Course: Introduction to Library & Information Sciences (5501)
Level: MLIS
Semester: Autumn, 2021
Std’Id: 0000129010
Name: Nauman Qaiser
Total Marks: 100
Pass Marks: 40
ASSIGNMENT No. 1
(Units 1-4)
Q.1 What are different nomenclatures of the discipline “Library and Information
Sciences” worldwide? Compare five of such nomenclatures and trace the reason(s)
behind these differences.
Library and information science (LIS) (sometimes given as the plural library and
information sciences)[1][2] is a branch of academic disciplines that deals generally with
organization, access, collection, and protection/regulation of information, whether in physical
(e.g. art, legal proceedings) or digital forms. By the late 1960s, mainly due to the meteoric rise of
human computing power and the new academic disciplines formed therefrom, academic
institutions began to add the term "information science" to their names. The first school to do
this was at the University of Pittsburgh in 1964.[3] More schools followed during the 1970s and
1980s, and by the 1990s almost all library schools in the USA had added information science to
their names. Although there are exceptions, similar developments have taken place in other parts
of the world. In Denmark, for example, the 'Royal School of Librarianship' changed its English
name to The Royal School of Library and Information Science in 1997.
In spite of various trends to merge the two fields, some consider the two original
disciplines, library science and information science, to be separate.[4][5] However, it is common
today is to use the terms as synonyms or to drop the term "library" and to speak
about information departments or I-schools.[6] There have also been attempts to revive the
concept of documentation and to speak of Library, information and documentation studies (or
science).[
Relations between library science, information science and LIS[
Tefko Saracevic (1992, p. 13)[4] argued that library science and information science are separate
fields:
The common ground between library science and information science, which is a strong one, is
in the sharing of their social role and in their general concern with the problems of effective
utilization of graphic records. But there are also very significant differences in several critical
respects, among them in: (1) selection of problems addressed and in the way they were defined;
(2) theoretical questions asked and frameworks established;(3) the nature and degree of
experimentation and empirical development and the resulting practical knowledge/competencies
derived; (4) tools and approaches used; and (5) the nature and strength of interdisciplinary
relations established and the dependence of the progress and evolution of interdisciplinary
approaches. All of these differences warrant the conclusion that librarianship and information
science are two different fields in a strong interdisciplinary relation, rather than one and the same
field, or one being a special case of the other.
Another indication of the different uses of the two terms are the indexing in UMI's Dissertations
Abstracts. In Dissertations Abstracts Online in November 2011 were 4888 dissertations indexed
with the descriptor LIBRARY SCIENCE and 9053 with the descriptor INFORMATION
SCIENCE. For the year 2009 the numbers were 104 LIBRARY SCIENCE and 514
INFORMATION SCIENCE. 891 dissertations were indexed with both terms (36 in 2009).
It should be considered that information science grew out of documentation science and
therefore has a tradition for considering scientific and scholarly communication, bibliographic
databases, subject knowledge and terminology etc. Library science, on the other hand has mostly
concentrated on libraries and their internal processes and best practices. It is also relevant to
consider that information science used to be done by scientists, while librarianship has been split
between public libraries and scholarly research libraries. Library schools have mainly educated
librarians for public libraries and not shown much interest in scientific communication and
documentation. When information scientists from 1964 entered library schools, they brought
with them competencies in relation to information retrieval in subject databases, including
concepts such as recall and precision, boolean search techniques, query formulation and related
issues. Subject bibliographic databases and citation indexes provided a major step forward in
information dissemination - and also in the curriculum at library schools.
Julian Warner (2010)[8] suggests that the information and computer science tradition
in information retrieval may broadly be characterized as query transformation, with the query
articulated verbally by the user in advance of searching and then transformed by a system into a
set of records. From librarianship and indexing, on the other hand, has been an implicit stress
on selection power enabling the user to make relevant selections.
Difficulties defining LIS
"The question, 'What is library and information science?' does not elicit responses of the same
internal conceptual coherence as similar inquiries as to the nature of other fields, e.g., 'What is
chemistry?', 'What is economics?', 'What is medicine?' Each of those fields, though broad in
scope, has clear ties to basic concerns of their field. [...] Neither LIS theory nor practice is
perceived to be monolithic nor unified by a common literature or set of professional skills.
Occasionally, LIS scholars (many of whom do not self-identify as members of an interreading
LIS community, or prefer names other than LIS), attempt, but are unable, to find core concepts in
common. Some believe that computing and internetworking concepts and skills underlie virtually
every important aspect of LIS, indeed see LIS as a sub-field of computer science! [Footnote
III.1] Others claim that LIS is principally a social science accompanied by practical skills such as
ethnography and interviewing. Historically, traditions of public service, bibliography,
documentalism, and information science have viewed their mission, their philosophical toolsets,
and their domain of research differently. Still others deny the existence of a greater metropolitan
LIS, viewing LIS instead as a loosely organized collection of specialized interests often unified
by nothing more than their shared (and fought-over) use of the descriptor information. Indeed,
claims occasionally arise to the effect that the field even has no theory of its own." (Konrad,
2007, p. 652-653).
A multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary or monodisciplinary field?
The Swedish researcher Emin Tengström (1993)[9] described cross-disciplinary research as a
process, not a state or structure. He differentiates three levels of ambition regarding crossdisciplinary research:



