This document discusses information science education in the 21st century. It begins with definitions of information science and a brief history of the field. It describes the need for information science education and training due to the changing information environment. The objectives and components of information science education programs are outlined. Challenges for information science education in the digital age include keeping up with changing technologies and information behaviors. Recommendations for developing employable information science skills focus on enhancing information literacy, understanding market demands, and offering relevant course content.

2. Information Science Education
in 21st Century
By
Kazi Nashid Morsheda

3. Contents:
 About Information Science
 Brief history of Information science: early beginning to modern
information science
 The need of education and training for Information Science
 Objectives of Information Science education
 Information Science education in the digital age of 21st century
 Challenges for IS education in 21th century
 Recommendation for employable IS education

4. About Information Science
Information Science can be a thought of as the science of
information, studying the application, use of information and
knowledge in organization and also the interaction among
people, organization and IS.
Information science is a field primarily concerned with the analysis,
collection, classification, manipulation, storage, retrieval, movement,
dissemination, and protection of information.
“… information science brings together and uses the theories,
principles, techniques and technologies of a variety of disciplines
toward the solution of information problems.”— Williams, M. E.
(1987/1988). Defining information science and the role of ASIS.
Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science, 14(2),
17-19.

5. Cont…
Information science is often considered as a branch of computer
science. But it is an extensive, interdisciplinary science that integrates
features not only of computer science but also the diverse fields such
as archival science, commerce, communication, law, library science,
management, mathematics, philosophy, social science.
In nutshell , Information science is the study about Information itself
, as Economics is the study about economic system, Library science is
the study about library and techniques . Library and information
science utilized information science in order to enrich or widen the
Library science. So Library science merge with Information science
and became Library and information science ( Adopt new technologies
and evolve new techniques to satisfy users)

6. Cont…
How Information Science distinguish :
Concept Library Science Documentation Information
Science
Unit Library Documentation Information
Medium Book Document Database
User Reader User Recipient
Staff Librarian Documentalist Information
officer
Technique Manual Manual or
Mechanized
Mechanized
Hence information science discuss on information and how it used by
people with the help of new technology especially by computer.

7. Brief history of Information science: early beginning to
modern information science
Information Science has evolved over the last 50 some years as a field of scientific
inquiry and professional practice.
By the 19th century the first signs of information science emerged as separate and
distinct from other sciences and social sciences but in conjunction with
communication and computation. It is addressing the concerns of science and
technical literature in the 1950s.
Some of the significant works of that time are:
• Invention of punch card system by Joseph Marie Jacquard in 1801.
• Developing “difference engine” as the 1st step towards modern computer by
Charles Babbage in 1822.
• Samuel Morse sent the first public telegraph message in 1844.
• William F. Poole begins the first general periodical literature index in the US
by 1848.

8. Cont….
• The foundation of Boolean algebra was done by George Boole in 1950.
• The Smithsonian Institution began a catalog of current scientific papers by
1865, which became the International Catalogue of Scientific Papers in
1902.
• Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876.
• Thomas Edison invented phonograph 1877.
• The American Library Association was founded in Philadelphia. And so on.
• Paul Otlet and Henri La Fontaine as the fathers of information science founded
the International Institute of Bibliography (IIB) in 1895.
• By 1937 documentation had formally been institutionalized, by the foundation
of the American Documentation Institute (ADI), later called the American
Society for Information Science and Technology.

9. Cont….
So we can see, the transition of modern information science started in 1950s with
the awareness of the potential of automatic devices for literature searching And
information storage and retrieval increased.
By the 1960s and 70s, there was a move from mainframe to mini and
microcomputers. Additionally, traditional boundaries among disciplines began to
fade and many information science scholars joined with library programs.
By the 1980s, large databases like Grateful Med and also user-oriented services
such as Dialog and Compuserve, were for the first time accessible by individuals
from their personal computers.
By the end of the decade, special interest groups were available involving non-
print media, social sciences, energy and the environment, and community
information systems.

