Visual literacy discussions and guidelines in LIS practice tend to be principle-driven concepts but are limited to an LIS discourse. In a casual tone, this paper reviews other expressions of what it means to be "informed" through visual means by using examples from literature, philosophy, and how end-users may think about visual…

This paper is a critical reconstruction of Luciano Floridi's view of librarianship as "stewardship of a semantic environment," a view that is at odds with the dominant tradition in which library and information science (LIS) is understood as social epistemology. Floridi's work helps to explain the normative dimensions of librarianship in…

In 1897, the University of Chicago Extension Division began offering what we today would call "bibliographic instruction" under the aegis of the Bureau of Information of the Illinois State Library Association. The program was expanded under university librarian Zella Allen Dixson, and by 1900 was designed to train librarians and library…

Librarians have long recognized the importance of privacy to intellectual freedom. As digital technology and its applications advance, however, efforts to protect privacy may become increasingly difficult. With some users behaving in ways that suggest they do not care about privacy and with powerful voices claiming that privacy is dead, librarians…

The authors develop a framework for addressing the question of truth in librarianship and in doing so attempt to move considerations of truth closer to the core of philosophical debates within the profession. After establishing ways in which philosophy contributes to social scientific inquiry in library science, the authors examine concepts of…

Michel Foucault (1926-84) is a primary thinker informing the construction of a critical theory of library and information science (LIS), or librarianship. He is widely cited and is adapted in various ways that focus on LIS forms of power, discourse, and so on. Others have addressed Foucault's topics, but he remains central. Librarianship has taken…

The excessive pragmatism of American librarians has thus far prevented them from formulating a defensible philosophy of librarianship because their knowledge problems cannot be resolved by action theory. Analysis of the metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics of librarianship shows that its realities consist of the invisible structure of thought,…

Librarianship and library and information science (LIS) have long struggled with an ongoing lack of a theoretical and epistemological basis. There have been renewed efforts to explore various theoretical and philosophical positions and their meaning for librarianship and LIS research. This article explores the framework that Jurgen Habermas offers…

Explains why 19th century bibliographic schemes are no longer adequate tools in the organization of materials and information in present day libraries. (Author/PF)

This monograph was written to answer questions about the essence of librarianship, the meaning of information, and the principles behind a desire for information transfer, preservation of older records, or creation of new ideas. The work is organized into three parts. Part I is titled "In Search of a Discipline: Toward a Science of Library…

According to this author, library classification should be viewed in its broader context of the classification of knowledge--the orderly arrangement of thoughts and things for convenient reference. This has been an activity of man since his earliest days, when primitive man first classified animals and plants in the interest of food. Philosophers,…

Clear formulation of library purpose and function aids economical and wise action, and attention to theoretical concepts provides a sense of continuity and unity to the profession as a whole. (17 references) (Author)

Illustrates various aspects of the practices of classification. (Author/PF)

This work supplements a previous work, "Philosophical Aspects of Library Information Science in Retrospect." It explores Library Information Science, which deals with the facilitation of recorded knowledge, the metalibrarianship encompassing the theoretical aspects of a broad range of recorded communications, and the philosophies…

Arguing that most writing on library and information service is empirical or devoted to reporting what happened, this paper attempts to promote conversation between the empiricists and the idealists or metaphysicians of library and information studies. The paper includes the following sections: (1) Professor Peter Kien and the Metaphysical Course…