School organisation

Centre for Information Science

Established within the School of Informatics at City University London, the Centre for Information Science (CIS) is the focus for teaching, research and scholarship in the core areas of information science. 

The Centre continues the tradition of information science as an academic discipline, which has been present at City University since the teaching of this subject was established in 1961. Our emphasis is on the central concerns of information science: the study of the information communication chain, in the context of different domains and as influenced by developing technologies. Specific interests are: human information behaviour; information organisation; information history; foundations of the information sciences; the idea of the information sciences as liberal arts, and the convergence of the GLAM (galleries, libraries, archives and museums) sector.

Cast List

Teaching

CIS hosts the Library and Information Sciences Scheme, (LISS) an integrated set of Masters courses. Currently, LISS includes: Information Science,  Library Science, and a course joint with City University's School of Arts, Information Management in the Cultural Sector.

The Centre runs several modules for these courses: Library and Information Science Foundation; Information Resources and Organisation; Information Management and Policy; Information Law and Policy, Information Domains; Libraries and Publishing in the Information Society, Research Evaluation and Communications Skills and Independent Study. In Spring 2013, we also ran Digital Cultures for the School of Arts.

We are actively involved in LIS curriculum development with UK colleagues and international partners, and in developing new teaching methods.

Research 

Library and information science research at City involves the study of the whole of the information communication chain, in the context of changes in the communication of recorded information. We focus on conceptual and foundation issues which underlie practice in the GLAM (galleries, libraries, archives and museums) professions.

Our research falls into three main areas:

  • Foundations of the information sciences. This includes: conceptual foundations of the information sciences and the collection disciplines; links between physical, biological and social conceptions of information; and library and information history.  
  • Information provision for specific domains and subjects. This focus on changes in the way information is organised and communicated in the move to a largely digital information environment, and includes: changing nature of documents and information resources; changing publishing models, and their consequences for information specialists; and representation and organisation of information and knowledge.
  • Information behaviour - of individuals and groups, and within society. Here, we have a focus on topics such as: models and concepts of information behaviour; digital literacy; the effects of individual differences on information behaviour; and information for creativity and trend spotting.

Our research is carried out through personal research and scholarship, and through supervision of doctoral and Masters students. Great emphasis is placed on the integration of research with our Masters-level education. We have numerous publications based on Masters dissertations, and an internationally recognised leading role in curriculum development and in research/practice integration for the library/information sector. 

Our current doctoral students:

  • Andrew Robson - Communication of pharmaceutical information
  • Sandra Tury - Information seeking behaviour of distance learning students
  • Debbie Lee - Knowledge organisation in musicology
  • David Haynes - Risk management and personal data
  • Samantha Tator - Information behaviour and creativity
  • Ohoud Alabdali - Development of the information society in Saudi Arabia
  • Christopher Serbutt - The changing place of information: an examination and evaluation of how context affects the information conveyed by objects

Successfully completed doctoral students:

  • Charlie Mayor - The classification of gene products in the molecular biology domain: realism, objectivity and the limitations of the gene ontology
  • Liz Poirier - A theoretical framework for slow information behaviour
  • Tony Weller - Social and cultural understandings and manifestations of information in nineteenth century England
  • Jutta Haider - Open access and notions of 'development'
  • Ahmad Khudair - A model for the development of healthcare information services in Saudi Arabia

Professional 

David Bawden is the editor of Journal of Documentation, the leading European journal for information science, and is on the editorial board of Portal: Libraries and the Academy. 

David Haynes and David Bawden are on the editorial board of Aslib Proceedings.

Blaise Cronin is the editor of JASIST (Journal American Society for Information Science and Technology).

Andy MacFarlane is on the editorial board of Journal of Information Science.

nullLyn Robinson and David Bawden are the authors of the best selling 'Introduction to Information Science' - Facet 2012, and editors of Facet's Foundations of the Information Sciences series.

We were the programme organisers for the CoLIS (Conceptions of Library and Information Science) conference, held in London in 2010, and are involved in the planning for CoLIS 2013, to be held in Copenhagen.

Some recent publications

Robinson L and Bawden D (2013). Mind the gap: transitions between concepts of information in varied domains. In: Theories of information, communication and knowledge. A multidisciplinary approach. Eds. Ibekwe-SanJuan F and Dousa T. Springer (in press).

Robinson L and Bawden D (2013). So wide and varied: the origins and character of British information science. Journal of Information Science (in press)

Crawford-Franklin C and Robinson L (2013). "Even in an age of wonders": Radio as an information resource in 1920s America. Journal of Documentation (in press).

Robson A and Robinson L (2013). Building on models of information behaviour: linking information seeking and communication. Journal of Documentation 69(2), 169-193.

Cronin B (2012). Collaboration in art and science: approaches to attribution, authorship and acknowledgement. Information and Culture 47(1), 18-37

Sugimoto CR and Cronin B (2012). Bio-bibliometric profiling: an examination of multi-faceted approaches to scholarship. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 64(3), 450-468

Pedley P (2012). The e-copyright handbook. London: Facet

Pietras M and Robinson L (2012). Three views of the 'musical work': bibliographical control in the music domain. Library Review vol 61(8/9), 551-560

Priego E (2012). Jack Kirby's Pre-press Originals: The Tangible Layers of Textuality. In: Rough Cuts: Media and Design in Process, a MediaCommons collection curated by Kari Kraus (College of Information Studies, University of Maryland). http://mediacommons.futureofthebook.org/tne/pieces/jack-kirbys-pre-press-originals

Priego E (2012). Beyond [Adobe] Flash™: Flash: Hans Bordahl's and David Farley's Online Comics as Short Digital Narratives. In: Dandelion, special issue on short fiction edited by Zara Dinnen, Birkbeck College London. http://dandelionjournal.org/index.php/dandelion/article/viewFile/60/108

D Bawden and L Robinson (2011). Individual differences in information-related behaviour: what do we know about information styles. In: A Spink and J Heinström (eds), New Directions in Information behaviour,  Bingley: Emerald 

Priego E (2011). Seven entries on Mexican comics for 1001 Comics You Must Read Before You Die, edited by Paul Gravett, with a foreword by Terry Gilliam, Castell, London and New York, October 2011.  ISBN-10: 1844036987. ISBN-13: 978-1844036981

L Robinson and D Bawden (2010). Information (and library) science at City Universty London: fifty years of educational development. Journal of Information Science 36(5), 618-630

Priego E (2010). "On Cultural Materialism, Comics and Digital Media". Opticon1826, Issue 9, Autumn 2010 (University College London). DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5334/opt.091007 [Open Access]

Priego E (2010). "My Life with Charlie Brown", by Charles M. Schulz. Studies in Comics, Volume 1, Issue 2, December 2010 (Intellect). (Review).  DOI: 10.1386/stic.1.2.379_4. ISSN 2150-4857 (Print), 2150-4865 (Online).

M Mason and L Robinson (2010). The information-related behaviour of emerging artists and designers: inspiration and guidance for new practitioners. Journal of Documentation 67(1), 159-180

J Cummins and D Bawden (2010). Accounting for information: information and knowledge in the annual reports of FTSE 100 companies. Journal of Information Science 36(3), 283-305

last update 17/04/13