History of Library Science:

Library history is a subdiscipline within library science and library and information science focusing on the

history of libraries and their role in societies and cultures. Some see the field as a subset of information
history. Library history is an academic discipline and should not be confused with its object of study (history of
libraries): the discipline is much younger than the libraries it studies. Library history begins in ancient societies
through contemporary issues facing libraries today. Topics include recording mediums, cataloguing systems,
scholars, scribes, library supporters and librarians.

Earliest libraries:

The earliest records of a library institution as it is presently understood can be dated back to around 5,000 years
ago in the Southwest Asian regions of the world. One of the oldest libraries found is that of the ancient library
at Ebla (circa 2500 BCE) in present-day Syria. In the 1970s, the excavation at Ebla's library unearthed over
20,000 clay tablets written in cuneiform script.

The Al Qarawiyyin Library was founded in 859 by Fatima al-Fihri and is the oldest working library in the
world. It is in Fez, Morocco and is part of the oldest continually operating university in the world,
the University of al-Qarawiyyin. The library houses approximately 4,000 ancient Islamic manuscripts. These
manuscripts include 9th century Qurans and the oldest known accounts of the Islamic prophet Muhammed.

Library in Mesopotamia:

The Assyrian King Assurbanipal created one of the greatest libraries in Nineveh in the seventh century BCE.
The collection consisted of over 30,000 tablets written in a variety of languages. The collection was cataloged
both by the shape of the tablet and by the subject of the content (Murray, 2009, p. 8-9). The library had separate
rooms for the different topics: government, history, law, astronomy, geography, and so on. The tablets also
contained myths, hymns, and even jokes. Assurbanipal would send scribes to visit every corner of his kingdom
to copy the content of other libraries. His library contained many of the most important literary works of the
day, including the epic of Gilgamesh. Assurbanipal's Royal Library also had one of the first library catalogs.
Unfortunately, Nineveh was eventually destroyed and the library was lost in a fire.

Libraries in Ancient Greece:

The Greek government was the first to sponsor public libraries. By 500 BCE both Athens and Samos had begun
creating libraries for the public, though as most of the population was illiterate these spaces were serving a
small, educated portion of the community (Murray, 2009, p. 14). Athens developed a city archive at the
Metroon in 405 BCE, where documents were stored in sealed jars. These would have saved the documents, but
they would have been difficult to consult regularly. In Paros around the same time, contracts were placed in the
temple for safe keeping, and a Book curse was placed for extra protection.
Library of Alexandria:

The library at Alexandria, Egypt, was renowned in the third century BCE while kings Ptolemy I Soter and
Ptolemy II Philadelphus reigned. The library included a museum, garden, meeting areas and of course reading
rooms. The Great Library, as it is known, was one of many in Alexandria. Beginning at its inception through
the first century BCE Alexandria was a well known center for learning, the quantity and quality of the libraries
speak to this renown. Alexandria was the intellectual capital of the Western world through the third century CE.
[3]
 According to a primary source, every ship that came to Alexandria was required to hand over their books to
be copied, and the copies would be returned to the owner. The library would keep the originial. [7] The librarians
at Alexandria collected, copied, and organized scrolls from all around. The Library of Alexandria was damaged
by various disasters over time, including fire and earthquake. While there are popular stories about how the
library was burned, most of these are more myth than fact.

Libraries in Rome:

Julius Caesar and his successor Augustus were the first to establish public libraries in ancient Rome, including
the library of Apollo on the Palatine Hill. Roman aristocrats also had personal libraries, which usually
contained works in both Greek and Latin. The average Roman would not have been familiar with books.[7]

Libraries in the Middle Ages:

It wasn't until the Middle Ages that libraries became a part of culture. Many of these libraries were connected to
a monastery or religious institution. Books could not be borrowed from these libraries and were generally
chained to the shelves to prevent theft.

During the Renaissance era, more people became educated and relied on libraries as a place to study and gain
knowledge. During the Renaissance most of the text held in libraries were religious text. Libraries helped enrich
the culture of those who were educated by providing this valuable resource otherwise unavailable.

