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This text is a guest editorial that reflects on the influence and mentorship of Michael Buckland, a prominent figure in the field of library and information science. The author shares their personal experience of discovering Buckland's work and how it shaped their own research and career. They highlight Buckland's humility, curiosity, and willingness to take chances on others. The text also includes a brief mention of Buckland's concept of "information as thing" and its impact on the author's understanding of museum objects as documents. Overall, the text serves as a tribute to Buckland's mentorship and the lasting impact he has had on the field. [Extracted from the article]

Purpose: Michael Buckland's works have spanned theoretical, historical and practice-oriented foci and genre. This article focuses on some of his theoretical-historical works that span over 20 years, which demonstrate a reading and critique of European Documentation in terms of what has been called "Documentality." This turn to a philosophy of information called "Documentality" marks the moment of "neo-documentation." This article surveys this moment in Buckland's works by reading his articles "Information as Thing," "What is a 'Document'?", and "Documentality Beyond Documents." It shows the transition from Documentation as a philosophy of information as representation to Documentality as a philosophy of information as function and performance. Some concepts and works of Bruno Latour are used to illuminate this transition from Documentation to Documentality. Implications and further research directions are discussed at the end. Design/methodology/approach: Conceptual and historical analyses. Findings: The article follows a neo-documentalist transition in Buckland's works in the thinking of documents from an Otletian representationalist epistemology ("Documentation") to a functionalist and performative epistemology ("Documentality") for documents. Research limitations/implications: This is a conceptual work on a limited corpus in Buckland's oeuvre. It has a limited discussion of Documentality in the works of other writers, namely the works of Bernd Frohmann and Maurizio Ferraris. Practical implications: The article points to historical shifts in the study of documents in Library and Information Science. Social implications: Documentality critically and materially studies documents in sociotechnical information management systems and elsewhere. Originality/value: This work highlights the importance of the above works and the importance of the neo-documentalist perspective of Documentality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]