Examines reasons that prompted the current shift from information to knowledge processing, encompassing both social contextualization and the recent technological advance. Discusses knowledge production, viewed as a five-step process. The highly interdisciplinary perspective and the primacy of the user are distinguished as necessary prerequisites…

For over seven decades, library history in Russia has been considered a Soviet branch of science known as the "history of librarianship" and it has been isolated from the world science community. This article examines the degree to which Russian library historians have been isolated from this community and their initial results in…

Describes the merging field of informetrics in a historical perspective as a generalization of bibliometrics, combining advanced information retrieval theories and methodologies with the quantitative study of information flow. Explains programs at the Center for Information Studies at the Royal School of Library and Information Science in…

Discusses the development of descriptive standards in the international archival community, then focuses on the "International Standards for Archival Description (General)" ("ISAD(G)") and its second edition. Discusses principles of archival description, the International Council on Archives, and the main characteristics of…

An analysis of publication types and the use of citations in studies of library and information science (LIS) program quality suggests that publication types should be differentiated, that book publication is important, and that the role of humanities-oriented faculty may be lost without attention to book production. Presents a formula for LIS…

In an age of specialists, Robert Saxon Taylor has been one of the great generalists in the theory and practice of information transfer and use. This sidebar discusses his seminal scholarly contributions, influence on students and senior colleagues alike, memberships and chairmanships, tenure as dean (1972-1981) and professor at what became the…

A new approach to information science, activity theory emphasizes the centrality of practice as doing and activity and foregrounds setting and context as essential orienting concepts. It can provide information science with a rich, unifying, and heuristically valuable vocabulary and conceptual framework that will facilitate the continual…

It is widely predicted that the application of high-throughput technologies to the quantification and identification of biological molecules will cause a paradigm shift in the life sciences. However, if the biosciences are to evolve from a predominantly descriptive discipline to an information science, practitioners will require enhanced skills in…

John Swales's 1986 article "Citation analysis and discourse analysis" was written by a discourse analyst to introduce citation research from other fields, mainly sociology of science, to his own discipline. Here, I introduce applied linguists and discourse analysts to citation studies from information science, a complementary tradition not…

Competitive Intelligence (CI) has become an attractive concept for Library and Information Science professionals, as information and research functions have become commoditized by end users, and financial, competitive, and performance pressures increase the need to demonstrate value. In the current competitive and cost-cutting environment,…

The purpose of this study was to explore and investigate the ways faculty at The School of Information Studies at Syracuse University use Networked Information Sources and Services to support their service tasks. Library and Information Sciences faculty were chosen as the population for this study. The study aimed to answer the following…

The authors address the role of computer support for building conceptual self-awareness--that is, enabling students to think outside of concept boundaries in hope of enhancing creative potential. Based on meta-cognition theory, we developed an integrated concept mapping system (ICMSys) to improve users' conceptual self-awareness in addition to…

The recent literature on college and university library instruction largely focuses on undergraduate and, more specifically, first-year students. During a review, the author found that discussion of graduate students in library and information science literature is dominated by studies of information behavior and much less often on instruction…

Schools of Library and Information Science (LIS) have often promoted alternative careers as a marketing tool and some students enrol in LIS schools specifically to explore alternative careers. The literature on LIS career patterns continues to suggest that those non-traditional careers are desirable and viable alternatives. Yet the survey research…

This paper offers a multi-perspective view on engineering education at RWTH Aachen University: curriculum design, examples of newly developed teaching methods for engineering curricula, and teaching competencies and teacher qualification. It is based on the theories of student-centred learning, project learning, social skills, etc., but the paper…