In this short paper, avowedly personal, partial and pointillist in nature, I (i) sketch the early days of (mainly Anglo-American) information studies and the field's gradual institutionalization, (ii) describe its maturation, as both an academic discipline and a domain of professional practice, and (iii) speculate on its future in the light of oft…

Considers the historic and contemporary import of Pierce Butler's "An Introduction to Library Science". Characterizes the content of each chapter and critically analyses the central theses. Relates Butler's positivistic premises, assumptions and conclusions to the congeries of competing epistemological and ideological standpoints that defines…

Argues that the phrase "library science" is an oxymoron and that the term "librarianship" is correct. Suggests that library science and information science are now completely different fields. An information access model is proposed that can be used as a vehicle for unification and integration. (JMV)

An analysis of the acknowledgments accompanying scholarly articles in 4 information and library science journals over a 20-year period showed that a small number of individuals are acknowledged frequently whereas most individuals are infrequently acknowledged. A positive correlation between frequency of acknowledgments and citations was found.…

Deans/directors at top-ranked library and information science (LIS) programs in North America are assessed in terms of their scholarly salience. Citation analysis suggests that most LIS deans are not scholars of note. No correlation was found between decanal citation counts and programmatic rankings. (Author)