 Libraries & the Cultural Record; exploring the history of collections of recorded knowledge (L & C R);
until 2006: Libraries & Culture; until 1988: The Journal of Library History; until 1974: Journal of Library
History, Philosophy, and Comparative Librarianship; until 1973: The Journal of Library History
 Library & Information History (until 2008: Library History; until 1967: Library Association. Library
History Group. Newsletter)
 Library History Review
 Library History Round Table Newsletter (L H R T Newsletter), until 1992: L H R T Newsletter; until
198?: L H R T; until 1979: A L H R T Newsletter
 Information and Culture; a journal of history
 Libraries: Culture, History, and Society; peer-reviewed journal of the Library History Round Table of
the American Library Association[9]
Library history reports and writings of the early 19th and 20th century

In the early 19th and 20th century, representative titles were created reporting library history in the United
States and the United Kingdom. American titles include Public Libraries in the United States of America, Their
History, Condition, and Management (1876), Memorial History of Boston (1881) by Justin Winsor, Public
Libraries in America (1894) by William I. Fletcher, and History of the New York Public Library (1923) by
Henry M. Lydenberg.[10] British titles include Old English Libraries (1911) by Earnest A. Savage and The
Chained Library: A Survey of Four Centuries in the Evolution of the English Library by Burnett Hillman
Streeter.

In the beginning of the 20th century, library historians began applying scientific research methodologies to
examine the library as a social agency. Two works that demonstrate this argument are Geschichte der
Bibliotheken (1925) by Alfred Hessel and the Library Quarterly article from 1931, “The Sociological
Beginnings of the Library Movement in America” by Arnold Borden.

With the establishment of library schools, master’s theses and doctoral dissertations represented the shift in
serious research regarding libraries and library history. Two published doctoral dissertations that mark this
trend are Foundations of the Public Library: The Origins of the American Public Library Movement in New
England, 1629 – 1855 (1940) by Jesse Shera and Arsenals of a Democratic Culture: A Social History of the
American Public Library Movement in New England and the Middle Atlantic States From 1850 to
1900 (1947). Additional models of library historical analysis include The New York Public Library: A History
of Its Founding and Early Years by Phyllis Dain, a work that exemplified institutional history and The Power
and the Dignity: Librarianship and Katharine L. Sharp by Laurel Grotzinger, a biographical study.

Edward A. Goedeken, writes a biennial review of publications on the history of libraries, librarianship, and
information surveys that is published in the journal, Information & Culture.

Cataloging

The earliest methods of cataloging involved storing tablets separately based on their content. The subject matter
was identified by small descriptions or color coding. Common practice was to have different rooms or
chambers for the various subject types. Moving to the Renaissance period, cataloging took on a whole new
level. Materials were still stored by content, but now titles were being listed and organized alphabetically.
Catalogs were kept in ledger form listing all the materials in the collection, new additions added at the margins,
until a librarian would redraft the catalog. Maintaining and revising the catalog became crucially important as
collections grew. It was during the Renaissance period that one would find the first catalogs that referenced
other collections to make finding materials easier. As printing grew, so did the need for accurate catalogs of
material available. Additionally catalogs needed to be descriptive enough to help librarians in the locating and
storing of books. As collections grew, so naturally did catalogs. Materials continued to be separated by subject
and would then be further divided by more specific heading, still listed and stored within these sub headings
alphabetically.
Wartime librarianship:

In World War II, American librarians and archivists played a major role in collecting published information
about Nazi Germany, and also rescuing stolen books and documents the Nazis stole from target countries and
from Jews. Archibald MacLeish, the Librarian of Congress, announced that fellow librarians "must become
active and not passive agents of the democratic process." The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) took the lead
in recruiting and organizing secret expeditions to Europe, often acquiring rare materials from bookshops just
before the Gestapo arrived. Massive amounts of books, magazines and documents were collected -- too much to
transport -- so the new technique of micro photography was developed successfully.

After the D-Day landings in 1944, librarians became part of information search teams under Army command,
searching especially for current intelligence, as well as patents and technical manuals. Back in Washington,
analysts mined the information for projects such as targeting key industrial centers, railroads and chokepoints,
and identifying concentration camps and prisoner of war facilities.

When Berlin fell, there was a rush to obtain documentation of top-secret German military research.
Furthermore the teams rescued over two million books stolen from libraries, and 160,000 Jewish books stolen
by the Nazis. According to Ernest Hilbert, librarian historian Kathy Peiss shows how the librarians delivered
intelligence about enemy technology, propaganda, and infrastructure. They also advanced librarianship,
introducing an air of mass foreign acquisitions, widespread film usage, and new techniques for rapidly
extracting vital information instead of merely storing.

