Information Science is concerned with the theoretical and practical aspects of effective information provision and consumption. In particular, information scientists explore the theoretical underpinnings and practical competencies involved in the generation, collection, organization, processing, management, storage, retrieval, distribution, communication, and utilization of information.
In today’s knowledge societies (shaped, in the words of the editors of this new Routledge title, ‘by an unabatedly accumulating abundance of information’), it is perhaps unsurprising that Information Science is more than ever a crucial site for scholarly exploration. And as serious research in and around the discipline flourishes as never before, this four-volume collection from Routledge’s acclaimed Critical Concepts in Media and Cultural Studies series meets the urgent need for an authoritative reference work to make sense of a rapidly growing and ever more complex corpus of interdisciplinary literature. Edited by two leading scholars of international repute, Information Science gathers foundational and canonical work, together with more innovative and cutting-edge scholarship.
Volume I brings together the best and most influential materials to provide a wide-ranging critique of the theoretical framework and historical context of Information Science. Starting with the changing definitions, concepts, and roles of information throughout history, the major works gathered here examine the nature of Information Science as a discipline, including an exploration of its philosophy and core mission; its intellectual content and concerns; its scope and boundaries; and an appraisal of how libraries, information services, and information management evolved over the years.
Volume II assembles the essential thinking on the management of information for its optimum accessibility and usability. It encompasses the entire chain of information (the process through which recorded knowledge is transmitted from its originator to the consumer). The crucial research brought together here also considers the vast array of information products, systems, and services on offer and the principal agents for the provision of knowledge in our age of omnipresent information, including: governmental, scholarly, commercial, and individual content providers; publishers; and traditional and virtual libraries.
Volume III, meanwhile, focuses on the use and users of information. It concentrates on present-day information requirements and practices against the backdrop of our traditionally held notions concerning people’s information needs and information behaviour. Themes covered here include human–computer interaction and sophisticated, IT-enabled measures for gauging information use, such as bibliometrics and webometrics.
The final volume collects key scholarship to explore the ever more central role that knowledge and information assume in today’s fast changing, technology-driven economy. The emphasis here is on the economics of information: the knowledge industry and the notion of information as capital at its heart; the economic characteristics of information as a commodity of major value; the contradictory perceptions of information as a public good versus private property; information creation, processing, flows and use from an economic perspective; and the value of information and the benefits it accrues for individuals, communities, and organizations.
With a comprehensive introduction, newly written by the editors, which places the collected material in its historical and intellectual context, Information Science is an essential work of reference. It is destined to be valued by scholars—as well as by policy-makers and information professionals—as a vital one-stop research tool.
Volume I: The Theoretical Framework and Historical Context of Information Science
The Perceptions and Roles of Information Throughout History
The Concept of Information
1. D. O. Case, ‘The Concept of Information’, in Case (ed.), Looking for Information: A Survey of Research on Information Seeking, Needs, and Behavior, 3rd edn. (Bingley: Emerald Group Pub Limited, 2012), pp. 45–75.
2. B. Hjørland, ‘Information: Objective or Subjective/Situational?’, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 2007, 58, 10, 1448–56.
The Significance of Information in Different Social, Political, Economic, and Cultural Settings
3. A. Black, ‘Information And Modernity: The History of Information and the Eclipse of Library History’, Library History, 1998, 14, 1, 39–45.
The ‘Informatization’ of Life: The Information Society
4. V. Bush, ‘As We May Think’, Atlantic Monthly, 1945, 176, 1, 101–8.
5. F. Webster, ‘What is an Information Society?’, Theories of the Information Society, 3rd edn. (London and New York: Routledge, 2006), pp. 8–31.
The Theoretical Foundations of Information Science
The Key Concepts in the Field
6. N. J. Belkin, ‘Information Concepts for Information Science’, Journal of Documentation, 1978, 34, 1, 55–85.
7. C. T. Meadow and W. Yuan, ‘Measuring the Impact of Information: Defining the Concepts’, Information Processing & Management, 1997, 33, 6, 697–714.
8. J. Rowley, ‘The Wisdom Hierarchy: Representations of the DIKW Hierarchy’, Journal of Information Science, 2007, 33, 2, 163–80.
The Conventional Definitions of Information Science and the Central Problems it Addresses
9. B. Hjorland, ‘Library and Information Science: Practice, Theory, and Philosophical Basis’, Information Processing and Management, 2000, 36, 3, 501–31.
