never varied in its
simplicity, dignity and charming thought for others.
His biographers love to tell of the poor blind man of Torres Vedras
who had no way of escaping from the advancing Castilians and
whom Nun’ Alvarez carried behind him on his mule for four leagues
out of the town. “Oo que humano e caridoso señor!” exclaims the old
chronicler.
But it is the incidents of an illness when he was between thirty and
forty that throw most light on his character and on the devoted
attachment of those around him. The fever and deep depression that
came over him seem to have been in part, at least, due to the
perpetual self-seeking and mendicity with which he had to deal now
that he was a power in the land as great as the King himself—
greater, said his enemies. Sometimes, we are told, he seemed to
have recovered from his illness, and then the very sight of a
stranger, especially of a man with a letter, would give him a relapse.
His secretary found it necessary to intercept all letters.
Nun’ Alvarez, who had sought health in vain at Lisbon, set out to
return to Evora. Accompanied by his mother and his daughter, he
was carried in a litter to Palmella. His illness prevented him from
going further, and he was taken to the small village of Alfarrara,
where there were many trees and streams. The very sight of the
garden of the quinta where he was to lodge seemed to restore his
health. Several of the foremost citizens of Setubal came to welcome
him, and he received them gladly; but, as they were leaving, one of
them (who was very stout) had the misfortune to bid him “remember
the town of Setubal.”
Nun’ Alvarez, thus reminded of “men with letters,” fell into so great
a passion and fever that he was like to die. He refused to eat, and it
was only after much coaxing that he was persuaded to sit down at
table. They brought him water for his hands and roast birds to eat.
His daughter began to carve them before him, and his mother
fanned him with a fan; but he refused to eat, telling his mother that
“that bloated churl with his Setubal has been the death of me.”
His secretary, Gil Airaz, would have excused the offender, but Nun’
Alvarez turned on him in a rage: “The fellow, for what he said,
deserved a score of blows, and if you cared for me or my health you
would have given him them.”
Gil Airaz said that there was still time, if that was his pleasure, and
the Constable answered that such a pleasure would seem to him all
too long in coming. So the secretary, in his presence, took a stick
and went out. When he came back and told him how he had beaten
and kicked and covered with mud and water the citizen of Setubal,
Nun’ Alvarez seemed to recover instantly and began to eat and
drink.
To any other man, lord of half Portugal, it might perhaps have
seemed a little thing to have had a citizen beaten and rolled in a
ditch, but presently Nun’ Alvarez stopped eating, his eyes filled with
tears, and he began to wish he was dead. “Do you not see, Gil
Airaz,” he said, “that it would have been better for me to die than that
you should have done what you did to that good man?” “Now would
to God I had no part of all that land that God and my Lord the King
have given me, so that this thing were undone!”
When Gil Airaz saw that he was in earnest he told him how he had
only made a pretence of having beaten the man of Setubal and how
all the citizens had gone contentedly home. Nun’ Alvarez was so
overjoyed at this that he rose straightway from the table and went
out to the orchard and flowing streams. In three months, with the
help of the King’s physicians, he was well, and going alone with a
page he set to cutting the brushwood in front of him, and found his
strength had returned.
There is something infinitely touching in this story about a man
who was usually so calm and restrained that he might be in a
passion of anger and only show it—to those who knew him—by his
smile, and whose whole life was marked by exceptional strength of
will. But his old vigour returned, and very soon he was challenging
the Master of Santiago, begging him not to tire himself in advancing
through so hot a country, as he, “Nun’ Alvarez Pereira, Count of
Barcellos and of Ourem and of Arrayolos and Constable of my Lord
the King of Portugal,” would save him the trouble.
The great grief of the latter part of his life was the death of his
daughter Beatriz, Countess of Barcellos, and his life must have been
lonely despite the friendship of the King and especially of Prince
Duarte, heir to the throne. Before the expedition to Ceuta they went
to ask his advice under pretext of consulting him about some dogs
for the chase, so as to keep the secret of their enterprise. None
better than the King knew the value of Nun’ Alvarez’ opinion. He
always seemed to know precisely the right thing to be done and the
right moment to do it, was as far removed from boasting and vanity
as from false humility, and respected his own rights as well as those
of others.
