Studying Information

Michael SeadleBerlin School of Library & Information Science

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

There was a time when paper-based products dominated the information world, but paper is fragile and hard to transport.

Early data processing devices were paper-based.The transformation away from print-based media began in the 19th century with telegraph and telephone, followed by radio and television. The recording media were flawed and libraries showed limited interest.

The Horizon 2020 program of the European Union (2013) calls for:

“Formal education for emerging professions of infrastructure operators, research technologists (including those possessing computational skills, e.g. in parallel programming), data scientists or "data librarians" ....”

Library schools began transforming themselves into “information” schools in the 1990s. They saw both an opportunity to grow in the digital environment and a threat as paper declined in importance.

The nature of the education at these schools has also changed.

The iSchools have become highly interdisciplinary “with a formal commitment to research and the interdisciplinary study of information in the life of people, society and culture.” (Dillon, 2012)

The set of disciplines in information schools varies widely and typically includes:

● computing, ● ethnography,● sociology,● psychology, ● economics ● linguistics,● history, ● law, ● cultural studies,● statistics.

Most of our iSchool students will never be professional programmers, but they need to be able to communicate with computing professionals.

This matters especially for areas like long term digital archiving.

Ethnography is particularly important for user studies. The work of Nancy Foster on “Studying Students” has been particularly influential, as was the earlier work of Bonnie Nardi about “Information Ecologies”.

The role of law is increasingly important, not just because of author rights and open access. Orphan words are a key issue in access. So are conflicting international regulations, especially regarding databases and privacy rights.

History -- genuine history, not antiquarian studies -- supplies the context for both information itself and behavior toward information and information resources.

Statistics are an element of basic literacy today. Anyone managing a cultural institution needs to understand basic descriptive statistics. With inferential statistics, it is possible to draw conclusions on the basis of data.

In conclusion:Studying information today is an academic discipline, not training program for people working in libraries or other cultural institutions. Today information science scholars and practitioners play an active intellectual role. The era of librarians as servants is past.

References

Dillon, A., 2012. What it means to be an iSchool. Journal of Education in Library and Information Science 53, 267–273.

European Commission, Horizon 2020, 2013, “Support to innovation, human resources, policy and international cooperation”, Available online.

Questions

Contact information

Prof. Dr. Michael Seadle

Room 03 in the SekretariatDorotheenstr 26, Berlin

seadle (at) ibi.hu-berlin.de

030 2093 4249

Sept 2013