Library and information science
Library and information science are two academic disciplines that study all aspects of the creation, organization, documentation, management, communication, and use of recorded information. It underlies a variety of professional activities such as information management, librarianship, and archiving and records management, educating professionals for work in those areas, and carrying out research to improve practice.
Library science and information science are two original disciplines; however, they are within the same field of study. Library science is applied information science, as well as a subfield of information science. Due to the strong connection, sometimes the two terms are used synonymously.
Definition
Library science 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 Versuch eines vollständigen Lehrbuchs der Bibliothek-Wissenschaft oder Anleitung zur vollkommenen Geschäftsführung eines Bibliothekars. 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. 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.
LIS should not be confused with information theory, the mathematical study of the concept of information. Library philosophy has been contrasted with library science as the study of the aims and justifications of librarianship as opposed to the development and refinement of techniques.
Education and training
Academic courses in library science include collection management, information systems and technology, research methods, user studies, information literacy, cataloging and classification, preservation, reference, statistics and management. Library science is constantly evolving, incorporating new topics like database management, information architecture and information management, among others.With the mounting acceptance of Wikipedia as a valued and reliable reference source, many libraries, museums, and archives have introduced the role of Wikipedian in residence. As a result, some universities are including coursework relating to Wikipedia and Knowledge Management in their MLIS programs.
Becoming a library staff member does not always need a degree, and in some contexts the difference between being a library staff member and a librarian is the level of education. Most professional library jobs require a professional degree in library science or equivalent. In the United States and Canada the certification usually comes from a master's degree granted by an ALA-accredited institution. In Australia, a number of institutions offer degrees accepted by the ALIA. Global standards of accreditation or certification in librarianship have yet to be developed.
United States and Canada
The Master of Library and Information Science is the master's degree that is required for most professional librarian positions in the United States and Canada. The MLIS was created after the older Master of Library Science was reformed to reflect the information science and technology needs of the field. According to the American Library Association, "ALA-accredited degrees have various names such as Master of Arts, Master of Librarianship, Master of Library and Information Studies, or Master of Science. The degree name is determined by the program. The Committee for Accreditation evaluates programs based on their adherence to the Standards for Accreditation of Master's Programs in Library and Information Studies, not based on the name of the degree."Types of librarianship
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 via community-centered programming; 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.In the United States there are four different types of public libraries: association libraries, municipal public libraries, school district libraries, and special district public libraries. Each receives 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 nursery, primary through secondary school. In some regions, the local government may have stricter standards for the education and certification of school librarians, 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; and 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. Academic librarians may be subject specific librarians.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 a Master 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. There have been attempts to revive the concept of documentation and to speak of Library, information and documentation studies.The archival mission includes three major goals: To identify papers and records with enduring value, preserve the identified papers, and make the papers available to others. While libraries receive items individually, archival items will usually become part of the archive's collection as a cohesive group. Major difference in collections is that library collections typically comprise published items, while archival collections are usually unpublished works. Library collections are created by many individuals, as each author and illustrator create their own publication; in contrast, an archive usually collects the records of one person, family, institution, or organization, so the archival items will have fewer sources of authors.
Behavior in an archive differs from behavior in other libraries. In most libraries, items 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 be able view them in a closed reading room.
Special
are libraries established to meet the highly specialized requirements of professional or business groups. A library is special depending on whether it covers a specialized collection, a special subject, or a particular group of users, or even the type of parent organization, such as medical libraries or law libraries.The issues at these libraries are specific to their industries 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 Libraries Association.
Some special libraries, such as the CIA Library, may contain classified works. It is a resource to employees of the Central Intelligence Agency, containing over 125,000 written materials, subscribes to around 1,700 periodicals, and had collections in three areas: Historical Intelligence, Circulating, and Reference. In February 1997, three librarians working at the institution spoke to Information Outlook, a publication of the SLA, revealing that the library had been created in 1947, the importance of the library in disseminating information to employees, even with a small staff, and how the library organizes its materials.