Information science

This essay is a personal analysis of information science as a field of scientific inquiry and professional practice that has evolved over the past half-century. Various sections examine the origin of information science in respect to the problems of information explosion; the social role of the field; the nature of “information” in information science; the structure of the field in terms of problems addressed; evolutionary trends in information retrieval as a major branch of information science; the relation of information science to other fields, most notably librarianship and computer science; and educational models and issues. Conclusions explore some dominant trends affecting the field.