10. M. J. Bates, ‘The Invisible Substrate of Information Science’, Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 1999, 50, 12, 1043–50.
11. C. Zins, ‘Conceptions of Information Science’, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 2007, 58, 3, 335–50.
The Multidisciplinary Underpinnings, Scope, Parameters, and Boundaries of Information Science as an Autonomous Discipline
12. F. Machlup and U. Mansfield, ‘Cultural Diversity in Studies of Information’, in Machlup and Mansfield (eds.), The Study of Information: Interdisciplinary Messages (New York: Wiley), pp. 3–56.
13. P. Zhang and R. I. Benjamin, ‘Understanding Information Related Fields: A Conceptual Framework’, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 2007, 58, 13, 1934–47.
14. W. B. Rayward, ‘The History and Historiography of Information Science: Some Reflections’, Information Processing and Management, 1996, 32, 1, 3–17.
The Historical Study of Libraries as Information-Mediating Institutions
The Roles and Effects of Libraries in the Diverse Cultural, Economic, and Socio-Political Contexts of Past Societies
15. M. H. Harris, ‘The Origin of Libraries’, History of Libraries in the Western World, 4th edn. (Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1995), pp. 3–16.
16. J. M. Budd, ‘Genealogy of the Profession’, Self-examination: The Present and Future of Librarianship (Westport, CT.: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2008), pp. 1–36.
Volume II: Managing Information for Optimum Accessibility and Usability
The Generation of New Information
The Scholarly Quest for New Contributions to the Extant Body of Knowledge
17. A. J. Meadows, ‘Who Does Research and with What Results?’, Communicating Research (New York: Academic Press, 1998), pp. 79–114.
18. L. K. Hessels and H. van Lente, ‘Re-thinking New Knowledge Production: A Literature Review and a Research Agenda’, Research Policy, 2008, 37, 4, 740–60.
The Capturing and Control of Information
The Selection and Acquisition of Recorded Knowledge
19. M. K. Buckland, ‘The Roles of Collections and the Scope of Collection Development’, Journal of Documentation, 1989, 45, 3, 213–26.
20. J. Branin, F. Groen, and S. Thorin, ‘The Changing Nature of Collection Management in Research Libraries’, Library Resources & Technical Services, 2000, 44, 1, 23–32.
The Processing and Organization of Recorded Knowledge
21. G. Hodge, ‘Knowledge Organization Systems: An Overview’, Systems of Knowledge Organization for Digital Libraries: Beyond Traditional Authority Files (Washington, DC: Digital Library Federation, Council on Library and Information Resources, 2000), pp. 3–9.
22. A. Gilchrist, ‘Structure and Function in Retrieval’, Journal of Documentation, 2006, 62, 1, 21–9.
23. M. Gorman, ‘Cataloguing in an Electronic Age’, Cataloging & Classification Quarterly, 2003, 36, 3/4, 5–17.
The Architecting of Recorded Knowledge in a Digital Environment
24. G. Elaine Toms, ‘Information Interaction: Providing a Framework for Information Architecture’, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 2002, 53, 10, 855–62.
The Dissemination and Effective Intermediation of Information
The Diffusion of Information in the Digital Era
25. F. W. Lancaster, ‘Whither Libraries? or, Wither Libraries’, College and Research Libraries, 1978, 39, 5, 345–57.
26. A. P. Young, ‘Aftermath of a Prediction: F. W. Lancaster and the Paperless Society’, Library Trends, 2008, 56, 4, 843–58.
27. E. Bakshy, I. Rosenn, C. Marlow, and L. Adamic, ‘The Role of Social Networks in Information Diffusion’, Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on World Wide Web, April 16–20, Lyon, France (ACM, 2012), pp. 519–28.
The Changing Practices of Scholarly Information Dissemination
28. J. M. Hurd, ‘Scientific Communication: New Roles and New Players’, Science & Technology Libraries, 2004, 25, 1–2, 5–22.
29. I. Rowlands and D. Nicholas, ‘Scholarly Communication in the Digital Environment: The 2005 Survey of Journal Author Behaviour and Attitudes’, Aslib Proceedings, 2005, 57, 6, 481–97.
Information Brokering
30. J. S. Brown and P. Duguid, ‘Agents and Angels’, The Social Life of Information (Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business Press, 2002), pp. 35–62.
