INFORMATION SCIENCE

Information Science is the study of information and how it is used by people within organisations. Information Science is important because information plays a vital role in just about everything we do in modern society. Accordingly, information systems are vital to the operation of modern organisations and information scientists are involved in almost every field of endeavour imaginable. People with information science skills are in high demand, and there are many and varied career opportunities in fields such as business, science, education, health, music and mass media. Information Science sits at the intersection of technology, people, and organisations. It is a distinct discipline and has a focus on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) used by people to manage information within organisations. The study of information usage covers activities such as information collection, processing, storage and retrieval, presentation, and communication of information. It also encompasses study of the organisational contexts in which information is used, and of information systems that support information usage. Information Science is a field that is changing rapidly. Some of these changes are driven by technology. For example, the rapid adoption of mobile devices over the past few years has created opportunities for new applications and business models. Still other changes are driven by organisational or business needs. For example, in a connected world, businesses increasingly need to manage their supply chains as large-scale coordinated networks. There is also greater demand for more "intelligent" information systems. The Department of Information Science at Otago focuses on the following areas: • Artificial Intelligence applications, including computational modelling, evolutionary computing, machine learning and data mining • Databases, including geographic and spatial information systems • Distributed information systems, including multi-agent systems, and wireless and mobile applications • Health informatics • Human-computer interfaces, including multimedia systems and augmented reality • Information assurance and security • Information systems development and management • Social networking and organisational computing, including decision support systems • Software engineering and application sof tware development. Information science From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Not to be confused with information theory or library science. The Ancient Library of Alexandria, an early form of information storage and retrieval. Information science General aspects • Information access • Information architecture • Information management • Information retrieval • Information seeking • Information society • Knowledge organization • Ontology • Taxonomy • Philosophy of information • Science, technology and society Related fields and sub-fields • Bibliometrics • Categorization • Censorship • Classification • Computer data storage • Cultural studies • Data modeling • Informatics • Information technology • Intellectual freedom • Intellectual property • Memory • Library and information science • Preservation • Privacy • Information science portal Information science is an interdisciplinary field primarily concerned with the analysis, collection, classification, manipulation, storage, retrieval, movement, dissemination, and protection of information.[1] Practitioners within the field study the application and usage of knowledge in organizations, along with the interaction between people, organizations and any existing information systems, with the aim of creating, replacing, improving, or understanding information systems. Information science is often (mistakenly) considered a branch of Library science; however, it predates computer science and is actually a broad, interdisciplinary field, incorporating not only aspects of computer science, but often diverse fields such as archival science, cognitive science, commerce, communications, law, library science, museology, management, mathematics, philosophy, public policy, and the social sciences. Information science should not be confused with information theory or library science. Information theory is the study of a particular mathematical concept of information. Information science as an academic discipline is often taught in combination with Library science as Library and Information Science. Library science as such is a field related to the dissemination of information through libraries making use of the principles of information science. Information science deals with all the processes and techniques pertaining to the information life cycle, including capture, generation, packaging, dissemination, transformation, refining, repackaging, usage, storage, communication, protection, presentation etc. in any possible manner. Foundations Scope and approach Information science focuses on understanding problems from the perspective of the stakeholders involved and then applying information and other technologies as needed. In other words, it tackles systemic problems first rather than individual pieces of technology within that system. In this respect, one can see information science as a response to technological determinism, the belief that technology "develops by its own laws, that it realizes its own potential, limited only by the material resources available and the creativity of its developers. It must therefore be regarded as an autonomous system controlling and ultimately permeating all other subsystems of society."[2] Many universities have entire colleges, departments or schools devoted to the study of information science, while numerous information-science scholars work in disciplines such as communication, computer science, law, library science, and sociology. Several institutions have formed an I-School Caucus (see List of I-Schools), but numerous others besides these also have comprehensive information foci. Within information science, current issues as of 2013 include: • human–computer interaction • groupware • the semantic web • value-sensitive design • iterative design processes • the ways people generate, use and find information Definitions of information science An early definition of Information science (going back to 1968, the year when the American Documentation Institute renamed itself as the American Society for Information Science and Technology) states: "Information science is that discipline that investigates the properties and behavior of information, the forces governing the flow of information, and the means of processing information for optimum accessibility and usability. It is concerned with that body of knowledge relating to the origination, collection, organization, storage, retrieval, interpretation, transmission, transformation, and utilization of information. This includes the investigation of information representations in both natural and artificial systems, the use of codes for efficient message transmission, and the study of information processing devices and techniques such as computers and their programming systems. It is an interdisciplinary science derived from and related to such fields as mathematics, logic, linguistics, psychology, computer technology, operations research, the graphic arts, communications, library science, management, and other similar fields. It has both a pure science component, which inquires into the subject without regard to its application, and an applied science component, which develops services and products." (Borko, 1968, p.3).[3] Some authors use informatics as a synonym for information science. This is especially true when related to the concept developed by A. I. Mikhailov and other Soviet authors in the mid-1960s. The Mikhailov school saw informatics as a discipline related to the study of scientific information.[4] Informatics is difficult to precisely define because of the rapidly evolving and interdisciplinary nature of the field. Regional differences and international terminology complicate the problem. Some people[which?] note that much of what is called "Informatics" today was once called "Information Science" - at least in fields such as Medical Informatics. For example, when library scientists began also to use the phrase "Information Science" to refer to their work, the term "informatics" emerged: • in the United States as a response by computer scientists to distinguish their work from that of library science • in Britain as a term for a science of information that studies natural, as well as artificial or engineered, information-processing systems Another term discussed as a synonym for "information studies" is "information systems". Brian Campbell Vickery's Information Systems (1973) places information systems within IS. Ellis, Allen, & Wilson (1999), on the other hand, provide a bibliometric investigation describing the relation between two different fields: "information science" and "information systems". Philosophy of information Main article: Philosophy of information Philosophy of information (PI) studies conceptual issues arising at the intersection of computer science, information technology, and philosophy. It includes the investigation of the conceptual nature and basic principles of information, including its dynamics, utilisation and sciences, as well as the elaboration and application of information-theoretic and computational methodologies to its philosophical problems.[5] Ontology Main article: Ontology (information science) In computer science and information science, an ontology formally represents knowledge as a set of concepts within a domain, and the relationships between those concepts. It can be used to reason about the entities within that domain and may be used to describe the domain. More specifically, an ontology is a model for describing the world that consists of a set of types, properties, and relationship types. Exactly what is provided around these varies, but they are the essentials of an ontology. There is also generally an expectation that there be a close resemblance between the real world and the features of the model in an ontology.[6] In theory, an ontology is a "formal, explicit specification of a shared conceptualisation".[7] An ontology renders shared vocabulary and taxonomy which models a domain with the definition of objects and/or concepts and their properties and relations.[8] Ontologies are the structural frameworks for organizing information and are used in artificial intelligence, the Semantic Web, systems engineering, software engineering, biomedical informatics, library science, enterprise bookmarking, and information architecture as a form of knowledge representation about the world or some part of it. The creation of domain ontologies is also fundamental to the definition and use of an enterprise architecture framework. Careers Information scientist Main article: Information scientist An information scientist is an individual, usually with a relevant subject degree or high level of subject knowledge, providing focused information to scientific and technical research staff in industry, a role quite distinct from and complementary to that of a librarian. The title also applies to an individual carrying out research in information science. Information professional Main article: Information professional An information professional is an individual who preserves, organizes, and disseminates information. Information professionals are skilled in the organization and retrieval of recorded knowledge. Traditionally, their work has been with print materials, but these skills are being increasingly used with electronic, visual, audio, and digital materials. Information professionals work in a variety of public, private, non-profit, and academic institutions. History See also: Information history Early beginnings Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, a German polymath who wrote primarily in Latin and French. His fields of study were Metaphysics, Mathematics, Theodicy. Information science, in studying the collection, classification, manipulation, storage, retrieval and dissemination of information has origins in the common stock of human knowledge. Information analysis has been carried out by scholars at least as early as the time of the Abyssinian Empire with the emergence of cultural depositories, what is today known as libraries and archives.[9] Institutionally, information science emerged in the 19th century along with many other social science disciplines. As a science, however, it finds its institutional roots in the history of science, beginning with publication of the first issues of Philosophical Transactions, generally considered the first scientific journal, in 1665 by the Royal Society (London). The institutionalization of science occurred throughout the 18th Century. In 1731, Benjamin Franklin established the Library Company of Philadelphia, the first library owned by a group of public citizens, which quickly expanded beyond the realm of books and became a center of scientific experiment, and which hosted public exhibitions of scientific experiments.[10] Benjamin Franklin invested a town in Massachusetts with a collection of books that the town voted to make available to all free of charge, forming the first Public Library.[11] Academie de Chirurgia (Paris) published Memoires pour les Chirurgiens, generally considered to be the first medical journal, in 1736. The American Philosophical Society, patterned on the Royal Society (London), was founded in Philadelphia in 1743. As numerous other scientific journals and societies were founded, Alois Senefelder developed the concept of lithography for use in mass printing work in Germany in 1796. 