CityLIS After Hours - "Approaching Libraries and Information Philosophically" Dominic Dixon

The debate over whether philosophy can provide a foundation for library and information science has been ongoing since at least 1934 when James Danton published his Plea for a Philosophy of Librarianship. Since then, the debate has been mainly between social epistemology, as originally but forward by Jess Shera and Margaret Egan, and philosophy of information, which Luciano Floridi has suggested can provide the most appropriate foundation for LIS. Independent of this debate, it is important to understand the practical implications of a philosophical approach to library and information science more broadly. Therefore, this session will explore what it means to approach something philosophically, looking in particular at philosophical issues as they arise in relation to libraries and information. We will look at some different ways of conceiving of philosophy, as well as what sort of tools philosophy can provide to address these issues.

Dominic Dixon is a Research Librarian at the University of Cambridge as well as carrying out doctoral research in the Department of Library and Information Science here at City, looking at the relationship between philosophy and LIS.