{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,8,2]],"date-time":"2025-08-02T17:53:57Z","timestamp":1754157237291,"version":"3.41.2"},"reference-count":34,"publisher":"Emerald","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2011,7,26]],"date-time":"2011-07-26T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1311638400000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/www.emerald.com\/insight\/site-policies"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2011,7,26]]},"abstract":"<jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Purpose<\/jats:title><jats:p>The purpose of this paper is to bring the concept of a \u201chierarchy of action\u201d, as it is currently being used in other fields, into library and information science (LIS).<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Design\/methodology\/approach<\/jats:title><jats:p>Hierarchy theory is adopted to describe three hierarchies of action, which include the human processes of semantic and social innovation, as well as a system of biological interpretence, from which human processes are thought to have evolved as a development of biosemiosis in nature. By way of example, it is argued that a text is a complex achievement, and hierarchy theory shows how to account for this complexity; the everyday definition of \u201ctext\u201d is augmented with accounts from different levels of observation.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Findings<\/jats:title><jats:p>The concept of a hierarchy of action enables a person to account for a text as a meaning\/symbolic product; include in that account the processes whereby texts are produced and used; and say why these processes are important to the health of the biosphere that is called home.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Originality\/value<\/jats:title><jats:p>\u201cHierarchy of action\u201d has been developed as a concept in biology and ecology; it belongs to a way of thinking whereby human reality, like nature, is construed as dynamical processes operating in symbiotic relationship with each other; it has not yet been adopted in LIS with reference to hierarchy theory and its potential is yet to be explored.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1108\/00220411111145052","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2011,7,25]],"date-time":"2011-07-25T09:55:17Z","timestamp":1311587717000},"page":"695-709","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Hierarchies of action: a concept for library and information science"],"prefix":"10.1108","volume":"67","author":[{"given":"Bonna","family":"Jones","sequence":"first","affiliation":[]}],"member":"140","reference":[{"key":"key2022032020144057100_b1","unstructured":"Ahl, V. and Allen, T. 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