19th century Joseph Marie Jacquard By the 19th Century the first signs of information science emerged as separate and distinct from other sciences and social sciences but in conjunction with communication and computation. In 1801, Joseph Marie Jacquard invented a punched card system to control operations of the cloth weaving loom in France. It was the first use of "memory storage of patterns" system.[12] As chemistry journals emerged throughout the 1820s and 1830s,[13] Charles Babbage developed his "difference engine," the first step towards the modern computer, in 1822 and his "analytical engine” by 1834. By 1843 Richard Hoe developed the rotary press, and in 1844 Samuel Morse sent the first public telegraph message. By 1848 William F. Poole begins the Index to Periodical Literature, the first general periodical literature index in the US. In 1854 George Boole published An Investigation into Laws of Thought..., which lays the foundations for Boolean algebra, which is later used in information retrieval.[14] In 1860 a congress was held at Karlsruhe Technische Hochschule to discuss the feasibility of establishing a systematic and rational nomenclature for chemistry. The congress did not reach any conclusive results, but several key participants returned home with Stanislao Cannizzaro's outline (1858), which ultimately convinces them of the validity of his scheme for calculating atomic weights.[15] By 1865, the Smithsonian Institution began a catalog of current scientific papers, which became the International Catalogue of Scientific Papers in 1902.[16] The following year the Royal Society began publication of its Catalogue of Papers in London. In 1868, Christopher Sholes, Carlos Glidden, and S. W. Soule produced the first practical typewriter. By 1872 Lord Kelvin devised an analogue computer to predict the tides, and by 1875 Frank Stephen Baldwin was granted the first US patent for a practical calculating machine that performs four arithmetic functions.[13] Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison invented the telephone and phonograph in 1876 and 1877 respectively, and the American Library Association was founded in Philadelphia. In 1879 Index Medicus was first issued by the Library of the Surgeon General, U.S. Army, with John Shaw Billings as librarian, and later the library issues Index Catalogue, which achieved an international reputation as the most complete catalog of medical literature.[17] European documentation The discipline of documentation science, which marks the earliest theoretical foundations of modern information science, emerged in the late part of the 19th Century in Europe together with several more scientific indexes whose purpose was to organize scholarly literature. Many information science historians cite Paul Otlet and Henri La Fontaine as the fathers of information science with the founding of the International Institute of Bibliography (IIB) in 1895.[18] A second generation of European Documentalists emerged after the Second World War, most notably Suzanne Briet. However, "information science" as a term is not popularly used in academia until sometime in the latter part of the 20th Century.[19] Documentalists emphasized the utilitarian integration of technology and technique toward specific social goals. According to Ronald Day, "As an organized system of techniques and technologies, documentation was understood as a player in the historical development of global organization in modernity – indeed, a major player inasmuch as that organization was dependent on the organization and transmission of information."[20] Otlet and Lafontaine (who won the Nobel Prize in 1913) not only envisioned later technical innovations but also projected a global vision for information and information technologies that speaks directly to postwar visions of a global "information society". Otlet and Lafontaine established numerous organizations dedicated to standardization, bibliography, international associations, and consequently, international cooperation. These organizations were fundamental for ensuring international production in commerce, information, communication and modern economic development, and they later found their global form in such institutions as the League of Nations and the United Nations. Otlet designed the Universal Decimal Classification, based on Melville Dewey’s decimal classification system.[21] Although he lived decades before computers and networks emerged, what he discussed prefigured what ultimately became the World Wide Web. His vision of a great network of knowledge focused on documents and included the notions of hyperlinks, search engines, remote access, and social networks. Otlet not only imagined that all the world's knowledge should be interlinked and made available remotely to anyone, but he also proceeded to build a structured document collection. This collection involved standardized paper sheets and cards filed in custom-designed cabinets according to a hierarchical index (which culled information worldwide from diverse sources) and a commercial information retrieval service (which answered written requests by copying relevant information from index cards). Users of this service were even warned if their query was likely to produce more than 50 results per search.[21] By 1937 documentation had formally been institutionalized, as evidenced by the founding of the American Documentation Institute (ADI), later called the American Society for Information Science and Technology. Transition to modern information science Vannevar Bush, a famous information scientist, ca. 1940–1944 With the 1950s came increasing awareness of the potential of automatic devices for literature searching and information storage and retrieval. As these concepts grew in magnitude and potential, so did the variety of information science interests. By the 1960s and 70s, there was a move from batch processing to online modes, from mainframe to mini and microcomputers. Additionally, traditional boundaries among disciplines began to fade and many information science scholars joined with library programs. They further made themselves multidisciplinary by incorporating disciplines in the sciences, humanities and social sciences, as well as other professional programs, such as law and medicine in their curriculum. By the 1980s, large databases, such as Grateful Med at the National Library of Medicine, and user-oriented services such as Dialog and Compuserve, were for the first time accessible by individuals from their personal computers. The 1980s also saw the emergence of numerous special interest groups to respond to the changes. By the end of the decade, special interest groups were available involving non-print media, social sciences, energy and the environment, and community information systems. Today, information science largely examines technical bases, social consequences, and theoretical understanding of online databases, widespread use of databases in government, industry, and education, and the development of the Internet and World Wide Web.[22] Information Dissemination in the 21st Century Changing Definition Dissemination has historically been interpreted as unilateral communication of information. With the advent of the internet, and the explosion in popularity of online communities, "social media has changed the information landscape in many respects, and creates both new modes of communication and new types of information",[23] changing the interpretation of the definition of dissemination. The nature of social networks allows for faster diffusion of information than through organizational sources.[24] The internet has changed the way we view, use, create, and store information, now it is time to re-evaluate the way we share and spread it. Impact of Social Media on People and Industry Social media networks provide an open information environment for the mass of people who have limited time or access to traditional outlets of information diffusion,[24] this is an "increasingly mobile and social world [that] demands...new types of information skills".[23] Social media integration as an access point is a very useful and mutually beneficial tool for users and providers. All major news providers have visibility and an access point through networks such as Facebook and Twitter maximizing their breadth of audience. Through social media people are directed to, or provided with, information by people they know. The ability to "share, like, and comment on...content"[25] increases the reach farther and wider than traditional methods. People like to interact with information, they enjoy including the people they know in their circle of knowledge. Sharing through social media has become so influential that publishers must "play nice" if they desire to succeed. Although, it is often mutually beneficial for publishers and Facebook to "share, promote and uncover new content"[25] to improve both user base experiences. The impact of popular opinion can spread in unimaginable ways. Social media allows interaction through simple to learn and access tools; The Wall Street Journal offers an app through Facebook, and The Washington Post goes a step further and offers an independent social app that was downloaded by 19.5 million users in 6 months,[25] proving how interested people are in the new way of being provided information. Social Media's Power to Facilitate Topics The connections and networks sustained through social media help information providers learn what is important to people. The connections people have throughout the world enable the exchange of information at an unprecedented rate. It is for this reason that these networks have been realized for the potential they provide. "Most news media monitor Twitter for breaking news",[24] as well as news anchors frequently request the audience to tweet pictures of events.[25] The users and viewers of the shared information have earned "opinion-making and agenda-setting power"[24] This channel has been recognized for the usefulness of providing targeted information based on public demand. Research vectors and applications The following areas are some of those that information science investigates and develops. Information access Information access is an area of research at the intersection of Informatics, Information Science, Information Security, Language Technology, Computer Science, and Library Science. The objectives of information access research are to automate the processing of large and unwieldy amounts of information and to simplify users' access to it. Applicable technologies include information retrieval, text mining, machine translation, and text categorisation. In discussion, information access is often defined as concerning the insurance of free and closed access to information and is brought up in discussions on copyright, patent law, and public domain. Information architecture Main article: Information architecture Information architecture (IA) is the art and science of organizing and labelling websites, intranets, online communities and software to support usability.[26] It is an emerging discipline and community of practice focused on bringing together principles of design and architecture to the digital landscape.[27] Typically it involves a model or concept of information which is used and applied to activities that require explicit details of complex information systems. These activities include library systems and database development. Information management Main article: Information management Information management (IM) is the collection and management of information from one or more sources and the distribution of that information to one or more audiences. This sometimes involves those who have a stake in, or a right to that information. Management means the organization of and control over the structure, processing and delivery of information. Throughout the 1970s this was largely limited to files, file maintenance, and the life cycle management of paper-based files, other media and records. With the proliferation of information technology starting in the 1970s, the job of information management took on a new light and also began to include the field of data maintenance. Information retrieval Main article: Information retrieval Information retrieval (IR) is the area of study concerned with searching for documents, for information within documents, and for metadata about documents, as well as that of searching structured storage, relational databases, and the World Wide Web. Automated information retrieval systems are used to reduce what has been called "information overload". Many universities and public libraries use IR systems to provide access to books, journals and other documents. Web search engines are the most visible IR applications. An information retrieval process begins when a user enters a query into the system. Queries are formal statements of information needs, for example search strings in web search engines. In information retrieval a query does not uniquely identify a single object in the collection. Instead, several objects may match the query, perhaps with different degrees of relevancy. An object is an entity that is represented by information in a database. User queries are matched against the database information. Depending on the application the data objects may be, for example, text documents, images,[28] audio,[29] mind maps[30] or videos. Often the documents themselves are not kept or stored directly in the IR system, but are instead represented in the system by document surrogates or metadata. Most IR systems compute a numeric score on how well each object in the database match the query, and rank the objects according to this value. The top ranking objects are then shown to the user. The process may then be iterated if the user wishes to refine the query.