The Occasional Informationist

The term ‘informationist’ has a long history of being not quite accepted. At present, it seems to have been hi-jacked by healthcare librarians, to imply someone working in that area who has a good understanding of, and perhaps even a qualification in, relevant clinical specialities; a pretty specific instance of an ‘information scientist in context’. This is not exactly a new usage; I can remember, quite a lot of years ago, being asked at a job interview if I considered myself to be ‘an information scientist’ or ‘a scientific informationist’. The term has also been used to imply someone who is a scholar of information, while not necessarily a scientist. So it seems a slippery enough term to cover anything that may appear on this blog.

Occasional ? There are few things sadder than a blog which promises at the outset to have frequent and regular postings, and then fades away into infrequent sputters. So let’s be modest and realistic from the outset.