The term information scientist developed in the latter part of the twentieth century to describe an individual, usually with a relevant subject degree (such as one in
Information and Computer Science - CIS) or high level of subject knowledge, providing focused information to scientific and technical research staff in industry. It is a role quite distinct from and complementary to that of a
librarian
A librarian is a person who works professionally in a library providing access to information, and sometimes social or technical programming, or instruction on information literacy to users.
The role of the librarian has changed much over time ...
. Developments in end-user searching, together with some convergence between the roles of librarian and information scientist, have led to a diminution in its use in this context, and the term information officer or ''
information professional
An information professional or information specialist is someone who collects, records, organises, stores, preserves, retrieves, and disseminates printed or digital information. The service delivered to the client is known as an information service ...
'' (''information specialist'') are also now used.
The term was, and is, also used for an individual carrying out research in
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 informatio ...
.
Brian C. Vickery mentions that the ''
Institute of Information Scientists'' (IIS) was established in London during 1958 and lists the criteria put forward by this institute "Criteria for Information Science" (appendix 1) as well as his own "Areas of study in information science" (appendix 2). The IIS merged with the Library Association in 2002 to form the
Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals
The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, since 2017 branded CILIP: The library and information association (pronounced ), is a professional body for librarians, information specialists and knowledge managers in the ...
(CILIP).
Examples
*
Marcia Bates
Marcia J. Bates (born 1942) is Professor VI Emerita of Information Studies in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles.
Career
Bates received a M.L.S in 1967 and a Ph.D (1972), both fro ...
*
David Blair (information technologist)
The Stephen M. Ross School of Business, also known as Michigan Ross, is the business school of the University of Michigan, a public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Founded in 1924, the school is ranked among the best business schools ...
*
Samuel C. Bradford
*
Michael Buckland Michael Keeble Buckland (born 1941) is an emeritus professor at the UC Berkeley School of Information and co-director of the Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative.
Buckland was born and grew up in England. He entered library work as a trainee at th ...
*
John M. Carroll
*
Blaise Cronin
Blaise Cronin (born 1949) is an Irish-American information scientist and bibliometrician. He is the Rudy Professor Emeritus of Information Science at Indiana University, Bloomington, where he was Dean of the School of Library and Information Scie ...
*
Emilia Currás
*
Eugene Garfield
Eugene Eli Garfield (September 16, 1925 – February 26, 2017) was an American linguist and businessman, one of the founders of bibliometrics and scientometrics. He helped to create ''Current Contents'', ''Science Citation Index'' (SCI), ''Journ ...
*
Paul B. Kantor
*
Frederick Wilfrid Lancaster
*
Calvin Mooers
Calvin Northrup Mooers (October 24, 1919 – December 1, 1994), was an American computer scientist known for his work in information retrieval and for the programming language TRAC.
Early life
Mooers was a native of Minneapolis, Minnesota, atte ...
*
Robert Saxton Taylor Robert Saxton Taylor (June 15, 1918 – January 1, 2009) was an influential library scholar and information scientist who served as Dean of the Syracuse University School of Information Studies from 1972 to 1981. His research and publications foc ...
*
Brian Campbell Vickery
Brian Campbell Vickery ( New South Wales, Australia, 11 September 1918 – 17 October 2009) was a British information scientist and classification researcher, and Professor and director at the School of Library, Archive and Information Studies a ...
*
Thomas D. Wilson
See also
*
Computer scientist
*
Documentalist A documentalist is a professional, trained in documentation science and specializing in assisting researchers in their search for scientific and technical documentation. With the development of bibliographical databases such as MEDLINE, documentali ...
*
Information history
*
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 informatio ...
*
Library and information scientist
*
Library scholar
A library and information scientist, also known as a library scholar, is a researcher or academic who specializes in the field of library and information science and often participates in scholarly writing about and related to library and informati ...
*
*
References
* Vickery, B. & Vickery, A. (1987) ''Information Science in theory and practice'' (London: Bowker-Saur, pp. 361–369)
*Ellis, David and Merete Haugan. (1997) "Modelling the information seeking patterns of engineers and research scientists in an industrial environment" (''Journal of Documentation'', Volume 53(4): pp. 384–403)
*Vickery, Brian Campbell (1988) "Essays presented to B. C. Vickery" (''Journal of Documentation'', Volume 44, pp. 199–283)
External links
"Pioneers" of Information Science scrapbook: https://web.archive.org/web/20140201230801/http://faculty.libsci.sc.edu/bob/ISP/scrapbook.htm
scientists information
{{Authority control
.
Information science
da:Informationsforsker