At first sight, this well‐produced volume is a formidable addition to the literature on information science, containing essays by the movers and shakers in the discipline on numerous aspects of the changes which are affecting information science as a result of the revolution in digital information of the last few decades. Questions arise with a second look, however, because it turns out that this is a monograph reprint of a special issue of the Journal of Information Science first published in 2008 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Institute of Information Scientists. There is, therefore, much more of an historical slant to some of the papers than might first be expected: indeed, the original intention, as stated in Alan Gilchrist's editorial was to “capture some insights into advances [in information science] made in the last 50 years”. This means, however, that it is not a history of information science (nor was it intended to be), more a series of articles reflecting the individual approaches of the contributors.
The Editor himself acknowledges the issue of re‐publication in his preface, which begins “Why publish a monograph of papers that have already appeared in journal format?”, especially, it might be added, when that was a single special issue, rather than a series of papers spread out over several journal issues. Why indeed? He proposes two answers: first, that the special issue was so well received that it would be good “to broadcast the contents to a wider readership” and second, that libraries which already have a subscription to the Journal of Information Science might find a separately shelved monograph convenient. (It occurs to this reviewer that cash‐strapped libraries might question the second reason). However, it does mean that all of the papers in the present volume have been peer‐reviewed.
It is notoriously difficult to review collections of essays and to do justice to each contributor, but with all of the above in mind, do these papers truly “capture some insights” of the last 50 years? The 16 contributors are certainly extraordinarily well placed to realise that aim, including, as they do (and without prejudice to the others), Jack Meadows (“Fifty years of UK research in information science”), David Bawden (the developing foundations of information science), Blaise Cronin (“The sociological turn in information science”), Peter Willett (50 years of chemical information science), Elizabeth Davenport (“Social informatics and sociotechnical research”), Tom Wilson (the information user), Charles Oppenheim (“Electronic scholarly publishing and Open Access”), Elizabeth Orna (information policies), and even Eugene Garfield, although his seven‐page essay, “How I learned to love the Brits”, is ultimately disappointing as it is largely an account of the various information scientists he had encountered over his years in the profession.
Other contributors do provide, sometimes in a relatively small space, a valuable overview of developments in their chosen field and comments on the following four articles are intended to show the range encompassed within this volume. Tom Wilson, for example, examines changing views on information use and the user, charting the shift in emphasis from what was used to who used it and why. He points out that the earliest studies were not especially useful to libraries and it was not until the 1980s that the information user came to centre stage as part of curriculum developments in the schools of librarianship and the increasing importance of research: information behaviour became a favoured PhD topic (and Wilson himself was prominent in the development of the subject as an academic discipline as well as in research). He charts the growth in the number of papers on information behaviour between 1990 and 2006 from nine to 200, although noting that 50 per cent of the papers appeared in information science journals. That meant that researchers would have had problems covering the field. By 2006, there had been a move from practice‐based investigation to academic research but Wilson sees a potentially dangerous disconnection between these two attitudes to information behaviour, as the research fails to get back to the practitioner. Surprisingly perhaps, Wilson's conclusion is tentative: in an age of technological change and developing information resources, understanding how people find and use information “may become more and more important for the effective design of systems and services”.
On a related theme, Stella Dextre Clarke takes a “journey through my personal archives” to consider the history of knowledge organisation from the development of classification schemes, through thesauri and various card‐based information retrieval systems (optical coincidence cards, anyone?) to controlled vocabularies and on to computers, networking, and a mention of the Semantic Web. It is a breathless 15‐page treatment (excluding references) of the subject and while this volume is an historical approach to its subject, this reviewer would have liked to have seen more on the implications of the WWW and efforts at its organisation.
To paraphrase Jane Austen, it is a truth rarely acknowledged that a computer system which fails to take its users into account will inevitably fail, to which a number of UK government projects can bear witness. Elizabeth Davenport considers the links between social informatics in the USA and the sociotechnical studies of the UK. These two research areas, she argues, have in fact had few formal connections in the last 50 years, but she sees some signs of a coming together of researchers. Social informatics studies the “transformation in human activity” consequent upon the adoption and use of computers, which was previously the domain of numerous disciplines such as HCI, operations research and library and information science. Sociotechnical research, on the other hand, she regards as originating with the work of Enid Mumford, who recognised the interaction of (computer) technology and people and saw the need for systems which were socially satisfying and technically efficient. Davenport then goes on to briefly review the research carried out at Edinburgh University's Science Studies Unit and at the LSE. The links which she claims between the USA and UK traditions are perhaps tenuous (some bibliographic citations in the main) but she also points to the formation of social informatics research groups in the UK which do draw on both traditions, though it would have been good to read of some of the work these groups are doing.
As a final indication of the work contained within the covers of this book, Wendy Warr looks at that most topical of issues facing the information professional, Web 2.0, in her chapter on “Social software: fun and games, or business tools?”, thus neatly encapsulating the current divided attitude towards networked information systems. Social software, as any fule know, is a large set of tools used for online communication, including blogs, wikis and instant messaging, and Warr provides brief descriptions of each. She makes, for example, the very important point that while social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace are extremely popular, it is often necessary to belong to a number in order to keep up with one's friends: the information professional qua professional has presumably to consider whether to be part of more than one such network. Is there a role for the information profession in the virtual worlds such as Second Life? Warr cites a number of organisations which do use it and this reviewer knows of the work of Sheila Webber at Sheffield University who used Second Life to allow students to “meet” practitioners in a way which would otherwise have been very difficult. Warr does not fail to consider the problems which come with misuse of Web 2.0 such as spam, virtual crime, and the potential for breaches of security and confidentiality. She goes on to describe the principal adopters of Web 2.0 (information professionals, publishers, and the pharmaceutical and chemical industries) and suggests that it will be difficult for “hide‐bound, large organisations” to prevent the use of social software. They must balance the risks and misuse with the opportunities which millions of individuals have already recognised.
These four papers have been taken almost at random in order to give an indication of the wide view taken of the discipline of information science by the contributors. Other essays include the guest editorial “Meeting the challenge” by Brian Vickery, Stephen Robertson on the history of evaluation in information retrieval, Peter Bath on health informatics, Peter Enser on visual information retrieval, Barry Mahon with a European perspective on professional qualifications, and Mike Thelwall's review of “bibliometrics to webometrics”. All of the papers include a list of references (some very lengthy) and the whole work is indexed.
Alan Gilchrist admits that the invited authors were given general guidelines only and were “encouraged to choose their approach and style … ”. This has inevitably led to unevenness of length, if not of treatment: Tom Wilson covers his subject in 11 pages plus 31 references, while Peter Willett has 26 pages (plus four lines) and 183 references. This, however, is a minor quibble.
Was it worth publishing as a monograph (and an expensive one at that)? Debatable. Was it worth publishing in the first instance? Undoubtedly. It is a statement of how information science got where it is today by those well positioned to know, and with its range of topics and their bibliographies, it will be a valuable reference tool for the profession and for students.