The "Pluridisciplinary" or "multidisciplinarity" level
The genuine cross-disciplinary level: "interdisciplinarity"
The discipline-forming level "transdisciplinarity"
What is described here is a view of social fields as dynamic and changing. Library and
information science is viewed as a field that started as a multidisciplinary field based on
literature, psychology, sociology, management, computer science etc., which is developing
towards an academic discipline in its own right. However, the following quote seems to indicate
that LIS is actually developing in the opposite direction:
Chua & Yang (2008)[10] studied papers published in Journal of the American Society for
Information Science and Technology in the period 1988-1997 and found, among other things:
"Top authors have grown in diversity from those being affiliated predominantly with
library/information-related departments to include those from information systems management,
information technology, business, and the humanities. Amid heterogeneous clusters of
collaboration among top authors, strongly connected crossdisciplinary coauthor pairs have
become more prevalent. Correspondingly, the distribution of top keywords’ occurrences that
leans heavily on core information science has shifted towards other subdisciplines such as
information technology and sociobehavioral science."
A more recent study revealed that 31% of the papers published in 31 LIS journals from 2007
through 2012 were by authors in academic departments of library and information science (i.e.,
those offering degree programs accredited by the American Library Association or similar
professional organizations in other countries). Faculty in departments of computer
science (10%), management (10%), communication (3%), the other social sciences (9%), and the
other natural sciences (7%) were also represented. Nearly one-quarter of the papers in the 31
journals were by practicing librarians, and 6% were by others in non-academic (e.g., corporate)
positions.[11]
As a field with its own body of interrelated concepts, techniques, journals, and professional
associations, LIS is clearly a discipline. But by the nature of its subject matter and methods LIS
is just as clearly an interdiscipline, drawing on many adjacent fields (see below).
A fragmented adhocracy
Richard Whitley (1984,[12] 2000)[13] classified scientific fields according to their intellectual and
social organization and described management studies as a ‘fragmented adhocracy’, a field with
a low level of coordination around a diffuse set of goals and a non-specialized terminology; but
with strong connections to the practice in the business sector. Åström (2006) [14] applied this
conception to the description of LIS.
Scattering of the literature
Meho & Spurgin (2005)[15] found that in a list of 2,625 items published between 1982 and 2002
by 68 faculty members of 18 schools of library and information science, only 10 databases
provided significant coverage of the LIS literature. Results also show that restricting the data
sources to one, two, or even three databases leads to inaccurate rankings and erroneous
conclusions. Because no database provides comprehensive coverage of the LIS literature,
researchers must rely on a wide range of disciplinary and multidisciplinary databases for ranking
and other research purposes. Even when the nine most comprehensive databases in LIS was
searched and combined, 27.0% (or 710 of 2,635) of the publications remain not found.
The study confirms earlier research that LIS literature is highly scattered and is not limited to
standard LIS databases. What was not known or verified before, however, is that a significant
amount of this literature is indexed in the interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary databases of
Inside Conferences and INSPEC. Other interdisciplinary databases, such as America: History
and Life, were also found to be very useful and complementary to traditional LIS databases,
particularly in the areas of archives and library history. (Meho & Spurgin, 2005, p.1329).
The unique concern of library and information science
"Concern for people becoming informed is not unique to LIS, and thus is insufficient to
differentiate LIS from other fields. LIS are a part of a larger enterprise." (Konrad, 2007, p. 655).
[16]
"The unique concern of LIS is recognized as: Statement of the core concern of LIS: Humans
becoming informed (constructing meaning) via intermediation between inquirers and
instrumented records. No other field has this as its concern. " (Konrad, 2007, p. 660)
"Note that the promiscuous term information does not appear in the above statement
circumscribing the field's central concerns: The detrimental effects of the ambiguity this term
