What is Information Science (IS)  ?

IS was originally called Library Science. As digital information has displaced printed information a crisis in the field forced a choice between progress and extinction. The new name – reflects the change in focus of the science and its broader coverage. As an occupation IS  has fractured according to changing need and roles in the industry. Practitioners are called Information Specialists (IS) and several type are recognized.

Research Information Specialist

• Closest to the classical Librarian.
• Operate Libraries and Information centers.
• Provide Information services.
• Supporting research and development activities.
• Focus on intellectual property.
• Can use bibliometric to measure progress as well as changing influences in different fields of knowledge.
• Manage subscription to e-Publication services.

Organizational Knowledge Management IS

• Operate an Enterprise Content Management System.
• Perform competitive business intelligence services.
• Orchestrate knowledge management tasks
  • Business Process Management
  • Create and maintain controlled vocabularies.
• Lead information systems integration
  • Customer Relations Management (CRM)
  • Enterprise Resource Planing (ERP)
  • Supply Chain Management
  • Content Management System (CMS)
  • Data warehouse
• Advise on issues of intellectual property and information architecture.

Information Technology Specialist (Cyberian)

• Specify IT systems requirments.
• Develop innovative information systems. 
• Integrate and customize existing infrastructes.
• Advise management in IT acquisitions.

A Diverse Field

IS draws on skill from far reaching fields. Progress in computer science, linguistics, economics, statistics are consciously affecting the practice of IS. Additionally most Research Specialists have an advanced degree in another branch of knowledge. This assists the flow of new techniques to IS