This document discusses the need for a theoretical framework to unite the various information professions. It argues that information work can be seen as a "metadiscipline" comprised of librarians, archivists, computer scientists and others. Developing a shared understanding of concepts like data, information and knowledge could provide a common language and help integrate these professions. The document also examines the political nature of information and the role of information workers.

1. THE URGE TO MERGE
THEORETICAL FRAMING
FOR INTEGRATED
INFORMATION WORKERS
Dr Susan Myburgh
University of South Australia
Visiting Professor, University of Parma

2. It‟s all happening…
 Publishers will sell direct to  Journalism dies
consumers.  More leaks
 Augmented publishing and  Reuse, recycle and
QR codes extreme local
 Brand-name corporate
 The rise of mobile apps. universities (which are too
 More user-generated expensive)
content.  Open educational
resource universities
 Increased digital presence.
 Curators rule and will help
 Social media marketing select food, music,
fatigue. fashion, best schools and
 The return to visual childcare, guides to
retirement, etc.
thinking.
 The sharing economy
 The popularity of the
 Rise of cultural change
immersive experience. agents

3. And there‟s more…
 Everything‟s a game:  Open associative
 Brand „digital library‟ must go relationships
beyond providing information
and provide education.  Reputation management as
 Reading real books will reputations are transparent
continue and possibly prevail
 People will minimise (100  Hybrid creative: creativity
things) and think carefully highly demanded
about what they have to buy.
 Publishers rethink
 Thought leadership becomes
more important: must have a  Manner of work – selling
point of view about something services in a marketplace –
 Computers become more like will change dramatically:
TVs
 We're overwhelmed. We're
new skills, new mobility,
knee-deep in data and we want new connectivity, new
a way out collaboration
 Social media becomes
more selective and

4. The Information Society
 The expression “information
society” has become the
hegemonic term to describe
contemporary times: not because
it expresses a theoretical
clarity, but rather due to its
“baptism” by the official policies
of the more developed countries

5. Creating the information society
 It seems as if the information
society is built from the
incorporation of technologies
and not from the existing
structural realities and
contradictions

6. European Union (EU 1994,
1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2005) –
In the so-called
„information society‟ or
„knowledge economy‟,
every person and his/her
dog is called an
information professional.

7. How does the information
society affect the information
professions?
What do we do?
Are there commonalities
between the information
professions?
Why do we do what we
do?

8. IS THIS A REAL QUESTION?
Which is more important:
the technological
infrastructure or
the communication of ideas
across space and time that
it facilitates?

10. DISCIPLINE/PROFESSION
 Information work, like other areas such
as medicine, architecture and law, have
both a body of knowledge structured
around their subject domain, and a
practice which draws on this
knowledge to solve the problems that
fall within the ambit of the subject.
 = THEORY + PRAXIS

11. THEORY
 Theory is the core of an
academic discipline (as
opposed to its practical
expression as a
profession), and concepts are
the core of a theory.

12. PRAXIS
Praxis (practice) is the
execution of the theoretical
principles embodied in the
knowledge domain of a
discipline/profession.

13. Discipline/Profession
Knowledge/Power (Foucault)
A profession can be defined by
the role it plays in society, but
it nonetheless needs a
disciplinary or theoretical base
to inform its praxis: it requires
a supporting discipline which
exhibits epistemological
commitments and develops

14. DEFINITION OF
„PROFESSION‟
Parsons, 1968, his italics.
 Several core criteria which distinguish
professional work, namely
 a “requirement of formal technical
training... giving prominence to an
intellectual component”;
 the development of “skills in some form
of its use”; and
 the “socially responsible uses” of the
profession

15.  A discipline can
be characterised,
according to Klein,
as “[T]he tools,
methods,
procedures,
exempla, concepts
and theories that
account
coherently for a
set of objects or

16.  Disciplines comprise an object of study,
theories, and epistemological
commitments, as disciplines are a
means for, in Foucauldian terms,
constructing and controlling knowledge
production.
 A discipline therefore includes a
disciplinary culture, which provides an
identity, credentials and values for its
practitioners.

17. Disciplinary cultures
 A discipline imparts, in addition, a particular
view of the object of its study and this is
what commonly differentiates disciplines:
the objects, and the way in which they are
studied, which Kuhn (1962/1970) called a
paradigm or world view. The knowledge
domain depends, in turn, on identified
objects of study, and established methods
and procedures for examination of these
objects within the discipline.