provokes are discussed above (Part III). Furner [Furner 2004, 427] has shown that discourse in
the field is improved where specific terms are utilized in place of the i-word for specific senses
of that term." (Konrad, 2007, p. 661).
Michael Buckland wrote: "Educational programs in library, information and documentation are
concerned with what people know, are not limited to technology, and require wide-ranging
expertise. They differ fundamentally and importantly from computer science programs and from
the information systems programs found in business schools.".[17]
Bawden and Robinson argue that while Information Science has overlaps with numerous other
disciplines with interest in studying communication, it is unique in that it is concerned with all
aspects of the communication chain.[18]: 6, 8 For example, Computer Science may be interested in
the indexing and retrieval, sociology with user studies, and publishing (business) with
dissemination, whereas information science is interested in the study of all of these individual
areas and the interactions between them.[18]: 6
The organization of information and information resources is one of the fundamental aspects of
LIS.[18]: 106 and is an example of both LIS's uniqueness and its multidisciplinary origins. Some of
the main tools used by LIS toward this end to provide access to the digital resources of modern
times (particularly theory relating to indexing and classification) originated in 19th century to
assist humanity's effort to make its intellectual output accessible by recording, identifying, and
providing bibliographic control of printed knowledge. [18]: 105 The origin for some of these tools
were even earlier. For example, in the 17th century, during the 'golden age of libraries',
publishers and sellers seeking to take advantage of the burgeoning book trade developed
descriptive catalogs of their wares for distribution – a practice was adopted and further
extrapolated by many libraries of the time to cover areas like philosophy, sciences, linguistics,
medicine, etc.[19] : 120 In this way, a business concern of publishers – keeping track of and
advertising inventory – was developed into a system for organizing and preserving information
by the library.
The development of Metadata is another area that exemplifies the aim of LIS to be something
more than an mishmash of several disciplines – that uniqueness Bawden and Robinson describe.
Pre-Internet classification systems and cataloging systems were mainly concerned with two
objectives: 1. to provide rich bibliographic descriptions and relations between information
objects and 2. to facilitate sharing of this bibliographic information across library boundaries. [20] :
14
The development of the Internet and the information explosion that followed found many
communities needing mechanisms for the description, authentication and management of their
information.[20]: 15 These communities developed taxonomies and controlled vocabularies to
describe their knowledge as well as unique information architectures to communicate these
classifications and libraries found themselves as liaison or translator between these metadata
systems.[20]: 15–16 Of course the concerns of cataloging in the Internet era have gone beyond simple
bibliographic descriptions. The need for descriptive information about the ownership and
copyright of a digital product – a publishing concern – and description for the different formats
and accessibility features of a resource – a sociological concern – show the continued
development and cross discipline necessity of resource description.[20]: 15
In the 21st century, the usage of open data, open source and open protocols like OAI-PMH has
allowed thousands of libraries and institutions to collaborate on the production of global
metadata services previously offered only by increasingly expensive commercial proprietary
products. Examples include BASE and Unpaywall, which automates the search of an academic
paper across thousands of repositories by libraries and research institutions.[21]
Owusu-Ansah, Christopher M.argued that, Many African universities have employed distance
education to expand access to education and digital libraries can ensure seamless access to
information for distance learners[22]
Q.2 Define Library, Librarianship, Library Science, Information Science and Library &
information science. How are Library Science and Information Science similar or
different?
1.
What Is Library and Information Science?
Library and Information Science is a profession that is full of people passionate about making a
positive change in the world, and they tend to be wildly happy about what they do.
Librarians bridge the gaps that exist between people, information and technology. In their
professional lives, librarians and information professionals work to:

