This document discusses the information professions and how they are affected by the information society. It addresses commonalities between information professions and examines how they may evolve. Specifically, it explores how information work can be better explained as a discipline through developing a theoretical framework describing its knowledge domain. This would help establish a metacommunity of information professionals with conceptual clarity around their social purpose and responsibilities. The document argues that a profession requires both a disciplinary theoretical base and a clear social role to distinguish it from other occupations.

1. Dr Susan Myburgh
University of South Australia
Visiting Professor, University of Parma

2.  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?

3.  The sea change/ paradigm shift.
◦ Foucault‟s „Bibliotheque fantastique‟
◦ Information interventionists (Myburgh,
2007)
◦ Participatory librarianship
◦ Transliteracies

4.  What are we (as information workers) and
what will we become?
◦ Digital libraries
◦ User involvement
◦ Context
◦ Particular learning role
◦ Metaprofession
◦ Metatheory

5.  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

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

7. What is fundamental is to
contest and delegitimize any
term or definition that
reinforces this technocentric
conception of society

8.  Inorder to historically review the
concept, it should be remembered
that, in general, the relationship
between technology and
development has frequently been
perceived as a lineal relationship

9.  In the first approach, to talk about
the information society refers to a
new development paradigm that
assigns technology to a causal
role in the social order,
designating it as the drive of
economic development.

10.  The second approach maintains that the
new phase of human development that we
are entering into is characterised by the
predominance of information,
communication, and knowledge in the
economy as well as human activities.
According to this standpoint, technology is
the support that has unleashed the
acceleration of this process; but it is not a
neutral factor, nor is its course inexorable,
since technological development is guided
by games of interest.

11.  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).

12.  How can one characterise the
deep transformations that come
with the accelerated insertion of
artificial intelligence and new
Information and Communication
Technologies (ICTs) in our present
society?

13.  Thatinformation
possesses transformative
abilities is an article of
faith for librarians

14. On one hand the international dominant
position holds that only deregulation of
markets can guarantee the existence of the
infrastructure necessary for universal access
to the Information Society.
On the other hand, movements are fighting to
ensure that information remains above all a
public good and calling for regulation and
public governance at a level appropriate for
the important issues of the Information Age.

15. But now collaborative everything
is possible: even consumerism…

16. Libraries aren‟t what they used to be…

17. Perhaps they‟re even more so.

20.  Elucidating the professional contribution
of librarianship to the information
society. Four issues can be identified:
 Information work must be explained as a
discipline/profession.
 Thus, there is a necessity for a
theoretical framework which describes
the knowledge domain.
 Possibility of a metacommunity of
information professionals but we need
conceptual clarity.
 Every discipline/profession must have
asocial purpose or responsibility.

22.  . 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 theory which supports practice.

23.  Parsons suggests that there are several core
criteria which distinguish professional work
from the work of other occupations, 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
(Parsons, 1968, his italics).

24.  Among the various distinguishing criteria of a
profession are: a core body of knowledge
outlining and governing its practices, a social
problem or need which the profession uses
its knowledge base to deal with, and a degree
of autonomy.

25.  Abbott (1988, p. 8) defines professions as
“exclusive occupational groups applying
somewhat abstract knowledge to particular
cases”, and he believes that a profession‟s
strongest claim of jurisdiction over a problem
is that its knowledge system is effective in
the task domain.

26.  Blackler (1995) compares command of the
abstractions which constitute a knowledge
domain to a „black box‟ of professional
knowledge (c.f. Latour and Woolgar, 1986).
This professional knowledge is not shared by
other professions: separation and isolation
give authority to such knowledge
(Blackler, 1995). This suggests that both a
theoretical foundation and a clear social
purpose are necessary .

27.  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 subjects” (Klein,
1990, p.12).

28.  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.

29.  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.

31. Action guided by habitus has
the appearance of rationality
but is based not so much on
reason as on socially-
constituted dispositions.
Van House and Sutton, 1996

38.  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.

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

40.  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 and
operation of values and ethics).

41.  Epistemology is the branch of
philosophy that deals with the
definition, nature, structure, origin
and theory of knowledge: how
knowledge is created.
 Many disciplines identify an
epistemological base which guides
what knowledge in the discipline is
created, structured, organised and
understood: an epistemological
commitment is considered the
philosophical base of the discipline.

