This book comprises of 18 papers and 8 poster abstracts presented at the Fourth International Conference on Conceptions of Library and Information Science (CoLIS4). CoLIS conferences aim to critically explore LIS from philosophical, theoretical and methodological perspectives. The papers, well presented and illustrated and generally well written with abstracts and references but no index, range across a wide variety of topics from web searching to more established themes such as information retrieval and learning. Chiefly written by LIS academic researchers, the papers divide into well‐defined conference sections, but these are not clear in the contents, so readers are likely to simply pick out papers of interest, particularly as there is no readily apparent overall theme, beyond a broad focus on “interactions”. For the purposes of this review, I reinsert these categories.
The first section, focusing on “information interaction”, comprises papers on: classification of interactions (Cool and Belkin); children's categorisation of information via visual arrangement on “virtual” bookshelves (Cooper); students' cognition and information searching in preparing research proposals (Pennanen and Vakkari); and two papers on film archives and indexing using “cognitive work analysis” (Albrechtsen Pejtersen and Cleal; Hertzum et al.). A final paper by Tang on an integrated framework for web searching research addresses an urgent need. A major complaint about search engines is they generate too many unstructured, irrelevant results. Users want more interactive help. Training in search methods is important, but knowledge gained from searching aids retrieval and attention to users' cognitive behaviour can help develop more user‐friendly search engines.
The second, theoretically focused, section covers the theory of the concept of information (Hjørland); a new research technique for structure‐based interpretation of book reviews (Nicolaisen); optimum techniques for browsing, retrieval searching and following links in relation to Bradford's Law of Scattering of decreasingly relevant information sources (Bates); how document co‐citation, bibliographic coupling and co‐word analysis can augment manual thesauri (Schneider and Borlund); use of bibliographic data in strategic combination (Wormell); and visualising concept spaces through keyword and citation‐based maps and clusters. Tom Wilson's conference keynote speech on the philosophical foundations of information research would have fitted well in this section but is not included.
The third section, on information retrieval, covers ranking document relevance by comparing system‐supplied query expansion terms with interactive user query expansion (Ruthven, Lalmas, and Rijsbergen); work tasks as a unit for analysis in information seeking (Bystrøm and Hansen); evaluating information retrieval systems by interaction and multidimensional dynamic relevance; discourse, cognition and reality (Tuominen, Talja and Savolainen); analysis of cognitive conception of poly‐representation (author, indexer and user) in information retrieval (Ingwersen); and a case study (Zulu) of information access in indigenous languages (Cosijn et al.). Given the growing attention to indigenous knowledge in the Third World, the latter paper, applying cross‐lingual information retrieval theory to databases in indigenous languages, deserves a wider audience. The eight poster abstracts also cover issues of relevance to LIS specialists, and include Davis and Scott on reading and citation theory, Ocholla and Ikoja‐Odongo on the little‐studied information behaviour of informal sector entrepreneurs in Uganda, and Widen‐Wulff on information learning in Finnish insurance businesses.
The international cooperation evident in the contributions and conference organising suggests that in this globalising information age we can learn greatly from each other, although the fact that of the 18 papers, 12 are from Scandinavia and 4 from the USA suggests a rather unbalanced representation. If there is a unifying theme to this book, it is “interactions” between LIS conceptual frameworks and methods. These themes also are approached from more practical angles such as user needs and business studies, making the volume valuable not just to LIS researchers but also to librarians who do not always venture into such fields. The volume is therefore of considerable interest to library managers and professional librarians and information scientists interested in the above‐mentioned themes.
