Information Science

Introduction to Library & Information Studies LIS-505 February 22, 2010

Objectives

 To define information science  To explore the relationship between information science and librarianship  To review the arguments for and against information science as a discipline or profession 2

Information Science: Problems in Definition

  A matter of meaning – What is “information”? An ambiguous term Buckland (1991):    information as process - act of informing; communication of something information as knowledge - the “something” which has been communicated information as thing - object such as data or documents 3

Buckland (1991): Information-as Thing – Representation

 Information systems (e.g. IR and ‘expert’) can only deal with information directly as information-as-thing (i.e. physical representations of knowledge)  Representations of knowledge and of events are information-as-thing  Concept of evidence — passive — humans do things with it or to it (e.g. interpret it, describe it, etc.) 4

Representations: Buckland (1991)

 “If an object is not representative of something, then it is not clear how far it can signify anything, i.e., be informative” (p.355).

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I.S. Representations: Characteristics (Buckland, 1991)

      Somewhat incomplete—something of original is lost.

Made for convenience (e.g. easier to store, search, understand) Shift from event or object to text; text to text; object and texts to data Additional details may be added to the representation to inform or misinform Process of representation can continue indefinitely Usually briefer or smaller than whatever is being represented.

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And what do we mean by “science”?

 At pure science level purpose is to find out truth(s) of the matter studied.

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Information Science: Bates (1999)

 Information science studies the world of recorded information produced by human agency (‘fourth universe’).

 How humans produce, seek, retrieve and use this universe = intellectual domain of information science. 8

The Content of Form: Bates (1999)

 Applied IS focuses on form, organization and structure of information not with content.

 IS is a meta-discipline; Information is the “red thread” that runs through it.  “The average person, whether Ph.D. scholar or high school graduate, never notices the structure that organizes their information, because they are so caught up in absorbing and relating to the content” (p. 1045).

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The Content of Form: Bates (1999)

 “…at first it feels alien to think about a resource in terms of the features that matter to the organization and retrieval of it, rather than in terms of mastering its content” (p. 1046).

 Underlines need for information expertise not subject expertise.

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Characteristics of Information Science: Bates (1999)

 Interdisciplinary.

 Closely linked to IT.

 Possessing a social and human dimension.

 Service and empowerment-oriented value system.

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Information Science: Griffiths (2000)

“Information science focuses on the relationship between people and recorded knowledge and uses a variety of tools to help understand and improve the relationship.” (p. 25)  People. By developing deeper understandings of people’s preferences and practices, helps in the design and delivery of improved processes and services for production, dissemination, receipt and use of recorded information.

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Information Science: Griffiths (2000)

 Recorded Knowledge. Better understanding of the structure of knowledge, format and medium used to communicate information content helps in the process of organization, dissemination and communication.

 Tools. Research into tools design, development and evaluation can improve relationship between people and recorded knowledge in its creation, capture, storage, preservation, identification, dissemination and use.

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IS: Field of practice and scientific inquiry

 Study of information to generate theoretical models (More on this next week!)  Development and implementation of models to enable the design of better information systems  Profession of providing an information

service

(Saracevic) 14

Do definitions matter?

“Debates over the ‘proper’ definitions of information science, as of any field, are fruitless, and in expectations naïve. Information Science, as a science and as a profession, is defined by the problems it has addressed and the methods it has used for their solutions over time” (Saracevic, 1999 p. 1051).

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Information Science : A More Recent Definition

 The systematic study and analysis of the sources, development, collections, organization, dissemination, evaluation, use, and management of information in all its forms, including the channels (formal and informal) and technology used in its communication.

Reitz, Joan. (2004). Dictionary for Library and Information Science. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited. p. 358. 16

The 3 Big IS Questions

 What are the features and laws of the recorded information universe?

 How do people seek and use information?

 How can access to recorded information be made most rapid and effective?

(Bates) 17

Information Science: Content

   Information use and users Information organization Information systems    Human-computer interaction (HCI) Information retrieval (IR) Evaluation    Information services Information dissemination Bibliometrics 18

Information Science: Content

 Saracevic: Two clusters of study in Information Science (as shown by a bibliometric analysis, 1998)  One cluster: Information analysis  This includes: Content analysis of texts, communication, information uses, information behavior  Second cluster: Retrieval  This includes: User studies of IT, library systems, OPACS, IR theory, retrieval algorithms, HCI 19

Information Science: Supporters of I.S. distinct from Library Science

 IS cannot be equated with documentation, information retrieval, librarianship or with anything else. Information science is not souped up IR or librarianship any more than physics is supercharged engineering. (Rees & Saracevic)  Librarianship and documentation are applied aspects of information science; techniques and procedures used by librarians and documentalists are, or should be, based upon the theoretical findings of information science. (Borko).

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Information Science: Opponents

 It is quite evident that information science is rooted in attempts to extend the boundaries of library technology and give it revived respectability by endowing it with a unique name (Shera).

 Efforts to tease apart the disciplinary domains of library science and information science have been unsuccessful; they have arisen more from discontent with the status quo than from adequate cognitive claims, usually by non-librarians discontented with librarianship (Schrader).

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Information Science: Compromisers

 Library and information science represent “a disciplinary continuum …with no easily identifiable boundary separating them, though the difference between the extreme ends of the continuum are clear and even dramatic” (Rayward)  Librarianship and practical information science both have in common an information perspective, even though they have very different histories (Bates) 22

What’s in a Name?

    Names of Programs Names of Departments Names of Journals Names of Associations Convergence or Divergence?

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New names for old ideas?