Library science (often termed library studies, bibliothecography, library economy, and informatics)[note 1]

 is
an interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary field that applies the practices, perspectives, and tools
of management, information technology, education, and other areas to libraries; the collection,
organization, preservation, and dissemination of information resources; and the political economy of
information. Martin Schrettinger, a Bavarian librarian, coined the discipline within his work (1808–
1828) Versuch eines vollständigen Lehrbuchs der Bibliothek-Wissenschaft oder Anleitung zur vollkommenen
Geschäftsführung eines Bibliothekars.[1] Rather than classifying information based on nature-oriented elements,
as was previously done in his Bavarian library, Schrettinger organized books in alphabetical order. The first
American school for library science was founded by Melvil Dewey at Columbia University in 1887.

Historically, library science has also included archival science.[5] This includes how information resources are
organized to serve the needs of selected user groups, how people interact with classification systems and
technology, how information is acquired, evaluated and applied by people in and outside libraries as well as
cross-culturally, how people are trained and educated for careers in libraries, the ethics that guide library
service and organization, the legal status of libraries and information resources, and the applied science of
computer technology used in documentation and records management.
The earliest text on library operations, Advice on Establishing a Library was published in 1627 by French
librarian and scholar Gabriel Naudé. Naudé wrote prolifically, producing works on many subjects including
politics, religion, history, and the supernatural. He put into practice all the ideas put forth in Advice when given
the opportunity to build and maintain the library of Cardinal Jules Mazarin.

19th century:

Thomas Jefferson, whose library at Monticello consisted of thousands of books, devised a classification system
inspired by the Baconian method, which grouped books more or less by subject rather than alphabetically, as it
was previously done.

Thomas Jefferson, whose library at Monticello consisted of thousands of books, devised a classification system
inspired by the Baconian method, which grouped books more or less by subject rather than alphabetically, as it
was previously done.

20th century:

Later, the term was used in the title of S. R. Ranganathan's The Five Laws of Library Science, published in
1931, and in the title of Lee Pierce Butler's 1933 book, An introduction to library science (University of
Chicago Press).

S. R. Ranganathan conceived the five laws of library science and the development of the first major analytico-
synthetic classification system, the colon classification.[13]

In the United States, Lee Pierce Butler's new approach advocated research using quantitative methods and ideas
in the social sciences with the aim of using librarianship to address society's information needs. He was one of
the first faculty at the University of Chicago Graduate Library School, which changed the structure and focus of
education for librarianship in the twentieth century. This research agenda went against the more procedure-
based approach of "library economy," which was mostly confined to practical problems in the administration of
libraries.

William Stetson Merrill's A Code for Classifiers, released in several editions from 1914 to 1939,[14] is an
example of a more pragmatic approach, where arguments stemming from in-depth knowledge about each field
of study are employed to recommend a system of classification. While Ranganathan's approach was
philosophical, it was also tied more to the day-to-day business of running a library. A reworking of
Ranganathan's laws was published in 1995 which removes the constant references to books. Michael
Gorman's Our Enduring Values: Librarianship in the 21st Century features his eight principles necessary by
library professionals and incorporate knowledge and information in all their forms, allowing for digital
information to be considered.

In more recent years, with the growth of digital technology, the field has been greatly influenced by information
science concepts. In the English speaking world the term "library science" seems to have been used for the first
time in India[15] in the 1916 book Punjab Library Primer, written by Asa Don Dickinson and published by
the University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan.[16] This university was the first in Asia to begin teaching "library
science". The Punjab Library Primer was the first textbook on library science published in English anywhere in
the world. The first textbook in the United States was the Manual of Library Economy by James Duff Brown,
published in 1903. In 1923, C. C. Williamson, who was appointed by the Carnegie Corporation, published an
assessment of library science education entitled "The Williamson Report," which designated that universities
should provide library science training. [17] This report had a significant impact on library science training and
education. Library research and practical work, the area of information science, has remained largely distinct
both in training and in research interests.

21st century:

The digital age has transformed how information is accessed and retrieved. "The library is now a part of a
complex and dynamic educational, recreational, and informational infrastructure."[18] Mobile devices and
applications with wireless networking, high-speed computers and networks, and the computing cloud have
deeply impacted and developed information science and information services. [19] The evolution of the library
sciences maintains its mission of access equity and community space, as well as the new means for information
retrieval called information literacy skills. All catalogues, databases, and a growing number of books are all
available on the Internet. In addition, the expanding free access to open source journals and sources such as
Wikipedia have fundamentally impacted how information is accessed. Information literacy is the ability to
"determine the extent of information needed, access the needed information effectively and efficiently, evaluate
information and its sources critically, incorporate selected information into one’s knowledge base, use
information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose, and understand the economic, legal, and social issues
surrounding the use of information, and access and use information ethically and legally.