People as Information Sources: Interpersonal Information Sharing
31. R. Cross, R. E. Rice, and A. Parker, ‘Information Seeking in Social Context: Structural Influences and Receipt of Information Benefits’, IEEE Transactions on Systems Man and Cybernetics - Part C - Applications and Reviews, 2001, 31, 4, 438–48.
Information Sharing in the Age of Social Media
32. I. Rowlands, D. Nicholas, B. Russell, N. Canty, and A. Watkinson, ‘Social Media Use in the Research Workflow’, Learned Publishing, 2011, 24, 3, 183–95.
33. B. J. Jansen, K. Sobel, and G. Cook, ‘Classifying Ecommerce Information Sharing Behaviour by Youths on Social Networking Sites’, Journal of Information Science, 2011, 37, 2, 120–36.
Scientific Data Sharing
34. C. Tenopir, S. Allard, K. L. Douglass, A. U. Aydinoglu, L. Wu, E. Read, and M. Frame, ‘Data Sharing by Scientists: Practices and Perceptions’, PLoS One, 2011, 6, 6, 21101.
The Role of the Information Professional as Information Intermediator
35. J. Ortega y Gasset, J. Lewis, and R. Carpenter, ‘The Mission of the Librarian’, The Antioch Review, 1961, 21, 2, 133–54.
36. L. Asheim, ‘Ortega Revisited’, The Library Quarterly, 1982, 52, 3, 215–26.
37. E. Herman and D. Nicholas, ‘The Information Enfranchisement of the Digital Consumer’, Aslib Proceedings, 2010, 62, 3, 245–60.
Libraries in Today’s Digital World
38. M. B. Line, ‘Designing Libraries Round Human Beings’, Aslib Proceedings, 1998, 50, 8, 221–9.
39. D. McMenemy, ‘Ranganathan’s Relevance in the 21st Century’, Library Review, 2007, 56, 2, 97–101.
40. K. Holmberg, I. Huvila, M. Kronqvist-Berg, and G. Widén-Wulff, ‘What is Library 2.0?’, Journal of Documentation, 2009, 65, 4, 668–81.
The Curation and Preservation of Information
41. S. Ross, ‘Digital Preservation, Archival Science and Methodological Foundations for Digital Libraries’, New Review of Information Networking, 2012, 17, 1, 43–68.
42. C. Becker and A. Rauber, ‘Decision Criteria in Digital Preservation: What to Measure and How’, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 2011, 62, 6, 1009–28.
Information Availability and Accessibility: The Digital Divide
43. E. Hargittai, ‘The Digital Reproduction of Inequality’, in D. Grusky (ed.), Social Stratification (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2008), pp. 936–44.
44. L. Yu, ‘Understanding Information Inequality: Making Sense of the Literature of the Information and Digital Divides’, Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 2006, 38, 4, 229–52.
Volume III: Use and Users of Information
Information Needs
The Concept of ‘Information Need’
45. D. Nicholas and E. Herman, ‘What are Information Needs?’, Assessing Information Needs in the Age of the Digital Consumer, 3rd edn. (London: Routledge, 2009), pp. 17–26.
The Role of Information Needs as Motivators of Information Seeking
46. T. D. Wilson, ‘On User Studies and Information Needs’, Journal of Documentation, 1981, 37, 1, 3–15.
47. N. J. Belkin, R. N. Oddy, and H. M. Brooks, ‘ASK for Information Retrieval: Part I. Background and Theory’, Journal of Documentation, 1982, 38, 2, 61–71.
Information Behaviour
The Concepts of ‘Information Behaviour’ and ‘Information Practice’
48. R. Savolainen, ‘Information Behavior and Information Practice: Reviewing the "Umbrella Concepts" of Information-Seeking Studies’, The Library Quarterly, 2007, 77, 2, 109–32.
The Whys and Wherefores of Information Behaviour and Practices: Theories and Models
49. T. D. Wilson, ‘Models in Information Behaviour Research’, Journal of Documentation, 55, 3, 249–70.
50. A. Spink and C. Cole, ‘Human Information Behavior: Integrating Diverse Approaches and Information Use’, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 2005, 57, 1, 25–35.
