Purpose – To show that the neo-pragmatist position of Richard Rorty, when combined with a sociocultural perspective, provides library and information science (LIS) with a forceful epistemological tool. Design/methodology/approach – Literature-based conceptual analysis of: historical development of pragmatism in relation to other epistemological positions; neo-pragmatism as a non-dualist, both p...

A key issue in teaching and learning in information retrieval – particularly for library and information science students – is the gap in prior knowledge compared with the need for mathematics to conduct and evaluate searches. In this chapter, we examine the use of online Multiple Choice Questions to support these type of students, and narrow this gap between experience and knowledge. We provid...

objective and subjective ways of understanding information corresponds to the conflict between an understanding of information as a thing or a substance versus an understanding of it as a sign. It is a fundamental distinction that involves a whole theory of knowledge, and it has roots back to different metaphors applied in Shannon's information theory. It is argued that a subject-dependent/ sit...

This paper discussed the concept of computer competency and investigated the relationship between students’ computer competency and their perception of enjoyment and difficulty level of web-based distance-learning courses. Participants were 237 entering graduate students in library and information science from a mid-southwestern state university in the United States from year 2001 to 2003. Comp...

Introduction The advent of the internet and the quick and easy access it provides to vast amounts of digital information sources have greatly affected the ways users interact with information sources and have make them more independent information savvy users. Libraries, once having a monopoly on the delivery of information were now considered by users as a very small piece of the information p...

Science, Part 2” edited by Joanne Gard Marshall, Susan Rathbun-Grubb, Deborah Barreau, and Jennifer Craft Morgan), pp. 67–87. © 2010 The Board of Trustees, University of Illinois Abstract This article discusses the development of Knowledge River, a program at the University of Arizona School of Information Resources and Library Science established through several Institute of Museum and Library...

This paper reports on a study that explored the needs and challenges with respect to the creation of a collaboratory for li­ brary and information science practitioners. To identify needs and challenges interviews were conducted with practitioners at a variety of institutions. The results suggest that there is a need for a collaboratory to facilitate on-demand, personalized knowledge sharing. T...

This review examines the basic tenets of qualitative or naturalistic methods in terms of their original grounding in the basic social sciences and their value to library and information science research. Examination of the five key points provides the understanding needed to move from contemplation to use of these methods: the research problem, data gathering, content analysis, theory developme...

The author describes factors facilitating web-based instruction in library and information science; advantages and limitations, an overview of web-based instruction in library and information science in Thailand in the case of a distance education university, Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University (STOU). Implications of web-based instruction to the library and information science program are i...