Analyzes socioeconomic environment of libraries for the next 10 to 20 years and indicates how forecasts are likely to change traditional professional activities. A review of librarianship and information science literature on future of information profession is included and main trends of thought are identified. Twenty-two references are listed.…

An on-line bibliographic search on evaluating computerized bibliographic data bases and systems, which was performed in the ERIC data base, led the authors to recommend several aspects of online searching for more relevant search results in library and information science literature. (Author/JD)

Examines the development of undergraduate library and information science education at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth in the context of educational change in the United Kingdom from 1967 through 1997. Discusses the joint honors program, the merger of the College of Librarianship Wales and the University College of Wales, and distance…

When library education was institutionalized at universities, it pursued a social scientific path of disciplinary growth; objectivity and neutrality became ideals of library education. A different conception of social science provides the basis for recent challenges to the library and information science profession's traditional perception of…

Discussion of the value of knowledge about the history of library science in the formation of professional identity focuses on a survey that was designed to provide data about the patterns of research that characterize a group of library historians concerned with biography. Barriers to biographical research are examined. (32 references) (LRW)

Describes discourse analysis as practiced by Michel Foucault and his followers as a research method in library and information science. The method is introduced, some examples of its use are suggested, and several research questions are posed. The method permits analysis of the ways information, its uses, and its users are discursively…

Discusses S.R. Ranganathan's five laws (books are for use, every book its reader, every reader his or her book, save the time of the reader, the library is a growing organism) and updates them (libraries serve humanity, respect all forms of knowledge, use technology intelligently to enhance service, protect free access to knowledge, honor the past…

This chronological bibliography of writings (1967-1999) by A.J. Meadows, astronomer, historian of science, and information scientist, is restricted to papers and book reviews on library and information science, publishing and scientific communication. It excludes works on the history of science and astronomy. It aims at completeness, though some…

This sidebar points out that the field of library and information science is highly centrifugal and greatly in need of high-quality synthesis. Suggests that encouragement should be given to writers to handle existing claims, rather than gather new data, and that books should be written that organize whole segments of the field through some single…

Describes different conceptual foundations and orientations of the two major approaches to metadata: bibliographic-control approach (origins and major proponents in library science); and data-management approach (origins and major proponents in computer science). Examination of efforts to establish metadata standards and comparison of different…

Presents these special reports: "Information Age Dilemma: Filtering the Internet for Young People"; "KALIPER: A Look at Library and Information Science Education at the Turn of a New Century"; "Copyright 1998: Recalibrating the Balance"; "Library Networking and Cooperation in 1998". (AEF)

Presents results from a survey on the current state of digital library education in academic institutions. Examines the rationale and orientation for digital library education. Suggests several models that have emerged in the teaching of digital libraries and in incorporation of relevant topics into various curricula. (AEF)

Examines the status and scope of informetrics. Research in the field is selectively reviewed, drawing mainly from journal articles in English that have been published since the "ARIST" review of bibliometrics by H.D White & McCain (1989). Greater prominence is given to the informetric laws than to other topics. Finally, some very…

This paper examines the postgraduate student body studying by distance learning within the Department of Information Studies at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. The demands of both students and employers have been the chief influences on the evolution of the specialist postgraduate programmes and also the later generalist and further…

Content analysis was performed on the top six core journals for 1990 in library and information science to determine the extent of research in the field. Articles (n=186) were examined for descriptive or inferential statistics and separately for the presence of mathematical models. Results show a marked (14%) increase in research for 1990,…