Library science, the principles and practices of library operation and administration, and their study. Libraries
have existed since ancient times, but only in the second half of the 19th century did library science emerge as a
separate field of study. With the knowledge explosion in the 20th century, it was gradually subsumed under the
more general field of information science (q.v.).

By the second half of the 19th century, Western countries had experienced such a proliferation of books of all
sorts that the nature of the librarian’s work was radically altered; being well-read was no longer a sufficient
characteristic for the post. The librarian needed some means of easy and rapid identification as well as strong
organizational and administrative skills, and the necessity for specialized training soon became clear. One of
the earliest pioneers in library training in the United States was Melvil Dewey (q.v.), who established the first
training program for librarians in 1887. These training programs in the United States evolved into graduate
programs in library education accredited by the American Library Association (ALA; founded 1876).

In the 20th century, advances in the means of collecting, organizing, and retrieving information changed the
focus of libraries, enabling a great variety of institutions and organizations, as well as individuals, to conduct
their own searches for information without the involvement of a library or library staff. As a result, universities
began to offer combined graduate programs in library science and information science. These programs usually
provide a master’s degree and may provide more advanced degrees, including doctorates. Particulars of
admission and course requirements vary from school to school. In the United States and Canada, the
appropriateness of graduate programs in library and information science in preparing students to become
professional librarians is still ensured by accreditation by the ALA. Increasingly, however, graduates of these
programs are finding themselves qualified for a variety of professional positions in other parts of the
information industry.

In many countries the furtherance of librarianship and library systems is promoted by national and regional
library associations. The Chicago-based ALA, for example, in addition to its promotion of library service and
librarianship, has an extensive publishing program and holds annual national conferences. Professional
associations of a similar nature exist throughout the world.

Libraries:

The library at Gallaudet University, the only deaf liberal arts university in the United States, was founded in
1876. The library's collection has grown from a small number of reference books to the world's largest
collection of deaf-related materials, with over 234,000 books and thousands of other materials in different
formats. The collection is so large that the library had to create a hybrid classification system based on the
Dewey Decimal Classification System in order to make cataloging and location within the library easier for
both library staff and users. The library also houses the university's archives, which holds some of the oldest
deaf-related books and documents in the world.

Types of libraries:

Public:

The study of librarianship for public libraries covers issues such as cataloging; collection development for a

diverse community; information literacy; readers' advisory; community standards; public services-focused
librarianship; serving a diverse community of adults, children, and teens; intellectual freedom; censorship; and
legal and budgeting issues. The public library as a commons or public sphere based on the work of Jürgen
Habermas has become a central metaphor in the 21st century.[101]

Most people are familiar with municipal public libraries, but there are, in fact, four different types of public
libraries: association libraries, municipal public libraries, school district libraries and special district public
libraries. It is important to be able to distinguish among the four. Each receives its funding through different
sources, each is established by a different set of voters, and not all are subject to municipal civil service
governance.

School:

The study of school librarianship covers library services for children in primary through secondary school. In
some regions, the local government may have stricter standards for the education and certification of school
librarians (who are often considered a special case of teacher), than for other librarians, and the educational
program will include those local criteria. School librarianship may also include issues of intellectual
freedom, pedagogy, information literacy, and how to build a cooperative curriculum with the teaching staff.

Academic:

The study of academic librarianship covers library services for colleges and universities. Issues of special
importance to the field may include copyright; technology, digital libraries, and digital repositories; academic
freedom; open access to scholarly works; as well as specialized knowledge of subject areas important to the
institution and the relevant reference works. Librarians often divide focus individually as liaisons on particular
schools within a college or university.

Some academic librarians are considered faculty, and hold similar academic ranks to those of professors, while
others are not. In either case, the minimal qualification is a Master of Arts in Library Studies or Masters of Arts
in Library Science. Some academic libraries may only require a master's degree in a specific academic field or a
related field, such as educational technology.

Archival:

The study of archives includes the training of archivists, librarians specially trained to maintain and
build archives of records intended for historical preservation. Special issues include physical preservation,
conservation and restoration of materials and mass deacidification; specialist catalogs; solo work; access; and
appraisal. Many archivists are also trained historians specializing in the period covered by the archive.

The archival mission includes three major goals: To identify papers and records that have enduring value, to
preserve the identified papers, and to make the papers available to others.[103]

There are significant differences between libraries and archives, including differences in collections, records
creation, item acquisition, and preferred behavior in the institution. The major difference in collections is that
library collections typically comprise published items (books, magazines, etc.), while archival collections are
usually unpublished works (letters, diaries, etc.) In managing their collections, libraries will categorize items
individually, but archival items never stand alone. An archival record gains its meaning and importance from its
relationship to the entire collection; therefore archival items are usually received by the archive in a group or
batch. Library collections are created by many individuals, as each author and illustrator creates their own
publication; in contrast, an archive usually collects the records of one person, family, institution, or
organization, and so the archival items will have fewer source authors.

