Proposal: Libraries & Information Science
What is the meaning of Libraries & Information Science and how it's so different than Library Management?
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1Is there a "Library Management" proposal? Can you link to it?– Robert CartainoFeb 14, 2012 at 14:55
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Naah, I am just asking, if those two terms are different or not.– noobFeb 14, 2012 at 17:10
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3I would think Library-management would be a tag on L&IS.– VerbeiaFeb 15, 2012 at 2:03
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2 Answers
This question about the proposal title touches on the different aspects of the topic. There is an academic and scientific side commonly called Library and Information Science (as Aarthi noted) and an operational side concerned with day-to-day issues of lending institutions. To some extent, I would equate the term you used — Library Management — with the latter aspect.
But this is clearly a spectrum with plenty of overlap since presumably most (or at least many) graduates from the academic programs plan to manage or work for a library.
As a result of that question, the proposal name was adjusted slightly from Library and Information Science to Libraries and Information Science. I appreciate the change because in my mind Library and Information Science (singular "library") is strongly attached to the accredited academic programs. Since not all libraries have staff with degrees in library science the name communicated exclusivity to me when I first saw the change.
The initial Libraries proposal was probably more focused on lending institution operations than library science per se. The now departed Unshelved Answers, which inspired the Area 51 proposal, appeared to be dominated by questions about library programming, dealing with patrons, reader's advisory and similar things.
Hopefully a wide spectrum of library issues will successfully find a place on the new site when it eventually proceeds to beta.
The naming evolved out of some familiarity on my part with this subject area. My best friend from college is currently enrolled in the SLIS program at Indiana University, Bloomington. After reviewing the proposal, I realized that the better title (and the title more in vogue with the field of study) would be Library and Information Science, hence the name change.
For more information, check out the article on Wikipedia about the subject. Based on our findings, this proposal title better encompasses the scope.
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If you're going for 'vogue', then you'd have to name it 'iSchool' like Maryland, Syracuse, Washington, Drexel, Berkeley, UTexas. But I for one would avoid it like the plague.– JoeApr 27, 2012 at 13:16
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unfortunately, yes. I was at Maryland when they started making the transition ... they got rid of the library school's library so it could make way for the 'human-computer interaction lab'. Libraries now seem like more of an after thought.– JoeApr 27, 2012 at 15:37
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It seems ironic to teach folks how to be librarians without books ... did the schools do away with the cataloging class, out of curiosity?– MelissaMay 2, 2012 at 12:51
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@Melissa : I don't see a specific cataloging class ... they have a 'Bibliographic Control' class that mentions cataloging. But they're now focusing on stuff like 'e-Government', 'Human Computer Interaction', 'Information Management' (which my degree is in), etc. They do still offer the 'Classification Theory' class, but I don't know who's teaching it, as the professor I had is now an editor for DDC.– JoeMay 3, 2012 at 16:43
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It is almost passe to include the word 'library' in a library & information science program anymore. Rutgers- one of the premier library science programs in the nation is now called SCI (pronounced 'sky')- the School of Communication and Information.– amv2010May 15, 2012 at 12:37