---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 8 Sep 2013 20:05:04 -0400
From: "Crowley, Bill" <[log in to unmask]>
To: Open Lib/Info Sci Education Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: RE: Users, Technology and Knowledge (fwd)

Greetings All:

Information science? How 1956! Once again, per Nobel Prize winner 
(Economics) Herbert A. Simon, research and theory is a bit behind 
practice.  Given the march of public libraries away from an information 
identification and towards a livelong learning and community building 
mission, I will offer the following definition of a renewed library 
science--separate from information science--that I presented in Canada a 
few years ago. The whole presentation is available on eprints. N.B.: We 
can and should offer library science, information science, knowledge 
management, and archives in our programs

http://eprints.rclis.org/9373/1/Crowley_2007.pdf

British Columbia Library Association 2007 Conference Burnaby, BC Saturday, 
April 21, 2007 2:00?3:15 p.m. Don't let Google and the Pennypinchers Get 
You Down: Defending (or Redefining) Libraries and Librarianship in the Age 
of Technology

Definition of Library Science As a field, library science or librarianship 
is concerned with understanding and advancing learning throughout the 
human lifecycle, with a particular emphasis on the processes of reading 
and other forms of communicating story, information, and meaning through 
library and library-related contexts. The emphasis on human learning, 
content, and meaning distinguishes library science from the newer field of 
information science.

Cheers,
Bill Crowley, Ph.D.
Professor
Graduate School of Library and Information Science
Dominican University
7900 West Division Street
River Forest, IL 60305, U.S. A.
708.583.0531 V.
708.524.6657 F.
[log in to unmask]

________________________________________
From: Open Lib/Info Sci Education Forum [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Gretchen Whitney [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Sunday, September 08, 2013 6:40 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Users, Technology and Knowledge (fwd)

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 8 Sep 2013 11:08:59 -0400
From: Karen Weaver <[log in to unmask]>

"People"  not the equivalent of "Users"

"Information" not the equivalent of "Knowledge"

Names of an organization do not define "information science" either-
why would it?

Why is "documentation" in your "technology section" ?

Bibliography was always associated with "documentation" roots btw
much more than "technology"   jumped that bandwagon

Just some morning thoughts/ponders,
    cheers KW

On 9/7/13, Gretchen Whitney <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Greetings,
>    I am just reporting observations, and not being critical or judgemental.
>
> But I wonder if these phrases form a decent definition of information
> science, so elusive after 60 years.
>
>    I first ran into this triumvirate twenty years ago (get the UTK thing?)
> and at that time it was my first exposure to the intersection of these
> ideas under Jose-Marie G.  It was exciting. No one that I had run into
> before had ever pulled this Venn diagram together.
>    Twenty years later, I'm seeing the same thing presented at Penn State
> (http://bulletins.psu.edu/undergrad/courses/A/IST/110) as an undergraduate
> course as a Brand New Concept.
>    The triumvirate is also presented as "information, people, and
> technology" at the current iSchools website at
>
> http://ischools.org/
>
>    I looked at ALISE.org, and it doesn't have a mission statement, and
> doesn't include these words (or any others, for that matter).
>
>    I looked at the ASIST.org web site, and they are still celebrating the
> name change to "and Technology" which happened what, a decade ago? "This
> year's conference theme offers an opportunity to reflect on all the
> changes that impact on human information interaction and their
> implications for information science and technology." Sort of the right
> words.
>
> In other words, there is still not a good definition of "information
> science" out there.
>
>
>    I googled "information technology people" and came up with a journal at
> http://www.itandpeople.org/
>    which might be worth paying attention to, in its 26th year of
> publication.
>
>    I googled "users technology knowledge" which turned up a bunch of
> articles containing one or two terms but not three.
>
>    I looked at the Wikipedia article for the definition of "information
> science" and it was the usual mishmash of unconnected topics. The ideas
> here are not bad, and not irrelevant.  I wonder what they would look like
> if they were re-organized under the people - users/information - knowledge
> /information technology framework.
>
>    Is there a decent definition of information science in this mess?  I
> think that there is.  In multiple layers.
>
>    First layer.  Venn diagram and explain the intersection of users -
> people/information - knowledge/information technology.
>
>    Second layer.  Explain these sectors.  Yes, in full this means in the
> information - knowledge section how publishing works, where books come
> from, how books are published via the web, history of books, meaning of
> bibliography, the whole nine yards.  How cultures are preserved via the
> written word.  In full in the information technology section this means
> going back to hieroglyphics and the creation of and preservation of the
> written word, but also telegraphs and their relationship to text msging,
> the written vs spoken word (the telephone), representation of language and
> letters (ASCII eg), verbal vs graphic representations of information,
> computing as priesthood and personal computers, networked information.  I
> know very little about users and how they process/acquire information.
>
>    Third layer:  How these three sectors interact.
>
>
>    This foundation for a definition of "information science" in the
> intersection of "people - users/information - knowledge/ information
> technology"  both avoids, and embraces folks who try to distinguish
> between informatics, computer science, natural or engineered information
> systems, philosophical systems regarding epistemology.  The history of
> science goes in the Knowledge section.  Documentation goes in the
> Technology section.  Everyone has a place.
>
>    The base phrase is "information science."  It is defined as the
> intersection between "people, information, and technology".
>
>    We're done for the night.  Happy Saturday, everyone.
>
>    --gw
>
>
> <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
> Gretchen Whitney, PhD, Retired
> School of Information Sciences
> University of Tennessee, Knoxville TN 37996 USA           [log in to unmask]
> http://web.utk.edu/~gwhitney/
> jESSE:http://web.utk.edu/~gwhitney/jesse.html
> SIGMETRICS:http://web.utk.edu/~gwhitney/sigmetrics.html
> <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
>
Karen Weaver MLS
Digital Projects Assistant, Systems
Duquesne University, Gumberg Library
600 Forbes Ave
Pittsburgh PA 15282
Email: [log in to unmask] / [log in to unmask]