Deciding Where to Live: Information Studies on Where to Live in America explores major themes related to where to live in America, not only about the acquisition of a home but also the ways in which where one lives relates to one’s cultural identity. It shows how changes in media and information technology are shaping both our housing choices and our understanding of the meaning of personal place. The work is written using widely accessible language but supported by a strong academic foundation from information studies and other humanities and social science disciplines.

Chapters analyze everyday information behavior related to questions about where to live. The eleven major chapters are:

• Chapter 1: Where to live as an information problem: three contemporary examples
• Chapter 2: Turning in place: Real estate agents and the move from information custodians to information brokers
• Chapter 3: The Evolving Residential Real Estate Information Ecosystem: The Rise of Zillow
• Chapter 4: Privacy, Surveillance, and the “Smart Home”
• Chapter 5: This Old House, Fixer Upper, and Better Homes & Gardens: The Housing Crisis and Media Sources
• Chapter 6: A Community Responds to Growth: An Information Story About What Makes for a Good Place to Live."
• Chapter 7: The Valley Between Us: The meta-hodology of racial segregation in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
• Chapter 8: Modeling Hope: Boundary Objects and Design Patterns in a Heartland Heterotopia
• Chapter 9: Home buying in Everyday Life: How Emotion and Time Pressure Shape High Stakes Deciders’ Information Behavior
• Chapter 10: In Search of Home: Examining Information Seeking and Sources That Help African Americans Determine Where to Live
• Chapter 11: Where to Live in Retirement: A Complex Information Problem

While the book is partly about the goal-directed activity of individuals who want to buy a house, and the infrastructure that supports that activity, it is also about personal activities that are either not goal directed or are directed at other goals such as deciding in which geographic location to live, personal entertainment, cultural understanding, or identity formation.