Abstract
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.
Definitions
Dr. Hanne Albrechtsen,
Institute of Knowledge Sharing, Denmark
Information
Science is concerned with design and use of information systems for
mediation
of knowledge.
Prof.
Elsa Barber, University of Buenos
Aires, Argentina
Information Science is
the study of the functions,
the structure and the transmission of information and the management of
information systems. It is the study of
data, information, knowledge, and message, as they exist in the
collective
domain, explores only the mediating aspects, focuses in hi-tech and
included
user studies.
Prof.
Aldo de Albuquerque Barreto, Brazilian Institute
for Information in Science and Technology, Brazil
Information
science is the study of production, organization, control, and use of
information in any support and going through any channel. It is the
study of the rare
and surprisingly phenomena of the transformation of information into
knowledge
that occurs in an individual mind.
Prof.
Shifra Baruchson–Arbib, Bar Ilan University,
Israel
Information
science explores the methods for allocation, organization, analysis,
and
dissemination of information, and the human and the technological tools
appropriate for these purposes. It is
the study of the technological and the social process
that occurs while changing data to message.
Prof.
Clare Beghtol, University of
Toronto, Canada
Information Science
is the study of data, information, knowledge and message (however
defined and
in whatever relation to each other) in relation to human behaviour and
use.
Prof.
Maria Teresa Biagetti, University of Rome
1, Italy
Information
Science, as well as Library Science, is a discipline concerning
theories,
methodologies and procedures elaborated to individuate, organize, and
disseminate the knowledge contained in books and documents, in
whichever form,
and to connect the knowledge recorded in the external memories
(documents and
books) with the human mind. In a broad sense, Information and Library
Science
is part of a general Science of Communication, meaning Communication as
a
connection between external memories and cognitive system or knowing
subject.
Prof.
Michael Buckland, University of
California, Berkeley, USA
Definition. Information
science is the field formerly known as "Documentation", and now
commonly referred to as “Information Science". My definition
would be that
it is, broadly, concerned with the creation, dissemination, and
utilization of
knowledge. Within that broad scope there tend to be two sub-areas: a
wide-ranging concern with human and social aspects: information related
behavior, organizational and social concerns; and a technical/
engineering
concern with the design and evaluation of information systems.
Three conceptions. There is not one
Information Science, but multiple different views of
Information Science. One is the “Message Science”
which is a
recognition/re-discovery of the primary historical basis of I.S:
Documents and
Documentation from 1880s onwards. Another is a more general information
science
that attempts to include all of D-I-K-M. A third is an IT-constrained
view that
is anchored in digital technology.
Manfred
Bundschuh, University of
Applied Sciences, Cologne, Germany
Information
Science is the study of all
aspects of the management of information (e.g., research, creation of
IT
systems, storage, change, deletion, it’s handling
actualization, tools for
development, handling, administration, information about information,
introduction to end-users, etc.).
Dr.
Quentin L. Burrell, Isle of Man
International Business School, Isle of Man
Information
Science in a narrower sense is the study of messages within the context
of human communication, which implies
the process of meaning offer (i.e., message), meaning selection (i.e.,
information) and understanding. In a broader sense it is the study of
messages
in non-human phenomena.
In my view information
science should take
the phenomenon of message as its core perspective. I use the word
`angeletics'
(originating from the Greek word for message = `angelia', not a science
of
`angels' or angelology!) for pointing to a field of study that should
include
the process of selection, i.e., traditional information
retrieval, as well as understanding or information science
hermeneutics.
Message and information
are related but
not identical concepts. A message is sender-dependent, i.e., it is
based on a
heteronomic or asymmetric structure. This is not the case of
information: we
receive a message, but we ask for information. A message is supposed to
bring something
new and/or relevant to the receiver. This is also the case of
information. A
message can be coded and transmitted through different media or
messengers.
This is also the case of information. A message is an utterance that
gives rise
to the receiver's selection through a release mechanism or
interpretation.
