Information creation has long been acknowledged as part of both the information life cycle and the totality of human information behavior (Bates, 2015). For instance, the significance of information creation is represented to differing extents in a number of classic models of information activities and processes (Gorichanaz, 2019). Moreover, calls for research on the creation of information in information science, and the creation of knowledge in knowledge management, date back at least to the 1960s (Brittain, 1970; Kochen, 1969; see also Cole, 2012). Still, there has been little explicit attention to information creation in research (Trace, 2007) and practice (e.g. Huvila, 2011; Woxland, Cochran, Davis, & Lundstrom, 2017).
In recent years, a new body of work has embarked on exploring different aspects of information creation. At the same time, information creation has been acknowledged as a key aspect of information literacy (ACRL, 2015). Increasingly, scholars and practitioners alike are recognizing how the usefulness and relevance of the information being sought and retrieved depends on the conditions and process of its creation.
The aims of this special issue are to gather articles highlighting the current state in information creation research and to help this work gather forward momentum. The issue continues the work started as a part of a panel at the 2020 ASIS&T Annual Meeting (Huvila, Douglas, Gorichanaz, Koh, & Suorsa, 2020), organized by the guest editors of this special issue.