The paper evaluates the Data-Information-Knowledge-Wisdom (DIKW) Hierarchy. This hierarchy is part of the canon of information science and management. The paper considers whether the hierarchy, also known as the ‘Knowledge Hierarchy’, is a useful and intellectually desirable construct to introduce, whether the views expressed about DIKW are true and have evidence in favour of them, and whether there are good reasons offered or sound assumptions made about DIKW. Arguments are offered that the hierarchy is unsound and methodologically undesirable. The paper identifies a central logical error that DIKW makes. The paper identifies the dated and unsatisfactory philosophical positions of operationalism and inductivism as the philosophical backdrop to the hierarchy. The paper concludes with a sketch of some positive theories, of value to information science, on the nature of the components of the hierarchy: that data is anything recordable in a semantically and pragmatically sound way, that information is what is known in other literature as ‘weak knowledge’, that knowledge also is ‘weak knowledge’ and that wisdom is the possession and use.

This presentation considers some basic theoretical issues concerning information systems. Theoretical and conceptual issues are seen as important, although difficult, neglected and perhaps somewhat disappointing in the short run. An analysis of the concept "information" demonstrates that anything can be information. But if anything is information, what then is the content of information systems? What principles guide the selection of "information". If information is understood as something that informs somebody about something, it follows that information systems should be understood as informing systems. Information systems are teleological (goal directed) systems in which the intention and goals behind the systems determine what to consider information, how informative objects should be selected, labeled, described, organized and retrieved. (as opposed to "objective" or "universal" criteria governing these processes). Theory in relation to information systems spans several levels: 1) The theory of information science and information systems, 2) the theory of the contents in information systems ("information" or "knowledge", i.e. the theory of knowledge), 3) the nature of users (cognition) and 4) the theory of languages and symbolic systems used by cultures, communities and domains. Basically are the theories governing all layers influenced by epistemological views (often unconsciously). The epistemological theories are thus seen as fundamental for all levels. There are many theories of knowledge and the point is, of course, that it is important for information science and information systems research to be based on the most fruitful one. By implication it is important for us to defend a specific epistemology on which to base our work. My recommendation is "pragmatism" understood broadly and in contrast to other views such as empiricism, rationalism and positivism. Pragmatism is related to historicism but emphasizes the study of goals, values and consequences, which is important given the teleological nature of information systems. The pragmatic understanding of information systems, the knowledge represented in the information systems, the users and the languages is consequently outlined and implications for information systems design is proposed.

The concept of information as we use it in everyday English in the sense knowledge communicated plays a central role in today's society. The concept became particularly predominant since end of World War II with the widespread use of computer networks. The rise of information science in the middle fifties is a testimony of this. For a science like information science (IS) it is of course important how its fundamental terms are defined, and in IS as in other fields the problem of how to define information is often raised. This review is an attempt to overview the present status of the information concept in IS with a view also to interdisciplinary trends. In scientific discourses theoretical concepts are not true or false elements or pictures of some part of reality, but are constructions designed to do a job the best possible way. Different conceptions of fundamental terms like information are thus more or less fruitful depending on what theories (and in the end what practical actions) they are expected to support. In Chapter 1, we discuss the problems of defining terms in the light of the philosophy of science. The history of a word tells us mostly only anecdotes that are peripheral to the concept itself. But in our case the use of the word information points to a specific perspective under which the concept of knowledge communication was defined and designated. We explore this history in Chapter 2 and we believe that our results may help to better understand the complexity of this concept also with regard to its scientific definitions. The discussions about the information concept in other disciplines are also very important for Information Science because many theories and approaches in Information Science have their origins in other disciplines. This is surveyed in Chapter 3. The epistemological concept of information has lead also to a new perspective of non-human information processes particularly in physics and biology. And vice versa: processes of selection and interpretation may be considered when related to psychic and social phenomena with regard to objective parameters, leaving aside the semantic dimension or, more precisely, considering objective or situational parameters of interpretation. This can be illustrated also in physical terms with regard to release mechanisms as we suggest at the end of Chapter 3. Our overview of the concept of information in the natural sciences as well as in the humanities and social sciences does not aim at exploring different theories in depth. In most cases we can only refer to fragments of theories that the user may interpret within her own background or follow the hints of the bibliography. Readers mostly interested in information science may get more satisfied with Chapter 4 where we bring a more detailed explanation of diverse views and theories of information within our field, supplementing the ARIST article by Cornelius (2001). We show that the introduction of the concept of information about 1950 to what was formerly special librarianship and documentation in itself has had serious consequences for the kind of knowledge and theories developed in our field. The important question is not only what meaning we give to the term in Information Science, but also how it relates to other basic terms such as documents, texts and knowledge.

Connections 2005, Montreal, QC, May 14-15 / Information is increasingly seen as the commodity which drives both national and international trade. The legal concept of copyright can function to regulate and balance the dissemination of information to ensure that creators are fairly compensated for access to their creations. Advances in information technology have resulted in increasing interest in the harmonisation of copyright law as copying of material and transportation across borders becomes much easier and much harder to control. While owners and creators wage a desperate battle to remain in complete control of the distribution of their creations, libraries and educational institutions imagine the possible benefits of 24/7 access to information for their patrons. The important question is how to ensure the continuance of the balance between the rights of the creators of information, in order to ensure their continued production of works, and the rights of the users of information. Canada has recently amended its copyright act (http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/c-42/38965.html) to further the process of coming into compliance with international treaties. In preparation for these changes, the government of Canada solicited comments on proposed changes to copyright law. These comments are available on the web and consist of the unedited submissions from 700 Canadians or interested groups, both corporate and non-profit. (http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/epic/internet/incrp-prda.nsf/en/h_rp01105e.html) These responses will be analysed using content analysis and informetric methods. The emphasis will be on examining how people are viewing their relationship to copyrighted works and the Copyright Act. The attitudes discovered in these responses will be compared to the published Library and Information Science literature. This material is ripe for analysis and will provide valuable insights into Canadian perspectives on copyright.