(Capurro, 2000).
Prof.
Thomas A. Childers, Drexel University,
USA
Information
Science is the study of information acquisition, identification,
storage ,representation,
transference, and use.
Prof.
Charles H. Davis, Indiana University,
USA
Information
science is an interdisciplinary field
encompassing all aspects of data from data generation via measurement
and
observation, through data capture, analysis, representation,
organization,
evaluation, storage, transformation, presentation, protection, and
retention.
Note that ‘Data’
can be used as a collective noun in English.
As such it can and should be used to
imply a
set of symbols, and would
be preferable to using ‘information’ in such a
narrow context (Rush
& Davis, [in progress]).
Prof.
Anthony Debons, University of
Pittsburgh, USA
Information
science is that area of study and practice which attempts to determine
the laws
and principles pertaining to the analysis, design and evaluation of
Data,
Information and Knowledge Systems. It is based on the
following rationale: All organisms are data, information, and knowledge
systems, varying in the degree with which they can process these
cognitive/affective functions. Each of these functions are aided and
augmented by
technology that each species generate, invent, and apply.
The
human Organism is a DIK system. It is limited in
its capacity to respond to the demands of the physical world and its
constituents (society, technology, culture. etc). Due to this limited
capacity
it seeks to augment this capacity through technological and
sociological (e.g.,
political, economic) arrangements. The business of information science
is to
find the laws, and principles that can integrate these essential
properties.
The
forms of technology
that I have reference are extensive and many, including the abacus,
ink, pen,
rock, blackboard, eyeglass, hearing aid, computers, etc. This includes
institutions like schools, libraries, newsprint, journals, etc.
Prof.
Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic, Mälardalen
University, Sweden
Information science is
the science concerned with
manipulating (gathering, storing, retrieving, classifying,
interpreting)
information and understanding its underlying mechanisms.
Prof.
Henri Dou, University of
Aix-Marseille III, France
Information
Science explores the ways to mange data for creating
information, to manage information, and to understand their meaning to
create
knowledge.
Prof.
Nicolae Dragulanescu, Polytechnics
University of Bucharest, Romania
"Information
Science is the science of
information systems. It studies the information (as a process, as a
product or
as a state of awareness) as well as its five basic sub-processes -
generation,
processing, communication, storage, and use - in order to optimize them
(note
that all these processes are being time and resources dependent). Its
goal is
to facilitate the knowledge transmission from a person to another and
from a
generation to another, in order to accelerate the
progress of mankind (Dragulanescu, 2004).
Prof.
Carl Drott, Drexel University,
USA
Information Science is
the field concerned with the collection,
organization, storage, retrieval, and dissemination of
information. Information is a product of human intellect
fixed in tangible form.
Prof.
Luciana Duranti, University of
British Columbia, Canada
Information
science is a mathematical discipline that studies technological ways of
conveying information.
Prof.
Charles Ess, Drury University, USA
Information
science is composed of theoretical and
applied efforts to define information, how it may be processed with
computers
and affiliated technologies (i.e., information systems), and how such
information and systems may interact with specific human practices and
studies,
such as business, culture, library science, philosophy, etc. (See
Buchanan
2001; Ess 2003, 2004; Tavani 2004, for further discussion).
Prof.
Raya Fidel, University of
Washington, USA
Information science is
the study of the
interaction between humans and information and all the mechanisms and
elements
of context that play a role in this interaction.
Prof.
Thomas J. Froehlich, Kent State
University, USA
Information
science is that field of inquiry that deals with information systems,
so that
it can provide access to information in an effective and/or efficient
manner (Taylor,
1986). Information science is fundamentally about practice –
building,
improving, designing implementing systems and servicing that meet
the needs of users – that is where is starts and
that is where it ends.
Alan
Gilchrist, Cura Consortium and
TFPL, UK
Information science is
the study and practical
management of messages (i.e. recorded information, including data
recorded as
information) through all points of the information life cycle.
