کتابداری و اطلاعرسانی (Jun 2017)
From librarianship to knowledge and information science: The historiography and backgrounds of formation of the field name in Iran
Abstract
Purpose: The main aim of this paper is to show how the field name changed from “library and information sciences” to “knowledge and information science”. Methodology: The analytical-historical method was used in this research. The statistical population of this study includes the effects, events, efforts and actions undertaken to change the name of the library branch from the beginning. For this purpose, at first phase the names of the discipline were studied and classified according to the curriculum since the year 1965. Then the intellectual foundations and dominant approaches in the formation of the field title were identified and explained. Also, a set of actions and efforts made before the change in the field title on October 23rd, 2012 were identified and the role of each was determined. Finally, chronology and history of two terms of “information science” and “knowledge studies” were visualized based on its presence in the scientific titles and events. Results: The results of this study showed that the approved curricula and educational programs since the beginning have been based on three periods of time with three distinct titles: "Librarianship", "Library and Information Science", and "Knowledge and Information Science" which their main focus were respectively "cataloging and classification training", "Development of library and information services", and "IT training". Other results of this study showed that in the formation of the new title for the field, the three dominant approaches of "knowledge studies", "information science", and "mixed titles" had played some role in which the leader of the first approach was Houshang Ebrami, the leader of the second one was Abbas Horri, and the third approach lacked of any leader due to the diversity of thinking and lack of focus on a title. Conclusion: The results of the research showed that the new title is in fact the modified form of the old title. Additionally, the works mentioned in this article will be a proper bibliography for future research.
