Information behaviour and information literacy: The ultimate in transdisciplinary phenomena?

Abstract

This article investigates transdisciplinarity in relation to information behaviour and information literacy. It demonstrates how these areas are especially suited to transdisciplinarity thought, notes the potential that transdisciplinarity offers in these contexts and presents the key components of transdisciplinarity in two complementary breakdowns designed to help academics and information professionals recognize the value of the concept to their own work. The article considers how transdisciplinarity may be understood in terms of transferable skills, collaboration across different areas, phenomena that affect various disciplines and the use in one field of ideas associated with another. It concludes with reflections on the overall strengths and weaknesses of transdisciplinarity.