[31] Information seeking Main article: Information seeking Information seeking is the process or activity of attempting to obtain information in both human and technological contexts. Information seeking is related to, but different from, information retrieval (IR). Much library and information science (LIS) research has focused on the information-seeking practices of practitioners within various fields of professional work. Studies have been carried out into the information-seeking behaviors of librarians,[32] academics,[33] medical professionals,[34] engineers[35] and lawyers[36] (among others). Much of this research has drawn on the work done by Leckie, Pettigrew (now Fisher) and Sylvain, who in 1996 conducted an extensive review of the LIS literature (as well as the literature of other academic fields) on professionals' information seeking. The authors proposed an analytic model of professionals' information seeking behaviour, intended to be generalizable across the professions, thus providing a platform for future research in the area. The model was intended to "prompt new insights... and give rise to more refined and applicable theories of information seeking" (1996, p. 188). The model has been adapted by Wilkinson (2001) who proposes a model of the information seeking of lawyers. Information society Main article: Information society An information society is a society where the creation, distribution, diffusion, uses, integration and manipulation of information is a significant economic, political, and cultural activity. The aim of an information society is to gain competitive advantage internationally, through using IT in a creative and productive way. The knowledge economy is its economic counterpart, whereby wealth is created through the economic exploitation of understanding. People who have the means to partake in this form of society are sometimes called digital citizens. Basically, an information society is the means of getting information from one place to another (Wark, 1997, p. 22). As technology has become more advanced over time so too has the way we have adapted in sharing this information with each other. Information society theory discusses the role of information and information technology in society, the question of which key concepts should be used for characterizing contemporary society, and how to define such concepts. It has become a specific branch of contemporary sociology. Knowledge representation and reasoning Knowledge representation (KR) is an area of artificial intelligence research aimed at representing knowledge in symbols to facilitate inferencing from those knowledge elements, creating new elements of knowledge. The KR can be made to be independent of the underlying knowledge model or knowledge base system (KBS) such as a semantic network.[37] Knowledge Representation (KR) research involves analysis of how to reason accurately and effectively and how best to use a set of symbols to represent a set of facts within a knowledge domain. A symbol vocabulary and a system of logic are combined to enable inferences about elements in the KR to create new KR sentences. Logic is used to supply formal semantics of how reasoning functions should be applied to the symbols in the KR system. Logic is also used to define how operators can process and reshape the knowledge. Examples of operators and operations include, negation, conjunction, adverbs, adjectives, quantifiers and modal operators. The logic is interpretation theory. These elements—symbols, operators, and interpretation theory—are what give sequences of symbols meaning within a KR. See also Information science portal University portal • Outline of information science • Outline of information technology • Outline of library science References 1. Stock, W.G., & Stock, M. (2013). Handbook of Information Science. Berlin, Boston, MA: De Gruyter Saur. 2. "Web Dictionary of Cybernetics and Systems: Technological Determinism". Principia Cibernetica Web. Retrieved 2011-11-28. 3. Borko, H. (1968). Information science: What is it? American Documentation, 19(1), 3¬5. 4. Mikhailov, A.I., Chernyl, A.I., and Gilyarevskii, R.S. (1966) "Informatika – novoe nazvanie teorii naučnoj informacii." Naučno tehničeskaja informacija, 12, pp. 35–39. 5. Luciano Floridi, "What is the Philosophy of Information?", Metaphilosophy, 2002, (33), 1/2. 6. Garshol, L. M. (2004). "Metadata? Thesauri? Taxonomies? Topic Maps! Making sense of it all". Retrieved 13 October 2008. 7. Gruber, Thomas R. (June 1993). "A translation approach to portable ontology specifications" (PDF). Knowledge Acquisition 5 (2): 199–220. doi:10.1006/knac.1993.1008. 8. Arvidsson, F.; Flycht-Eriksson, A. "Ontologies I" (PDF). Retrieved 26 November 2008. 9. Clark, John Willis. The Care Of Books: An Essay On The Development Of Libraries And Their Fittings, From The Earliest Times To The End Of The Eighteenth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1901 10. Korty, Margaret Barton. "Benjamin Franklin and Eighteenth Century American Libraries." Transactions of the American Philosophical Society December vol. 55.9 (1965) 11. "Town of Franklin - History of the Franklin Public Library". Franklinma.virtualtownhall.net. 2010-06-29. Retrieved 2011-05-28. 12. Reichman, F. (1961). Notched Cards. In R. Shaw (Ed.), The state of the library art (Volume 4, Part 1, pp. 11–55). New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers, The State University, Graduate School of Library Service 13. Emard, J. P. (1976). An information science chronology in perspective. Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science , 2(8), 51–56 14. Smith, E. S. (1993). On the shoulders of giants: From Boole to Shannon to Taube: The origins and development of computerized information from the mid-19th century to the present. Information Technology and Libraries , 12(2), 217–226 15. Skolnik, H. (1976). Milestones in chemical information science: Award symposium on contributions of the Division of Chemical Literature (Information) to the Chemical Society. Journal of Chemical Information and Computer Science , 16(4), 187–193 16. Adkinson, B. W. (1976). Federal government’s support of information activities: A historical sketch. Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science, 2(8), 24–26 17. Schullian, D. M., & Rogers, F. B. (1958). The National Library of Medicine. I. Library Quarterly, 28(1), 1–17 18. Rayward, W. B. (1994). International federation for information and documentation. In W. A. Wiegand, & D. G. David Jr. (Eds.), The encyclopedia of library history (pp. 290–294). New York: Garland Publishing, Inc. 19. Day, Ronald. Modern Invention of Information. Carbondale, Il.: Southern Illinois University Press, 2001: 7 20. Day, Ronald. Modern Invention of Information. Carbondale, Il.: Southern Illinois University Press, 2001: 7 21. Day, Ronald. Modern Invention of Information. Carbondale, Il.: Southern Illinois University Press, 2001: 22. "ASIST History". Asis.org. 1968-01-01. Retrieved 2011-05-28. 23. Miller, R. (2012). Social media, authentic learning and embedded librarianship: a case study of dietetics students. Journal of Information Literacy, 6(2), 97-109 24. Zhang, B., Semenov, A., Vos, M. and Veijlainen, J. (2014). Understanding fast diffusion of information in the social media environment: A comparison of two cases. In ICC 2014 Conference Proceedings, 522-533 25. Thompson, M. (2012). Share This. EContent. 14-19 26. ‘What is IA?’ Information Architecture Institute. IAinstitute.org 27. Morville, Peter; Rosenfeld, Louis (2006). Information Architecture for the World Wide Web. O'Reilly Media, Inc. ISBN 978-0-596-52734-1. 28. Goodrum, Abby A. (2000). "Image Information Retrieval: An Overview of Current Research". Informing Science 3 (2). 29. Foote, Jonathan (1999). "An overview of audio information retrieval". Multimedia Systems (Springer) 7: 2. doi:10.1007/s005300050106. 30. Beel, Jöran; Gipp, Bela; Stiller, Jan-Olaf (2009). "Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Collaborative Computing: Networking, Applications and Worksharing (CollaborateCom'09)". Washington, DC: IEEE. |chapter= ignored (help) 31. Frakes, William B. (1992). Information Retrieval Data Structures & Algorithms. Prentice-Hall, Inc. ISBN 0-13-463837-9. 32. Brown, C. M., & Ortega, L. (2007). Information seeking behaviour of physical science librarians: Does research inform practice. College & Research Libraries, 66(3), 231–247. http://crl.acrl.org/content/66/3/231.short 33. Hemminger, B. M., Lu, D., Vaughan, K. T. L., & Adams, S. J. (2007). Information seeking behaviour of academic scientists. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 58(14), 2205–2225. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/asi.20686 34. Davies, K., & Harrison, J. (2007). The information-seeking behaviour of doctors: A review of the evidence. Health Information & Libraries Journal 2007, 2, 78–94. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-1842.2007.00713.x 35. Robinson, M. A. (2010). An empirical analysis of engineers’ information behaviors. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 61(4), 640–658. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/asi.21290 36. Kuhlthau, C. C., & Tama, S. L. (2001). Information search process of lawyers: A call for ‘just for me’ information services. Journal of Documentation, 57(1), 25–43 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/EUM0000000007076 37. "Knowledge representation in RDF/XML, KIF, Frame-CG and Formalized-English", Philippe Martin, Distributed System Technology Centre, QLD, Australia, July 15–19, 2002 Buckland, Michael (2011). What kind of science can information science be? Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, published as early view October 2011. Ellis, D., Allen, D. and Wilson, T. 1999. Information Science and Information Systems: Conjunct Subjects Disjunct Disciplines. JASIS 50(12):1095-1107 (see also: http://www.cais-acsi.ca/proceedings/2000/monarch_2000.pdf ) Vickery; B. C. (1973). Information Systems. London: Butterworth.   THE INVISIBLE SUBSTRATE OF INFORMATION SCIENCE by Marcia J. Bates Dept. of Information Studies University of California, Los Angeles, USA mjbates@ucla.edu Copyright © 1999 by John Wiley and Sons Journal of the American Society for Information Science 50, #12 (1999) 1043-1050. Abstract The explicit, above-the-water-line paradigm of information science is well known and widely discussed. Every disciplinary paradigm, however, contains elements that are less conscious and explicit in the thinking of its practitioners. The purpose of this article is to elucidate key elements of the below-the-water-line portion of the information science paradigm. Particular emphasis is given to information science’s role as a meta-science--conducting research and developing theory around the documentary products of other disciplines and activities. The mental activities of the professional practice of the field are seen to center around representation and organization of information rather than knowing information. It is argued that such representation engages fundamentally different talents and skills from those required in other professions and intellectual disciplines. Methodological approaches and values of information science are also considered. Introduction Recently, digital information and new forms of information technology have become the focus of tremendous amounts of attention and energy in our society. Money is pouring into the development of all manner of technologies and information systems. The excitement penetrates not only the business world and the general society, but also academia, where computer scientists, cognitive scientists, and social scientists are thinking about information and the social impacts of information technology in new ways. This new context poses a challenge to information science. Currently, the wheel is being reinvented every day on the information superhighway. Our expertise is ignored while newcomers to information questions stumble through tens of millions of dollars of research and startup money to rediscover what information science knew in 1960. We in the field need to make our research and theory better known and more understandable to the newcomers flooding in--or be washed away in the flood. To do that effectively, however, we need to become more fully conscious of the research and practice paradigm from which we operate. A field’s paradigm, in Thomas Kuhn’s (1970) sense, consists of the core body of theory and methodology of a field, along with an associated world view regarding the phenomena of interest to the field. In the sciences there is generally an organizing theoretical model of great scope, which generates research questions for decades. (As Kuhn described for the field of physics, first, Newton’s Laws, then Einstein’s theory of relativity were successive defining theoretical models for that field.) As will be noted shortly, the explicit paradigm of information science has been very well described before. However, a field’s paradigm is much more than the explicit theoretical model