Information science

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
19th century artist's impression of the library of Alexandria.
Depiction of the Library of Alexandria . One of the earliest versions of the knowledge representation .

Information science examines information and knowledge . She deals with their presentation and representation in (mostly digital) systems and the search and find of relevant knowledge. In addition, the properties and behavior of information, the flow of information and the possibilities of information processing in natural and artificial systems are researched.

The importance of information as a dynamic process (active: informing; passive: being informed) and of knowledge as something static that is fixed in documents, digitally or as personal knowledge in people's heads is relevant for understanding information science . Information is therefore the active part of knowledge that is required in a specific situation.

Information science is systematically, thematically and methodologically closely linked to:

Information science is closely related to information technologies and their progress. Nevertheless, from an information science point of view, the user (and thus the social aspect) is the focus when considering the interface between people and systems.

history

According to Yen (2011), information science developed between 1950 and 1980 in three different areas:

Each of these "classic" areas of information science had their own ideas about what the term meant. It was only in 1990, with the increasing attention that the discipline received, that the areas began to connect with one another.

Illustration by Melvil Devey from 1891
Melville Louis Kossuth (Melvil) Dewey (December 10, 1851 - December 26, 1931) was an American librarian and inventor of the Dewey decimal classification .

Before 1950

At almost 50 years of age, information science is a relatively young discipline. Nevertheless, people thought about the targeted retrieval of information and the representation of knowledge beforehand. In the library, archive and documentation areas in particular, there was research with the aim of making documents more accessible through indexing. An example would be the Dewey decimal classification , which Melvin Dewey developed in 1876 and further developed in 1895 by Paul Otlet and Henri La Fontaine to form the universal decimal classification . Such classification systems are used to organize knowledge and make it easy to find again.

The term information science was used later. It gradually replaced the term documentation in many areas . Documentation is understood to mean "collecting, organizing and making usable or systematically retrieving documents of all kinds regardless of whether the associated documents are available."

1950-1974

The use of calculating machines and later computers as knowledge stores shifted the “bibliographic view of the automation of content indexing”. From 1960, information science began to develop from approaches in the USA, Europe and the Soviet Union. The term information science also established itself in the Federal Republic of Germany . The GDR used the term computer science, which was coined from the Soviet Union .

A replica of Sputnik 1 in the National Air and Space Museum in the United States.

The so-called " Sputnik shock " was a decisive factor in the expansion of the information system in the USA and later also in the FRG. On October 4, 1957, the USSR launched the first artificial earth satellite. It took the US 6 months and $ 30 million to decode the signals it was sending. It then turned out that the USSR had already published the codes in English and six American libraries had them in their possession from the start. This was one of the reasons why the 1963 Weinberg Report was published in the USA with proposals for improving the provision of information between science and the public. It was also published in Germany, but found little acceptance there, as the recommendations were viewed more as US domestic.

Nevertheless, documentation and information began to receive more and more political attention in the FRG. Numerous publications on the provision and communication of information were published which, among other things, were intended to improve performance in the fields of business, science and administration.

Library scientists in particular adopted the term "information science". To differentiate themselves from the computer scientists, they began to call their discipline "Library and Information Science" ( library and information science ).

In 1968 the American Documentation Institute changed its name to the American Society for Information Science . From this point on, many scientific areas began to replace the term documentation with information science . Reasons for the increasing interest in the term information science were on the one hand the interest in information technology , the increasing theoretical influence of the information theory of Claude Elwood Shannon and the interest of cognitive science in the processing of information.

1975-2000

The focus of information science shifted further “from bibliography, documentation and knowledge organization to applied, engineering research under the influence of artificial intelligence and computer science.” The rapid scientific progress in the field of information technology also made research more application-oriented.

2000 – present

In recent years, the theoretical side of information science in particular began to reflect on its social (and humanities) origins - on the one hand due to the communication and cognitive sciences, on the other hand because society was confronted with a large amount of information and knowledge. Therefore, information science today is faced with many new social, economic and legal issues.

Basics

Definitions of information science

There is no one-size-fits-all definition of information science. Reasons for this are that it is a relatively young discipline compared to others and it is strongly linked to other disciplines, each with their own definitions.

Despite the different perspectives, information science is about the information content, the representation of knowledge. Information science creates “knowledge of how existing knowledge can be used”.

