Researching Serendipity in Digital Information Environments. Lori McCay-Peet

Serendipity…the word conjures up an image of that fortuitous finding, one that evokes a happy human response. From its unassuming roots in literary scholarship in the Georgian era, the concept emerged in the 20th century to represent fortuitous discoveries perceived to be by chance, but clearly informed by significant knowledge and experience. Often equated with scientific discoveries it has evolved to be now associated with that unexpected but informed outcome in the social sciences and humanities and indeed in everyday life.

When we think of serendipity in digital information environments, we are constrained by physicality of that setting—the digital device, and also by the range of activities that may occur within that space and contexts. This book starts with an understanding of its initial origins and application and transfers that understanding to its application to and evolution in digital spaces. It examines the motivation for a renewed and intense interest in serendipity in research and development (R&D), and identifies the various interpretations of serendipity (e.g., event, outcome, process) that have been made to inform a better understanding of where and how to approach the concept in R&D. It examines how we can and do facilitate serendipity in digital spaces, and how, methodologically, to research the concept in these spaces.

To start such a work, we put our assumptions and perspectives about serendipity aside, and began with a “clean slate.” We conducted a systematic review of the research on serendipity, first searching broadly in four databases (Web of Science, ProQuest, EBSCO, and ACM Digital Library) for papers that serve as the basis for Chapters 2–5. In May 2016, we downloaded 1,293 citations but after removing duplicates and doing an initial cull based on title and abstract to ensure topic fit, we selected 550 for a closer look. From these, as well as papers subsequently gathered through other methods (e.g., citation chaining), we selected approximately 100 papers that met the following conditions for a more thorough examination.

• Paper was a published, peer-reviewed study of serendipity in digital environments; literature reviews, conceptual papers, and theses were not considered in the systematic review.

• Papers that mentioned serendipity only superficially were not considered.

• No restrictions on how authors defined serendipity.

• Research was empirical, using either or both qualitative or quantitative methods, but with no restrictions on method or methodology.

• No restrictions on research area or topic with respect to:

° information use environment (e.g., work leisure, learning, commerce);

° domain, field, or area (e.g., science, history, education);

° platform, application, or service (e.g., Twitter, WorldCat);

° type of digital device (e.g., mobile, laptop, wearable); and

° content or its format (e.g., text, image, sound).

Seminal works that do not meet the above criteria (e.g., Merton and Barber, 2004) are also referenced throughout the volume, but by conducting the systematic review, we hope that we have provided a useful “state-of-the-art” synthesis of the research on serendipity in digital information environments.

Lori McCay-Peet and Elaine G. Toms

July 2017

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to many colleagues, whose insights and exchanges have contributed over the years to our thinking about serendipity, including Lennart Björneborn, Samantha Copeland, Sanda Erdelez, Jannica Heinström, Stephann Makri, Kim Martin, Anabel Quan-Haase, and Borchuluun Yadamsuren. A SSHRC Aid to Workshops and Conferences Program grant enabled SCORE: Serendipity, Chance and Opportunity in Information Discovery, a workshop hosted in Montreal in 2012, to bring together a group of researchers to unpeel the concept of serendipity in digital information environments.

We also acknowledge financial support for the research that informed much of the thinking behind this volume. Toms’ initial research on browsing in digital user environments (which serendipitously introduced her research to serendipity) was funded by a NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada) grant to her Ph.D. supervisor, Professor Jean Tague-Sutcliffe, University of Western Ontario (now Western University). Their individual and joint research, including McCay-Peet’s Ph.D. work, was partially funded by a SSHRC (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada) Research Grant, on Serendipity in Knowledge Work to Toms; and a SSHRC Doctoral Scholarship to McCay-Peet. Finally, we acknowledge the support of the Canada Foundation for Innovation that funded the research infrastructure that enabled multiple research projects, and Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada who hosted the research projects.

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

Mention serendipity to anyone anywhere and it congers up an immediate pleasurable reaction. Many have stories to tell about serendipitous moments when something materialized—an idea or opportunity—often from an interaction with an object or person in the immediate environment. Sometimes it appeared, as though by magic, as a lightning-bolt, thought-in-head. But, whatever it was, it was perceived as value-added, and not previously contemplated or considered.

When we think of serendipity, we associate it first with scientific discoveries and inventions such as dynamite, rubber, penicillin, microwave, photography, X-rays, radioactivity, Liquorice Allsorts, Post-it notes, Viagra, laughing gas, Velcro, Teflon, and Nylon. Arguably, Columbus’ discovery of North America occurred when he was looking for a new trade route to the Orient—a serendipitous find. In this book, we start from those early explanations and understanding of serendipity and consider the concept in the context of digital information

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