The Determinants of Information Behaviour
51. D. Bawden and L. Robinson, ‘Individual Differences in Information-Related Behaviour: What Do We Know About Information Styles?’, in A. Spink and J. Heinström (eds.), New Directions in Information Behaviour (Bingley: Emerald, 2011), pp. 127–58.
52. I. Rowlands, D. Nicholas, P. Williams, P. Huntington, M. Fieldhouse, B. Gunter, R. Withey, H. R. Jamali, T. Dobrowolski, and C. Tenopir, ‘The Google Generation: The Information Behaviour of the Researcher of the Future’, Aslib Proceedings, 2008, 60, 4, 290–310.
Information Behaviour in Today’s Information-Centred, Digital World
53. D. Nicholas, P. Huntington, H. R. Jamali, and T. Dobrowolski, ‘The Information-Seeking Behaviour of the Digital Consumer: Case Study the Virtual Scholar, in D. Nicholas and I. Rowlands, (eds.), Digital Consumers: Reshaping the Information Professions (London: Facet Publishing, 2008), pp. 113–58.
Information Seeking, Discovery, and Retrieval
Purposive Information Seeking
54. G. Marchionini, ‘Information-Seeking Perspective and Framework’, Information Seeking in Electronic Environments (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), pp. 27–60.
Accidental Discovery of Information
55. S. Erdelez, ‘Information Encountering: It’s More than Just Bumping into Information’, Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 2005, 25, 3, 26–9.
Serendipitous Information Acquisition
56. A. Foster and N. Ford, ‘Serendipity and Information Seeking: An Empirical Study’, Journal of Documentation, 2003, 59, 3, 321–40.
Information Retrieval
57. C. C. Kuhlthau, ‘Accommodating the User’s Information Search Process: Challenges for Information Retrieval System Designers’, Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 2005, 25, 3, 12–16.
58. X. Yuan and N. J. Belkin, ‘Investigating Information Retrieval Support Techniques for Different Information-Seeking Strategies’, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 2010, 61, 8, 1543–63.
Selecting Information: The Process of Evaluation
59. S. Mizzaro, ‘Relevance: The Whole History’, Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 1997, 48, 9, 810–32.
60. R. Savolainen and J. Kari, ‘User-Defined Relevance Criteria in Web Searching’, Journal of Documentation, 2006, 62, 6, 685–707.
Information Usage: How People Actually Consume Information
Putting Information to Use
61. Z. Liu, ‘Print vs. Electronic Resources: A Study of User Perceptions, Preferences, and Use’, Information Processing & Management, 2006, 42, 2, 583–92.
62. R. Savolainen, ‘Filtering and Withdrawing: Strategies for Coping with Information Overload in Everyday Contexts’, Journal of Information Science, 2007, 33, 5, 611–21.
Personal Information Management
63. W. Jones, ‘Finders, Keepers? The Present and Future Perfect in Support of Personal Information Management’, First Monday, 2004, 9, 3.
Digital and Information Literacies
64. D. Bawden, ‘Origins and Concepts of Digital Literacy’, in C. Lankshear and M. Knobel (eds.), Digital Literacies: Concepts, Policies and Practices (New York: Peter Lang Pub Inc., 2008), pp. 17–32.
65. S. Markless and D. Streatfield, ‘Three Decades of Information Literacy: Redefining the Parameters’, in S. Andretta (ed.), Change and Challenge: Information Literacy for the Twenty-first Century (Adelaide: Auslib Press, 2007), pp. 15–36.
Human-Computer Interaction
66. J. Grudin, ‘ Introduction. A Moving Target: The Evolution of Human-Computer Interaction’, in J. A. Jacko (ed.), Human-Computer Interaction Handbook: Fundamentals, Evolving Technologies, and Emerging Applications, 3rd edn. (Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2012), pp. xxvii–lx.
The Gauging of Information Use and Impact in a Digital Environment
67. M. Thelwall, ‘Bibliometrics to Webometrics’, Journal of Information Science, 2008, 34, 4, 605–21.
68. J. Priem and B. H. Hemminger, ‘Scientometrics 2.0: New Metrics of Scholarly Impact on the Social Web’, First Monday, 2010, 15, 7.
69. D. Nicholas, P. Huntington, H. R. Jamali, and T. Dobrowolski, ‘Characterising and Evaluating Information Seeking Behaviour in a Digital Environment: Spotlight on the "Bouncer"’, Information Processing and Management, 2007, 43, 4, 1085–102.