Design and develop knowledge-organization systems
Create reader’s advisory resources to encourage young students to develop a
lifelong love of reading and learning

Help scholars locate archival and other resources crucial to their work

Identify sources of assistance in family and personal crises

Help doctors more quickly locate health information in critical situations

Q.3 Select five major university libraries of developed countries. Analyze their websites
and compare their contents with five Pakistani counterparts.
Online Libraries in Pakistan
Islamabad Libraries






Akhter Hameed Khan Resource Center
COMSATS Institute of Information Technology
International Islamic University
Islamic Research Institute
Quaid-i-Azam University
Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology
Jamshoro Libraries

Institute of Sindhology
Karachi Libraries









Aga Khan University
Hamdard University
Goethe Insitute of Karachi
Liaquat Memorial Library
NED University of Engineering and Technology
NGO Resource Centre
Pakistan Library Network
State Bank of Pakistan
University of Karachi
Lahore Libraries






University of Verterinary and Animal Sciences
University of Central Punjab
Punjab University
Lahore School of Economics
Lahore University of Management Sciences
Government College University
Multan Libraries

Bahauddin Zakariya University
Peshawar Libraries

University of Peshawar
Quetta Libraries

Institute for Development Sudies and Practices
Sialkot Libraries

University of Management and Technology
Abstract
This chapter aims to discuss the development of digital libraries in Pakistan. It gives an account
of the digital transformation taking place in the country and reviews a few digital library
initiatives. It discusses a number of issues associated with the development of digital libraries
with specific reference to Pakistan. The major issues appear are as follows: misconception about
digital libraries; lack of technological applications; lack of human resources with needed skills;
copyright and publishing; cultural divide; digital divide, and insufficient financial support. The
authors believe that understanding the underlying issues will not only accelerate the development
of DL in Pakistan, but also in other developing countries with more or less common
environment.
Chapter Preview
Top
Libraries And Information Resource Centers In Pakistan
Unfortunately, there is no comprehensive and current directory available to quote the latest
number of libraries/information resource centers in Pakistan. However, an overview is given in
the following:
Key Terms in this Chapter
Digital Divide: A term coined by former Assistant Secretary of Commerce for
Telecommunication and Communication Larry Irving, Jr., to focus public awareness on the gap
in access to information resources and services between those with the means to purchase the
computer hardware and software necessary to connect to the Internet and low-income families
and communities that cannot afford network access. Public libraries are helping to bridge the gap
between information “haves” and “have-nots” with the assistance of substantial grants from
industry leaders such as Bill Gates of Microsoft. The E-rate established by the
Telecommunications Act of 1996 (TCA) has helped schools, public libraries, and rural health
care institutions bridge the gap. Digital Divide Network is a Web site devoted to the issue.
Synonymous with information gap. (Reitz, 2004, p. 216).
Digitization: Defined as “the process of converting, creating, and maintaining books, art works,
historical documents, photos, journals, etc. in electronic representations so they can be viewed
via computer and other devices” (IMLS, 2002, p. 22). Digitization of valued information
resources opens up new avenues of access, use, and research and is an important aspect in the
development of digital libraries.
Information and Communication Technologies (ICT): The computing and communications
facilities and features that variously support teaching, learning, and a range of activities in
education.
Digital Library (DL): “A managed collection of information, with associated services, where the
information is stored in the digital formats and accessible over a
Q.4 Follow the URL of the Department of Library and Information Sciences, AIOU i.e.
(https://lis.aiou.edu.pk) on internet. Critically compare its contents with three
websites of the Pakistani LIS schools.
While Pakistan has had digital libraries for much of this century (the Higher Education
Commission launched the National Digital Library programme in 2004) ebooks remain
rare in the country, with the Big 5 western ebook retailers indifferent and local players
yet to emerge.
The latest news from the Punjab that twenty e-libraries have been established in the province,
while
welcome,
isn’t
going
to
change
that.
The News reports that the Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) and Youth Affairs,
Sports, Archaelogy and Tourism Department (YASAT) have established e-libraries in 20
districts
of
the
Punjab
comes
with
some
caveats.
One would hope that a governmental department responsible for such a wide-ranging brief as
youth affairs, sports, archaelogy and tourism would see an opportunity there to embrace the
ebook as a form of entertainment as well as a tool for science and education, but what we know
