At this time of year, when our #citylis Masters students are just embarking on their dissertation projects at City University London, it seems apposite to reflect on what an interesting set of dissertations our students do each year, and what a contribution this aspect of the course makes to the professional knowledge base. While this… Continue reading In praise of dissertations
Blog
On not going to library school
My colleague @lynrobinson has written an intriguing blog post on the theme of Don’t go to library school: you won’t learn anything useful. In part this is a response to Deanna Marcum’s thought-provoking report Educating the research librarian: are we falling short?. While I don’t have anything to add to Lyn’s account of how we… Continue reading On not going to library school
The Janus face of documentation
Documents are generally agreed to be one of the main foci, in not the main focus, of interest for the information sciences, since the ideas of documentation were first developed by Paul Otlet and Henri La Fontaine. We have recently seen a revival of interest in document theory, through the insights of scholars such as… Continue reading The Janus face of documentation
LIS research and practice; still opponents?
This post is based on my reflections on a talk I gave last summer at the iFutures 2014 conference at Sheffield University, and on responses to that talk. Ten years ago, in an editorial in Journal of Documentation, I commented on the gap between research and practice in the information sciences, which has been lamented… Continue reading LIS research and practice; still opponents?
On being a bang-for-buck hero
Being still February, it is a bit early for even the most shameless shops and restaurants to begin their Christmas promotions. No such reticence for British academia, as, with the dust barely settled on REF2014, universities begin to plan for REF2020. As my own university joins in this trend, I stave off angst by meditating… Continue reading On being a bang-for-buck hero
Documents and people, Otlet and Heidegger
This is an amended review of Ron Day’s new book, Indexing it all: the subject in the age of documentation, information and data (MIT Press). The full review will appear in Information Polity. The significance and continuing influence of the documentation movement of the early twentieth century has become increasing commented upon in recent years.… Continue reading Documents and people, Otlet and Heidegger
Remembering the real old Foyles
Somewhat belatedly, I should record my pleasure at the opening of Foyles new flagship bookship on Charing Cross Road. Visiting it is not so very different from what it used to be, as they’ve only moved a few doors down the road, to get premises which can be laid out more like a shiny new… Continue reading Remembering the real old Foyles
On being Library and Information Science
My colleague Lyn Robinson has recently written a blog post on the nature of library and information science in the 21st century. Showing how LIS is inextricably associated with the idea of the ‘document’, she points out how the nature of documents is changing, and how this affects LIS, and its relations with disciplines such… Continue reading On being Library and Information Science
100 books
This is a modified version of a review to appear in Journal of Documentation. Histories of things in 100 other things seem to be all the rage these days. The British Museum started it, with its History of the world in 100 objects. John Julius Norwich extended the idea to a history of England in… Continue reading 100 books
ECIL 2014
In late October, I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the European Conference on Information Literacy (ECIL2014) in Dubrovnik, Croatia, to give a keynote talk. Those who have visited Dubrovnik (or watched Game of Thrones) will know how beautiful it is; others can find out here. This is the second ECIL conference, the… Continue reading ECIL 2014
The Occasional Informationist 