Informing information science: The case for activity theory

A promising new approach to information science is activity theory. Activity theory not only emphasizes the centrality of practice as doing and activity, but also foregrounds setting and context as essential orienting concepts. Most importantly, activity theory can provide information science with a rich, unifying, and heuristically valuable vocabulary and conceptual framework that will facilitate both the continual betterment of practice and the secure transferability and cumulation of knowledge.