What is it about?

Humans have always collected objects and possessions. The study of this behavior has been limited and tends to make simple divisions between individuals and institutions, or between physical and digital objects. This review tries to synthesize the disparate literatures and offer a unifying perspective on what is actually a routine human behavior

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Why is it important?

Offers a summary of what we've learned about the human motivation to collect material and digital possessions.

Perspectives

This question has puzzled me for years and I've found that there's a shortage of literature that deals with this phenomenon rationally rather than sensationally or institutionally. This paper is an attempt to draw attention to what I believe is a routine behavior that reveals something fundamental about humans in information and related contexts.

Andrew Dillon
University of Texas at Austin School of Information

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This page is a summary of: Collecting as Routine Human Behavior: Personal Identity and Control in the Material and Digital World, Libraries & Culture, November 2019, University of Texas Press,
DOI: 10.7560/ic54301.
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