Reflections and future directions

This Handbook surveys ongoing international efforts to understand, describe, and explain multiple source use in numerous disciplines and contexts by individuals with different characteristics. When we conceptualized this Handbook, our main goal was to provide a comprehensive overview of research on multiple source use that describes when, how, and why people use multiple sources. To do this, we invited researchers from different disciplines and theoretical orientations. Drawing upon multiple perspectives enabled us to showcase important theoretical and empirical insights into multiple source use in both formal and informal contexts. We also did this to afford opportunities for cross-fertilization across disciplines and to broaden readers’ knowledge base of multiple source use. Thus, this Handbook may help readers discern conceptual relationships across different disciplines and theoretical orientations on multiple source use. As such, we hope it will help readers see similarities, and potential differences, in how theory and research in this area can be advanced and applied.