A demonstration, evolved during the teaching of information science courses in graduate library schools, of how Fairthorne's theory can aid in systematizing the analysis and improvement of library operations. (Author/PF)

The impact of cybernetics on information science occurs chiefly through the concepts of variety, the law of requisite variety, and theory of transformations. Through these it pervades every aspect of information science. However, other basic sciences such as physics, biology, psychology are in their spheres equally pervasive, and information…

Goffman's epidemic theory is presented and compared to the contagion theory developed by Menzel. An attempt is made to compare the two models presented and examine their similarities and differences. The conclusion drawn is that the two models are very similar in their approach to understanding communication processes. (14 references) (Author/SJ)

An essay on books in library collections, the wholeness or meaning with which they are infused and the place of the library in today's society is offered by the former Librarian of Congress. (KE)

Reviews applications of information theory to biology, concluding that they have not proved very useful. Suggests modifications and extensions to increase the biological relevance of the theory, and speculates about applications in quantifying cell proliferation, chemical homeostasis and aging. (EB)

Introduces this special issue on the theory and foundations of information retrieval by discussing the growth of non-library items, the issues of speed and precision in automated retrieval, the differences between document and data retrieval, the scope and foundations of information retrieval, and the future of the field. (JD)

The imminent societal imperative, management of knowledge as a social resource, appears to be a viable new framework for defining major roles and tasks for theory-oriented work in information science. (Author)

An estimation of Merleau-Ponty's existential phenomenology applied to rhetoric. (CH)

An experiment concerned with presentation formats for Dialectic Information Systems (DIS) is described. The experiment investigates the effects of explicit DIS training on an individual's world view. (Author/PF)

A study was made to derive an equation for predicting the "subjective" textual information contained in a text of material written in the English language. Specifically, this investigation describes, by a mathematical equation, the relationship between the "subjective" information content of written textual material and the relative number of…

The concept of information is examined within the framework of the Mathematical Theory of Communication and semiotics, the study of signs and sign systems. The implications of these theories for the better understanding of information as we deal with this concept in the context of information systems are discussed. (8 references) (Author)

Entropies of surrogates such as citations, abstracts, first paragraphs, last paragraphs, and first and last paragraphs are measures of how well each class of surrogates predicts relevancy of documents. They are measures of meaningful information in the text of surrogates. Such measures of information are important to information system designers.…

This paper reviews research findings related to color and how it affects perception and retention of information. From the literature it appears colors have varying degrees of value as cues or aids to memory of stimulus information and difference appears to exist between colors as they interact in informational materials. (21 references)…