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Loading... Introduction to Information Scienceby David Bawden
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The second edition of this definitive text gives a comprehensive overview of all aspects of the subject, bringing it up-to-date with analysis of the changes in the information environment, now largely digital, and their implication for the discipline and professions. Its approach is rooted in the philosophical, theoretical, and conceptual foundations of the subject and in particular in Floridi's ideas of the fourth revolution, hyperhistory, and onlife. The theory-practice relationship is strongly emphasised throughout, and the extensive literature coverage makes this a valuable sourcebook. This second edition is extensively revised, with largely new text, illustrations, and resources, and offers a global perspective.The main topics covered include: foundations: philosophies, theories, concepts, ethics, and historical perspectives organising, retrieving, and analysing information and data information behaviour, domain analysis, and digital literacies digital technologies, information systems, and information management information research methods and informetrics changing modes of information communication, and information society the nature and future of the information disciplines and professions. This book will be a standard text for students of library and information disciplines, including information science, librarianship, information and knowledge management, archives and records management, and digital humanities. It will also serve as an introduction for those beginning research in these areas, and as a resource for thoughtful and reflective practitioners. No library descriptions found. |
LibraryThing AuthorDavid Bawden is a LibraryThing Author, an author who lists their personal library on LibraryThing. Current DiscussionsNonePopular covers
 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)020Information Library and Information Sciences Library ScienceLC ClassificationRatingAverage: (3.63)
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Wikipedia in English
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Alert readers will take note that the subject matter of this work is information science, as opposed to library science. The authors go to some lengths in order to draw this distinction in Chapter 1, “What is Information Science? Disciplines and Professions.” While acknowledging that this “field of study” (p. 4), due to its multidisciplinary nature, does not lend itself to tidy definitions, Bawden and Robinson nevertheless convey the scope of a cohesive body of knowledge. In 15 chapters, they clearly and concisely touch on such topics as historical background, the relationship between information and knowledge, domain analysis, informetrics and the philosophical underpinnings of these and still other matters.
As the title indicates, this is not meant to be a treatise, but an overview. The authors leverage the work of other practitioners, not only to advance their own arguments, but to condense their narrative considerably. A typical comment is “For a history of printing, see Twyman (1998)” (p. 27). Indeed, a distinguishing feature of this compact volume is the unusually extensive lists of references, which average 70 entries apiece, at the conclusion of each chapter. The most important of these have been culled and placed in a mini-bibliography, often with one-line annotations appended, in a section headed “Key Readings” (yes, information overload has been given its due within these pages). Other helpful features are epigraphs prefacing each chapter to provide context, subheadings that break the discussion into manageable units, text boxes containing other pertinent material, chapter summaries and, for those prone to skimming rather than reading, a summary-of-the-summary, which is a boxed, bulleted list of main points.
Overall, Bawden and Robinson have done a commendable job in achieving their stated goal “…to describe in outline, and to set into context, all the important topics within the information science discipline” (Preface, p. xiii). Quite an interesting and useful read for its intended audience of LIS students, current professionals will also find this work a great refresher. This book would be most appropriate for academic libraries, especially those that support LIS curricula, and is therefore highly recommended for purchase by those institutions. (