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The serious leisure perspective is introduced and its relationship to library and information science (LIS) set Out. The relationship is twofold: the perspective offers a distinctive approach both to research and to practice in this discipline. That is, the perspective bridges a critical gap that has separated the fields of US and leisure studies, manifested in both as scant concern with the central interest of the other. This gap is bridged by providing the first with a conceptual framework for understanding leisure and leisure activities, which can help guide researchers and practitioners working on the retrieval and dissemination of information bearing on such activities. The serious leisure perspective is the theoretic structure that synthesizes three main forms of leisure. Serious leisure is the systematic pursuit of an amateur, hobbyist, or volunteer core activity that captivates the participant with its challenges and complexity. Casual leisure is an immediately, intrinsically rewarding, relatively short-lived pleasurable core activity, requiring little or no special training to enjoy it. Project-based leisure refers to a short term, reasonably complicated, one-shot or occasional, though infrequent, creative undertaking carried out in free time. Serious leisure is the most complex of these three, offering thereby the richest lode for LIS researchers and practitioners to mine. The perspective is a vehicle for systematically exploring people's use and dissemination of information during free time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the criteria for distinguishing serious leisure. Serious leisure can serve as an effective non-remunerative substitute for work in the Information Age for those who find they have too little of it. First, consider again the concept of social world. It is not only an idea well in tune with the work and leisure routines of the present and future, it is also a desideratum of many a modern man and woman both for today and for many years to come. Increasingly, it appears that the only available communal connections for most people will come through activities taking place in their after-work time. Yet, because they tend to be private, purely family activities rarely generate such connections. But those who once found meaningful organizational ties at work can still turn to serious leisure, where one of the principal attractions of most of the amateur, hobbyist, and volunteer activities is the sense of being part of a bustling, fascinating, all-encompassing social world. For many enthusiasts this involvement is as exciting as the central activity itself and, in career volunteer work, often indistinguishable from it.

Physical exercise is an activity whose health-related benefits have been promoted by health professionals and social institutions. However, given that the levels of practice are not ideal, the subjective variables - that give meaning, provide continuity and may increase exercise adherence - need to be studied in depth. In this sense, fitness training is analyzed as a form of serious leisure, a body-centered hobby - a way to practice and relate to the activity that leads its practitioners to adhere more to it, orienting them towards a career in acquiring and expressing skills, knowledge and experience. In total, 1,134 people (588 men, 546 women) doing fitness training, aged between 18 and 70 years old (M = 34.7, SD = 13.06), answered a questionnaire about time dedicated to exercise as serious leisure and its derived and complementary benefits. Student's t Coefficient and ANOVA were used to show the significance of the differences among the scores obtained for the rewards related to exercise and the other variables of the study. The results highlight that exercise as serious leisure is an activity whose weekly time investment makes it to acquire a central role when rewarded by sense of accomplishment, contact with others, improved health and being outdoors with the family. To conclude, this study enhances that characterizing fitness training as a body-centered hobby - which shares the principles of serious leisure - implies a new approach to the analysis of exercise while also suggesting new ways of promoting it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]