Vakkari (1997) noted that phenomenology was among the “buzzwords’ at a
conference in 1991, but that interest had fallen away five years later. Nor does the topic
appear in a recent, and generally comprehensive, overview of theories and method in
information behaviour research (Fisher et al., 2005). However, apart from Wilson
(2002b), there remains general interest in the perspective for the information sciences
(see, for example, Budd, 2005; Marcella and Baxter, 2005). While this particular
philosophical approach has not gained universal acceptance – and, indeed, seems to
have suffered the fate of several philosophical approaches, in achieving something of a
“fad” status in information science circles, before being displaced by something else –
this general viewpoint now seems firmly established as an indispensable foundation
for information research.