Another difference between a library and an archive, is that library materials are created explicitly by authors or
others who are working intentionally. They choose to write and publish a book, for example, and that occurs.
Archival materials are not created intentionally. Instead, the items in an archive are what remain after a
business, institution, or person conducts their normal business practices. The collection of letters, documents,
receipts, ledger books, etc. were created with intention to perform daily tasks, they were not created in order to
populate a future archive.
As for item acquisition, libraries receive items individually, but archival items will usually become part of the
archive's collection as a cohesive group.

Behavior in an archive differs from behavior in a library, as well. In most libraries, patrons are allowed and
encouraged to browse the stacks, because the books are openly available to the public. Archival items almost
never circulate, and someone interested in viewing documents must request them of the archivist and may only
view them in a closed reading room. [103] Those who wish to visit an archive will usually begin with an entrance
interview. This is an opportunity for the archivist to register the researcher, confirm their identity, and
determine their research needs. This is also the opportune time for the archivist to review reading room rules,
which vary but typically include policies on privacy, photocopying, the use of finding aids, and restrictions on
food, drinks, and other activities or items that could damage the archival materials.[103]

Special:

Special libraries are libraries established to meet the highly specialised requirements of professional or business
groups. A library is special depending on whether it covers a specialised collection, a special subject, or a
particular group of users or even the type of parent organization. A library can be special if it only serves a
particular group of users such as lawyers, doctors, nurses, etc. These libraries are called professional libraries
and special librarians include almost any other form of librarianship, including those who serve in medical
libraries (and hospitals or medical schools), corporations, news agencies, government organizations, or
other special collections. The issues at these libraries are specific to the industries they inhabit, but may include
solo work, corporate financing, specialized collection development, and extensive self-promotion to potential
patrons. Special librarians have their own professional organization, the Special Library Association (SLA).

Libraries provide macro-documents to their users whereas information centers provide micro

documents. Library also differs from information centers in the types of documents stored, types and levels of
users, provision of documents rather than information, rendering services to both, internal and external users.

Information Science:

Information Science(also known as information studies) is an academic field which is primarily concerned with
analysis, collection, classification, manipulation, storage, retrieval, movement, dissemination, and protection
of information.[1] Practitioners within and outside the field study the application and the usage of knowledge
in organizations in addition to the interaction between people, organizations, and any existing information
systems with the aim of creating, replacing, improving, or understanding information systems. Historically,
information science is associated with computer science, data science, psychology, technology, library
science, healthcare, and intelligence agencies.[2] However, information science also incorporates aspects of
diverse fields such as archival science, cognitive
science, commerce, law, linguistics, museology, management, mathematics, philosophy, public policy,
and social sciences.
Scope and approach of Information Science:

Information science focuses on understanding problems from the perspective of the stakeholders involved and
then applying information and other technologies as needed. In other words, it tackles systemic problems first
rather than individual pieces of technology within that system. In this respect, one can see information science
as a response to technological determinism, the belief that technology "develops by its own laws, that it realizes
its own potential, limited only by the material resources available and the creativity of its developers. It must
therefore be regarded as an autonomous system controlling and ultimately permeating all other subsystems of
society."

Definitions:

The first known usage of the term "information science" was in 1955. An early definition of Information
science (going back to 1968, the year when the American Documentation Institute renamed itself as
the American Society for Information Science and Technology) states:

"Information science is that discipline that investigates the properties and behavior of information, the forces
governing the flow of information, and the means of processing information for optimum accessibility and
usability. It is concerned with that body of knowledge relating to the origination, collection, organization,
storage, retrieval, interpretation, transmission, transformation, and utilization of information. This includes the
investigation of information representations in both natural and artificial systems, the use of codes for efficient
message transmission, and the study of information processing devices and techniques such as computers and
their programming systems. It is an interdisciplinary science derived from and related to such fields as
mathematics, logic, linguistics, psychology, computer technology, operations research, the graphic arts,
communications, management, and other similar fields. It has both a pure science component, which inquires
into the subject without regard to its application, and an applied science component, which develops services
and products."

History of Information Science:

Information history
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, a German polymath who wrote primarily in Latin and French. His fields of study
were Metaphysics, Mathematics, Theodicy.