In charity he gave liberally, but never carelessly. Thus he yearly
bestowed the same quantity of cloth, but bestowed it in different
districts, and stored the corn from his estates, to be given away in
years of scarcity.
Before the end of the fourteenth century (1393) he divided most of
his land, that is a great part of Portugal, between his followers. Large
portions of Tras-os-Montes, Minho, and Alentejo belonged to him. He
was Count of Ourem, of Arrayolos and Barcellos, Lord of Braga,
Guimarães, Chaves, Montalegre, and nearly a score of other towns.
His policy of dividing these lands among his vassals under condition
that they should maintain certain forces in his and the King’s service,
proved unsatisfactory. Like the sated Marshals of Napoleon, they
were subsequently less willing to leave their estates and risk their
persons in battle.
The King, who had been too lavish in his gifts, proposed to buy
back his grants of land. Other nobles agreed to sell, but Nun’ Alvarez
was resolved not to brook the injustice, and, far from agreeing to the
proposal, departed to Alentejo and gathered his followers with a view
to leave Portugal, although, as he said, he would never serve any
other king.
King João, thoroughly alarmed, sent the Bishop of Evora, the
Dean of Coimbra and the Master of the Order of Avis post-haste
after him. But Nun’ Alvarez then, as always when he seemed to be
acting rashly on impulse, was carrying out a quick but well-reasoned
decision, and was only with difficulty persuaded to a compromise. It
was finally agreed that his vassals should be transferred to the King,
while Nun’ Alvarez was to retain in his own hands most of his
territorial possessions. Seven years after the victorious capture of
Ceuta he again renounced them.
He had always been a man of great piety; after one of his victories
he had gone barefoot in pilgrimage to Santa Maria de Assumar; he
had founded churches throughout the country, heard mass twice or
thrice daily, and would rise at midnight to pray the hours. But it was
probably the death of his only daughter that moved him to retire to
serve God in the monastery of Santa Maria do Carmo, which he had
founded in memory of his victory of Valverde. There, on August 15,
1423, he professed as Frei Nuno de Santa Maria, after giving away
all his lands and titles. Of his daughter’s three children, Isabel
married the Infante João, Affonso became Conde de Ourem, and,
later, Marquez de Valença, and Fernando, Conde de Arrayolos and,
later, Duke of Braganza.
When Nun’ Alvarez, penniless, retired to his cell it was his purpose
to beg his daily bread in the streets of Lisbon, and he also intended
to end his days where he might be quite unknown; but Prince Duarte
went to see him at the Carmo and affectionately ordered him to
accept a pension from the King, a great part of which, however, he
spent in charities.
In 1431, in his seventy-first year, and two years before his life-long
friend, King João, the greatest of all Portugal’s great men died. “God
grant him as much glory and honour as in this world was his,” says
the old chronicle.
Surely no truer man or more chivalrous knight ever donned helmet
or drew sword. Tradition says that the Lisbon people long assembled
to sing songs and witness many miracles at his grave. But his fittest
and most enduring monuments are the noble buildings of Carmo and
Batalha, and, above all, a free and united Portugal.
PRINCE HENRY THE NAVIGATOR.
III
PRINCE HENRY THE NAVIGATOR
(1394-1460)
Ca trabalho seria de se achar antre os vivos seu
semelhante.—Gomez Eannez de Azurara, Cronica de
Guiné.
Mestre insigne de toda a arte militar.—D. Francisco
Manoel de Mello.
O homem a quem a Europa deve mais.—José Agostinho
de Macedo, Motim Literario.
For some years before his death, Nun’ Alvarez might well rest
satisfied with the prosperity which largely by his own exertions had
fallen upon his country. Nor was it a careless or degenerate
prosperity. The five noble sons of King João I and his English wife,
Queen Philippa, daughter of “time-honoured Lancaster,” had grown
to manhood, and the time was pregnant with great deeds. If Duarte
was perhaps Nun’ Alvarez’ favourite among the princes, he certainly
must have discerned in his younger brother his own successor in
guiding the destinies of Portugal. Although possibly less chivalrous
than Nun’ Alvarez, Prince Henry possessed his strong will and
intensity of purpose, with a wider range of vision. A Portuguese
writer represents him living in retirement at Sagres, his eyes fixed
exclusively on Heaven; but Prince Henry believed that he could best
serve Heaven by bringing to success the earthly affairs on which he
had set his heart.