it works from. Certain methodological approaches and a world view are generally integrally linked with the questions studied. A field tends to draw people with certain cognitive styles, who produce research of a certain character. The field has a history, great names, stories, customs, mores, and values. One does not work long in information science without knowing the names Wilf Lancaster, Gerard Salton, and Llewellyn C. Puppybreath III, and what they are known for. Much of the paradigm of any field lurks below the water line, largely unconscious and unarticulated, even by its practitioners. Researchers often soak up the paradigm, understanding the subject matter and what it means in every way to be, say, a physicist or engineer, without being able to articulate it well. Today, in information science, many newcomers without a background in the field are coming in. At this historical juncture, information scientists need to become more conscious of the thought-world we are operating out of, so that we can communicate it more rapidly and effectively to large numbers of new people, and so that we can continue to influence the future of information in the twenty-first century. The purpose of this article is to attempt to articulate at least some of those parts of our field that are largely unarticulated ordinarily--to describe the invisible substrate of information science, the part of the field that is below the water line. Paradigm Above the Water Line Information science does have an explicit, above-the-water-line, paradigmatic definition, and an understanding of that explicit expression is important to an understanding of the intrinsic unity of the whole paradigm. Information science is the study of the gathering, organizing, storing, retrieving, and dissemination of information. That definition has been quite stable and unvarying over at least the last 30 years. In fact, in a January 1968 article in this journal, Harold Borko wrote the following: Information science is that discipline that investigates the properties and behavior of information, the forces governing the flow of information, and the means of processing information for optimum accessibility and usability. It is concerned with that body of knowledge relating to the origination, collection, organization, storage, retrieval, interpretation, transmission, transformation, and utilization of information. It has both a pure science component, which inquires into the subject without regard to its application, and an applied science component, which develops services and products (Borko, 1968, p. 3). Paradigm Below the Water Line The Meta-Field of Information Science. It is first of all important to recognize that information science, like education and journalism, among others, is a field that cuts across, or is orthogonal to, the conventional academic disciplines. All three of the above-named fields deal with distinct parts of the transmission of human knowledge--information science with the storage and retrieval of it in recorded form, education with the teaching and learning of it, and journalism with the discovery and transmission of news. Under these circumstances, such fields cut across all of what we might call "content" disciplines. Art historians focus on the study of art; information scientists, on the other hand, take art information as but one slice of the full range of information content with which we deal. Likewise, art education is but one part of education, etc. Paisley has made a similar distinction by contrasting behavioral science "level-fields" and "variable-fields." He defined the former as disciplines that study human behavior at different levels of organization—psychology at the individual level, sociology at the group level, and anthropology at the culture level (Paisley, 1972, p. i). Paisley states that variable-fields, on the other hand, look at one variable across all the conventional levels. For example, political science looks at political behavior across the several levels. Here, however, the distinction being made is between conventional disciplines and meta-disciplines. The meta-disciplines are distinguished by the fact that they are interested in the subject matter of all the conventional disciplines, they do something with that subject matter that is of value for society (see next paragraph), and that something is unique to each meta-discipline. (Though they are research disciplines, the three examples of information science, education, and communication/journalism also have distinct professional cores, which are vital to their natures.) Information science organizes that subject content for retrieval, education uses teaching skills to convey that knowledge to learners, journalism uses reporting and writing skills to convey news events to others, etc. In each case, it is not a variable that is being studied, but rather the content of all the conventional disciplines is being shaped and molded for a societal objective through different types of professional activities involving the manipulation and transmission of knowledge. Research in these various meta-fields analyzes the processes and domains associated with the professional activities being carried out in each case. Information seeking and searching, teaching and learning, and communication are (some of) the processes being studied in the research of the three example fields of information science, education, and communication research/journalism. These processes are identifiable in human interactions with virtually all kinds of knowledge or information, and contain many research-worthy questions. Though each field covers all kinds of knowledge or information, each nonetheless has particular domains it studies, which cut across all the conventional subject disciplines. These domains are distinguished not by their subject content, which can be highly various, but rather by their rhetorical character in the broadest sense, that is, by their selection, design, and objectives. The domain of information science is the universe of recorded information that is selected and retained for later access; the domain of education is curricula; and the domain of journalism is the journalistic product of all the newsworthy areas of life (science reporting, political reporting, etc.). Note that in each case, the intellectual product of research or of social or cultural activities is selected, designed and shaped for some social purpose. Different talents, training, and experience are required to select and index documents (information science), to select and organize information in a curriculum to optimize learning (teaching), or to sleuth for information and shape a news story (journalism). What then, is the nature of that shaping for a purpose in information science, particularly? This can most readily be understood by looking first at the practice of the field. After that, research and theory of information science will be examined in this perspective as well. The Content of Form. In applied information science, we find ourselves primarily concerned with the form and organization of information, its underlying structure, and only secondarily with its content. In the sciences and humanities, it is the content that is of dominating concern. In fact, the organization of the information they are using is usually virtually or entirely invisible to the practitioners of those disciplines; they have simply never thought of it, never realized that extensive and intellectually demanding work is needed to develop index and database standards, to select and catalog resources, etc. Most people outside our field do not realize that there is a content to the study of form and organization. I believe that this is one of the chief reasons our field is commonly thought to have no "there" there. The average person, whether Ph.D. scholar or high school graduate, never notices the structure that organizes their information, because they are so caught up in absorbing and relating to the content. And, in fairness to them, they are not interested in the structure. We are interested in the structure. As a practical matter, when one does the work to gather, store, organize, retrieve, and disseminate information--the classic elements of the formal, above-the-water-line paradigm definition of information science--one necessarily gets involved with understanding and manipulating its form, structure, and organization. One’s attention is drawn, again and again, to these features of the information, simply in order to get the job done. People who come into this field, whether formally educated in it or who drift in through a job, sooner or later go through a transformation, wherein they shift their primary focus of attention from the information content to the information form, organization, and structure. The Ph.D. art historian who gets a job working with art history information out of a love of the subject matter, eventually finds him or herself working with the core questions of information science, not of art history. Being and Representing. The transformation involves even more than a shift in the subject content of one’s actions or thoughts, however. Work in the meta-discipline of information science, both at the practical and theoretical levels, draws upon different cognitive talents than most of the work within conventional subject disciplines. Perhaps the best parallel for illustrating the difference in the mental processing of information scientists and conventional disciplinary practitioners is to use an analogy of the relationship between actors and physicians. We take it for granted that when we see a film or television program like "ER" ("Emergency Room"), that it is actors who portray the physicians, because that is the way it has always been done. On reflection, however, is it not strange that the people who have the most experience and knowledge about being doctors--the doctors themselves--are not the ones who portray doctors in drama? Why not? Why do not the competitive demands of the television marketplace pressure the heads of networks to hire real physicians--the true experts, after all--to portray physicians in a medical drama? The answer here is that while the physicians know the most about medicine, portraying a physician is different from being a physician. Portraying a physician requires a different body of talents than being a physician does. Occasionally, some people have both types of talent, but usually not. Actors, with little or no medical knowledge, but with experience portraying a variety of characters, do a better job at portraying physicians than even physicians themselves do. Is that not remarkable, when we reflect on it? In like manner, representing information--whether you are indexing or formulating a search strategy or helping someone articulate what they want to find--is different from knowing the information. After all, the physicians know much more about hospitals, medicine, and treating patients. They know so much, it is in their bones, a part of their every action. Yet when called upon to portray a medical situation instead of simply live it, physicians generally make poor actors. A talented actor, without a day’s experience in medical school, can do a much better job. Above, it was said that the rhetorical character of each of the domains of information science, education, and journalism differed from each other and from the conventional disciplines. For information science, a particular kind of representation is at the heart of the rhetorical stance of the field toward its domain, the universe of recorded information. (Here it is left to the other two fields to define their rhetorical stances.) Creating databases and catalogs involves creating representations of forms of information. The skill a reference librarian or information specialist develops also involves representation—figuring out how to conceptualize and represent a user’s query, then in turn translating the query (representing it) into a form an information system uses, which in turn arises from the representations of documents in the information system. Subject Expertise. A perennial issue in the information field revolves around how much subject knowledge an information specialist needs. Surely, it is said, one must be an expert in molecular biology to be a good information specialist at a biotechnology firm. I am among the many, however, who contest this assumption. I would argue that what one mainly needs is information expertise and talent, not content expertise. The latter is a nice bonus, if it is present, but is not essential. When taking on a new part, actors sometimes research the context or the role they will play. Such research can enable them to do a better job of acting, but researching hospital life or medicine does not entail getting a medical degree! Actors, in fact, may be looking at entirely different things when they research the role than would ever occur to a doctor living that life. The actor needs different knowledge and different talents to do a good job at portraying physicians. This author was once told by a manager at the National Library of Medicine that some years earlier they had tried using physicians to index the Index Medicus database, but had given it up, because the physicians did not do as good a job as trained indexers did. When an information specialist takes a position at a biotechnology firm, it would be a good idea to read some popular books about molecular biology, learn who the dominant individuals are and what the major research issues and