Information science tends to be application-oriented and research to services and products. However, there are also large theoretical areas that still need to be clarified.

Information science between the disciplines

The research subjects of information science are at the same time important aspects of all established sciences, namely knowledge and information. The focus of these sciences is primarily on one's own knowledge. Since information science researches knowledge and information, it stood in between on the one hand, and on the other hand, through its relatively "neutral" approach to knowledge transfer, it has a bridging function.

Gernot Wersig describes information science, emphasizing the interdisciplinary approach, as a triad of knowledge , people and information technology : Information science is accordingly

"[...] the science of the use of knowledge under the conditions of the new information and communication technologies at all levels - individual, organizational, cultural, social. "

- Gernot Wersig: Focus on people 1993

Investigation area

According to Stock (2003), information science examines "the evaluation, provision, searching and finding of relevant (predominantly digital) knowledge through information and communication processes."

Information is referred to as relevant if the search query is objectively satisfied by the relevant hit. However, whether the hit is of subjective use for the searcher, i.e. “ pertinent ”, does not play a role in the relevance measure.

Evaluate

An evaluation of knowledge on a knowledge carrier (e.g. a document) takes place. The content is summarized in short texts and / or marked with important terms. The goal is to filter information with information filters. So the targeted search for information.

Provide

Documents should be processed in such a way that the information content is optimally structured, easy to find and easy to read in the document memory (managed).

This is done through the use of information filters. These include:

  • Knowledge orders,
  • text-language methods of knowledge organization
  • and folksonomies .

T hematic information filters like the content analysis (indexing), with various documentation methods such as keyword method , thesauri and classifications works to feed the documents into the document memory. The text-language methods include title indexing , text word method and citation indexing and recording as full text ( ASCII ).

Search

The use of search tools, the assessment of the quality of the results and the use of these are examined ("user research"). For example, observation of the user when using a library catalog.

Find (research)

Information and communication technology systems are the focus and are used to track down knowledge. Information retrieval is a sub-discipline of information science that deals with it. These include classic databases (such as Dialog , Questel-Orbit patent search tool, GBI-Genios or LexisNexis ) and search engines (such as Google or Yahoo ).

Research priorities

The main research areas of information science include:

Information management

Information management is the management of the information economy (information requirements, supply and use), information systems (data, processes and the application lifecycle) and information and communication technology (storage technology, processing technology, communication technology and the technology bundles) Information management is information logistics that deals with problems of information flow and information channels.

Knowledge representation

The goal of knowledge representation is to map knowledge in such a way that it can be optimally searched for and found in databases. For this purpose, the documents should be represented in databases by a representative.

Objects of knowledge representation are the organization of knowledge (the organization of knowledge through terms) and the order of knowledge (order of terms, e.g. thesauri).

Knowledge management means dealing with knowledge in organizations.

Information retrieval

Information retrieval is the technique and the practical area of ​​searching and finding information. Information science focuses on the information content and less on the technical implementation of retrieval algorithms.

Information architecture

Information architecture is the planning and design of structures that structure information in a meaningful way and are user-friendly . Related to this are information design , interaction design , information processing and visual communication . Human-machine interaction is an important area . It is a branch of computer science and relates to the interaction between humans and computers.

Empirical information science

Retrieval systems can only be tested through empirical studies. This is one of the tasks of empirical information science. There are different teachings for this:

Information society

Information science is becoming more and more popular as a social science. One of the reasons is that society has become an information society, which is shaped by the use of information and communication technology. This raises questions about how to deal with knowledge and information.

Sub-areas would be z. B. information ethics (serves to examine and standardize ethical behavior in information spaces) and information access, which is intended to ensure comprehensive, barrier-free and seamless access to information and the satisfaction of all information needs. This is closely related to freedom of information .

Other areas are e.g. B. Information culture, information sociology, information economy , information economy , information economy and information ecology and technology assessment .

Employment environment

Information work describes the areas of activity in the professional field of "information science and practice". This means all tasks that are carried out by information specialists "in order to enable knowledge transfer." This includes procurement, selection, development, storage, communication and reproduction.