Volume IV: The Economics of Information
The Information and Knowledge Society
70. F. Linde and W. G. Stock, ‘"Information Society" and "Knowledge Society"’, ‘Information and Knowledge Infrastructure’, ‘The Informational City and "Glocality"’, Information Markets: A Strategic Guideline for the I-commerce (New York: De Gruyter Saur, 2011), pp. 77–92, 111–17.
The Knowledge-Based Economy
71. P. A. David and D. Foray, ‘An Introduction to the Economy of the Knowledge Society’, International Social Science Journal, 2002, 54, 171, 9–23.
The Institutional Framework of Economic Activity
72. C. Mantzavinos, D. C. North, and S. Shariq, ‘Learning, Institutions, and Economic Performance’, Perspectives on Politics, 2004, 2, 1, 75–84.
Economic Growth as a Function of Research, Invention, and Innovation
73. B. Godin, ‘The Linear Model of Innovation: The Historical Construction of an Analytical Framework’, Science, Technology & Human Values, 2006, 31, 6, 639–67.
74. H. Etzkowitz and L. Leydesdorff, ‘The Dynamics of Innovation: From National Systems and "Mode 2" to a Triple Helix of University–Industry–Government Relations’, Research Policy, 2000, 29, 2, 109–23.
The Knowledge Industry
75. F. Machlup, ‘Knowledge-Producing Industries and Occupations’, The Production and Distribution of Knowledge in the United States (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1962), pp. 44–50.
76. P. Cooke, C. De Laurentis, F. Todtling, and M. Trippl, ‘Knowledge-Based Sectors: Key Drivers of Innovation and Modes of Knowledge Exchange’, Regional Knowledge Economies: Markets, Clusters and Innovation (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2007), pp. 51–75.
Information as an Economic Good
The Concept of Information as an Economic Good
77. B. J. Bates, ‘Information as an Economic Good: A Re-Evaluation of Theoretical Approaches’, in B. D. Ruben and L. A. Lievrouw (eds.), Mediation, Information, and Communication (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1990), pp. 379–94.
The Unique Characteristics of Information Goods
78. H. R. Varian, ‘Markets for Information Goods’ (Institute for Monetary and Economic Studies, Bank of Japan, 1999). (Paper presented at a conference on ‘Monetary Policy in a World of Knowledge-Based Growth, Quality Change, and Uncertain Measurement’, 18–19 June 1998.)
79. D. Quah, ‘Digital Goods and the New Economy’, in D. Jones (ed.), New Economy Handbook (Amsterdam: Academic Press Elsevier Science, 2003), pp. 289–321.
The Paradoxical Co-existence of Information as a Public Good and a Private Property
80. J. E. Stiglitz, ‘Knowledge as a Global Public Good’, in I Kaul, I. Grunberg, and M. A. Stern, Global Public Goods: International Cooperation in the 21st Century (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), pp. 308–26.
81. C. Hess and E. Ostrom, ‘An Overview of the Knowledge Commons’, in C. Hess and E. Ostrom, Understanding Knowledge as a Commons: From Theory to Practice (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2007), pp. 4–26.
The Information Production Chain from an Economic Perspective
The Life Cycle Phases of Information Production
82. K. B. Levitan, ‘Information Resources as "Goods" in the Life Cycle of Information Production’, Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 1982, 33, 1, 44–54.
Information Production
83. Y. Benkler, ‘Some Basic Economics of Information Production and Innovation’, The Wealth of Networks : How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006), pp. 35–58.
Information Dissemination
84. R. Womack, ‘Information Intermediaries and Optimal Information Distribution’, Library and Information Science Research, 2002, 24, 2, 129–55.
Information Consumption
85. G. Ritzer and N. Jurgenson, ‘Production, Consumption, Prosumption: The Nature of Capitalism in the Age of the Digital "Prosumer"’, Journal of Consumer Culture, 2010, 10, 1, 13–36.
The Value of Information
86. D. R. Raban, ‘User-Centered Evaluation of Information: A Research Challenge’, Internet Research, 2007, 17, 3, 306–22.
Biography
Edited and with a new introduction by David Nicholas, Director of the School of Library, Archive and Information Studies, UCL, Chair of Library and Information Studies and Director of the Centre for Information Behaviour and the Evaluation of Research; and Eti Herman, University of Haifa, Israel
