Library and information science's ontological position in the networked society : using new technology to get back to an old practice

• Introduction. This paper concerns the ontological position of library and informations science in the networked society. The aim of the study is to understand library use and library functions in the age of Internet and artificial intelligent programmed search engines.Theoretical approach. The approach discusses so called sociocognitive tools in knowledge sharing and creation by the way social processes are described in Luhmann's systems theory. The capacity in these tools is mainly discussed by using the extended mind theory from cognitive science and theories of distributed and situated learning, which show how tools extend human capacity. The importance of tools as part of human development is also discussed by using theories of cultural evolution.Discussion and conclusions. Artificial intelligence tools in a distributed design have a capacity to independently be a part in social knowledge processes, because these programs are good at finding patterns. In this way they extend the human mind to such an extent that library and information science needs to rework its positions on topics such as relevance and meaning seeking. Practical implications are that libraries need to go back to its roots in the way libraries worked in the era before the information explosion. It was a period when more emphasis was on making the library itself capable to expose a lot of possibilities in the literature through knowledge organisation, and not so much on the librarian as a guide to information searching.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap -- Biblioteks- och informationsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Media and Communications -- Information Studies (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Knowledge organization

information architecture

Artificial intelligence

Extended Mind theory

Luhmann´s systems theory

Biblioteks- och informationsvetenskap

Library and Information Science

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)