Library and information science (LIS) may alternatively be labeled library, information and documentation studies, LID or just information science, IS. In taking IS serious as a research field, this paper presents an understanding of one of its core concepts (information) and outlines its fundamental principles. It is shown that there exist hierarchies of information processing mechanisms in nature and culture and that IS is concerned with only the highest forms of such mechanisms, which consist of libraries, electronic databases and related information services. Theories about such high-level information systems are closely related to theoretical views of knowledge, language, documents, cognition, science and communication. Information scientists are not the only experts involved in the handling of information, and a view of our special role is presented. The aspiration of this article is to provide a synopsis of the fundamentals of IS: Principia Informatica.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS (IPR)-SHOULD BE EXACT SUBJECT OF THIS RESEARCH PAPER / This article has been published in Patentmatics 5 (6), June 2005. Agrobiodiversity is the backbone of a nationâ s food security and the basis of economic development as a whole. Over the years this diversity in India is under pressure due to the massive commercialisation of agriculture leading to the almost extinction of traditional farming systems. The top-down system of agricultural research, where farmers are seen merely as recipients of research rather than as participants in it, has contributed to an increased dependence on a relatively few plant varieties. This trend and the increasing industrialization of agriculture are key factors in what can only be called "genetic erosion". The term refers to both the loss of species and the reduction of variety. Behind this commercialization there lies the interest of the breeders for obtaining intellectual property rights. It has a very complicated relationship with this diversity. The paper highlights this relationship and provides some suggestions in order to rectify the current negative phenomenon.

In this paper, we described a study carried out to investigate whether the incorporation of information literacy standards explicitly in the learner outcomes of Project Work helped students build and achieve a high level of information literacy. In this study, the students self-assessed their acquisition and development of the information literacy competencies through the use of a five-scale Likert survey. Their reflections of the research experience were also analyzed. In addition, the teachers rated their stu-dentsâ achievement levels through the use of a rubric. Findings revealed that students attained a rela-tively good level of competency, extracted relevant information, synthesized the main ideas to construct new knowledge and seemed to concur with teachersâ perceptions of the studentsâ abilities to access, evaluate and use information more effectively.

The Internet has become the largest source of information. Today, millions of Websites exist and this number continuous to grow. Finding the right information at the right time is the challenge in the Internet age. Search engine is searchable database which allows locating the information on the Internet by submitting the keywords. Search engines can be divided into two categories as the Individual and Meta Search engines. This article discusses the features of these search engines in detail.

This is a reprint of a paper (29 pages) published in the Journal of Documentation, 2001. The concepts of â information literacyâ and â digital literacyâ are described, and reviewed, by way of a literature survey and analysis. Related concepts, including computer literacy, library literacy, network literacy, internet literacy and hyperliteracy are also discussed, and their relationships elucidated. After a general introduction, the paper begins with the basic concept of â literacyâ , which is then expanded to include newer forms of literacy, more suitable for complex information environments. Some of these, for example library, media and computer literacies, are based largely on specific skills, but have some extension beyond them. They lead to general concepts, such as information literacy and digital literacy, which are based on knowledge, perceptions and attitudes, though reliant on the simpler skills-based literacies.

This proposal was not funded by NSF-NSDL. Many professional organizations (ALA ACRL Instruction Section, ALA ACRL STS, CNRI, LOEX, SLA) database publishers (DIALOG), leaders such as Bonnie Gratch (Lindauer), editor of Research Strategies Lisa Janicke, and NSDL initiatives ASKNSDL VRD and HEAL agreed to work with us. Their support for this proposal was awesome and much appreciated. / This is a proposal submitted to the 2003 NSF NSDL solicitation. DLISTConnection will develop and evaluate an information and technology literacy (ITL) service in support of science and health literacy by 1) federating training materials, software documentation, and similar learning objects not systematically collected and described in the NSDL and 2) designing, implementing, and assessing a controlled vocabulary for existing ITL standards by aligning them with science and health literacy benchmarks. Further, DLISTConnection will develop rights management policies to facilitate harvesting and use of diverse learning objects by applying selected rights elements Evaluation will include NSDL testbeds and an informetric analysis of the effectiveness of the metadata for standards and rights. Two new communities, ITL professionals and Native Americans will be involved. DLISTConnection thus builds a foundation for the NSDL goal of science literacy by providing current and new audiences of end-users and collections providers with four innovative yet essential services: 1. addition of health sciences-specific ITL learning objects to the NSDL; 2. availability of crosswalks connecting ITL standards to science and health literacy benchmarks and the mapping of those standards and benchmarks to the learning objects; 3. access to intellectual property rights metadata to facilitate re-use and re-purposing of learning objects; and 4. application of citation indexing and analysis to learning objects.