    Information studies Information systems Information management Knowledge management The debate continues……………….

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15 MINUTES

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Knowledge Management

Introduction to Library & Information Studies LIS-505 Adapted from a presentation by Dr. K. Dalkir, School of Information Studies McGill University, Montreal, Quebec

General Introduction to KM

 KM is a relatively new discipline that has emerged from business practitioners to form a new discipline of study  KM is extremely multidisciplinary in nature  KM is full of people from highly diverse backgrounds  KM is a “work in progress” – it has not yet matured into a well defined profession such as engineering, medicine and law 27

A brief history of KM

YEAR

1986 1989 1991 1993 1994 1997

ENTITY

Dr. K Wiig Consulting Firms HBR article Dr. K Wiig KM Network Consulting Firms

EVENT

Coined KM concept at UN Start internal KM projects Nonaka & Takeuchi First KM book published First KM Conference First KM services for clients 28

Why do we need KM?

   It was easy to do in the past - - “coffee cliques”, smoker’s gathering, water coolers….

Traditionally, we have shared knowledge through ‘word of mouth’ (e.g. master to apprentice) socializing comes ‘naturally’ to us, there are fewer opportunities in today’s much larger, much more global companies 29

Today’s Working Environment

Multi-site Multi-lingual Multi-cultural

More Global More & Faster KM More Mobile More Connected

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Increasing Complexity

 Today’s work environment is more complex due to an increase in the number of

subjective

knowledge items we need to attend to everyday  Filtering over 200 emails, faxes, voicemail messages on a daily basis – how to prioritize?

 Having to “think on our feet” as expected response time has greatly decreased as well  KM is a response to the challenge of trying to manage this complexity amidst information overload  A “science of complexity” 31

Thanks to Felicity Tayler for the figure

What is KM? A definition:

 Knowledge management (KM):  The systematic capture, organization, leveraging and dissemination of an organization’s knowledge (tacit and explicit) to improve the efficiency and adaptivity of teams and to promote innovation 33

• • •

More definitions…

KM is the systematic, explicit and deliberate building, renewal and application of knowledge to maximize an enterprise’s knowledge-related effectiveness and returns from

knowledge assets

(K. Wiig) KM is the process of capturing a company’s collective

expertise

wherever it resides: in databases, on paper, in people’s heads – and distributing it to wherever it can help produce the biggest payoff. (Hibbard) KM is getting the right knowledge to the right people at the right time so they can make the best

decision

(Petrash) 34

   

Even more KM Definitions…

It is the attempt to recognize what is essentially a depends (Prusak)

human

asset buried in the minds of individuals, and leverage it into an organizational asset that can be accessed and used by a broader set of individuals on whose decisions the firm KM applies systematic approaches to find, understand and use knowledge to create

value

(O ’ Dell) KM is the

explicit

control and management of knowledge within an organization aimed at achieving the company ’ s objectives (van der Spek) KM is the formalization of and access to

experience

enable superior performance, encourage

innovation

, knowledge, and expertise that create new capabilities, and enhance customer value (Beckman) 35

KM addresses two different forms of knowledge:

Tacit Knowledge Explicit Knowledge 80-85% active files 15-20% passive

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Tacit Knowledge

 Difficult to articulate – to put into words, text, drawings  “We have a habit of writing articles published in scientific journals to make the work as finished as possible, to cover up all the tracks, to not worry about the blind alleys or how you had the wrong idea at first, and so on. So there isn’t any place to publish, in a dignified manner, what you actually did in order to do the work.” (Richard Feynman) “We know more than we can tell”

(Michael Polanyi)

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The Nonaka-Takeuchi Model of Knowledge Management

“In an economy where the only certainty is uncertainty, the one sure source of lasting competitive advantage is knowledge.”

I. Nonaka

 The authors studied successful Japanese companies to understand how they achieved creativity and innovation  Metaphors, slogans, symbols and serendipity 39

KM occurs at 3 levels:

   Individual Group/team  “community of practice” Organization 40

Four Knowledge Transformations

Tacit Explicit Tacit Explicit

LIS-505 February 21, 2009 41

Tacit

Knowledge sharing

Tacit

Socialisation

Brainstorming Team work Mentorship

Explicit

Externalisation

Capture Make tangible

Explicit

Internalisation

: Comprehension Learning

Combination:

Organisation Classification

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The KM Cycle

Tacit Explicit Tacit Create and Share Explicit Acquire and Apply Capture and Codify Classify and Organize

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KM has already gone through 3 generations:

 1 st  Generation: “if we only knew what we know” IT  2 nd  Generation: “if we only knew who knows about….” PEOPLE  3 rd  Generation: “if we could only organize our knowledge….” CONTENT 44

ICM vs Knowledge Management*

Knowledge Management

•Lots of content – archiving •Documents - warehousing •Search engines needed •$$$ needed •Frustrating to find anything

*1 st and 2 nd generation KM

Intellectual Capital Management

•Minimum content – only that of value •People’s real thinking - stories •Sharing and reuse of best practices •Actionable knowledge & know-how •Less $$$ needed 45

Intellectual Capital Management

MANAGE CONTENT MANAGE CONNECTIONS MANAGE TALENT

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KM Link to Information Professionals

 Knowledge Organization  Traditionally, Library and Information Science has focused on the organization of explicit knowledge  Books, documents  This scope needs to be enlarged to include tacit knowledge – all intellectual assets at 3 levels:    Individual Group (“community of practice”) Organization (corporate/organizational memory)  Analogy: statisticians and data mining …………librarians and knowledge management 47