The intellectual origins of information organization (IO) as a field of study are examined by tracing the use of the terms, "information organization", "knowledge organization", "bibliographic control", and their variants, and by surveying the educational texts dealing with the various component activities of IO,…

Introduction: Along with leading to growth in the numbers of people doing information work, the increasing role of information in our contemporary society has led to an explosion of new information professions as well. The labels for these fields can be confusing and overlapping, and what does and does not constitute an information profession has…

This paper is based on statistical and qualitative analysis of library and information science (LIS) literature. Our study asks the question of whether, and if so, how, and how often, the discourse generated by scholarly literature in LIS engages discussion about identity in LIS, what topics are covered, and whether the articles engage praxis, or…

Discusses the relationship and value of semiotics to the established domains of information science. Highlights include documentation; computer operations; the language of computing; automata theory; linguistics; speech and writing; and the written language as a unifying principle for the document and the computer. (93 references) (LRW)

Presents a theoretical model of documentation which strives to include all potential users and their varying information needs, including nonreaders, through an analysis of the system of documentation. (JVP)

Reviews the goals and methods of research and development in documentation, stressing research which aims to improve the communication between the information user and source. Research is discussed within the context of the documentation system rather than by specific results. (JVP)

Examines the work of Paul Otlet as a forerunner of hypertext and as a pioneer in the history of information science. Topics addressed include microtext systems; the Universal Decimal Classification (UDC); hypertext links, navigation, and the UDC; Offices of Documentation; multimedia; a universal network for documentation; user-centeredness; and…

Reviews different structures and techniques of knowledge representation: structure of database records and files, data structures in computer programming, syntatic and semantic structure of natural language, knowledge representation in artificial intelligence, and models of human memory. A prototype expert system that makes use of some of these…

This paper sets forth chronology of disciplinary names that have been used in scholarly literature over past 80 years to characterize information science and its antecedents--bibliography, documentation, scientific information, information retrieval, information science, informatics, bibliometrics. Future research needs are discussed. Related…

The establishment of the first documentation center in a library school early in 1955 by Jesse Shera, Dean of the Library School at Western Reserve University, has been widely interpreted as his greatest contribution to librarianship. It may have been his greatest folly, however, because information science has subsequently flooded the library…

Reviews literature that explains the status of Soviet information science education at the beginning of the 1990s. Topics addressed include ideological foundations of Soviet science policy; early Soviet documentation activities; centralized institutions for information science instruction; and the spread of information science instruction to…

This detailed report states that information and documentation services in Eastern and Southern African countries are expected to: (1) increase the efficiency of research, development, and training; (2) improve the efficiency and competitiveness of industry and technology, particularly of medium-sized and small concerns, by assisting professional…

Examines how users interact with text to devise a more effective information retrieval interface. Research in cognitive psychology and information science that relates to the use of metaphors and document categorization is reviewed, and an example of text organization and retrieval by historians is presented. (60 references) (LRW)

This state-of-the-art report presents the current IFLA position on library education and training and describes some of the experiences that occurred from 1980 to 1987 on which this position is based. These are: (1) IFLA-Unesco (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) pre-conference seminars held in Manila (1980),…

Discussion of the use of electronic publishing (EP) and computer-mediated communication (CMC) systems in higher education focuses on a system at Queen Margaret College, Edinburgh, called JIMMY. Its use by arts, business, health care, and management and information students and staff is described, and further developments are discussed. (23…