Information Science Practice Research Articles

From the Editor's desktop

Included in this issue of the Bulletin are three articles that reflect a central concern with the disruptive impact of the digital age on areas that have always been controversial - copyright, fair use and protected speech. In the first of a two-part article Tom Lipinski discusses the recent Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd., Supreme Court decision, beginning with a look at the legal background of the case. He then moves on to discuss the specifics of the decision that holds peer-to-peer software providers Grokster and Stream Cast contributorily liable for “massive” copyright infringement. From another perspective, Jim Campbell looks at the expansion of copyright protections in the United States created by recent legislation and the moves to counteract perceptions of an erosion of the traditional balance between the rights of copyright holders and fair use. Finally, in his International Column, Julian Warner, international liaison to the ASIS&T Board of Directors, considers the roles of democracy, responsibility and free speech in a Web environment. Elsewhere in this issue, we look at the recent history of information retrieval research, specifically the Text REtrieval Conferences (TREC) sponsored since 1990 by the National Institute of Science and Technology. TREC's current director, Ellen Voorhees, summarizes the history and results of the use of the TREC testbeds. And last, turning from the challenge of developing the retrieval algorithms that have been so essential to the success of the Web to-date, we look at the “Semantic Web” of the future. Jay ven Eman discusses how to export to or “wrap” a thesaurus for use by software agents on the Semantic Web using the Web Ontology tool (OWL). He also discusses what additional steps are needed if agents are to take advantage of the potential of the Semantic Web in processing documents that have been indexed using terms from an OWL thesaurus. Anyone seeking to understand the Semantic Web and its relationship to traditional information retrieval or those contemplating a Semantic Web project will find much of value here, including a sober assessment of the difficulties. Join us for high-quality, in-depth explorations of the intersection of research and practice in information science and technology 2005 Annual Meeting of the American Society for Information Science & Technology October 28 - November 2 Westin Charlotte Charlotte, North Carolina ERRATUM We apologize for some serious cut-and-paste confusion in the “What's New?” column in the August/September 2005 issue of the Bulletin in the summary of an article by Jeffrey Pomerantz. One of his articles did, in fact, appear in volume 56, number 7 of JASIS&T. However, the title of the article in the citation is that of a summary we had previously published by Christian Schloegl and Wolfgang Stock, while the summary itself belongs to one of Jeffrey Pomerantz's later JASIS&T articles, “A conceptual framework and open research questions for chat-based reference service.” That article will appear in JASIS&T volume 56, number 12. We do not have a summary for his earlier article, the correct title of which is “A linguistic analysis of question taxonomies.”

Library and information science practice in Nigeria: trends and issues

No Abstract. The paper discusses the emerging trends in both the profession and practice of modern-day librarianship; recognizing that at the core of the information profession today are those saddled with the responsibility of managing the acquisition, organization and dissemination of information to an identifiable group of users. It traces the origin of library and information science education in Nigeria, underscoring the apparent proliferation and its implications. It observes the trend in library and information science practice whereby the advent of new technologies has had a tremendous impact on the traditional service delivery; leading to some fundamental issues. These were discussed in relation to certain fundamental implications for the Nigerian library schools where future professionals are being trained. The Information Technologist Vol. 2(2) 2005: 88-95

Information science practice in a historical perspective: Preliminary findings of an oral history project

AbstractOral history is a phenomenological method of historical inquiry. It is applied to the study of the organizational field of information science through interviews with members of the New Jersey chapter of the national information science organization )ASIST). Their views on the identity of the chapter and their own professional identity in that context, and on the development and maturation of information science field over the past thirty years are considered in the sociology of culture framework. This approach can open new directions for historical inquiry of information science in the national context, understanding the research / practice dynamics, and the institutionalization of information science field.

Metatheory and information science

Metatheory is described as the analysis of the presuppositions of a field of knowledge or practice. The presuppositions at the basis of the practice of information science are discussed, in particular relation to such concepts as information, knowledge (personal and public), message, message designation, information want and need, query, relevance and information search. The nature of these presuppositions is considered, and the conditions under which they may be replaced by others.