Information science, in studying the collection, classification, manipulation, storage, retrieval and dissemination

of information has origins in the common stock of human knowledge. Information analysis has been carried out
by scholars at least as early as the time of the Assyrian Empire with the emergence of cultural depositories,
what is today known as libraries and archives.[14] Institutionally, information science emerged in the 19th
century along with many other social science disciplines. As a science, however, it finds its institutional roots in
the history of science, beginning with publication of the first issues of Philosophical Transactions, generally
considered the first scientific journal, in 1665 by the Royal Society (London).
The institutionalization of science occurred throughout the 18th century. In 1731, Benjamin
Franklin established the Library Company of Philadelphia, the first library owned by a group of public citizens,
which quickly expanded beyond the realm of books and became a center of scientific experiment, and which
hosted public exhibitions of scientific experiments.[15] Benjamin Franklin invested a town in Massachusetts with
a collection of books that the town voted to make available to all free of charge, forming the first Public
Library.[16] Academie de Chirurgia (Paris) published Memoires pour les Chirurgiens, generally considered to be
the first medical journal, in 1736. The American Philosophical Society, patterned on the Royal
Society (London), was founded in Philadelphia in 1743. As numerous other scientific journals and societies
were founded, Alois Senefelder developed the concept of lithography for use in mass printing work
in Germany in 1796.

19th Century:

Joseph Marie Jacquard

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. In 1801, Joseph Marie
Jacquard invented a punched card system to control operations of the cloth weaving loom in France. It was the
first use of "memory storage of patterns" system.[17] As chemistry journals emerged throughout the 1820s and
1830s,[18] Charles Babbage developed his "difference engine," the first step towards the modern computer, in
1822 and his "analytical engine” by 1834. By 1843 Richard Hoe developed the rotary press, and in
1844 Samuel Morse sent the first public telegraph message. By 1848 William F. Poole begins the Index to
Periodical Literature, the first general periodical literature index in the US.

In 1854 George Boole published An Investigation into Laws of Thought..., which lays the foundations

for Boolean algebra, which is later used in information retrieval.[19] In 1860 a congress was held at Karlsruhe
Technische Hochschule to discuss the feasibility of establishing a systematic and rational nomenclature for
chemistry. The congress did not reach any conclusive results, but several key participants returned home
with Stanislao Cannizzaro's outline (1858), which ultimately convinces them of the validity of his scheme for
calculating atomic weights.

Transition to modern information science:

Vannevar Bush, a famous information scientist, ca. 1940–1944

With the 1950s came increasing awareness of the potential of automatic devices for literature searching and
information storage and retrieval. As these concepts grew in magnitude and potential, so did the variety of
information science interests. By the 1960s and 70s, there was a move from batch processing to online modes,
from mainframe to mini and microcomputers. Additionally, traditional boundaries among disciplines began to
fade and many information science scholars joined with other programs. They further made themselves
multidisciplinary by incorporating disciplines in the sciences, humanities and social sciences, as well as other
professional programs, such as law and medicine in their curriculum. By the 1980s, large databases, such as
Grateful Med at the National Library of Medicine, and user-oriented services such as Dialog and Compuserve,
were for the first time accessible by individuals from their personal computers. The 1980s also saw the
emergence of numerous special interest groups to respond to the changes. 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. Today, information science largely examines technical bases, social
consequences, and theoretical understanding of online databases, widespread use of databases in government,
industry, and education, and the development of the Internet and World Wide Web.[27]

Information dissemination in the 21st century

Changing definition:

Dissemination has historically been interpreted as unilateral communication of information. With the advent of
the internet, and the explosion in popularity of online communities, "social media has changed the information
landscape in many respects, and creates both new modes of communication and new types of information",
[28]
 changing the interpretation of the definition of dissemination. The nature of social networks allows for faster
diffusion of information than through organizational sources.[29] The internet has changed the way we view, use,
create, and store information, now it is time to re-evaluate the way we share and spread it.

Impact of social media on people and industry:

Social media networks provide an open information environment for the mass of people who have limited time
or access to traditional outlets of information diffusion, this is an "increasingly mobile and social world [that]
demands...new types of information skills". Social media integration as an access point is a very useful and
mutually beneficial tool for users and providers. All major news providers have visibility and an access point
through networks such as Facebook and Twitter maximizing their breadth of audience. Through social media
people are directed to, or provided with, information by people they know. The ability to "share, like, and
comment on...content"increases the reach farther and wider than traditional methods. People like to interact
with information, they enjoy including the people they know in their circle of knowledge. Sharing through
social media has become so influential that publishers must "play nice" if they desire to succeed. Although, it is
often mutually beneficial for publishers and Facebook to "share, promote and uncover new content" to improve
both user base experiences. The impact of popular opinion can spread in unimaginable ways. Social media
allows interaction through simple to learn and access tools; The Wall Street Journal offers an app through
Facebook, and The Washington Post goes a step further and offers an independent social app that was
downloaded by 19.5 million users in 6 months, proving how interested people are in the new way of being
provided information.

