This may be the best collection of essays I have read in decades. Ibekwe-SanJuan and Dousa have recruited some of the most perceptive and intelligent thinkers in library and information science (writ large) that have ever been gathered in one volume. The editors have also given the essayists considerable latitude in what they are able to address in their works. Among others (and I do not mean to slight anyone represented in the book), Søren Brier, Luciano Floridi, Winfried Nöth, Jonathan Furner, Ian Cornelius, and Birger Hjørland contribute essays. The names will be familiar to almost anyone interested in theory, but it is not merely the presence of their names in the table of contents that is significant. Every author provides a work that should be read by every professional, teacher, and student in the field.
The depth and breadth of the essays actually render description of the content extremely difficult, since mere extraction of snippets from the pieces will not do them justice. Nonetheless, a review must provide justification for praise. Brier, for example, continues – and expands upon – his cybersemiotic program as a way, he says, “of combining natural, technical, life, and social sciences with humanities” (p. 35). Readers may differ in their opinions of his success in achieving that aim, but the effort is thorough and well wrought. Of particular interest is his incorporation of the work of such diverse scholars as Niklas Luhmann and Charles Sanders Peirce in his effort to bring the sciences together. Luciano Floridi's work will likely be familiar to many readers, but his essay explores new territory. One statement indicates the new ground: “It seems incontrovertible that human agents do not merely use natural meanings but constantly repurpose them for other epistemic, communicative, and semanticising goals” (p. 88).
Furner once again explores, and expands upon, his notion of information without information studies. Among other aims, he seeks to “introduce a fourth way of classifying contributions to the literature on the nature of information – one that involves identification of authors’ ontological commitments,” and “along the way, to clear up some residual confusion about the nature of the relationship among different conceptions of information” (p. 144). This is a tall order, but Furner's articulation of the meaty matters relating to those goals presents something new to readers … something well worth considering. Ian Cornelius offers what may be the most interesting in a fascinating aggregation of essays. One extended quotation captures his aim:
We would […] see that other disciplines could recognize […] characteristics and could accept that they constituted a real subject, that the subject had a claim on intellectual space within the academy, and that the resolution of the problems, or the development of further theories or knowledge about the phenomena of study, were necessary for the advancement of knowledge and human progress. Does LIS meet this standard? At present I think it has not unequivocally established that it does, and in consequence we are faced with the task of, at least, epistemological repair (p. 185).
There is only one drawback to this volume – the price. While it is high, every library must acquire a copy of it. I would also urge everyone who is at all serious about the state and the future of theory to purchase a copy; one will refer to it for a lifetime. Indeed, in spite of the price, this should be required reading for all doctoral students in all information-related academic programs. The value of these essays is that high.
