Information science lacks a uniform definition and encompasses various interpretations across different knowledge domains. It originated in response to the need for timely information amid an information explosion, with key developments dating back to the 1890s and involving figures like Paul Otlet and Henri La Fontaine. Descriptions of information science emphasize its interdisciplinary nature, focusing on the effective creation, storage, retrieval, and use of information in several contexts, including social and organizational needs.

2. INFORMATION SCIENCE :
• There is no uniform conception of
Information Science
• Different meanings – Different knowledge
domains
• One thing that has however been common
is INFORMATION!

3. Why
INFORMATION
SCIENCE
originated ?

4. 1)Getting the right information when needed
2)Information explosion

5. How
INFORMATION
SCIENCE
originated ?

6. 1890s:
Paul Otlet and Henri La Fontaine
1935:
American Documentation institute (ADI)
1945:
MEMEX
1960s:
Digitalization

7. What is
INFORMATION
SCIENCE ?

8. Zins (2007) based on a Delphi study, while
reporting 50 explanations and definitions of
information science.
• Some are unhelpfully circular –
“information science is what information
scientists do”
• While others seem rather too restrictive
“information science is a mathematical
discipline that studies technological ways of
conveying information”

9. • Some are so broad as to be of limited use
“information science is the totality of the
process of communication and understanding,
both intra- and inter-personally”
• While others are unnecessarily polemic –
“information science is a self-serving attempt to
ennoble what used to be called library science”

10. ...other definitions
• “Information science is the study of the
phenomena surrounding information, including
creation, acquisition, indexing, storing, retrieving
and disseminating information”
• “Information science is the rational and systematic
study of the way information is created, stored,
indexed, disseminated and used”

11. • “Information science is the study and practical
management of messages (i.e. recorded
information, including data recorded as
information) through all points of the information
lifecycle”

12. Preferable Definition
According to Borko (1968)
“Information science is an interdisciplinary science
that investigates the properties and behaviour of
information, and the techniques, both manual and
mechanical, of processing information for optimal
storage, retrieval and dissemination.”

13. Even more preferable...
According to Saracevic (2009)
“Information science is the science and practice
dealing with the effective collection, storage,
retrieval and use of information. It is concerned
with recordable information and knowledge, and
the technologies and related services that
facilitate their management and use.”

14. More specifically
Information Science is a field of professional practice
and scientific inquiry addressing the effective
communication of information and information
objects, particularly knowledge records, among
humans in the context of social, organizational, and
individual need for and use of information.

15. Characteristics of
INFORMATION
SCIENCE
Information
Science
Communication
Epistemology
Mathematics
Computer
Science
Psychology Linguistics
Sociology

16. According to Saracevic the important
characteristics of Information Science are:
1. Information science is interdisciplinary in nature
2. Information science is, with many other fields, an active
participant in the evolution of the information society
3. Information science has both a strong research component
and an even stronger, professional component
4. Information science is connected with information industry