Genealogy and learning: acquiring information and digital literacy through a hobby #ecil2018

Crystal Fulton from University college Dublin has a background in research on people’s hobbies, and identified that genealogy is a very Information intensive activity. Irish genealogy is very interesting because there is a large Irish diaspora, living in many countries. Crystal was interested in the idea of “serious leisure”, that a hobby can be like a job, and consumes a lot of time and effort. The study has taken place over several years, and included 24 telephone interviews and 49 face-to-face interviews with people in 3 countries. Critical incident technique was used to discover the types of information sought, sources used and activities undertaken. Participants were encouraged to do a mapping activity for their favourite or best sources.  Participants did not view themselves as “experts”, but displayed a huge amount of knowledge in their field. They identified their learning needs around sources, tools and technologies. Learning was a “personal mission” and were obsessed about finding the next piece of information. Sometimes they attended courses, but were largely self-taught. They transferred skills from the workplace to the hobby, and peer learning was a feature of the genealogy community, through local history groups. There was a pride in learning, but sharing was often on a quid pro quo basis.