approaches are. But what will be most important for the information specialist will be to use information-related talents. People who are attracted to this field generally have somewhere within them, wide subject interests, good skills with language, with getting the big picture about a subject matter, and a knack for operating at the level of representation of the subject matter, rather than just working in the subject matter. Over many years of teaching, I have observed that master’s students in information science programs complete the mental transformation to thinking like information specialists within a few months. Often they have considerable difficulties during the first few weeks of the program, because at first it feels alien to think about a resource in terms of the features that matter to the organization and retrieval of it, rather than in terms of mastering its content. In a job, without formal information training, this transformation process may take longer. It is argued here, however, that unless that transformation occurs, one cannot do a fully effective job as an information professional. And this claim is made unequivocally. If you want to portray a doctor, you have to be a good actor, not a doctor; if you want to work with information organization and retrieval, you have to be a good information person, not a subject specialist without information training. All the subject expertise in the world is not enough, if you do not possess the mental framework and skills in information work. If drama and acting were being invented today, instead of deep in the mists of history, people might well be making the primitive assumption today that doctors must play doctors in drama. The beginning assumption would be that to produce good acting, we must use people who are in exactly the same situation found in the play--only pregnant women can portray pregnant women, only physicians play physicians, etc. However, humankind long ago learned that actors, not specialists in the circumstances of the story, are best at acting. Description of information and retrieval from large bodies of information are quite recent phenomena, however. Collections did not become large enough to require extensive and systematic organizational approaches until the nineteenth century. Information expertise developed within the library, and later the documentation, fields over many decades, but the numbers of people pursuing these activities were still very small, however, and marginal to the larger society. Now at the end of the twentieth century, however, the society at large is discovering information and problems of information description and organization. Members of the broader society are consistently committing what we might call the First Fallacy of Information Work; they are thinking that organizing information requires deep subject expertise and no information expertise. In just the last couple of years I have heard of three very well funded projects of this sort. In one, dozens of historians, exclusively, untrained in cataloging, were hired to catalog historical material, with consequent enormous waste of time and resources as they fumbled their way, finally, to creating a usable indexing vocabulary. In two other projects, educators, also untrained in information work, were enlisted to index educational materials without any guidance from anyone with the least background in information work. In my view, doing this is analogous to hiring physicians to portray physicians in the theater. The sooner society moves beyond this misapprehension of the nature of information work, the better for all. (Sometimes highly gifted people come into the information field with no training and do well. Likewise some actors are so naturally talented that training and experience are virtually unneeded for them. But most people in both fields benefit substantially from training and experience.) My litmus test for the newcomers who are now interested in information work, is whether I can observe evidence that they have gone through the transformation of becoming an information expert. That perspective is the lens through which information scientists see their world--both at the theoretical and practical levels. It is the single most defining framework element for their world view. There are many other elements to the part of information science that is below the water line, that will be addressed shortly--but this is the single most important, in my view. It is what the newcomer or outsider does not understand; it is what the insider takes for granted (and therefore seldom notices or articulates). This perspective drenches the thought and actions of the information person. Librarianship and Information Science. Both people who call themselves librarians, and people who call themselves information scientists share this information perspective. Other fields with which information science might have been thought originally to have much in common, such as computer science, cognitive science, computational linguistics, or artificial intelligence, did not, in fact, prove to be good matches. Both librarianship and practical information science, however, have the information perspective in common, and the phrase "library and information science," or "LIS" has become very common. I believe that this coming together arose out of deep commonalities in the way of thinking and doing necessary to achieve information work objectives. While librarianship and information science have very different histories, and, in particular, different methodological and values perspectives, they have in common this core relationship to the material of their work. Information Science Theory. The distinctive perspective discussed above in information work carries over into and is integral to the theory of the information science field as well. In 1970, this journal changed its name from American Documentation to the current one. That year is as good as any to mark the formal recognition of the then-new field. The roots of information science lay in the theory and thinking in several related fields, particularly in the years 1930-1970. What those disparate theories and elements had in common, what enabled them to be a reasonably coherent intellectual discipline when brought together in information science, was their interest in form and structure, in particular, in information form and structure. General systems theory (Bertalanffy, 1968; also see historical discussion in Checkland, 1981), which developed in the 1930’s and later, drew attention to the underlying structure or pattern in social and technical institutions and devices. Once the concept of the system was developed and elaborated, systems could be recognized as underlying countless disparate social, technical, and physical phenomena. Operations research and systems analysis during and after World War II developed these ideas further into a variety of applied realms. John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern (1967) developed game theory--which is a way of seeing an underlying common structure of trade-offs, benefits, and disadvantages within a variety of social and economic situations. Perhaps the best-known game is "Prisoner’s Dilemma." In this situation, the prosecution’s evidence on a burglary charge against two thieves is weak. The prosecutor interrogates each man separately. Each is told that if he confesses and his friend does not, he will receive a light sentence, and that if he does not confess and his companion implicates him, he will receive a very heavy sentence. If both confess, they will receive a middling sentence, and if neither confesses they will both get a smaller charge of carrying a concealed weapon (Jones, 1980, p. 77-78). This game structure is so robust that it underlies countless cops and robbers programs on television, as the television writers imaginatively play out one variation or another of it. This recognition of underlying structures arose throughout the social and engineering sciences in the decades after the War. If we define information as "the pattern of organization of matter and energy" (Parker, 1974, p. 10), then structure of all kinds itself constitutes a kind of information. Within that context, Norbert Wiener (1961) identified the role of information in natural and human systems in a way that had never been recognized before. He developed the field of cybernetics, which deals with the guiding or governing of systems. Wiener demonstrated that many systems are driven not primarily or only by mechanical forces, but rather are determined by the feedback of information to a governing element of the system. We are so used to hearing the word "feedback" in its common everyday overuse, that the iconoclastic newness of Wiener’s ideas has been lost nowadays. Wiener demonstrated, for example, that when a person reaches for an object, it is done with continual visual and kinesthetic feedback of information, which is then used to guide the hand further. The hand does not just respond to a single impulse from the brain to "grab." The early work that had perhaps the single most electrifying impact of all was Claude Shannon’s information theory (Shannon & Weaver, 1949). Shannon measured the amount of information going through a telephone wire. Such a development does not on the face of it sound revolutionary, but it was, because his theory was abstract, and seemingly applicable to many environments, including not only the technical but also human language and psychology. The limits of Shannon’s theory for the human sciences ultimately became evident, but the legacy of a new, abstract sense of information as reducing uncertainty by measurable amounts, remained. Similarly, Noam Chomsky’s theory of syntactic structures in language (1971)--common patterns underlying all different languages--had an explosive impact on several fields, and was the engine that drove the field of psycholinguistics. (In my 1980 study of citations in information science, Chomsky was the single most cited individual. Bates, 1980, p. 278. ) Miller, Galanter and Pribram, three well-known psychologists, wrote Plans and the Structure of Behavior (1960), which posited a common underlying structure to all, or virtually all, human behaviors. Gregory Bateson identified common underlying structures in learning, as well as metastructures in communication that reference other communications. He dealt, thus, in many different ways with representations of representations. It is no accident that the cover of the 1972 paperback of his Steps to An Ecology of Mind states: "The new information sciences can lead to a new understanding of man." (Bateson, 1972). He is best known for his "double bind" theory of schizophrenia, but his theories referred to all communication and learning among humans, not just schizophrenia. When biochemical explanations of schizophrenia largely displaced psychological ones, Bateson’s work fell into disrepute--a most unfortunate failure of our intellectual world to recognize that he was a theorist of all communication, not just the unhealthy communications that are sometimes associated with dysfunctional families. Finally, the recognition of form and structure found the purest expression of all in G. Spencer-Brown‘s Laws of Form (1972). which analyzed the mathematical rudiments, the absolute essence, of form. Spencer-Brown started with the irreducibly smallest distinction, a single difference, which is the first step in creating form out of the formless void. All of these thinkers had in common the recognition of underlying structure beneath the surface variety of life. They contributed theories and ideas of great power, and were the theoretical driving force behind information science. Thus, when the theory and practice of information science are described in the way they have been so far in this article, the close relationship between theory and practice--through their common attention to form and structure, becomes evident. Information Science’s Universe. So both from a theoretical and a practical standpoint, information scientists are interested in the structure of their object of study--information. But as the examples above indicate, many social and behavioral scientists are interested in underlying structures too. Many engineers, based on Shannon’s and Wiener’s work, among others, are interested in information. What, then, is distinctive about information science’s theory? We are interested in information as a social and psychological phenomenon. The information we study generally originates from human agency in some way, whether it is the data beamed down from a satellite or the text of a book on Immanuel Kant’s philosophy. Our primary, but not sole focus, is on recorded information and people’s relationship to it. All the academic disciplines can be seen as studying different universes of phenomena. The natural sciences study the natural world, the social sciences study the social worlds produced by humans, and the arts and humanities study the content and context of the creative works of human beings, from philosophy to literature to the arts. Information science has a distinct universe that it studies too--the world of recorded information produced by human agency. We can imagine all the human activities in studying the above natural, social and artistic universes themselves producing information entities--books, articles, databases, data files, etc.