Information behaviour as part of leisure and pleasurable activities has been discussed as a site of personal meaning-making, which can be impacted by technological interventions and innovations (Gorichanaz, 2019). Such forms of meaning-making are connected to identity, central and peripheral practice, and curiosity and presence (Gorichanaz, 2019). Technology such as social media, search engines, and recently conversational agents such as ChatGPT and how they are perceived by individuals, may shape information behaviour and experiences. This could potentially impact an individual’s pathways to personal meaning-making. This research will investigate the information behaviour of citizen historians/hobbyists of a particular time period and their use or avoidance of certain technologies and associated experiences.

Cultural heritage has significance for our individual identities and sense of self, and simultaneously on a larger scale, can shape social cohesion and division. As such, understanding new forms of information behaviour and associated experiences in response to technologies such as conversational agents, is essential to understand not only the impact of technologies on identity, but also how cultural heritage institutions can support and intervene to support valuable meaning making experiences. 

References

Gorichanaz, T. (2019). Information experience in personally meaningful activities. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 70(12), 1302–1310. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.24142