Welcome. In September 2007, I received a doctorate of philosophy in Information Studies from the Department of Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). On July 1, 2008 I became an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Information. My work is organized around the question: What is the nature of information in the pleasures of life? I am investigating this matter through the concatenated study of serious leisure realms, which are crossroads of information and enjoyment. My empirical research explores the use and structure of leisure information on personal and social levels. My dissertation is a scientific ethnography of information phenomena in the hobby of gourmet cooking. I practice an interdisciplinary and international approach and maintain close ties with leisure scientists and northern European information scholars. I hope to generate basic knowledge about information in the pleasures of life; challenge existing ideas that have largely emerged from academic problem scenarios; establish positive models of organic, flourishing information environments; enliven classrooms with upbeat topics; and enrich the information experience for leisure enthusiasts.


News and new website content: This summer at the University of Toronto I'll be teaching The Information Experience in Context. Recently, at the Conceptions of Library and Information Science (CoLIS) conference in London, England, I hosted the panel Metatheoretical Snowmen (extended abstract-PDF) and presented the paper Time as a Framework for Information Science: Insights from the Hobby of Gourmet Cooking (abstract). Some introductory sections of my dissertation, Information Activities, Resources, and Spaces in the Hobby of Gourmet Cooking are available here on my website. I am still managing, with sociologist Robert A. Stebbins, The Serious Leisure Perspective website, a framework of leisure applied in my dissertation.

Selected Publications (or see my CV)

Hartel, J. (in press). Information in the Hobby of Gourmet Cooking: Four Contexts. In Information in Everyday Life, ed. W. Aspray and B. Hayes, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Hartel, J. (in press). Managing Documents at Home for Serious Leisure: A Case Study of the Hobby of Gourmet Cooking. Journal of Documentation.

Hartel, J. 2010. Hobby and Leisure Information and its User. In Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science (3 rd Edition.), ed. M.J. Bates and M.N. Maack, New York: Taylor and Frances.

Hartel, J. 2009. Introducing the Information Experience in Context. Faculty of Information Quarterly. 2(1).

Hartel, J. 2007. Information Activities, Resources, and Spaces in the Hobby of Gourmet Cooking. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation. University of California, Los Angeles.

Talja, S. & Hartel, J. 2007. Revisiting the User-Centered Turn in Information Science Research: An Intellectual History Perspective. In Information Research 12(4). Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Conceptions of Library and Information Science: Featuring the Future, Boras, Sweden.

Kari, J. & Hartel, J. 2007. Information and Higher Things in Life: Addressing the Pleasurable and the Profound in Information Science. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology. 58(8): 1131 - 1147.

Hartel, J. 2005. Serious Leisure. In Theories of Information Behavior: A Researcher’s Guide, ed. K. Fisher, S. Erdelez, and L. McKechnie, 313-317. Medford, NJ: Information Today.

Hartel, J. 2004. Review of “Music, Libraries and Culture, an Analysis of Discourses” / Sanna Talja. Library Quarterly, 74(3): 393-395.

Hartel, J. 2003. The Serious Leisure Frontier in Library and Information Science: Hobby Domains. Knowledge Organization. 30(3/4): 228-238.

Hjørland, B. and Hartel, J. 2003. Introduction to the Special Issue of Knowledge Organization. Knowledge Organization. 30(3/4): 125-127.

Hjørland, B. and Hartel, J. 2003. Afterword: Ontological, Epistemological and Sociological Dimensions of Domains. Knowledge Organization. 30(3/4): 239-245.
Hartel, J. (in press). Time as a Framework for Information Science: Insights from the Hobby of Gourmet Cooking. Conceptions of Library and Information Science (CoLIS), London, England.

Hartel, J. 2006. Information Activities and Resources in an Episode of Gourmet Cooking. In Information Research 12(1), Proceedings of the Information Seeking in Context Conference, Sydney, Australia.

Refereed conference panels (as panel convener)

Hartel, J. (pending). Metatheoretical Snowmen. Conceptions of Library and Information Science (CoLIS), London, England.

Hartel, J. & Kari, J. 2009. Toward a Positive Information Science? ASIST Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC.

Hartel, J. 2009. Metatheoretical Snowmen. ASIST Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC.

Hartel, J. 2008. The Office: Integrating Perspectives Across Information Science. ASIST Annual Meeting, Columbus, OH.                   

Hartel, J. 2006. Taking Leisure Seriously: Information Realities in Leisure Time (panel convener). ASIST Annual Meeting, Austin, TX.