21. INFORMATION
METACOMMUNITY
 Librarians, archivists, record
managers, museologists, gallery
curators
 Computer scientists, database
administrators, information
systems managers, and game
designers
 Linguists, semioticians, ontologis
ts, sociologists, anthropologists...

22. DI

23. Metatheory should incorporate the
following areas. Heckhausen
(1972),

 1. Material field – agreement on the set of objects
with which the discipline is concerned;
 2. Subject matter – the point of view or
epistemology from which the metadiscipline looks
upon the set of objects that it studies
 3. Level of theoretical integration –
reconstruction of the reality of its subject matter.
Most disciplines have many different theories,
some unrelated, some contradictory.
 4. Methods - the methods used to observe,
describe and interpret the entities and phenomena
that comprise the objects of study in the

24. Heckhausen (1972) continued.
 5. Analytical tools – the tools a discipline uses,
although Heckhausen indicates that these are not
specific to disciplines.
 6. Applications of a discipline in fields of
practice – the degree of applicability of the theory
to established practical applications. Heckhausen
notes that disciplines with obligations to
professional practice tend to be multi-disciplinary
and lag behind in research.
 7. Historical contingencies – a discipline is
always in a transitional state and is a product of
historical developments.
 8. Social purpose of the profession/discipline.
The purpose of the profession/discipline must be

27. Different views of things

28. Various definitions of information:
 Biology – evolutionary; communication between animals
 Psychology – cognition, learning
 Economics – commodity object
 Physics – physical energy, force
 Information systems and computer science – data
 Sociology – related to knowledge and power
 Education – something transferred, relating to shaping, forming,
knowledge
 Communication – media
 Literature – meaning, difference of experience
 Philosophy – related to knowledge (Floridi)
 History – socially constructed fact
 Mathematics – information as language
 Linguistics – gives form to information; information as meaning
 Religion – authority, sacred texts
 Engineering – measurement, facts, data
 Law – authority, precedence, evidence

29. Aristotle and the love of
knowledge
 The branches of philosophy (or knowledge
seeking) include epistemology (the
nature and grounds for knowing);
ontology (the nature of being and the
existence of entities); methodology
(systematic understandings of method);
ideology (the role of power and forces in
human life, institutions, and cultures);
teleology (designs and purposes as
explanation); and axiology (the nature

30. Need for a theoretical
framework
 Developing a theoretical
framework which provides a kind
of „lingua franca‟ for the
disciplines/professions involved in
information work would be a high
priority if further collaboration and
integration is desired.

31.  A theoretical framework comprises a set of
concepts (ontology), the relationships
between the concepts or phenomena which
are called propositions or principles, and
these relations are captured in a taxonomy.
The ontology and taxonomy are accompanied
by a statement of teleology, or
purpose, which is qualified by axiological
beliefs or obligations. „Nomos‟, or the present
situation and customs, can be contrasted with
„telos‟, which refers to a purpose or goal.
Epistemologically speaking, an axiom is a
self-evident truth.

32. Things that confuse us:
Data, information and knowledge
Reductionism

33. DIK pyramid

34. Talking on the phone
„The mother of all models‟
Transmission model. Shown to cultural and communication studies as a poor,
oversimplified and irrelevant example.

35. T. S. Eliot
This hierarchy is first suggested in a poem by T.
S. Eliot, published in 1934, called The chorus
of the rock:
Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in
knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in
information?

36. More information theory
 An expression of the form is considered by convention to be equal
to zero whenever p = 0. This is justified because for any logarithmic
base.

37. What is information, anyway?
 “IPs collect, organise, describe, manage, preserve
and make accessible… ”.
•the pattern of organisation of matter and energy that has been given
meaning by a living being.
•the lifeblood of the knowledge-based organisation.
•anything that makes sense.
•something that is intended to make sense.
•an objective phenomenon, something that is generated by,
transmitted in, received and stored in physical media, but the
existence of which is independent of an interpreting agent.
•the presence of a 1 or 0 in a bit.
•a stimulus which expands or amends the World View of the
informed.
•what people or systems need to be able to carry out work
practices.