42.  Borko‟s1968 definition of “Information
Science”:
 Information science is that discipline
that investigates the properties and
behaviour of information, the forces
governing the flow of information, and
the means of processing information
for optimum accessibility and usability
(Borko, 1968, pp. 3-5).

43.  Soergel (2005), amongst others, believes that
Information Science already “brings together and
advances basic thinking about the structure of
knowledge, the structure of
problems, approaches to problem solving and
decision making, human information
processing, and the functioning of social groups
and organizations”, and thus it includes, or draws
upon, many diverse areas, including computer
science, mathematics, journalism, graphic
design, education, economics and so on.

44.  … 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).

45. Reductionism

46. „The mother of all models’
Transmission model. Shown to cultural and communication studies as
a poor, oversimplified and irrelevant example.

47. 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?

48.  A good way to think about information is that it's
the professional object of librarianship. Every
profession has its object: for law everything is a
case, for medicine everything is a disease, and
for librarianship everything is information. In
each case, someone walks in the door with a
problem, and the professional's job is to find
their object in that problem, and to talk about
the problem in a way that makes it sound like a
case, a disease, or information that can be
compared with other cases, other diseases, or
other information (Agre, 1997, online).

49.  “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.

50.  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.

51.  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.

52.  A theoretical framework provides a
basic, hypothetical, logical, conceptual
structure or description of a complex
entity or process, which can be used
to develop theory, by classifying and
organising complex information and
providing a unified and coherent view.
It enables the organisation and
classification of concepts, entities, and
phenomena, and the relationships
between them, providing a unified and
coherent view.

53.  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.

54.  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)

55. Learning is a process of active engagement
with experience.
It is what people do when they want to
make sense of the world. It may involve
the development or deepening of
skills, knowledge, understanding, awarene
ss, values, ideas and feelings, or an
increase in the capacity to reflect.
Effective learning leads to
change, development and the desire to
learn more.

57.  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.

58. Information is a key component of what
Giddens calls ‘structuration’, an emergent
process in which neither structure nor
individual action predominates but it must
be related to what is already known and
understood; but it must also have an
element of novelty and so inspire
creativity.
 In other words, information must be made
meaningful to human beings.

59.  ...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 (Cook, 1997,
online).

60.  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).

61. They are the organizers of capitalist
hegemony and its culture, and they play
central strategic and ideological roles in the
superstructure that reproduces capitalist
relations of production.
These intellectuals “are the dominant group‟s
“deputies” exercising the subaltern
functions of social hegemony and political
government”(Gramsci, 1971, p. 12, cited by
Raber, 2003, p. 45)

62.  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.

63.  They control mastery of and access to those
discursive resources which could provide
essential competencies in an information-
based economy and society, and which
directly affect social and economic power.

64. Habermas (1962) argues, in his book, The structural transformation of the
bourgeois public sphere, that art criticism, social criticism and literary
criticism developed in public spaces like coffee houses. They became
organised in the sense that criticism developed particular forms of
communication in order to talk and write about social, political and cultural
issues in society.
The success of the public sphere, according to Habermas, depends upon:
 the extent of access (as close to universal as possible),
 the degree of autonomy (the citizens must be free of coercion),
 the rejection of hierarchy (so that each might participate on an equal
footing),
 the rule of law (particularly the subordination of the state),
 the quality of participation (the common commitment to the ways of logic).
 rational-critical discourse (Rutherford, 2000, p. 18).

65.  understand how information is
created, the differences between
information sources, the distinctions in
how people acquire information and
turn it into something meaningful to
them and their organizations, and the
changing nature of information
systems as reflections of
social, economic, political, cultural and
other factors…(Cox, 1998, online).

66.  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 in this regard (as does Floridi):

67. 
 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 discipline..

68.  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
articulated and incorporated in its theoretical
structures.

69.  How and why is knowledge created
 How and why is knowledge selected for
communication; how is it represented
 Who are the intended recipients of the coded
message?
 How do they decode it and extract meaning
and make sense?
 What happens when they have received and
understood the information?
 How does this „transform‟ them (change their
decisions and actions)?

72. If they can
get it
together,
so can
we.