The image of the librarian has changed much since the first librarian's positions at Ivy League schools in the mid- to late-17th Century. The purpose of this paper is to explore the history and origins of male and female stereotypes of librarians as well as generational stereotypes. Stereotypes in the literature of the field were explored and…

Proposes that university education for library and information professionals has become less autonomous in character and more systematized. A triangular model which describes a dynamic tension between professors, students, and the state is developed by further analysis of the state and higher education. Concludes that despite the pressures within…

One aspect of a wider ongoing longitudinal study of "Research and researchers in school librarianship" is discussed here. Research articles and conference papers published in English over the ten-year period 1991 to 2000 in the field of school librarianship were analysed to identify the country of the research, the type of publication in…

Criticisms of library and information science (LIS) research abound and most focus on method, in the broad sense. This article examines the discourse on LIS from the standpoint of rhetoric and argument. Rhetorical and argumentative strategies are used in almost all formal communication, and these strategies themselves communicate purpose and point…

Examines the role of theory in information science. (PF)

Paper presented at the Curriculum Committee Workshop, American Society for Information Science, University of Pittsburgh, September, 1968.

The communication revolution and the impact it will have on the public library are discussed. (AP)

A past president of the American Society for Information Science discusses the past and present status of the organization and the field of information science and the advantages and problems resulting from the interdisciplinary composition of the field. (CLB)

Deduces the fundamental phenomena of information science, starting from two premises: that information science is a problem-oriented discipline concerned with the effective transfer of desired information from human generator to human user, and that the single notion common to all concepts of information now extant is that of change of structure.…

A number of basic terms have been selected as the starting point for a project of defining terms which are important in communicating about computer and information science. (14 references) (Author/SJ)

The citations appearing in two recent comprehensive bibliographies in information science and technology are reviewed, and a comparison is made with bibliographies dating back to 1962. Some conclusions are drawn concerning the development and current state of information science. (5 references) (Author)

Classification is interpreted so as to incorporate all attempts at the imposition of order upon our observations of the universe. In this article, the fundamental bases of classification are examined: in particular the alien notions of mutual exclusivity and the use of inflexible structures to mirror a dynamic universe. (26 references) (Author/KE)

Several bibliometric techniques previously applied to separate scientific literatures were used together in the analysis of a single corpus of journal articles relating to information science. Techniques included were: Bradford Analysis, epidemic analysis, identification of research front, and bibliographic coupling. (16 references) (Author)

Discusses knowledge communities and emphasizes the way that the epistemology of science influences scientific society. Topics include positivist and nonpositivist discourses; knowledge creation and organization; a sociological approach to knowledge communities; social epistemology and an epistemological sociology; and implications for information…

Introduces Michel Foucault's "Archaeology of Knowledge" as a way of addressing Wayne Wiegand's charges of problems in the discipline of library and information science. Highlights include a discussion of discursive formations, or the ways in which a collection of texts are organized with respect to each other; and history as a discursive…