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A Different Kind of Librarian for the 21st Century
What is Library Science?
When you picture a librarian do you see a quiet, unassuming woman with her hair in a bun? Is she stamping books? Does she give you a stern look an say, "Shh!?" This traditional view of what a librarian is, could not be further from the truth. Librarianship has a long and venerable history - learn more about Ashurbanipal's library at Niniveh during the 7th century BCE. Librarians for centuries have served as the gatekeepers of information for society. Library Science is concerned with a number of areas including:
- Acquisition
- Dissemination of Information
- Classification and Organization
- Storage and Retrieval Systems
- Information Use
What is Information Architecture?
It is easy to think of Information Architects as Web Developers. It is true that many Information Architects are working in the World Wide Web environment. However, the science of Information Architecture goes beyond web design and administration. Information Architects are the librarians of the web. They work to build content (acquisition); organize and classify information through navigational structure, labeling, and indexing; design digital storage and retrieval systems (dissemination), and perform user analysis before, during, and after a project to determine an interface's usability (information use). Information Architects often work with teams that include: graphic designers, programmers, librarians, business professionals, and systems administrators.
What is Knowledge Management?
Knowledge Management is a business process where an organization seeks to assemble, organize, analyze and share its information amongst its members. The information often includes competitive intelligence, tacit knowledge, and best practices - types of knowledge that are often missed if they are not specifically mined as a resource. Knowledge Managers seek innovative ways to collect this information and make it easily available to the organization. Although this is often seen as an endeavor for profit and corporate intelligence, many non-profit organizations are seeing the benefit of harnessing their previously uncaptured knowledge.
Putting it all together:
I combined all three disciplines and earned both the Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) degree and the Master of Science in Information Architecture and Knowledge Management (IAKM) because I am fascinated with the study of information in all its forms. As a librarian, I have the unique ability to see information problems, be they of a design nature or a corporate intelligence nature, from a user perspective. I am able to analyze the information need, retrieve relevant results, analyze the data, and present it in a format that will maximize its usefulness to the organization.