Dr.
H.M. Gladney, HMG Consulting, USA
The
name ’information science’ is a self-serving
attempt to
ennoble what used to be called ‘library science’.
Prof. Glynn Harmon,
University of Texas at Austin, USA
Information
Science is the study of systems phenomena, their information
subsystems and
processes and their interrelations through different environmental
contexts. This
definition would apply to
the molecular and cellular levels or to organ, organism, group,
community or
higher levels. Information
technology
is concerned with optimal information handling and processing, usually
for
given individuals or organizations, and usually for human applications.
Bioinformatics
has recently extended information science to the rest or the animal and
plant
kingdoms (see Travis, 2003).
Dr.
Donald Hawkins, Information Today,
USA
Information science is an
interdisciplinary field
concerned with the theoretical and practical
concepts, as well as
the technologies, laws, and industry dealing with knowledge
transfer and
the sources, generation, organization, representation, processing,
distribution, communication, and uses of information, as well as
communications
among users and their behavior as they seek to satisfy their
information
needs.
Prof.
Caroline Haythornthwaite, University of
Illinois at Urbana Champaign, USA
Information science is
the study of information in all its
manifestations. Although attention is directed traditionally
to information storage and retrieval – including library
systems,
classification schemes, indexing and abstracting, catalogs, as well as
search
engines, concept mapping, studies of relevance and retrieval
– this expands to
include user search and retrieval behaviors, information needs, user
communities, human-computer interface design, and information
visualization. IS
also includes the production of information, from authors to printers,
and the
industries and consumers that keep them in business; government
information
collection and dissemination; business uses and maintenance of
information. IS
questions the premises on which information is collected, organized and
disseminated – monitoring censorship and copyright, as well
as the constraints
and invisible information that may be lost by western, patriarchal or
other
ideological organizing schemes (whether conscious or unconsciously at
work). IS
includes understanding about reading, literacy, learning and the
production and
use of knowledge (e.g., philosophical approaches to knowledge as well
as
business approaches to knowledge management). IS applies across all
fields,
whether indexing the text produced by a field, or in formulating
organizing
schemes for data and knowledge in those areas. IS more recently
includes
understanding of the impact of information technologies and the
Internet,
particularly as these change the way we work and how this modifies the
information environments in which we work.
Ken
Herold, Hamilton College, USA
Information Science is
the study of the
transformations and interactivities among data, information, knowledge
and
message objects, structures and processes, for the purpose of
constructing
systems to communicate culture as a regeneration of knowledge.
Information
science is the mutable and transitory discipline at the confluence of
librarianship, documentation, media & communications,
computation, and
applied philosophy. Although the field emerged in the twentieth century
with
great force and seeming novelty, its growth as an intellectual
discipline has
been tentative and the enterprise shows much immaturity.
Prof.
William Hersh, Oregon Health
& Science University, USA
Information
Science
is the study of data, information,
and knowledge and how it is used by individuals. Another term used to
describe the study of information and its use is 'informatics'. This
term is particularly prevalent in the United States, and most
frequently used
in the context of the health and biomedical fields, e.g., medical
informatics
describes the study and use of information in clinical settings whereas
bioinformatics describes the study and use of information in biomedical
research settings (Hersh, 2002).
Prof.
Birger Hjorland, Royal School of
Library and Information Science, Denmark
Information science is a
field studying the
documentation of knowledge claims and their representation in primary,
secondary and tertiary literatures and information services.
Information
Science is the study of knowledge dissemination, production and use.
Books and
documents are selected, represented, described, indexed and so on based
on
their assumed contribution to knowledge.
Information Science is a field that aims at
providing better
library, documentation, and information service to various groups of
people.
Historically, IS developed out of special librarianship and
documentation.
People in the field were originally subject specialists who worked to
improve
scientific and scholarly communication in their respective fields, or
in
general. In schools of IS, many attempts have en made to construe a
theoretical
framework for practical-oriented information activities.
Prof.
