Information Science in 2003: A Critique

Abstract

The author aims to review the status of information science (IS) as a discipline, with particular focus on the UK. A consideration of the discipline begins by comparing definitions of IS. Two visions of the impact of IS are presented to illustrate a key problem area addressed by the discipline. Indicators of a discipline are summarized and Biglan's categorization of disciplines is explained. The author provides a critique of opinions on the nature of IS as a discipline, using Biglan's categories as a framework. The author contrasts the views of those who see the discipline as problematically fragmented and those who envision a discipline of fruitfully interlinked specialisms. This section of the paper concludes by considering disciplinary boundaries and the international scope of the discipline. The last section of the paper reviews the state of IS in the UK, drawing on evidence and on personal experience. Factors considered are: evidence of networks and communities of practice; the name and standing of academic departments and courses; artefacts and personal identification. The author concludes by identifying particular challenges for IS in the UK and indicates areas for research.

Escritura proyectada y proyectable en los muros de los museos: propuesta de análisis desde la ciencia de la información

“…Sheila Webber (2003) por su parte, en un sentido semántico, supone que la información es significativa, tiene un tópico, y es inteligencia o instrucción acerca de algo o de alguien; mientras que, en el contexto de la sociedad de la información, constituye una nueva era (la era de la información, la información en la sociedad de la información o la información en la transición hacia las sociedades del conocimiento). En esta etapa de mutaciones se centra nuestra investigación, si por una parte la información se conforma de los datos y, por otra, la escritura son signos y símbolos, esta es la vinculación encontrada para justificar el estudio de la escritura y los objetos escriturales en las piezas de arte.…”

‘So wide and varied’: The origins and character of British information science

“…Webber [60] argues that British information science, building on these broad and inclusive conceptions, exhibited 'a more holistic envisioning of the discipline than was the case in the USA'.…”

Smoother pebbles and the shoulders of giants: the developing foundations of information science

“…Various ideas have been put forward as to how the information science discipline may be understood: Webber [10] summarises a variety, and two more recent examples are given by Zins [11] and by Zhang and Benjamin [12]. Several have followed Meadow's general approach, of regarding it as a multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary area, focusing on the concept of information or some aspect of it, as two examples almost thirty years apart will show:…”

“…At the time of the establishment of JIS, there was a very clear information science profession in the United Kingdom, with its own Institute, and an equivalent in the USA with its own Society. Since that time, both have lost their unique identity albeit in different ways: in the UK by a merger with the librarians to form CILIP, and in the USA by the explicit incorporation of information technology, to form ASIS&T [10]. Whether it is still meaningful to speak of an information science profession is therefore a moot point.…”