”Älä jätä käyttämättä sattuman tarjoamia mahdollisuuksia” – Serendipisyys tiedonhaun ilmiönä

What is it about?

The word serendipity is a neologism coined by Horace Walpole, an English novelist in 1754. It means the accidental discovery of something valuable. Discovery by chance has been a common occurrence in the history of science for a long time, but only since the 1990’s has it been the focus of interest in information studies. Serendipity is not just a ”happy accident”, it can be influenced and cultivated. Nevertheless it can be unreliable. The purpose of the paper is to explore the history and concept of serendipity, it’s nature and usage in physical and digital information environments. This is done through carrying out a systematic literature review on information searching and serendipity. Serendipity may be viewed from multiple perspectives including the models of information searching. Serendipity is an important part of our everyday life. This underlines the study of serendipity also as an important research subject within the information studies.

Featured Image