--thus creating a fourth universe, that of recorded information. The recorded information universe contains many other kinds of information besides research results—popular literature, business records, personal archives, music, film, etc., and, of course, all of these in electronic form as well. In short, the documentary products of human activity themselves form a universe deserving of study, and study of that universe—and how human beings produce it, seek it, retrieve it, and use it--is the intellectual domain of information science. I argued in an earlier paper (Bates, 1987) that one of the primary concerns of our field should therefore be to define the parameters and variables associated with our universe--information produced by human agency. We have been slow to do that, however, and still tend to borrow the variables used in the other social sciences, rather than develop those unique to our field. This study of the information universe finds its purest expression in bibliometrics, or the study of the statistical properties of recorded information. However, the field’s interest is in human-produced information, and therefore how human beings relate to this information--how they seek it, use it, ignore it, retrieve it--is of central research importance also. In comparison to other social and behavioral science fields, we are always looking for the red thread of information in the social texture of people’s lives. When we study people we do so with the purpose of understanding information creation, seeking, and use. We do not just study people in general. The rest of the social sciences do various forms of that. Sometimes this can be a very fine distinction; other times it is very easy to see. In communications research, a cousin to our field, the emphasis is on the communication process and its effects on people; in information science we study that process in service of information transfer. For another example, there are social scientists today who are observing people doing collaborative work through new types of networked systems in the field of computer-supported co-operative work (CSCW) . The sociologist or social psychologist identifies and describes the network of relationships and the social hierarchy that develops under these circumstances. They may examine the impact of technology on those social relationships and on the work of the individuals involved. The information scientist, on the other hand, follows the information the way Woodward and Bernstein "followed the money" in their Watergate investigations. That’s the red thread in the social tapestry. When we look at that social hierarchy, we are not interested in the hierarchy per se, but, rather, we ask how it impedes or promotes the transfer of information. We ask what kinds of information people prefer to communicate through this or that new channel of information technology. We always follow the information. Information Science’s Big Questions. Three Big Questions can be identified within the above framework: 1) The physical question: What are the features and laws of the recorded-information universe? 2) The social question: How do people relate to, seek, and use information? 3) The design question: How can access to recorded information be made most rapid and effective? The second question above deals with all kinds of information, but the other two have "recorded information" at their heart. We need to understand how people relate to and use all kinds of information, and in their social contexts--the second question--in order to contribute to our understanding of the first question and in order to do the best job possible answering the third question. But one of the defining characteristics of our field--and another feature that unites us with librarianship--is that we deal principally with recorded information. There’s a reason for that--it is not just an historical happenstance. A fundamental difference between recorded information and more evanescent or ephemeral forms is that recorded information generally lasts a long time. It can hang around for months, years, or centuries. And that in turn means that it can pile up. One of the fundamental challenges for both librarianship and information science is to find a way to contend with ever-larger piles or stacks or sets of information. Because of the linguistic, psychological, cognitive, social, and technical complexities of information retrieval, each increase in size of the information source or database requires different solutions; scalability is a fundamental problem in this field. I believe that at some point a historian will show that the information explosion (with us since the invention of printing) has driven most of the major innovations in information organization and access. Each time the average collection grew to a new level, a new access method had to be devised. This has been particularly noticeable in the last century--from the development of subject headings to the development of hyperlinks. The development of each new medium or technological device also requires a sophisticated blend of our technological and socio-psychological understanding to produce the best information retrieval system result. Each new thing we learn about the universe of information can be used in answering the design question also. Thus, while these three questions are posed as distinct questions, it can be seen that the research in response to each of them is also mutually supportive and valuable for answering the other questions. Methodological Substrate. Let us turn now to the other elements of the substrate of our field. The fundamental methodological stance of information science can be described as socio-technical. The two most important methodological traditions we draw on are the social sciences and the engineering sciences. Some individuals in the field are more interested in, and more capable in, either the social or the technical side of this equation. But to function effectively in information science, one must be at least comfortable with both sides of this dual tradition. Thus, only those computer scientists endure in the field who do not dismiss the linguistic or psychological complexities of information retrieval as squishy nonsense, and only those social scientists survive who are interested in the technology and do not hand it an unreflective Luddite rejection. Consequently, information science tends to draw multi-talented people, people who enjoy the mixture of kinds of cognition that the nature of our field requires to solve its research problems. This is one of the reasons we have failed to coalesce as a field around one standard methodological paradigm. For one thing, we need this methodological variety to solve these problems, and for another thing, the people in our field, by our multi-talented natures, enjoy and tolerate that variety much better than is the case in other fields. If a field can solve its research problems with a smaller range of cognitive and methodological approaches, it can then attract and maintain its activities using people who are more single-minded, or single-talented—but that is not the case in information science. Methodologically, we may use bibliometric techniques, other statistical techniques, and philosophico-analytic approaches for studying the first question. Much qualitative research remains to be done analyzing the social significance of the design characteristics of various documentary forms (Hjørland, 1997, p. 127). The second question draws on the full range of social science techniques, from the quantitative to the qualitative. The third, design question draws on the above two approaches as well, but most distinctively uses engineering techniques. A fundamental approach in information retrieval system design is formative evaluation. First, a system is developed that embodies solutions to information retrieval for a designated context. That system is then tested for performance, which produces learning that is practical and immediate as well as more fundamental. These discoveries are then applied to a new design, and performance proceeds to improve. It can thus be seen that to solve the information science field’s problems, a mix of methodologies are needed. A final comment on methodology: Regarding the great methodological shift sweeping through the social sciences, the shift to the qualitative, multiple-perspective, post-Modernist approaches—these new techniques simply add to and enrich the armamentarium of techniques available to the information scientist for studying the subject matter of our field. For reasons that have already been argued, this field requires multiple methodological approaches to conduct its research. In mid-twentieth century social science we have had a series of waves of methodological fashion--each wave declaring the prior approach to be hopelessly bankrupt and inadequate. It is to be hoped that it is finally recognized that all of these methodological approaches can be powerful and useful--especially in information science. Values. The values of information science have tended to follow the "value neutral" science or engineering model. The emphasis at the applied level is on getting the job done well--the engineering approach--without political or explicitly value-laden objectives. At the pure science level, the effort is to find out the truth (or multiple truths) of the matter studied, regardless of personal agenda. The advantage of removing political issues from scientific endeavors has been that communication in information science (as with other sciences) has been able to proceed across political boundaries and among people with very different political philosophies. Librarianship, in contrast, follows a more service-oriented and empowerment-oriented value system. The library is there to produce a certain desirable social result, and, as a consequence, many of the activities of the library field are organized and directed to meet that values-laden goal. The mix of values driving library work varies from country to country, and, appropriately, is suited to the particular circumstances of each nation. There is one more characteristic--we might even call it a value--of the field of information science that merits recognition: a sense of humor. As another article in this issue documents, the American Society for Information Science has long had a Special Interest Group devoted to presenting spoofs of papers (SIG-CON), and idolizing its founding member and "information racketeer," the never-seen Llewellyn C. Puppybreath III. I took this element of our field for granted until I visited one year a social science academic association (which shall remain nameless), and came upon a most deadly serious group of people whose sense of humor was well hidden and whose anxiety at each paper presentation was palpable. I was happy to return to a group of people able to laugh at themselves, yet still value deeply their own work. Conclusions Information science does not consist only of the explicit paradigm of the study of the selecting, gathering, organizing, accessing and retrieving of information that is the usual description of the field. As with most intellectual domains, the field of information science has many unarticulated, but important, elements "below the water line." It has been the purpose of this article to bring some of those elements to the surface, so that we may better understand our own work and communicate it to the many people from the broader society who are now excited by information questions and problems. References Bates, M.J. (1980) A criterion citation rate for information scientists. Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science Annual Meeting, 17, 276-278. Bates, M.J. (1987) Information: The last variable. Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science Annual Meeting, 24, 6-10. Bateson, G. (1972)Steps to an ecology of mind. New York: Ballantine. Bertalanffy, L. (1968) General system theory: Foundations, development, applications. New York: George Braziller. Borko, H. (1968) Information science: What is it? Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 19, 3-5. Checkland, P. (1981) Systems thinking, systems practice. New York: Wiley. Chomsky, N. (1971) Syntactic structures. The Hague: Mouton. Hjørland, B. (1997) Information seeking and subject representation: An activity-theoretical approach to information science. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Jones, A.J. (1980) Game theory: Mathematical models of conflict. New York: Wiley. Kuhn, T.S. (1970) The structure of scientific revolutions. 2nd ed. enl. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Miller, G.A.; Galanter, I.; and Pribram, K.H. (1960) Plans and the structure of behavior. New York: Holt. Paisley, W. (Sept. 1972) Communication research as a behavioral discipline. Palo Alto, CA: Institute for Communication Research, Stanford University. "Draft for criticism." Parker, E. B. (1974) Information and society. In C. A. Cuadra & M.J. Bates (Eds.), Library and information service needs of the nation: Proceedings of a conference on the needs of occupational, ethnic, and other groups in the United States. (pp. 9-50). Sponsored by the National Commission on Libraries and information Science. Washington, DC: USGPO. Shannon, C.E.. & Weaver, W. (1949) The mathematical theory of communication. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press. Spencer-Brown, G. (1972) Laws of form. New York: Julian Press. Von Neumann, J. & Morgenstern, O. (1967)Theory of games and economic behavior. 3rd ed. New York: Wiley. Wiener, N. (1961)Cybernetics. 2nd ed. Cambridge, MA: The M.I.T. Press.

