Education curricula need constant updates in response to job market requirements, which may be influenced by the changing technological environment. In the library and information science (LIS) job market there are dynamics brought about by the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). These dynamics call for LIS schools to reconsider their curricula in…

This essay urges a broadening of the discourse of library and information science (LIS) to address the convergence of forces shaping the information environment. It proposes adopting a model from the field of science studies that acknowledges the interdependence and coevolution of social, cultural, and material phenomena. Digital archives and…

This article explores whether technical communicator is a useful model for electronic resources (ER) librarians. The fields of ER librarianship and technical communication (TC) originated and continue to develop in relation to evolving technologies. A review of the literature reveals four common themes for ER librarianship and TC. While the…

An Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) funded National Forum Planning Grant "Envisioning Our Information Future and How to Educate for It" brought together a diverse group of stakeholders to lay the framework for re-visioning LIS education. This article describes three take-aways from the 2015 forum: encourage wide…

In today's technological world, school librarians planning to be leaders should be ready to keep up with advances in standards significant to the profession. The professional standards, specifically American Association of School Librarians (AASL) Standards and International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Standards for Coaches offer…

Library and information science is a technologically intensive profession with a high percentage of women, unlike computer science and other male-dominated fields. On the occasion of the 2011 ALISE conference, this essay analyzes the theme "Competitiveness and Innovation" through a review of social psychology and science and technology…

In a comparative field study of ten libraries, we show how technological advances in electronic and digital resources have led to an onslaught of technology questions at the reference desk while prompting new and challenging work away from the desk. Libraries in our sample varied in their approaches to dealing with technological change, with…

Attempts to assess the influence of the web upon our intellectual and imaginative capacities have resulted in a steady stream of commentary and debate. Although the subject has been approached from a variety of perspectives, the analyses often share a lexicon of transformation, of upheaval, of the unprecedented or the inexorable. This can be true…

This study which is based on the Technological Acceptance Model (TAM), seeks to explore whether librarians and LIS students are familiar with the newest technological innovations and whether they are ready to accept them. The research was conducted in Israel during the first and second semesters of the 2012 academic year and considered two…

What is the relative importance of current and emerging technologies in school library media programs? In order to answer this question, in Fall 2007 the authors administered a survey to 1,053 school library media specialists (SLMSs) throughout the state of Pennsylvania. As a part of the MSLS degree with Library Science K-12 certification, Clarion…

Addresses three issues of library science in the United States during the 20th century: (1) use of European documentation efforts; (2) the "information science versus library science" argument; and (3) technological innovation in librarianship. Also examines the role of technology in library science at the University of Chicago's…

A potential long range role for information science involves active participation in forming a complete suprasystem of knowledge which would unify the arts, sciences and professions. (Author/MM)

Emphasis on the information science field has grown in the past several decades because of five interrelated factors: time scale changes, changes in quantity of available information, changes in nature of information requirements, changes in importance of information sources, and an increase in the number of information processing agencies. The…

This article examines fiber optic technology, explains some of the key terminology, and speculates about the way fiber optics will change our world. Applications of fiber optics to library systems in three major areas--linkage of a number of mainframe computers, local area networks, and main trunk communications--are highlighted. (EJS)

Arguing that librarianship is an institutionalized profession (i.e., the library, rather than the librarian, has been the focus of attention), this essay notes the process of deinstitutionalization (information brokers, effect of computer technology), the future of the librarian, and education for the profession. Nine footnotes are given. (EJS)