Furner studies the history and philosophy of cultural stewardship, and teaches classes on the representation and organization of archival records, library materials, and museum objects. He has published over fifty papers on these and related topics, frequently using conceptual analysis to evaluate the theoretical frameworks, data models, and metadata standards on which information access systems rely.

From 2009 to 2020, Furner was a member of the Dewey Decimal Classification’s editorial policy committee (DDC EPC), chairing it from 2014 to 2019. He is co-editor of book series for MIT Press and Facet (UK), and a regular reviewer of contributions to journals and conferences in the fields of philosophy of information, knowledge organization, and bibliometrics. He is the author of Information studies and other provocations: Selected talks, 2000–2019, published in 2021 by Library Juice Press.