Outlines some important principles in the design of documents done in the field of composition studies. Maps the possible subject access points and presents research done on each kind of these. Shows how theories of information retrieval must build on or relate to different theories of concepts and meaning. Discusses two contrasting theories of semantics worked out by Ludwig Wittgenstein: the picture theory and the theory of language games, and demonstrates the different consequences of such theories for information retrieval. Finally, discusses the implications for information professionals.

This is a presentation (~25 slides) made at ISKO 2006 in Vienna based on the paper (same title) published in the Proceedings of the Ninth International ISKO 2006 Conference, Vienna, Edited by Swertz, C. Berlin: Ergon, 2006.

Related Work: Pozzi, Ellen, and Marija Dalbello. The New Jersey Chapter of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 1975-2005: A Historical Note. New Brunswick, NJ: NJ-ASIS&T, 2006. 9 p. This brochure was distributed at the 30th anniversary celebration of NJ-ASIST and presents a historical overview and chronology of NJ-ASIST. In electronic format, it is accessible from dLIST as http://dlist.sir.arizona.edu/1630/. The history complements the findings of the research study presented here. / This research uses oral history approach to study an organizational field of information science. The interviews with members of the New Jersey chapter of the national information science organization (ASIST) provided insights into the transformation of this local chapter and information science work since 1975. Their views on the identity of the chapter and their own professional identity in that context, and on the development and maturation of information science field over the past thirty years are considered in the sociology of culture framework. Oral history as a phenomenological method of historical inquiry is here applied as an approach can open new directions for historical inquiry of information science in the national context, understanding the research / practice dynamics, and localization and institutionalization of information science field,

An invited lecture providing an overview of the theory of domain analysis in LIS, including a presentation of the UNISIST model of scientific communication.

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.

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.

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.

Presents a discussion of how "information" should be understood and defined in Information Science.

When two selection environments operate upon each other, mutual shaping in a co-evolution along a particular trajectory is one possible outcome. When three selection environments are involved, more complex dynamics can be expected as a result of interactions involving bi-lateral and tri-lateral relations. Three selection environments are specified in the Triple Helix model: (1) wealth generation (industry), (2) novelty production (academia), and (3) public control (government). Furthermore, this model somewhat reduces the complexity by using university-industry-government relations for the specification of the historical conditions of the non-linear dynamics. Whereas the historical analysis informs us about how institutions and institutional arrangements carry certain functions, the evolutionary analysis focuses on the functions of selection environments in terms of outputs. One can no longer expect a one-to-one correspondence between institutions and functions; a statistics is needed for the evaluation of how, for how long, and to what extent institutional arrangements enhance synergies among different selection environments. The empirical contributions to this Triple Helix issue point in the direction of â rich ecologiesâ : the construction of careful balances between differentiation and integration among the three functions.