38. Caught between a rock and a hard
place

40. Characteristics of
data, information and knowledge
 Creation
 Representation
 Communication (or transmission or
exchange)
 Recording
 Management
 Evaluation
 Use

41. Creation, Communication, Co
mprehension
 Information is that part of knowledge that is
selected to be communicated
 It is communicated by being represented in
symbols (sound and image) – language
 Knowledge of language (sound and image)
must exist before communication can take
place (i.e. mutual understanding of cultural
symbols) (Myburgh, 2007)

42. Information is
 That part of knowledge that an
individual selects for communication to
selected others, representing it in
language (including music,
mathematics, images, sounds, shapes,
movement…)
 Evaluated in terms of who, what, how,
when, why?

43. Data are a kind of information
EITHER
Facts and figures (usually figures) that are
obtained through the scientific method of
observation, experimentation,
categorisation and measurement
OR
Bits and bytes

44. Signs, symbols and codes

45. Culture: not just a pretty
picture
“… an historically transmitted pattern of
meanings embodied in symbols, a system
of inherited conceptions expressed in
symbolic forms by means of which men
communicate, perpetuate, and develop
their knowledge about and attitudes toward
life (Geertz, 1973, p. 89).

46. But what about the information that
ICTs communicate?
That information
possesses transformative
abilities is an article of
faith for librarians

47. PURPOSE
 … we emphasise that the argument for
jurisdiction must be based on
demonstrated ability to solve
information problems. Many
professions are at work building new
information tools in the form of
computer-based systems. Many are
concerned with methods of managing
and delivering information, and not just
traditional information containers (Van
House and Sutton, 1998, online).

48. Information and power
 For Castells, it is the interaction between
knowledge creation, making meaning, learning
and application that is a key aspect of the
Information Society.
 Power then is central to information – for
information, as Castells in particular has so
forcefully argued, is an element which must
flow. Where it flows from, and to whom, is the
province of power.

49. Discourse of information
 The discourse of information is a discourse of
power ... Information ... looks chaotic, i.e.
individual oriented, but it is based on power as
much as on its outward sign, money. The
discourse of the information economy
displaces and discourages the idea of
information as a social good by giving the
impression of a non-hierarchical and powerless
structure, where everybody has a chance to
find the message one is looking for. But indeed
this means that finally the messengers are the
main point, the medium is indeed the
message (Capurro, 1996, online).

50. Politics
 Libraries are political sites;
information professionals have a
political role: this is clear
because of the relationship
between information (ideas) and
power.
 All knowledge structures,
epistemologies and communication
of information are, as Foucault tells
us, highly political and hegemonic.

51. Organic intellectuals and
teleology
 Information professionals can be
viewed as “organic intellectuals”
(Gramsci)
 they play an ideological and
organizational role in maintaining an
historic bloc‟s hegemony over the
relations of economic production and
civil society. From this perspective, the
apparently neutral discourse of LIS
regarding access to information can be
examined as a discourse that privileges
particular rather than universal
interests (Raber, 2003, p. 35).

52. ICTs can even do the Millenium
Development Goals…
 1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.
 2. Achieve universal primary education.
 3. Promote gender equality and empower
women.
 4. Reduce child mortality.
 5. Improve maternal health.
 6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other
diseases.
 7. Ensure environmental sustainability.
 8. Develop a global partnership for
development.

53.  ...information professionals are not
neutral, impartial custodians of
truth; that information centre
documents are not disinterested or
innocent by-products of actions
and administrations; that
documents are rooted in the
process and discourse of creation;
and the order and language
imposed on documents through
arrangement and description are
not value-free recreations of reality

54. Basically, the lack of
 Shared standards and conventions
AND THEREFORE
 A common information sharing
protocol

55. Metadisciplines and
metacommunities
 Information work has been described
as a „metadiscipline‟ which is
concerned with the content of
conventional disciplines‟, and it is
orthogonally situated in relation to
other disciplines. (Bates, 1999, p.
1044).
 Herold quotes an earlier writer who
suggested that there are similarities
between philosophy and librarianship

56. The Information
Metacommunity
has a mutual interest in cultural,
historical, economic, political, social
and technological contexts and
issues. If the information professions
are concerned with the curation and
preservation of cultural expressions, it
would seem to follow that an
understanding of the semiotic,
semantic and cultural dimensions of
documents and other cultural

57. Questions for discussion
What are data, information and
knowledge?
Is it „exchange‟, „transmission‟ or
„communication‟?
What is culture?
What are the disciplinary cultural
barriers?
How can these be overcome?