Information science and its core concepts: Levels of disagreement (original) (raw)
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The nature of information science: changing models
Information Research an International Electronic Journal, 2010
Introduction; the debatable nature of information science Debates about the nature of information science, the scope of the discipline and its relations to other academic and professional areas are as old as the discipline itself. These are not merely navel-gazing, or arguments about terminology. They relate to the validity and viability of the discipline and have significance for the extent to which its unique contributions are recognised. Information science first became known as a discipline during the 1950s. The first usage of the term in a paper by Farradane (1955:76),
Conceptions of information science
Journal of the American Society For Information Science and Technology, 2007
The field of information science is constantly changing. Therefore, information scientists are required to regularly review-and if necessary-redefine its fundamental building blocks. This article is one of four articles that documents the results of the Critical Delphi study conducted in 2003-2005. The study, "Knowledge Map of Information Science," was aimed at exploring the foundations of information science. The international panel was composed of 57 leading scholars from 16 countries who represent nearly all the major subfields and important aspects of the field. In this study, the author documents 50 definitions of information science, maps the major theoretical issues relevant to the formulation of a systematic conception, formulates six different conceptions of the field, and discusses their implications. Methodology The scientific methodology used was Critical Delphi. Critical Delphi is a qualitative research methodology aimed
Journal of The American Society for Information Science and Technology, 1999
This essay is a personal analysis of information science as a field of scientific inquiry and professional practice that has evolved over the past half-century. Various sec- tions examine the origin of information science in re- spect to the problems of information explosion; the so- cial role of the field; the nature of "information" in infor- mation science; the structure
Theory and metatheory of information science: a new interpretation
Journal of documentation, 1998
This paper analyses the theoretical and the epistemological assumptions of information science (IS). Different views of knowledge underlie all major issues in IS. Epistemological theories have a fundamental impact on theories about users, their cognition and information seeking behaviour, on subject analysis, and on classification. They have also fundamental impact on information retrieval, on the understanding of 'information', on the view of documents and their role in communication, on information selection, on theories about the functions of information systems and on the role of information professionals. IS must be based on epistemological knowledge, which avoids blind alleys and is not outdated. The paper shows limitations in the dominant approaches to IS and proposes alternative viewpoints. therefore can learn a lot from knowledge about basic epistemological positions. Second, that in order to overcome its difficulties, IS must change its orientation towards the family of historically oriented epistemologies.
Information Science and Philosophy
Paper, 2018
Looking out of Information Science (IS) it´s a dangerous attempt to compare this relative new science direct with Philosophy. Here you find a first circumspective trial of an investigation of the traditionally named “queen of science”, Philosophy, two thousand years old and - direct opposite - the only a half century old Information Science. For me it is till now not yet clear how to do this in a serious scientific manner. I worked in Applied Informatics for 30 years and make Information Science since about 15 years. Here I dare to publish for first time the results. SOKRATES (469 – 399 b.Chr.), PLATON (428/27- 348/47 b.Chr.) und ARISTOTELES (384 - 322 b.Chr.) as inventors of our traditional occidental Philosophy, have founded the search of the sense of our Human Life, Thinking and Acting as an own science. They set the Joy of Life on top of their way of thinking. PLATON has separated this special new thinking from the „Sophists“ who had a very good public image too at his time. But they were thinking more about common business facts and knowledge only. Today we would call them manufacturer, qualified skilled workers or even bachelors of special sciences. Philosophy has (since over 20 centuries) till today first of all the smart and high duty to serve Religion and Ethics as mental, spirit- and language-grounded science-base. In other direction it was used to overthink our whole surrounding nature theoretically and completely by our best Human Mind. It´s our traditional science on our mental highest level. All sciences can be related by Philosophy. That´s possible by our human ability to Learn, Think, Understand and finally Know any interesting new fact. Where and how do we have now to integrate this new own science Information Science? We search consciously term-oriented and make an abstract science-theoretical comparison to find answers and definitions.
Information Science: Science or Social Science ?
Collection, selection, processing, management, and dissemination of information are the main and ultimate role of Information Science and similar studies such as Information Studies, Information Management, Library Science, and Communication Science and so on. However, Information Science deals with some different characteristics than these subjects. Information Science is most interdisciplinary Science combines with so many knowledge clusters and domains. Information Science is a broad discipline more clearly; Domain of Domains. This is a combination of Science, Management, Technology, Engineering, Humanities and Social Science fields. Information Science extracts such special gradients which are related to Information and Technologies and helps in better Information Processing and Management. This paper talks about Information Science including its basic nature and characteristics. Paper also highlights the importance and value of Information Science and changing nature of Information Science due to the healthy interaction between Technologies and Engineering tools. The analysis concluded with how information science supports the development of both natural and philosophical sciences with the new age slogan 'Information-Technology-People' interaction.
The role of Information Science as interscience in the configuration of meaningful information
The major theme addressed in this article is Information Science as interscience and its contribution towards meaningful information. The debate on the distinction between basic and applied science is discussed to provide background to the challenges facing Information Science as an interscience. There is a relationship of power between knowledge and society, and it is therefore essential to consider the human factor when it comes to issues such as language, context and time. The role of aesthetics, meaning and understanding, and reason and unreason will be considered to illustrate how information scientists can absorb the challenges they pose to an interscience in the configuration of meaningful information. This meaningful information flows from digested knowledge that leads to action necessary for the successful implementation of knowledge.
Reconsidering the history and context of information science
International Journal of Advanced Scientific Research, 2020
This paper initially presents the current context of Information Science, as its nature is perceived by contemporary definitions. These definitions are inextricably linked up the modern Information and Communication Technologies. Nevertheless, this context is historically criticized herein, by presenting examples of the past that demonstrate the evolution of information processing alongside the evolution of contemporary technologies. Consequently, a new context is proposed that includes the diachronic human efforts on processing information for achieving/ensuring communication between them. This new proposed context expands the definition of Information Science, in order to include a related group of Arts and Sciences, making it more of a scientific umbrella term that describes the field of human communication tools, concepts and practices. In this respect, the associated field is termed in plural, namely, Information Sciences.
The interdisciplinary study of information
Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 2012
To mark the 75th anniversary of ASIS&T this panel addresses the nature and recent history of the field of information science. It uses as a springboard The Study of Information: Interdisciplinary Messages, a collection of writings edited by economist Fritz Machlup and Una Mansfield (1983). More than a quarter of a century ago, The Study of Information (for short) presented the mandates of nine research specialties centered on information, namely: cognitive science, informatics, artificial intelligence, linguistics, library and information science, cybernetics, information theory, and systems theory. By illuminating the concerns, similarities, and differences of these related domains the book established one of the first and most lucid geographies of information as an interdisciplinary academic enterprise. In its day, reviewers described The Study of Information as "a quite remarkable overview" , "an extraordinary volume" , and "an historically significant book" .