of the project so far suggests the new libraries are not going to be tools to bring reading to the
masses.
While the libraries are supposedly
focused to promote e-reading and e-learning culture,
and will be free for the public to use, and open to the public seven days a week, offering free wifi, they are physical entities requiring personal attendance.
Each library comprises an auditorium with seating facility for 50 people, multimedia
facility, e-Rozgar room with 16 computers, e-learn facility, digital library access room with
10 computers, five tables and beautiful work stations.
Those who cannot physically get tot he libraries will therefore be denied such benefits there are,
which
anyway
appear
to
preclude
reading
for
pleasure..
So while this initiative is to be welcomed, it does not bring Pakistan any closer to the free and
easy access to fiction, non-fiction and learning tools we in the First World west take for granted
thanks
to
digital
library
suppliers
like
OverDrive..
With none of the Big 5 western ebook retailers acknowledging Pakistan exists, and Pakistani
publishers reluctant to invest in digitisation because there are no meaningful digital outlets, it
looks like ebo
Q.5 Write short notes on the following:
i.
Internet browser vs. search engine
Search engine and web browser are two very commonly used terms but are different from each
other. In this article, we shall discuss the differences between a web browser and a search engine.
A program that searches for and identifies items in a database that correspond to keywords or
characters specified by the user, used especially for finding particular sites on the World Wide
Web is called a search engine.
Whereas, a web browser is a software application that allows you to access information using the
World Wide Web.
Further below in this article, we have given a tabulated difference between the search engine and
web browser to make the two terms more understandable and helpful for IAS Exam preparation.
ii. LAN vs. WAN
Local
Area
Network
(LAN):
LAN is a group of network devices which allow the communication between connected
devices. The private ownership has the control over the local area network rather than public.
LAN has short propagation delay than MAN as well as WAN. It covers the smallest area such
as: College, School Hospital and so on.
Wide
Area
Network
(WAN):
WAN covers the large area than LAN as well as MAN such as: Country/Continent etc. WAN
is expensive and should or might not be owned by one organization. PSTN or Satellite medium
are used for wide area network.
iii.
Computer hardware vs. computer software
Hardware refers to the physical components of a computer or a machine that we can see and
touch. It contains circuit board, ICs, or other electronics in a computer system. It is a physical
component that is used in different ways to build a computer or any other machine. The Memory
Devices, Processor, Central Processing Unit, Mouse, and the keyboard all are the examples of
the hardware in the computer system. On the other hand, the screen on which you are viewing
this page is the best example of the hardware, whether you are viewing this page on the tablet,
monitor, or smartphone. A computer system would not be existing without any hardware and not
able to run any software. An example of an external hardware peripheral, a keyboard, is shown
in the picture. It allows users to give input to the computer.
Computer Software
Software is a collection of procedures, instructions, documentation that tells a computer exactly
what to do or allows users to interact with a computer. Sometimes it is abbreviated as S/W and
SW, which is most important for a computer or other similar devices. Most of the computers may
be useless without software. For example, if a software program, MS-Word is not installed into
your computer, you cannot make any document that can be completed through MS-Word. Also,
you cannot surf the Internet or visit any website if your system has no Internet browser software.
Additionally, the browser could not run on the computer without an operating system.
The Google Chrome, Photoshop, MS Word, Excel, MySQL and more are examples of software.
The picture is shown below, is an example of software, which is a picture of Google Chrome,
which is an Internet software program.
Software is a collection of instructions run on the computer, whereas hardware is a physical
device used with or on the computer. On the other hand, the software cannot be touch and held in
your hand, whereas hardware can be touch and held in your hand. Below is given a table that
holds the differences between hardware and software.
iv.
HTTP vs. WWW
HTTP is an acronym for Hypertext Transfer Protocol; this is the most popular protocol in use
today. It is the communication standard used by your web browser in order to communicate with
the server of the website that you are viewing. WWW or the World Wide Web is a prefix to a
certain name in order to identify that it is a web site that you are visiting.
There are many existing protocols in the internet today and in order to differentiate which one
you want to use, they are given specific protocol names that should be present when connecting
to a web site or any other source of data. Some protocols that are accepted by browsers are:
HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, NEWS, and FILE. Although most sites are purely web servers, some sites
