Chapter 11: Crossing the (Scientific) Borders: Redefining Disciplinary Boundaries and Bridging the Divides in ISL

This chapter explores the evolving landscape of cross-boundary research within the information sciences and librarianship (ISL) community, especially with the advent of advanced computational methods and models. Based on the author’s prior works, this chapter contains three groups of studies that specifically address the challenges and opportunities in bridging the gap between ISL research. In particular, the first group of studies focuses on the past, showing the exemplars of successful ISL cross-boundary collaboration, specifically in the context of crisis informatics research and practice. The second group of studies focuses on the present, where best practices for interdisciplinary collaboration are contextualized to the unique resources available, as well as theoretical and methodological frameworks in ISL research. The third group of studies looks into the future, exploring how large language models (LLMs) can streamline tasks such as information retrieval, data organization, and natural language processing (NLP), and potentially drive new forms of cross-boundary collaboration in ISL.