Wallace Koehler, Valdosta State
University, USA
Information science is
the totality of the process of
communication and understanding, both intra-and inter-personally. As
such, it
is a broad discipline, ranging from Shannonesque info theory to
semiotics and
memetics. Information Science is such a broad field that no single
meaningful
definition is possible unless we seek to limit it and define its other
characteristics as something else.
Prof.
Donald Kraft, Louisiana State
University, USA
Information science is
the study of
the phenomena surrounding information, including creation, acquisition,
indexing, storing, retrieving, and disseminating information.
Prof.
Yves François Le Coadic, National Technical
University, France
Information science is
the scientific study of information
properties and processes (construction, communication and use).
Information
technology (the science of information techniques) is the scientific
study of
information products, services and systems (Le Coadic, 2004).
Dr. Jo
Link-Pezet, Urfist, and
University of Social Sciences, France
Information
science is the science of the
management and retrieval of information for action.
Michal
Lorenz, Masaryk University
in Brno, Czech Republic
Information Science is
the study of the nature of information,
its attributes and forces governing a flow of information for the
purpose of
its optimal accessibility and utilization. Information Science concerns
with
both potential information (recorded data) and
psychophysical information (stored in
a brain and processed in a consciousness). Information Science is
concerned
with receptivity of man in (organized) information environment and its
impact
to thought and behavior whereas Cognitive Science explores relation
between the
brain and thoughts.
Prof.
Ia McIlwaine, University College
London, UK
Information Science is
the study of
information and the ways in which it is organized, stored and used, in
the
broadest sense.
Prof.
Michel J. Menou, Knowledge and ICT
management consultant, France
The study of the
mediating of human
knowledge” would be sufficient though I'd prefer
“knowledge in human societies”
to possibly highlight the social character of the field.
Prof.
Haidar Moukdad, Dalhousie
University, Canada
Information Science is
the study of information in
its raw form. This includes: creating information based on data,
retrieving
information as basis for knowledge, and assessing the usefulness of
information
based on its organization and its meaning.
Dennis
Nicholson, Strathclyde
University, UK
Information
Science studies information, focusing on the identification, behavior,
characteristics, environmental context, use, management, and impact of
information in its various forms (i.e., the data –
information – knowledge –
message continuum), and their instantiations (e.g., electronic data,
electronic
interactive, human & machine mediated, hardcopy forms etc), on
tools and
processes for their evaluation, control, transmission, and utilization,
and on
information futures.
Prof.
Charles Oppenheim, Loughborough
University, UK
Information science is
the rational and
systematic study of the way information is created, stored, indexed,
disseminated and used. It's not to do with knowledge, but with
information -
the formal recorded types of information in particular. Rationale:
information
science is to do with the ways human create and process information, so
is
primarily a social science. However, technological means are an
important
component, so some of information science falls within that ambit.
Prof.
Lena Vania Pinheiro, Brazilian Institute
for Information in Science and Technology, Brazil
Information Science is
the
scientific and interdisciplinary approach for the construction of
concepts,
principles, methods, theories and laws related to the information
phenomena and
their technological applications in the process of transfer information
and its
message (i.e. meaningful content) in a historical, cultural and social
context.
Prof.
Maria Pinto, University of
Granada, Spain
Information
science is simply and plainly the science of the data and of the
information,
and consequently the domain of science charged of setting the
transition
between data and knowledge. (Saracevic, 1999).
Scott
Seaman, University of
Colorado, Boulder, USA
Information science
is an interdisciplinary field studying the sources, organization,
communication, and uses of information.
Prof.
Richard Smiraglia, Long Island
University, USA
Information
science is the science of how people become informed. It is the
empirically
derived theoretical base that underpins a variety of applications
(e.g.,
knowledge management, librarianship, and documentation), and a variety
of
social and cultural expressions (e.g., information policy, and ethics).
