An Introduction to Infophilia, A Positive Psychology of Information

This paper will tell some of the stories of infophilia, a positive psychology of information, avant-garde research. The goal of Brenda Dervin’s ground-breaking research was not just to develop the sense-making theory, framework, and tools, but also to “invent communication alternatives and assess their utility.” One of the ‘practice communication inventions’ of Brenda Dervin was the ‘Good news newsletter’ where she developed infosheets for doctors, schools, and medical clinics (Neill, 1992, p. 6). I am no Brenda Dervin. But I am a strongly interdisciplinary scholar who has been a tenured librarian, LIS school faculty, library director, publisher for the voiceless, and community educator on controversial issues such as anti-racism and homelessness. New forms of communication for information use have always been a critical part of my research. This paper draws on Infophilia, a positive psychology of information, that is both a weekly newsletter that I write, and my avant garde research of a phenomenon with the same name, infophilia. The word 'infophilia' can be defined as the human love of information and connections (Coleman, 2024). People are creating and consuming more information than ever in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, Creator Economy, Post-Truth, and Post-Typographic society. In this era of Information abundance, disruptive technologies and new information realities (Badke, 2009) a lot of the information behaviors research field has of necessity focused on the problems and pathology of information overload (Case et al, 2005) but there have also been calls for more positive studies (Kari, and Hartel, 2007). Library studies have also been criticized as lacking in theory and for using too many theories (Roy and Mukhopadhyay, 2023). My paper briefly addresses both problems but the main focus is on infophilia and libraries / LIS. Rooted in a positive, evolutionary and social psychology of information and drawing on research from different disciplines such as brain neuroscience, economics, ecological sciences and psychology, as well as library and information sciences, I introduce infophilia as a transformative framework for the new information realities and library research. Using the research of scholars like Linda Smith, the first librarian who in 1976 investigated the potential of AI for IR (9716), I present evidence for implicit prosociality theorizing in LIS. Beyond the healthy and maladaptive infophilia framework that is using an information literacy spectrum I share definitions and data, stories and vignettes that include the foundational concepts of infophilia (love of information) biophilia (love of living things) technophilia (love of technology / complexity), philocaly (love of creativity / beauty), phyloxenia (love of diversity), polymathy (love of learning), and philalethia (love of truth). My paper discusses how these concepts are related and are being used or can be used in library services (e.g. literacy, programming) and building design for individual flourishing and collective well-being (e.g. transforming technostress to eustress; wicked problems approach; connectomics literacy for librarians). I will also highlight key value characteristics of infophilia such as curiosity and creativity and name some of the diverse, historical, and living polymaths and infophiles in library and information sciences.