In recent years there has been a change in the field of information work. The original fields of activity in archive, library, information and documentation still exist, but other fields of activity have been added. The profession of information scientist depends on the further development of information and communication technology . In this way, fields of activity can be omitted or become highly specialized (e.g. in the case of research activities that can often be carried out by the user himself and that only need to be carried out in special databases or by information specialists in the case of rare literature). On the other hand, many new fields of activity and areas (e.g. in the areas of mass media , consulting and advisory services or in finance ) in which information specialists are required have emerged. In addition, nowadays information specialists are deployed in different areas (e.g. within a company), so that it is difficult to define a general labor market.

Nevertheless, some priorities can be set. Information scientists find their professional field of activity in the internet economy, in the media as well as in corporate knowledge management.

  • Focus on the internet economy (e.g. search engine companies, providers of electronic information services or operators of portal services)
  • Focus on media (journalistic institutions, e.g. newspaper publishers, broadcasters)
    • Research for information
    • Provision of this for editors
    • Development and archiving of information, e.g. B. Film archive of a television station
  • Focus on operational knowledge management
    • Knowledge manager (organization of the entire business information economy)
    • Design of the websites in intranet and internet
    • Information broker (e.g. in the field of business consulting)
    • Documentalist : Collecting, opening up and filing of important documents in larger companies in the private sector and making them available for subsequent projects
  • Focus on information engineering
  • Focus on library science
    • Librarian / in academic and public as well as school libraries: management of libraries or team management functions. Development of media by cataloging, acquisition of media, event work, support of the library's own IT, implementation of training courses.
    • IT librarian
  • Focus on records management and archiving
    • Records Manager
    • Archivist for the long-term archiving of digital and analog data and information from all archive sectors

Study and teaching

Information science is taught as an independent subject at some German-speaking universities and technical colleges; however, the specific nature of the teaching content differs depending on the university. Similar content can also be found in related courses such as archive , library and documentation studies as well as journalism and communication studies .

Information science deals with informational processes and their support by information systems. It is closely related to a number of neighboring disciplines, which include technical subjects such as computer science as well as humanities or social science disciplines such as media or communication studies. This also explains the different locations in the sciences at the various universities. Information science can be found at some universities in the Philosophical Faculty for linguistics and literature (e.g. at the University of Regensburg ), in linguistics / applied linguistics (e.g. at the University of Hildesheim ), and at other universities in the department of library science (e.g. at the HdM Stuttgart ). At the Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf , information science is strongly linked to computer science and computational linguistics. The Potsdam University of Applied Sciences offers a wide range of practical studies in the independent “Information Sciences” department.

The bachelor's degree comprises between 6 and 8 semesters, which often include a practical semester. Information science can be studied at both technical colleges and universities. In some courses it is only offered in conjunction with a library or media-related course. This is often already noted in the name of the course. For example at the HAW Hamburg there is the subject library and information management.

The master’s degree can be consecutive or advanced. It is possible to add it to the bachelor's degree and thus deepen your knowledge, or to use it as a further training course for another course. Often at least one year of professional experience is required. In addition, the master’s degree can be both application-oriented and thus qualifying for the job market or research-oriented.

A three-year training course can be completed as a “ specialist for media and information services ” (FaMI). Within this there is a specialization in one of five disciplines: archive, library, information and documentation, picture agency and medical documentation.

See also

literature

Web links

Wikibooks: From Bibliography to Information Sciences  - Learning and Teaching Materials