FIVE LAWS OF LIBRARY SCIENCE

Five laws of library science From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The Five laws of library science is a theory proposed by S. R. Ranganathan in 1931, detailing the principles of operating a library system. Many librarians worldwide accept them as the foundations of their philosophy.[1][2] These laws are: 1. Books are for use. 2. Every reader his [or her] book. 3. Every book its reader. 4. Save the time of the reader. 5. The library is a growing organism. First Law: Books are for use[edit] The first law constitutes the basis for the library services. Dr. Ranganathan observed that books were often chained to prevent their removal and that the emphasis was on storage and preservation rather than use. He did not reject the notion that preservation and storage were important, but he asserted that the purpose of such activities was to promote the use of them. Without the use of materials, there is little value in the item. By emphasizing use, Dr. Ranganathan refocused the attention of the field to access-related issues, such as the library's location, loan policies, hours and days of operation, as well as mundane matters like library furniture and the quality of staffing. The first law of library science "books are for use" means that books in libraries are not meant to be shut away from people. §Second Law: Every reader his/her book[edit] This law suggests that every member of the community should be able to obtain materials needed. Dr. Ranganathan felt that all individuals from all social environments were entitled to library service, and that the basis of library use was education, to which all were entitled. These entitlements were not without some important obligations for both libraries/librarians and library patrons. Librarians should have excellent first-hand knowledge of the people to be served. Collections should meet the special interests of the community, and libraries should promote and advertise their services extensively to attract a wide range of readers. [2] The second law of library science "every reader his (or her) book" means that librarians serve a wide collection of patrons, acquire literature to fit a vast collection of needs, do not judge what specific patrons choose to read. Everyone has different tastes and differences and we should respect that. §Third Law: Every book its reader[edit] This principle is closely related to the second law, but it focuses on the item itself, suggesting that each item in a library has an individual or individuals who would find that item useful. Dr. Ranganathan argued that the library could devise many methods to ensure that each item finds it appropriate reader. One method involved the basic rules for access to the collection, most notably the need for open shelving.[2] The third law of library science "every book its reader" means a library's books have a place in the library even if a smaller demographic might choose to read it. §Fourth Law: Save the time of the reader[edit] This law is a recognition that part of the excellence of library service is its ability to meet the needs of the library user efficiently. To this end, Dr. Ranganathan recommended the use of appropriate business methods to improve library management. He observed that centralizing the library collection in one location provided distinct advantages. He also noted that excellent staff would not only include those who possess strong reference skills, but also strong technical skills in cataloging, cross-referencing, ordering, accessioning, and the circulation of materials.[2] The fourth law of library science "save the time of the user" means that all patrons should be able to easily locate the material they desire quickly and efficiently. Fifth Law: The library is a growing organism[edit] This law focused more on the need for internal change than on changes in the environment itself. Dr. Ranganathan argued that library organizations must accommodate growth in staff, the physical collection, and patron use. This involved allowing for growth in the physical building, reading areas, shelving, and in space for the catalog.[2] The fifth law of library science "the library is a growing organism" means that a library should be a continually changing institution, never static in its outlook. Books, methods, and the physical library should be updated over time. Variants Librarian Michael Gorman (past president of the American Library Association, 2005–2006), and Walt Crawford recommended the following laws in addition to Ranganathan's five in Future Libraries: Dreams, Madness, and Realities [American Library Association, 1995], (p. 8) Gorman later repeated them in his small book, Our Singular Strengths [American Library Association, 1998]. 1. Libraries serve humanity. 2. Respect all forms by which knowledge is communicated. 3. Use technology intelligently to enhance service. 4. Protect free access to knowledge. 5. Honor the past and create the future. In 2004, librarian Alireza Noruzi recommended applying Ranganathan's laws to the Web in his paper, "Application of Ranganathan's Laws to the Web": 1. Web resources are for use. 2. Every user has his or her web resource. 3. Every web resource its user. 4. Save the time of the user. 5. The Web is a growing organism. In 2008, librarian Carol Simpson recommended that editing be done to Ranganathan's law due to media richness. The following were: 1. Media are for use. 2. Every patron his information. 3. Every medium its user. 4. Save the time of the patron. 5. The library is a growing organism.[5] References 1. Koehler, Wallace, Jitka Hurych, Wanda Dole, and Joanna Wall. "Ethical Values of Information and Library Professionals – An Expanded Analysis." International Information & Library Review 32 (3/4) 2000: 485–506. 2. Rubin, Richard E. Foundations of Library and Information Science. 2nd ed. New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers. 2004. 3. "Five Laws of Library Science". University of Southern California. Retrieved 22 December 2014. 4. Noruzi, Alireza (2004). "Application of Ranganathan's Laws to the Web." Webology, 1(2), Article 8. Available at: http://www.webology.org/2004/v1n2/a8.html 5. Simpson, Carol. "Five Laws". Library Media Connection 26 no7 6 Ap/My 2008. Available at: http://www.carolsimpson.com/5laws.pdf

Relevance of Ranganathan's Laws of Library Science in Library Marketing

http://unllib.unl.edu/LPP/ Library Philosophy and Practice 2011 ISSN 1522-0222 Relevance of Ranganathan's Laws of Library Science in Library Marketing Dr. R.K. Bhatt Associate Professor & Head, Department Of Library And Information Science University Of Delhi, Delhi – 110007, India Introduction Libraries and information centers are an indispensable part of any academic or research institution in India. Information transfer and dissemination of information have long been recognized as essential elements for research and development activities. Libraries and information centers put lot of effort and energy into designing information services and products and distributing them to satisfy their users. Despite their best efforts, users sometimes feel that they are not being adequately and appropriately served. The best way to overcome this problem is by designing and developing an appropriate marketing strategy for LIS products and services. Marketing The Chartered Institute of Marketing, UK ("Marketing," n.d.), defines marketing as the management process which is responsible for identifying, anticipating, and satisfying customer requirements profitably. Kotler (1985) says that marketing is "an act of analysis, planning, implementation, and control of carefully-formulated programmes designed to bring about voluntary exchanges of values with target markets for the purpose of achieving organizational objectives." These two definitions draw our attention to the following: • marketing is a managerial process involving analysis, planning, implementation and control • marketing is concerned with carefully formulated programmes – not random actions – designed to achieve desired responses • marketing seeks to bring about voluntary exchange • marketing selects target markets and does not seek to be all things to all people • marketing is directly correlated to the achievement of organizational objectives • marketing places emphasis on the target market's (consumer's) needs and desire rather than on the producer's preferences. Since customers are given the top priority, service providers should remember that customers are the most important people to be served in library and information centers. They are not dependent on the library; rather, the library depends on them. They are part of the library. They are the people who bring their wants and needs and we are there to meet their needs. Marketing is a management process that includes: marketing plan, marketing research, market segmentation, marketing mix (Graves and Wulff, 1990). In creating a marketing plan, a library must concentrate on mission analysis, resource analysis, strategic planning and monitoring, and evaluation of the tasks performed. Market research is done to assess market information needs by stating research objectives, developing a research strategy, knowing target market characteristics, etc. Market segmentation is defined as a group of customers with similar or related characteristics who have common needs and wants. Market segmentation is usually divided into: • Demographic Segmentation • Socio-Economic Segmentation • Geographic Segmentation Marketing mix includes products (such as books, periodicals, literal programmes, bibliographies, annual reports, statistical surveys, and compilations and services such as electronic resources); price (in the form of credit, discount, cash, etc.); Place (including coverage, distribution channels, inventory, locations, and transport), and Promotion (which is done through advertising, personal selling, and public relations). Ranganathan's Five Laws of Library Science During his eighty-year lifespan, Dr. S.R. Ranganathan made contributed many new ideas to library and information science. He wrote 60 books and about 2,000 research articles in his life. Really, Dr. Ranganathan was a multifaceted personality. He devoted his life to the cause of development of library science in India. Dr. Ranganathan enunciated various laws, principles, canons, theories, etc., in LIS. His theories are based on scientific principles. They are accepted universally and are relevant even today. We can say that his ideas are like a lighthouse for libraries, and LIS students and teachers. His ideas are still exciting and, even today when computers and other developments in the field of telecommunication have changed the whole scenario of LIS. Even now, when libraries and information centres face the problem of underused information resources as well as the challenges of implementing Information Communication Technology (ICT), Dr. Ranganathan's philosophy is relevant and accepted as a way to overcome both these problems. The answer comes in the application of his Five Laws of Library Science. Ranganathan's Five Laws of Library Science 1. Books are for use 2. Every reader his/her book 3. Every book its reader 4. Save the time of the reader 5. The library is a growing organism The father of library science in India propounded the five laws of library science in 1931. The first law is that books are for use. It is imperative to ensure library patrons use the materials we select and purchase for them. Libraries are not just about storing books, they are about people having access to books. This is something Ranganathan made clear in his own discussion of the first law (Ranganathan 1988). His talks and writings emphasize the preservation of information and knowledge to be as important as access to information and knowledge. Undoubtedly, both preservation and access are important, and the availability of digital technologies that Dr. Ranganathan could only have dreamt of have a vital role to play in preservation and access. Librarianship is now blessed to have the opportunity of making knowledge available through digitization, but digitization can best be justified by focusing on the priorities laid down in the first law. The first law is also forward-thinking in its emphasis on the library's location. Increasingly we are seeing libraries sited, or even relocated, in more accessible locations in order to increase custom.There is debate among library professionals on the issue of merging of public libraries with other services, such as sports centres, or moving the library to main thoroughfares rather than outlying parts of the community. The implication of first law of library science in marketing library is the emphasis on the optimum use of resources, facilities, and services.Convenient location, effective signage, and longer opening hours; helping hands for using resources and services are all important. The second law, "every reader his or her book," means