10. The need of education and training for Information
Science:
Information science is primarily concerned with input, processing, output and
feedback of data and information through technology integration and then
applying information technology as needed.
 Information is data that are processed using knowledge. For information to be
valuable and meaningful, it must be accessible, accurate, timely, complete, cost
effective, flexible, reliable, relevant, simple and secure.
 IS enables the processing of information. This processing links people and
technology. Humans are organic ISs, constantly acquiring, processing, generating
information or knowledge in their profession. It is high degree of knowledge that
characterizes human as extremely intelligent organic machines. As knowledge is
the awareness and understanding of an information set and ways that information
can be made useful to support a specific task or arrive at a decision. so having
proper educational knowledge in information technology is so important.

11. Objectives of Information Science education:
Library without walls
Creation of knowledge
 It should provide the major role of information service
 Specify the component of Information system and
indicate their relationship
 What Information service are to be provided and how to
provide same data to different individual
To provide same data at different times to same individual
Differences of response of the same individual to the same
data presented in varying forms

12. Information Science education in the digital age of
21st century
Information environment is changing fast in this era. New ways, new forms of documents and
Information behavior are there to understand information. The gradual changes in technology we can
notice –
 First it was the printing press: We were able to send messages out. This was one way
communication.
 Then it was the telephone: Two way communication started with facility of voice-based real time
conversation.
 Then it was radio and television: Communication was once again one way but with the ability to
broadcast a message to a group of people with both picture nd sound facility
 And then it was internet: The internet brought with it a huge shift in technology where all the
above technologies migrated to it

13. Media is becoming more social and as a result the internet is becoming more
social, constantly changing and allowing for more communication between more
people. Guidara S (2011)
Digital communication has fundamentally changed the ways in which young people of
today, read, write, share information and structure their communication.

14. Cont….
Our students are growing up in a time when electronic information is
plentiful,easy, iconic, highly appealing. It means that 21st Century learners must
be open to autonomous, assisted and collaborative learning. Also technology has
the ability to transform education.
So teachers must be open minded and become Digital-Age Teachers. They must
have the ability to facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity. They are a
part of learning institutions that are rethinking the possibilities about what can be
learnt and expressed using ICT.

15. Cont….
Educational programs for information science will be changing during the next
decade in order to meet society's need for trained information professionals
capable of working in libraries, in governmental and industrial information
centers, and as information consultants and entrepreneurs.
information services are changing in many areas such as management, resources
and technologies (Mohd Sharif & Norma, 2005). IS schools need to equip
students with new skills in order to be employed in libraries and beyond.
Professional courses are offered at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels
in many universities. In the coming years, IS education will continue more courses
content that have been periodically renewed and improved, in order to adapt them
continuously to the customers’ needs and to the new developments and also to
prepare students to become information professionals.

16. Cont….
The following areas are some of those that information science education
involves:
•Digital Library: For todays LIS education, Digital library has become an
important field that is boosted by web technologies. digital collection with
associated services, or just a collection of digital works, more and more courses in
various formats are being designed and taught in LIS programs.
•Knowledge Management(KM): As knowledge management is the process of
creating, sharing, using and managing the knowledge and information of an
organisation, so educating KM has become essential now a days.
KM as a distinct course title came about after the 21st century began.KM can be
viewed as an extension or continuation of special libraries or librarianship. On the
contrary, more fields such as business administration, computer science,
information systems, management, and public policies also contribute to the
development of KM.

17. Cont….
•Information Architecture (IA): IA emerged as a domain since the late 1990s
when the Web became a dominating Internet application, that involves organizing
and labeling websites, intranets, online communities and software to support
usability.
•Information access: Information access is the freedom or access ability to
identify, obtain and make use of data or information effectively by the users.
Educational course is required to learn about effective access to retrieve
information.
•The Technology Course: As technology plays an important role in IS, many
courses in the IS curriculum contain technological components such as
programming languages, Library Automation, Introduction to Internet
Applications etc.

18. Cont….
•Information management: Information management (IM) is the collection and
management of information from one or more sources and the distribution of that
information to one or more audiences. This sometimes involves those who have a
right to that information.
•Information retrieval: Information retrieval is the activity of obtaining
information system resources relevant to an information need from a collection of
information resources. Many universities and public libraries use IR systems to
provide access to books, journals and other documents. Web search engines are
the most visible IR applications. An information retrieval process begins when a
user enters a query into the system.
•The Reference Course: It is a course required in most, if not all but LIS
programs (Chu, 2006). This course deals with how to provide reference services to
users with appropriate sources.

