Chapter 2: Questioning

A good scholarly publication sparks new questions for future research. In the same way, many kinds of information experiences drive questioning. This is a novel counterpoint to the traditional view that information and documents simply provide answers to queries. Research suggests that questioning is a crucial component in the building of understanding. Questioning is often defined linguistically, as a certain kind of utterance, but more deeply it can be understood as an openness to what the world can offer – the beginning of thought, and the medium by which information informs. In this chapter, I consider questioning through the lens of document work, which entails the myriad behaviors and activities related to documents in a given setting, including both the creation of new documents and dealing with existing documents (using, sharing, copying, destroying, etc.). If a document provides an answer, then document work can be conceptualized as the building of understanding, and questioning is the mechanism by which understanding is built. These concepts offer a framework for investigating document use as an experience.