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Wolfgang G. Stock: Information Retrieval . Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-486-58172-0 , p. 1.
  2. ↑ Harold Borko: Information Science: What Is It? In: American Documentation (pre-1986). 19, no. 1, Jan 1968, 3-4, p. 3.
  3. ^ Wolfgang G. Stock: Information Retrieval . Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-486-58172-0 , pp. 4-5.
  4. ^ Christian Wolff: University Association. In: Hochschulverband Informationswwissenschaft.org. Retrieved February 14, 2018 .
  5. ^ Wolfgang G. Stock: Information Retrieval . Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-486-58172-0 , pp. 7-9.
  6. ^ Elmar Bund: Introduction to legal informatics . Springer, Berlin / Heidelberg 1991, ISBN 3-642-76103-8 , p. 5.
  7. ↑ Harold Borko: Information Science: What Is It? In: American Documentation (pre-1986). 19, no. 1, Jan 1968, 3-4, p. 3.
  8. ↑ Tefko Saracevic: Information Science. In: Journal of the American Society for Information Science. 50, no. 12, 1999, 1051-1063, p. 1052.
  9. ↑ Xue-Shan Yan: Information Science: Its Past, Present and Future . In: Information . No. 2 , 2011, p. 510-527, p. 517 , doi : 10.3390 / info2030510 ( mdpi.com [PDF]).
  10. ^ Wolfgang G. Stock: Information Retrieval . Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-486-58172-0 , pp. 9-10.
  11. ^ Rainer Kuhlen: Information - Information Science. In: Rainer Kuhlen, Wolfgang Semar, Dietmar Strauch: Basics of practical information and documentation: Handbook for the introduction to information science and practice . de Gruyter Saur, Berlin / Boston 2013, ISBN 978-3-486-58172-0 , p. 12.
  12. ^ Wolfgang G. Stock: Information Retrieval . Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-486-58172-0 , p. 10.
  13. ↑ Rafael Capurro, Birger Hjoerland: The Concept of Information. In: Rafael Capurro. 2003, accessed February 19, 2018 .
  14. ^ Rolf G. Henzler: Information and Documentation. Collecting, storing and retrieving specialist information in databases. Berlin / Heidelberg 1992, p. 3.
  15. ^ Rainer Kuhlen: Information - Information Science. In: Rainer Kuhlen, Wolfgang Semar, Dietmar Strauch: Basics of practical information and documentation: Handbook for the introduction to information science and practice . de Gruyter Saur, Berlin / Boston 2013, ISBN 978-3-486-58172-0 , pp. 12-13.
  16. ^ Sascha Ott: Information. About the genesis and application of a term . UVK Verlagsgesellschaft, Konstanz 2004, ISBN 3-89669-459-6 , p. 45.
  17. ^ Nadja Lehr: The history of information science in Germany from the post-war period until today . Part 3: 1948 to 1959 ( infowiss.net [accessed February 17, 2018]).
  18. ^ Nadja Lehr: The history of information science in Germany from the post-war period until today . Part 4: 1960 to 1979 ( infowiss.net [accessed February 17, 2018]).
  19. ^ Nadja Lehr: The history of information science in Germany from the post-war period until today . Part 4: 1960 to 1979 ( infowiss.net [accessed February 14, 2018]).
  20. ↑ Xue-Shan Yan: Information Science: Its Past, Present and Future . In: Information . 2011, p. 510-527 , doi : 10.3390 / info2030510 ( mdpi.com [PDF] p. 517).
  21. ↑ Rafael Capurro, Birger Hjoerland: The Concept of Information. In: Rafael Capurro. 2003, accessed February 14, 2018 .
  22. ↑ Rafael Capurro, Birger Hjoerland: The Concept of Information. In: Rafael Capurro. Retrieved February 14, 2018 (quoted from Hjørland (2000)).
  23. ^ Rainer Kuhlen: Information - Information Science. In: Rainer Kuhlen, Wolfgang Semar, Dietmar Strauch: Basics of practical information and documentation: Handbook for the introduction to information science and practice . de Gruyter Saur, Berlin / Boston 2013, ISBN 978-3-486-58172-0 , p. 13.
  24. ^ Rainer Kuhlen: Information - Information Science. In: Rainer Kuhlen, Wolfgang Semar, Dietmar Strauch: Basics of practical information and documentation: Handbook for the introduction to information science and practice . de Gruyter Saur, Berlin / Boston 2013, ISBN 978-3-486-58172-0 , p. 13.
  25. ^ Rainer Kuhlen: Information - Information Science. In: Rainer Kuhlen, Wolfgang Semar, Dietmar Strauch: Basics of practical information and documentation: Handbook for the introduction to information science and practice . de Gruyter Saur, Berlin / Boston 2013, ISBN 978-3-486-58172-0 , p. 16.
  26. ^ Wolfgang G. Stock, Mechtild Stock: Handbook of Information Science . de Gruyter Saur, Berlin / Boston MA 2013, ISBN 978-3-11-023499-2 , p. 3.
  27. ^ Wolfgang G. Stock: Information Retrieval . Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-486-58172-0 , p. 5.
  28. ^ Rainer Kuhlen: Information - Information Science. In: Rainer Kuhlen, Wolfgang Semar, Dietmar Strauch: Basics of practical information and documentation: Handbook for the introduction to information science and practice . de Gruyter Saur, Berlin / Boston 2013, ISBN 978-3-486-58172-0 , p. 4.
  29. ^ Wolfgang G. Stock: Information Retrieval . Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-486-58172-0 , p. 6.