that we all have diverse interests and that there is a book out there to satisfy each of us. The core need is to fight for the right of users to information of all kinds, the consistent battle against censorship and inequality of access that has governed civilisation since its inception. Our duty is to help users find the information they require and ensure any blocks in the way are not blocks we have created. Barring access to knowledge is totally against the philosophy of Dr. Ranganathan's law. In fact, the second law provides roots to the freedom to access information and knowledge in the forms of writings of all kinds, and to be informed on topics that others may wish to suppress. The second law reminds us to be impartial in our dealings with users. The implication of the second law in marketing the library is to meet user needs satisfactorily by collecting and interpreting information, understanding the needs of users, and matching the needs with its resources. The library should develop its collection keeping in mind the present and future requirements of its users. The library collection should be a mix of old and rare material as well as of the latest material reflecting advances in various fields. The third law: every book its reader (Ranganathan, 1988) advocates easy access to materials, and one way to do so is by putting people together with what they require. Putting books into the hands of people who do not necessarily know what they need is also at the heart of the third law. We could interpret reader development as being part of the third law, since we promote books to users that may not be known to them and that may offer opportunities for enrichment that other titles do not. Historically, reference work has been identified within the third law, and this continues to be the case in the virtual library. Virtual reference services continue to grow in popularity in both academic and public libraries. Libraries and information centres are launching virtual enquiry services through their websites. They are accepting models created for this purpose by world-renowned libraries, especially university libraries. These are exciting developments, focused on expanding services to where and when users may need them. They allow librarians to continue to use their skills in tracking down quality information for users and will become a staple feature of library services. The implication of the third law in marketing the library is performing activities that take library products and services to the users: publicizing the value and benefits, promotional campaigns, adovacy, public relations, personal communication, etc. The library should use promotional tools to publicize its resources, facilities, and services. It should direct its efforts to attracting new users to the library and reach out to its existing users by providing library services at their doorstep. It should give its users tje personal touch and develop a feeling of belonging in the library. The fourth law is "save the time of the reader" (Ranganathan, 1988). Time is important to every person. Time management is a key to success in life. Libraries must have the objective of saving the time of the reader. The entire journey of librarianship is about devising, designing, and developing methods, systems of organization and dissemination of information to provide the best service to their readers in the most efficient, accurate, and effective manner and thus saving the reader's time. For example, we create catalogues, bibliographies, indexes, and abstracts to save the time of readers. Saving the time of the reader also relates to how we actually organise information. Acceptance and adoption of ICT has used to save thousands of hours of the reader's time when compared to manual systems. Noruzi very rightly opines that considering the time of the user as a vital notion, and that all five laws of library science are transferable and applicable to the Web. Increasingly, saving the time of the user becomes navigating with them through the Web and creating high-quality and accurate guides to information in this challenging domain. The implication of the fourth law in marketing library is its focus on the user benefits and preferences. Consolidation and repackaging information into an appropriate form, making information available when it is needed, ensuring the quality of services and offerings, are tasks that take user benefits and preferences into account.The main objective of the library should be that the user who enters in a library for a specific purpose should not leave emptyhanded. At the same time, it must also be ensure that the users' valuable time is not wasted in searching for material. The fifth law, that the library is a growing organism (Ranganathan, 1988) states that libraries will continue to grow in the future. Perhaps we can look at digital information and conclude that the growth is not as pressing from the point of view of physical space, although this remains something that libraries struggle with. Even in the digital world, the analogue continues to be important. Book publishing remains healthy, and indeed a much less expensive endeavor than it was in 1931. Libraries will continue to struggle with space problems. This is reflected in the statistics of information generation and the acquisition of information resources of libraries of any type. Even the presence of e-resources does not stop the acquisition of new print material, and the pace at which they grow has not changed. Lancaster's dream of a paperless society is not likely to come true in the near future. The sacrifices librarians have to make between space for books shelves and space for computer terminals to deliver this ever- expanding need will continue to be an issue. One can also see the library as a growing organism in terms of staff and skills. As the library grows in services, the skills necessary to deliver these new services will also grow. Perhaps we could argue that both libraries and the profession of librarianship are growing organisms. The fifth law's implication for marketing is adapting the library to future user needs, including mobilizing resources, dealing with uncertainty about future user needs, new services, new customer groups, new environment, etc. The library should also transform its services to keep up with other changes in the world. The library must not lag behind in adapting to new technologies. The library staff must be technology-literate. In order to make use of these laws more effective, libraries and information centres must adopt marketing tools. Important promotion tools include: 1. Communication Rowley (1998) divides communication channels into personal and non-personal. Personal communication channels are those in which two or more people communicate, and word of mouth is the primary means of communication, although other media such as e-mail are significant. Non-personal communication channels include TV, radio, posters, newspapers, etc. 2. Atmospherics This term is coined by Philip Kotler (1975) who defines atmospherics as "the designing of buying and consuming environments in a manner calculated to produce specific cognitive and/or emotional effects on the target market." In other words, the working environment, library ambience, appearance of employees, the physical setting, lighting, work environment, noise levels, etc. These must be healthy and suitable to make a positive impact on users. Atmospheric considerations are often neglected in may libraries and information centers. It is not always a matter of extra cost but simply a matter of thoughtfully designing space in the library, placing of relevant guides to use, etc. This may help in attracting and maintaining users. 3. Advertising Advertising is important for promoting library services. A library can advertise its products and services in newspapers, scholarly journals, magazines, newsletters, radio, television, Web, etc. Advertisements help in image-building. They can be in a short message, or staff can write longer articles on new and existing library services. Librarians can appear on local radio and TV, highlighting the new role the libraries plays in the present era (Jaafar, 1998). There are a variety of ways of advertising online. Traditional print advertisements include brochures, pamphlets, newspaper advertisements, etc. 4. Brochure The design and presentation of brochures and leaflets should be aesthetic and attractive to users. The language should be simple and should hold the interest of the user. 5. Leaflets Leaflets include guides to the library and its special collections, Web guides, Reading list on IT, and so on. Other brochures can be kept in the library at a location which is placed so that anyone who enters the library is attracted to that corner. 6. Posters Posters offer good visual communication. They can draw attention when displayed at prominent locations and provide brief information about an event, service, etc. Old and defaced posters should be replaced on a regular basis. 7. Newsletters The library can convey information about new acquisitions, new services, events and activities, fee changes, etc. Information regarding library can be included to conveys a message to readers about the alertness of the library in updating and communicating small but important pieces of information. In fact, they are an excellent marketing tool because they list all the activities of a library. With ICT facilities in the library, an e-newsletter can be produced. The text of the newsletter can also be included on the library website. 8. Extension activities Activities such as book displays, lectures, quiz, debates, seminars, competitions, exhibitions, etc., can have a positive impact on the image of the library and can motivate people to come to the library and promote the use of its products and services. 9. Library Tour Library tour for new and existing members can be used to promote the library services. While on a library tour, users can be prompted to ask questions and find out more about new activities, products, and services. 10. Library Month/Day Organizing national library day/month can be an effective way to promote the library. A library can create awareness of its importance in society. 11. Promoting in Electronic Environment Libraries, especially in large cities like Delhi, and Bombay use ICT tools in designing, developing, and disseminating services to satisfy their users. They also use ICT to promote their products and services. ICT-based channels include library websites and email. 12. Websites Libraries websites can be accessed by users at any time.The websites contain details about the library, including the collection, subscriptions, service policy, terms and conditions, etc. It may also have graphics and multimedia advertising that can have an impact on visitors. The library webite should be contiuously updated to avoid an adverse effect the image of the library. The website can also be interactive so users can communicate with staff. For this purpose, a directory of staff members should be posted on the website (Mahajan and Chakravarty, 2007). 13. Electronic Mail/Mailshots According to Natarajan (2002), e-mail is the most universal application on the Internet and it can be used for direct communication with potential users. There are many benefits to using email as a promotional tool. Mailshots are an effective medium that create personalized services, with information about library activities and events, membership renewal (Singh and Krishan Kumar, 2005). 14. Bulletin Board This is an offshoot of email and is a many-to-many email system. It is medium for messages of interest to a community of online users (Moorthy and Karisiddappa, 2000). This service can be used by libraries for disseminating information to online users. 15. Newsgroups Libraries can use newsgroups or discussion groups to build awareness among its clientele. According to Moorthy and Karisiddappa, (2000) a message (an article) is posted to the entire newsgroup. Other interested persons can reply/comment on the message. The topic can range widely, but each group is confined to one subject. 16. E-commerce A library can also sell its products online through online charging and credit facilities. E-commerce has redefined the way business is conducted. Well-known bookstores around the world are offering their holdings over the Internet. For example, Blackwell maintains a database of more than 1.5 lakh active titles (Moorthy and Karisiddappa, 2000). Benefits of e-commerce include: • A very large customer base and that reaches many different countries. • Maintaining a website is relatively cheap, and results in reduced prices, more competition, current information, quick access and sales • Caters to the customers' wide and varied interests, saving travel time 17. Blogs Blogs are continuously-updated websites, created by individuals or organizations. They are generally free. A library can use blog.