Social media's power to facilitate topics:

The connections and networks sustained through social media help information providers learn what is
important to people. The connections people have throughout the world enable the exchange of information at
an unprecedented rate. It is for this reason that these networks have been realized for the potential they provide.
"Most news media monitor Twitter for breaking news"as well as news anchors frequently request the audience
to tweet pictures of events. The users and viewers of the shared information have earned "opinion-making and
agenda-setting power" This channel has been recognized for the usefulness of providing targeted information
based on public demand.

The following areas are some of those that information science investigates and develops.

Information access:

Information access is an area of research at the intersection of Informatics, Information Science, Information

Security, Language Technology, and Computer Science. The objectives of information access research are to
automate the processing of large and unwieldy amounts of information and to simplify users' access to it. What
about assigning privileges and restricting access to unauthorized users? The extent of access should be defined
in the level of clearance granted for the information. Applicable technologies include information retrieval, text
mining, text editing, machine translation, and text categorisation. In discussion, information access is often
defined as concerning the insurance of free and closed or public access to information and is brought up in
discussions on copyright, patent law, and public domain. Public libraries need resources to provide knowledge
of information assurance.

Information architecture:

Information architecture (IA) is the art and science of organizing and labelling websites, intranets, online
communities and software to support usability. It is an emerging discipline and community of practice focused
on bringing together principles of design and architecture to the digital landscape. Typically it involves
a model or concept of information which is used and applied to activities that require explicit details of
complex information systems. These activities include library systems and database development.

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 stake
in, or a right to that information. Management means the organization of and control over the structure,
processing and delivery of information. Throughout the 1970s this was largely limited to files, file maintenance,
and the life cycle management of paper-based files, other media and records. With the proliferation of
information technology starting in the 1970s, the job of information management took on a new light and also
began to include the field of data maintenance.

Information retrieval:

Information retrieval (IR) is the area of study concerned with searching for documents, for information within
documents, and for metadata about documents, as well as that of searching structured storage, relational
databases, and the World Wide Web. Automated information retrieval systems are used to reduce what has
been called "information overload". 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. Queries are formal
statements of information needs, for example search strings in web search engines. In information retrieval a
query does not uniquely identify a single object in the collection. Instead, several objects may match the query,
perhaps with different degrees of relevancy.

Most IR systems compute a numeric score on how well each object in the database match the query, and rank
the objects according to this value. The top ranking objects are then shown to the user. The process may then be
iterated if the user wishes to refine the query.

Information seeking:

Information seeking is the process or activity of attempting to obtain information in both human and
technological contexts. Information seeking is related to, but different from, information retrieval (IR).

Much library and information science (LIS) research has focused on the information-seeking practices of
practitioners within various fields of professional work. Studies have been carried out into the information-
seeking behaviors of librarians, academics, medical professionals, engineers and lawyers (among others). Much
of this research has drawn on the work done by Leckie, Pettigrew (now Fisher) and Sylvain, who in 1996
conducted an extensive review of the LIS literature (as well as the literature of other academic fields) on
professionals' information seeking. The authors proposed an analytic model of professionals' information
seeking behaviour, intended to be generalizable across the professions, thus providing a platform for future
research in the area. The model was intended to "prompt new insights... and give rise to more refined and
applicable theories of information seeking" (1996, p. 188). The model has been adapted by Wilkinson (2001)
who proposes a model of the information seeking of lawyers. Recent studies in this topic address the concept of
information-gathering that "provides a broader perspective that adheres better to professionals’ work-related
reality and desired skills." (Solomon & Bronstein, 2021).

Information society:

An information society is a society where the creation, distribution, diffusion, uses, integration and
manipulation of information is a significant economic, political, and cultural activity. The aim of an information
society is to gain competitive advantage internationally, through using IT in a creative and productive way.
The knowledge economy is its economic counterpart, whereby wealth is created through the economic
exploitation of understanding. People who have the means to partake in this form of society are sometimes
called digital citizens.