The
process of becoming informed is both physiological and psychological,
involving
the communication of knowledge via messages. Knowledge is a human and
social
phenomenon, the deliberate product of the human mind. It can be
recorded, which
makes its communication more efficient, and facilitates its storage,
manipulation, and retrieval. Knowledge is made up of raw elements,
called data,
and is carried in packages, called documents.
Information
science
embraces sub-disciplines, such as knowledge organization. It makes use
of other
disciplines such as psychology, physiology, sociology, anthropology,
philosophy, communications, and the like.
Note,
there is a
difference between the science (i.e., "information science"), and
what we teach in schools (i.e., "information studies"). The science is
the area in which investigation furthers
knowledge, while the more generic study incorporates applications.
Prof. Paul Sturges,
Loughborough University, UK
Information science is a
name for one of
the approaches to information and communication characterized by a
background
in specialized (scientific and technical) librarianship. The domain
exists
alongside information systems, informatics, communication studies and
various
other domains, with which there is surprisingly little linkage given
that there
is no real barrier separating them.
Dr.
Joanne Twining, Intertwining.org, a
virtual information consultancy, USA
Information
science is the scientific investigation of
information and its inherent nature, forms, and functions.
Prof.
Anna da Soledade Vieira, Federal University
of Minas Gerais, Brazil
Information science
is the theoretical approach to understand and explore the information
phenomenon, as the basis of human knowledge and social communication,
as well
as its tangible products.
Dr.
Julian Warner, Queen's University
of Belfast, UK
Information science is
what information scientists do (Roberts, 1976).
Prof.
Irene Wormell, Swedish School of
Library and Information Science in Borås, Sweden
Information
science is the study of handling and mediating information, with
relevance to
both the subjective and objective domains of knowledge.
Prof.
Yishan Wu, Institute of
Scientific and Technical Information of China (ISTIC), China
Information Science is
the study of appropriate human approaches to
extracting information from data, and knowledge from information, as
well as
the study of approaches to composing message with the smallest number
of
clearest symbols to solve information explosion problem, and the study
of
approaches to impacting the production of information process with
knowledge,
and the production of data with appropriate amount of
information.
Chaim
Zins, Knowledge Mapping Research, Israel
Definition.
Based on the
distinction between the subjective and the universal domains of date,
information, and knowledge(Zins, in press1, 2), information science
concentrates on the universal domain. It is focused on the
meta-knowledge perspectives
of universal knowledge. Information science is the study of the
mediating perspectives
of universal human knowledge (i.e., human knowledge
in the universal
domain). The mediating perspectives include
cognitive, social, and
technological aspects and conditions, which facilitate the
dissemination of
human knowledge from the originator to the user.
Cognitive sciences vs.
information
science.
Unlike cognitive sciences and neurosciences, which focus on
the subjective domain by exploring thinking and learning, information
science
explores cognitive aspects only in relation to facilitating the
accessibility and
usability of objective human knowledge. For example: while the
information
scientist explores how we access or search for new knowledge (what we,
information scientists, call "user studies"), the cognitive scientist
explores how we understand, remember, and utilize this knowledge.
Meta-knowledge
of
human knowledge.
Information science is one of six knowledge fields
that establish the meta-knowledge foundations of human knowledge. These
are philosophy
of knowledge (epistemology), philosophy of science, history of science,
sociology
of knowledge, methodology of science, and information science.
Epistemology is
the branch of philosophy that explores the possibility of knowledge,
and seeks
to formulate a theory of knowledge. Philosophy of science is the branch
of
philosophy that explores the philosophical perspectives of science, and
seeks
to formulate a theory of science. History of science is the branch of
history
that explores the history of the various sciences. Sociology of
knowledge is
the branch of sociology that explores the sociological aspects of
knowledge,
including the social origins of ideas, and their effects on societies.
Methodology of science is a branch of knowledge that is focused on
exploring
and formulating research methodologies in all branches of science.
Information
science is a branch of knowledge that explores the mediating
perspectives of
human knowledge.
|
|
|