It was certainly with the keenness which marked the young Nun’
Alvarez that Henrique, then twenty-one, embarked with his father,
King João I, and his brothers, Duarte and Pedro, in the expedition
against Ceuta in 1415. He had his father’s promise that he should be
the first to land, and in the storming of the town he was ever in the
thickest of the fighting. The Moors defended the town obstinately,
and a fresh danger arose when the victorious Portuguese dispersed
to plunder. Henry, with a little band of seventeen followers, saved the
situation against such odds that news was at first brought to the King
that his son was dead. For his gallant behaviour on that day he was
made Duke of Vizeu and Lord of Covilhã, while his brother Pedro
became Duke of Coimbra.
But Henry returned from North-West Africa with perhaps a still
greater prize—increased knowledge of the Dark Continent and a
fixed determination to explore further a land which he now knew to
be no mere sandy and unfertile desert. To this work he devoted the
next forty-five years, without a shadow of turning, since political
events might hamper but could not weaken his purpose, merely
delaying the promised end.
It is often asked what was his object, as though the wish to win
fresh knowledge, to acquire new territory for his country, and glory
and riches, and to extend the Christian faith were unaccountable or
unworthy aims. Rather we cannot wonder that the discoveries
became the absorbing passion of his life, so that he has been
blamed for his lukewarm intervention in contemporary politics and
his weak defence of his brother, the Duke of Coimbra.
On the discoveries as Grand Master of the Order of Christ he
spent its princely revenues, and in 1418, retiring from the Court, he
settled on the Sacred Cape, or Sagres, now Cape St. Vincent. His
palace and observatory soon drew a village round it, known as Terça
Naval, or the Villa do Infante (Princestown). Here, as Governor of
Algarve, he spent the greater part of his life, fitting out ships in Lagos
harbour, welcoming travellers, poring over maps brought to him by
Prince Pedro and others from their travels, observing the heavens,
and watching for the return of his ships.
His keenness was not inconsistent with a certain shyness and
reserve. He was a student prince, but less literary and more scientific
than his brothers. All day, and often far into the night, he would be at
work, an energetic hermit such as the Middle Ages had not known.
His eyes in the intensity and even fierceness of their glance repelled
the timid, but they also had the far-away look as of one watching and
dreaming, while his firm lips and jaws were those of one planning
and willing. His iron will and self-discipline curbed his equally strong
temper and impatient eagerness, so that when most moved to anger
he would merely say, like an Irishman, “I leave you to God.”
Courageous and persistent, he prepared all his schemes with the
utmost thoroughness, and all the help that science could afford, and
he carried them out with unfaltering resolution. All through his life he
acted up to his French motto, Talent de bien faire, which we may
translate by the “love of useful glory” to which, according to the poet
Thomson, he roused mankind. And if we do not sit cowering before
the unknown on all sides it is to Prince Henry and a few men of
similarly keen intellect and stout will that we owe it.
It must not be thought that he met with no opposition, apart from
the great difficulties that naturally beset all discoverers and
innovators. On the one hand, the perils of navigating down the coast
of Africa were considered insurmountable, and, on the other, the
gains to be derived from it were held to be nugatory. It was not till the
first slaves and the first gold arrived that men began to realise
thoroughly that Prince Henry was something more than an empty
dreamer. No one with less faith, a faith based both on religion and
science, would have persevered, as Prince Henry persevered, in
face of the slight support at first given by public opinion and the slight
success obtained. But, although there were many disappointments
and progress was slow, the mysteries of the African coast did
gradually recede before his persistency, as year after year he sent
out ships with definite instructions based on his maps and scientific
knowledge.
The death of King João I in 1433 did not seriously interfere with his
plans; his brother Duarte gave him every possible support, and the
expedition against Tangier in 1437 was not an interruption but rather
one aspect of his life-work. Indeed, he was the leading spirit of the
enterprise. He and his younger brother, Fernando, obtained from
King Duarte the consent for which they had ceased to hope from
their father; but Duarte at first, and Pedro throughout, were opposed

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