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 too has the way we have adapted in sharing this
information with each other.
Information society theory discusses the role of information and information technology in society, the question
of which key concepts should be used for characterizing contemporary society, and how to define such
concepts. It has become a specific branch of contemporary sociology.

Research methods of information science:

 Archival research – facts or factual evidences from a variety of records are compiled.
 Computational complexity and structure – algorithmic and graphic methods are used to explore the
complexity of information systems, retrieval and storage.
 Content analysis – studies how people communicate by analyzing the contents of books and mass media
as well as the messages people talk or write about.
 Case study – specific set of circumstances or a group (the 'case') is analyzed according to a specific goal
of study. Generally, case studies are used to characterize a trend or development; they have weak
generalizability.
 Discourse analysis – analyzing written, oral, and sign language use
 Historical method – involves a continuous and systematic search for the information and knowledge
about past events related to the life of a person, a group, society, or the world.
 Interviews – researchers obtain data by interviewing people. If the interview is non-structured, the
researcher leaves it to the interviewee (also referred to as the respondent or the informant) to guide the
conversation.
 Life history – study of the personal life of a person. Through a series of interviews, the researcher can
probe into the decisive moments in their life or the various influences on their life.
 Longitudinal study – extensive examination of a specific group over a long period of time.
 Observation – using data from the senses, one records information about a social phenomenon or
behavior. Qualitative research relies heavily on observation, although it is in a highly disciplined form.
 Participant observation – involves researchers going into the field (usually a community), living with
the people for some time, and participating in their activities in order to know and feel their culture.

Library information sciences is a branch of academic disciplines that deals generally with organization, access,
collection, and protection/regulation of information, whether in physical (e.g. art, legal proceedings) or digital
forms. By the late 1960s, mainly due to the meteoric rise of human computing power and the new academic
disciplines formed therefrom, academic institutions began to add the term "information science" to their names.
The first school to do this was at the University of Pittsburgh in 1964. [3] More schools followed during the
1970s and 1980s, and by the 1990s almost all library schools in the USA had added information science to their
names. Although there are exceptions, similar developments have taken place in other parts of the world. In
Denmark, for example, the 'Royal School of Librarianship' changed its English name to The Royal School of
Library and Information Science in 1997.
Diference between Library and information Science:

In spite of various trends to merge the two fields, some consider the two original disciplines, library
science and information science, to be separate. However, it is common today is to use the terms as synonyms
or to drop the term "library" and to speak about information departments or I-schools.There have also been
attempts to revive the concept of documentation and to speak of Library, information and
documentation studies.

Library and Information Science (LIS) is an interdisciplinary domain concerned with creation,
management, and uses of information in all its forms. Taught in colleges and universities at the
undergraduate and graduate levels and a subject of research in both industry and academia, LIS brings
together a variety of theoretical approaches. Its focus is on representations of information—the
documentary evidence of civilization—as well as on the technologies and organizations through which
information becomes accessible. The research domain is young, beginning in the late 1960s and early
1970s, but its roots lie in the nineteenth century. LIS represents the intersection of library science,
information science (originally called documentation), and communications. The first, library science, has
sought to solve the problems of organizing and providing access to collections of materials. The second,
information science, seeks to understand the properties of information and how to manage it. Aspects of the
field of communication, always a facet of the first two, became interwoven with both as library science and
information science matured and increasingly intersected with one another.
Library and information science (LIS) (sometimes given as the plural library and information sciences)
or as "library and information studies" is a merging of library science and information science. The joint
term is associated with schools of library and information science (abbreviated to "SLIS"). In the last part
of the 1960s, schools of librarianship, which generally developed from professional training programs (not
academic disciplines) to university institutions during the second half of the 20th century, began to add the
term "information science" to their names. The first school to do this was at the University of Pittsburgh in
1964. More schools followed during the 1970s and 1980s, and by the 1990s almost all library schools in
the USA had added information science to their names.
Information science focuses on understanding problems from the perspective of the stakeholders
involved and then applying information and other technologies as needed. In other words, it tackles systemic
problems first rather than individual pieces of technology within that system.

Importance of Library Science:

The most important contribution of Library Science is the management of information. It could be in any
form,and in any route whatsoever. But Library Science research has contributed immensely in preservation of
information, and also bridging a social gap through proper utilisation of resources of a library.
Importance of Library Information Science:

The main function of LIS is the organization of knowledge. It is especially important in the age of information
overload. Libraries organize information that is converted into knowledge, and it is accessible to library users.
As you probably know, a single person cannot subscribe to so many journals and databases, and the library is
making information sources accessible to many.

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