host multiple services in a single domain name and in order to identify which one you are trying
to access you must indicate the protocol that the service uses. You can see what protocol is
currently in use by looking at the first word in the address bar.
Most websites come in a certain format, mostly it is www.anything.com. The word at the end
identifies the site as commercial, the word in the middle is the domain name, and the WWW in
the beginning indicates that it is a website and it uses the HTTP protocol. It is therefore
redundant to have ‘http://www.anything.com’ since the WWW tells the browser to use HTTP
when it is already in use. But because most people are already used to having a URI written this
way, it is left as is by most experts.
Aside from the protocol names that are already reserved for obvious reasons, you can use any
other prefix in order to establish a sub domain on your site. A sub domain can be a totally
different web site that is sharing the domain name. In the case of sub domains, you can no longer
use a prefix in order to identify the protocol in use, that is why you must specify the protocol by
using HTTP://, FTP://, or any other protocol name.
Summary:
1.
HTTP
is
the
protocol
used
to
transfer
data
to
and
from
the
website.
2. WWW is the identifier that indicates that it is a web site and it uses the HTTP protocol.
3. HTTP://anything.com, WWW.anything.com, HTTP://WWW.anything.com leads to the same
site.
4. Any prefix that is not reserved to a protocol can be used as a sub domain.
v.
Listserv vs. internet blog
Blogs vs. Listservs: Which is Better for Community Conversation?
I've belonged to the Training and Development (TRDEV) listserv since the mid 1990's when it
was owned by David Passmore at Penn State. It's always been a great source of information and
(sometimes) amusement for me. You haven't lived until you see the flame wars that ensue over
things like "what is training?" and "behaviorism vs. experiential learning."
This morning a new thread has been started on blogging vs. listservs and one of the points made
by a long-time member is that listservs "are for all members' interests" because they
automatically push community interest in a conversation to the top. If someone posts to the list
and people are interested in the topic, lively discussion will follow. If they aren't, then the topic
will disappear into oblivion.
Compare this to blogs, says the writer, where the blog owner decides on the topics and while
commenters can join in the conversation, it will generally be on the blog owner's terms based on
what interests him/her.
To some extent I think this is true. If a blogger is blithely blind to questions and ideas of people
who comment and writes with no regard for the conversation going on on the blog, then clearly
the blog is a forum for something other than community conversation. And of course if people
don't ever comment, it's difficult to get a "conversation" going--you're generally talking to
yourself.
At the same time, listservs can create an environment that isn't always open to "conversation."
Over the years we've had many times when lurkers and newbies came out of the woodwork to
report that they weren't participating in the conversation because the list was dominated by a few
very opinionated writers who had no qualms about starting flame wars. Even when moderators
step in, there's still a bad taste left in people's mouths and many leave the list.
I personally think that there's room for and a NEED for both to keep conversations going. Blogs
offer a place for individuals to process information and put ideas out into the world. I can't
imagine posting some of my blog posts to a listserv--they'd be considered "off-topic" or
inappropriate because I'm not asking a question or furthering a discussion. Yet my blog posts
contribute tremendously to my ability to participate more effectively in listserv conversations
because I've been able to process ideas and to play around with different things.
I also believe that many well-run blogs operate as listservs in the sense of the two-way
conversations that occur. Any reader of Kathy Sierra's blog knows that she regularly uses reader
comments as part of the ongoing discussion and readers not only react to Kathy, but also interact
with each other. The comments become threaded discussion as much as comments.
That said, I also agree that listservs are important. They obviously are based on a premise of
having a conversation--you're posting with the expectation that someone will respond and
generally they do. And listservs can be more "democratic" in terms of the topics and
conversation. The stuff people are interested in gets talked about and the stuff they aren't
interested in doesn't.
Like a democracy, though, listserv conversations can sometimes descend to the lowest common
denominator. On many lists I find that some of the most (to me anyway) inane topics will take up
HUGE amounts of time, while other far more interesting and meaty conversations will quickly
sink to the bottom or have to go off-list to continue. On a blog at least the blogger could keep
things going on the topics that interested him or her.
But back to the original question--are listservs better at serving the interests of all members? Do
they do a better job of furthering community conversation? Or can blogs serve the same purpose
or do it even better? What do you think?