19. Cont….
•The Cataloging Course: Cataloging, also variously named as Bibliographic
Control, Cataloging and Classification, Knowledge Organization, and more, has
been a fundamental course in LIS curricula since the very beginning. Changes
brought upon this course not only from the technology but also from cooperative
cataloging projects such as OCLC’s WorldCat.
•Information society: An information society is a society where the creation,
distribution, uses, integration and manipulation of information is a significant
economic, political, and cultural activity. Basically, an information society is the
means of getting information from one place to another (Wark, 1997, p. 22). As
technology has become more advanced over time so we have adapted in sharing
information with each other.
•E-learning: E-learning is learning utilizing electronic technologies to access
educational curriculum outside of a traditional classroom. It is the network based
transfer of skills & knowledge. The e-learning applications and processes are the
web-based learning, computer-based learning, virtual classrooms and digital
collaboration. The contents are delivered through the internet, local
intranet/extranet, audio or video tape, satellite TV & CD-ROM.

20. Challenges for IS education in 21th century
21st century educators are faced with even more challenges than the last century.
Students should have to be enough efficient to do the following with information:
•Compare and contrast
• Make informed decisions
• Come to conclusions
• Put together to form integrated intelligent answers to problems.
Some essential skills are needed such as:
•Turn question into query
•Choose the right source and database
•Recognize information when found
•Use better keywords

21. Cont….
The number of Web sites continues to grow rapidly and there are currently more
than 20 billion indexed pages. So proper education is must to search information
from web search engine.
Students with 21st century skills requires teachers with 21st century skill too.
Teachers must be computer-savvy, creative, constructive, communicative with
having technology literacy, media-internet literacy, online communication skill etc.
Old learner vs. New learner: Old learner are usually unlikely to adopt new
system.
Old learner New learner
Techno-phobic Techno-savvy
Sequential Multi -Tasker
Formal Personal
Text base Visual
Task-oriented Goal-oriented
Private Social

22. Recommendation for employable IS education
•To enhance ability of information literacy skill of the students.
•To know the present demand of the market.
•Continuous efforts of teaching community are necessary to improve the
educational infrastructure of the institute.
•Course curriculum should be consistent with the market demand.
•Teaching must be in English but for the sake of understanding of students, teachers
can also explain in regional language.
•Insist the students in detail study rather than suggestive study.
•To help the students to become a smart communicator.
•Some concepts should be offered in every field of study to have proper knowledge
about information science like collection management, open source software,
digital library management, E-book, access management, networking and resource
sharing etc.

23. Conclusion
Information science has relevant importance ,because
information plays a vital role in just about everything we do
in modern society . So people with information science skills
are in high demand and there are many career opportunities
infields such as business, education, health, mass media
So we can reach in conclusion that, it is highly
interdisciplinary in nature and there are several disciplines
which make inputs to the it and it is amorphous and not
sharply delineated

24. References
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Williams, M. E. (1987/1988). Defining information science and the role of ASIS. Bulletin of the American Society for
Information Science, 14(2), 17-19. Retrieved from https://www.asist.org/about/information-science/
E.C. Harsha. Information Science. Calicut University. Retrieved from https://www.slideshare.net
Borko ,Harold .Trends in library and information science education. Retrieved only the abstract of the paper from
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/asi.4630350312
Baharuddin, Mohammad Fazli & sharif mohd saad, mohd. (2012). Library and information science education in
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Robinson,Lyn. Library and Information Science Education for the 21st Century. City University London.(PDF file)
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Integrated Technology Smoky Hill Education Service Center.(PDF file)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_science#History
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Chu,Heting. Library and Information Science Education in the Digital Age. Long Island University: USA.
Budhrani,Kiran. E-Learning: 21st Century Perspectives on Teaching, Learning, and Technology. Retrieved from
https://www.slideshare.ne
Kanchan,Kamila. (2010).Employable LIS Education:Demand for the 21st Cencury. University of Calcutta:India.

25. Thank you all