  30. ↑ Gernot Wersig: Focus on people: reference points for postmodern science; Knowledge, communication, culture. Verlag Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1993, ISBN 3-631-45719-7 , pp. 151-157.
  31. ^ Nadja Lehr: The history of information science in Germany from the post-war period until today . Part 2: Introduction ( infowiss.net [accessed February 14, 2018]).
  32. ↑ Gernot Wersig: Focus on people: reference points for postmodern science; Knowledge, communication, culture . Verlag Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1993, ISBN 3-631-45719-7 , p. 160.
  33. ^ Wolfgang G. Stock: Information Retrieval . Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-486-58172-0 , p. 4.
  34. ^ Wolfgang G. Stock: Information Retrieval . Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-486-58172-0 , p. 79.
  35. ^ Wolfgang G. Stock: Information Retrieval . Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-486-58172-0 , p. 4.
  36. ^ Wolfgang G. Stock: Information Retrieval . Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-486-58172-0 , p. 4.
  37. ^ Wolfgang G. Stock, Mechtild Stock: Knowledge Representation: Evaluate and provide information . Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-486-58439-4 , p. 414 .
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  40. ^ Wolfgang G. Stock: Information Retrieval . Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-486-58172-0 , pp. 4-5.
  41. ^ Helmut Krcmar: Information and knowledge management . In: Rainer Kuhlen (Hrsg.): Basics of practical information and documentation: Handbook for the introduction to information science and practice . 6th, completely revised edition. de Gruyter Saur, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-11-025826-4 , p. 365-369 .
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  45. ^ Wolfgang G. Stock: Information Retrieval . Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-486-58172-0 , p. 2.
  46. ↑ Wibke Weber (Ed.): Compendium Information Design . Springer-Verlag, Berlin / Heidelberg 2008, ISBN 978-3-540-69818-0 .
  47. ^ Wolfgang G. Stock: Information Retrieval . Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-486-58172-0 , p. 543.
  48. ^ H. Rösch: Information Society. In: Basic knowledge of media, information, library. Anton Hiersemann, Stuttgart 2016, p. 103.
  49. ^ Rainer Kuhlen: Information - Information Science. In: Rainer Kuhlen, Wolfgang Semar, Dietmar Strauch: Basics of practical information and documentation: Handbook for the introduction to information science and practice . de Gruyter Saur, Berlin / Boston 2013, ISBN 978-3-486-58172-0 , p. 16.
  50. ^ V. Petras: Information ethics. In: Basic knowledge of media, information, library. Anton Hiersemann, Stuttgart 2016, p. 112.
  51. ^ V. Petras: Access to information. In: Basic knowledge of media, information, library. Anton Hiersemann, Stuttgart 2016, p. 107.
  52. ^ Department of Information Science Saarbrücken: Job description "Information Science". In: Department of Information Science Saarbrücken. Retrieved February 17, 2018 .
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  54. ↑ Ursula Georgy: Professionalization in information work: job and training in Germany, Austria and Switzerland . In: Rainer Kuhlen, Wolfgang Semar, Dietmar Strauch (eds.): Basics of practical information and documentation: Handbook for an introduction to information science and practice . 6th, completely revised edition. de Gruyter Saur, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-11-025826-4 , p. 25 , doi : 10.1515 / 9783110258264 .
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  57. ^ Department of Information Science Saarbrücken: Information science occupational fields: Activities. In: Department of Information Science Saarbrücken. Retrieved February 14, 2018 .
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  59. ↑ Ursula Georgy: Professionalization in information work. Profession and education in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In: Rainer Kuhlen, Wolfgang Semar, Dietmar Strauch: Basics of practical information and documentation. Introductory Guide to Information Science and Practice . de Gruyter, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-11-220398-9 , pp. 28-29.
  60. ↑ Ursula Georgy: Professionalization in information work. Profession and education in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In: Rainer Kuhlen, Wolfgang Semar, Dietmar Strauch: Basics of practical information and documentation. Introductory Guide to Information Science and Practice . de Gruyter, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-11-220398-9 , pp. 28-29.
  61. ↑ Ursula Georgy: Professionalization in information work. Profession and education in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In: Rainer Kuhlen, Wolfgang Semar, Dietmar Strauch: Basics of practical information and documentation. Introductory Guide to Information Science and Practice. de Gruyter, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-11-220398-9 , p. 28.