Library and information science

Library and information science (LIS) is the study of issues related to libraries. This includes academic studies (most often surveys) about how library resources are used and how people interact with library systems. These studies tend to be specific to certain libraries at certain times. The organization of knowledge for efficient retrieval of relevant information is also a major research goal of LIS. Basic topics in library science include the acquisition, classification and preservation of library materials. In a more present-day view, a fervent outgrowth of LIS is information architecture. LIS should not be confused with information theory, the mathematical study of the concept of information.

Library science is distinct from librarianship, which is the practical services rendered by librarians in their day-to-day attempt to meet the needs of library patrons. Librarianship tends not to create new knowledge, nor to strive to advance any field or discipline. Librarians only rarely engage in library science, and then usually outside their jobs as librarians. But the study of library science is part of the requisite training of librarians.

The term library and information science should not be broken into these separate pieces. Library and information science is a hybrid academic field that grew from library schools' fight for survival in the electronic age. The politics of academia, issues of status and prestige, issues of perceived obsolescence and other forces created these programs. Programs in library and information science are interdisciplinary, overlapping with the fields of systems' analysis, computer science, statistics and various parts of the social sciences.

The field of library and information science is not defined by its output of information specialists, but by the "information specialists" who remain in academia teaching and doing research, by its literature, its journals and all the other ways in which an academic discipline is defined, the study of which, by the way, falls within the scope of library and information science!

Important LIS institutions and resources:

Digital Library of Information Science and Technology, http://dlist.sir.arizona.edu/
The National Information Standards Organization
Indiana University SLIS, http://www.slis.indiana.edu/
Syracuse University, School of Information Studies, http://www.ist.syr.edu/
University of Michigan School of Information, http://www.si.umich.edu/
University of Pittsburgh School of Information Sciences, http://www2.sis.pitt.edu/
University of California Berkeley School of Information Management & Systems, http://sims.berkeley.edu/
University of Washington Information School, http://www.ischool.washington.edu/
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Information and Library Science, http://www.ils.unc.edu/
University of North Texas School of Library and Information Sciences, http://www.unt.edu/slis/
Dominican University (River Forest, IL) http://www.dom.edu/gslis/gslis.html
University of Illinois Graduate School of Library and Information Science, http://alexia.lis.uiuc.edu/
University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Library and Information Studies, http://www.uri.edu/artsci/lsc/
Simmons College Graduate School of Library & Information Science, http://www.simmons.edu/gslis/
University of Arizona School of Information Resources and Library Science, http://www.sir.arizona.edu/
OCLC (Online Computer Library Center), http://www.oclc.org/
American Library Association, http://www.ala.org/
Canadian Library Association, http://www.cla.ca/
Australian Library and Information Association, http://www.alia.org.au/
American Society for Information Science and Technology, http://www.asis.org/
International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), http://www.ifla.org

Some current LIS issues:

childhood internet protection act
information explosion
information retrieval
Library Instruction
knowledge management
reference sources
information storage
information literacy
slow fires
mass deacidification
information architecture
public lending right
Patriot Act

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In the News

Mapping heart disease: Researchers uncover genes that may dramatically
Studying Drosophila (fruit flies), an international team investigated 7,061 genes and built a detailed map that shows how a portion of these genes contribute to heart function and disease. Importantly, the researchers identified many genes that had not previously been associated with heart disease.

New technique uses zebrafish behavior to screen for useful compounds:
A robust new technique for screening drugs' effects on zebrafish behavior is pointing scientists toward unexpected compounds and pathways that may govern sleep and wakefulness in humans. Among their more intriguing findings: Various anti-inflammatory agents in the immune system, long known to induce sleep during infection, may also shape normal sleep/wake cycles.

Building A Better Qubit: Combining Six Photons Avoids Quantum Data Scr
The qubits thatcarry quantum information are typically fragile, but a new method of combing six photons leads to robust qubits that are immune to many of the effects that threaten to scramble quantum data.

New Electron Microscopy Images Reveal The Assembly Of HIV
Researchers provide the as yet closest look at the structure of immature HIV Scientists have produced a three-dimensional reconstruction of HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus), which shows the structure of the immature form of the virus at unprecedented detail.

Uncovering DNA's 'Sweet' Secret
How nature arrived at the final structure of DNA has been a long-standing mystery. Recently, Vanderbilt University Medical Center researcher Martin Egli and colleagues reported the X-ray crystal structure of homo-DNA, an artificial analog of DNA containing a six-carbon sugar in the backbone instead of the usual five-carbon sugar. The structure provides key insights into why nature might have 'preferred' the five-carbon sugars.

Mayo Clinic Researchers Redefining How Heart Functions
Contrary to the widely accepted explanation that the human heart is simply a pump, Mayo Clinic researchers have uncovered novel findings on how cardiac muscle operates. The findings will appear in the Jan. 3, 2006, issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Reactor Upgrades Help Researchers Study Nuclear Fusion As Energy Sourc
For about six months of the year, bursts of a hot, electrically charged gas, or plasma, swirl around a donut-shaped tube in a special MIT reactor, helping scientists learn more about a potential future energy source: nuclear fusion. During downtimes when the reactor is offline, as it is right now, engineers make upgrades that will help them achieve their goal of making fusion a viable energy source--a long-standing mission that will likely continue for decades.

Discovery That Bacterium Is Phosphate Gourmet Key Clue To What Makes I
New research into one of the world's most social bacteria - Myxococcus xanthus, has discovered that it has a gourmet style approach to its consumption of phosphates, which provides a key clue to what makes it the most "social"of bacteria.

Hairy Roots Show Potential As Biofactories For Medicines, Commercial P
Scientists are reporting an advance towards tapping the immense potential of 'hairy roots'as natural factories to produce medicines, food flavorings and other commercial products. The new research makes use of structures formed by a common soil bacterium that infects plants and incorporates its own DNA into the plant's genome. By inserting a specific gene into the bacterium, researchers can integrate that gene into the host's DNA. Eventually, the host plant develops a system of fuzzy roots near the site of the infection.

Open Access Overview
"This is an introduction to open access (OA)."OA "literature is digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions. OA removes price barriers (subscriptions, licensing fees, pay-per-view fees) and permission barriers (most copyright and licensing restrictions)."Also includes a timeline, links to a blog and a newsletter, and links to related information. From a former professor of philosophy at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana.

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