Research:   Core Concepts

Abbreviations for frequently used sources:

• IE: International Encyclopedia of Information and Library Science (Feather & Sturges 2007)
• EIST: Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology (Khrosrow- Pour 2005)
• ELS: Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science (Kent & Lancour)
• ELIS: Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science 2nd Edition (Drake)
• IAG: Information Architecture Glossary by Kat Hagedorn
• Elsevier: Elsevier's dictionary of Library Science Information and Documentation (1973)
• Case: Case, D. Looking for Information, Academic Press, 2006
• Chan: Chan, L.M. Cataloging and Classification: An Introduction, 3rd ed, Scarecrow Press, 2007
• Reitz: Dictionary of Library and Information Science (Reitz 2004)
  • ODLIS: Online Dictionary for Library and Information Science (Reitz)
• Concise: Keenan, S. Concise Dictionary of Library and Information Science. 1996 Bowker-Saur, West Sussex.

Definitions:

Classification

• The process of dividing objects or concepts into logically hierarchical classes, subclasses, and sub-subclasses based on the characteristics they have in common and those that distinguish them. Also used as a shortened form of the term classification system or classification scheme. (ODLIS)
• The systematic organization of books, serials and other documents in all media by their subject matter. The subject divisions identified are generally assigned a coded notation to represent the subject content. Classification schemes in libraries, or bibliographic classification, are used both as the basis of the subject catalogue and a subject index, and for the arrangement of the items on the shelves. (IE)
• A logical system for the arrangement of knowledge (Chan)
• The process of assigning attribute values to content objects. Indexing can be performed manually or automatically, or by using a combination of the two approaches, and can involve a controlled vocabulary. The process of indexing is also known as cataloging, classifying and tagging. (IAG)
• A systematic distribution or arrangement, in a class or classes (Elsevier)

Content Navigation

• content: The essential matter or substance of a written work or discourse, as opposed to its form or style. In a more general sense, all the ideas, topics, facts, or statements contained in a book or other written work. Synonymous in this sense with subject matter. Also refers to the matter that is the subject of a course of study. (ODLIS)
• content: may be anything, including oral language and natural phenomena, that upon observation appears to have a pattern that can be analyzed for descriptive or inferential purposes. (ELS)
• navigation: The process of users interacting with a site to effectively fulfill their information needs. Users navigate sites by searching and browsing for content objects. (IAG)
• navigation: The use of hypertext links, icons, menu options, and search engines displayed on a Web page to move to other resources available on the Internet or to other pages within the same Web site. When the user proceeds in a casual way, the activity is called surfing; when the approach is purposeful, it is a search. (ODLIS)

Context

• In the most general sense, the entire situation, background, or environment relevant to an event, activity, statement, work, etc. In a literary sense, the parts of a sentence, paragraph, or text that occur just before and after a specific word, phrase, or passage and determine its precise meaning. Context is included in certain types of keyword indexing. (Reitz)
• Social context is external, socially constructed, and may encompass physical objects like books (Case).
• Social context: The user's socio-organizational environment, which may possess social conventions, preferences, and collective structures adhering to particular domains. (ELS)

Controlled Vocabulary

• An established list of preferred terms from which a cataloger or indexer must select when assigning subject headings or descriptors in a bibliographic record, to indicate the content of the work in a library catalog, index, or bibliographic database. Synonyms are included as lead-in vocabulary, with instructions to see or USE the authorized heading. For example, if the authorized subject heading for works about dogs is "Dogs," then all items about dogs will be assigned the heading "Dogs," including a work titled All about Canines. A cross- reference to the heading "Dogs" will be made from the term "Canines" to ensure that anyone looking for information about dogs under "Canines" will be directed to the correct heading. Controlled vocabulary is usually listed alphabetically in a subject headings list or thesaurus of indexing terms. The process of creating and maintaining a list of preferred indexing terms is called vocabulary control. (ODLIS)
• A vocabulary is a "list or collection of terms or codes available for use (as in an indexing system)." A vocabulary is said to be controlled if it consists of a restricted subset of possible terms. Such a subset, in that it contains only those terms "authorized" for use, is sometimes called an authority list. In addition to terminological restriction, most CVs articulate semantic relationships between terms in the vocabulary, the most common of these being the inclusion of hierarchical relationships. (ELIS).
• A fixed list of terms used to index records for storage and retrieval with rules for selecting words and adding new words to the list (Concise Dictionary of Library and Information Science, 1996)
• (Controlled terms): A list of terms or descriptions which strict control is exercised as to the meaning of terms and to the addition of terms (Elsevier)

Credibility

• The state or quality of being worthy of trust or belief. The reliability of information content usually depends on the motives and credentials of the author or provider. In 2001, Consumers Union launched a three-year Web Credibility Program with $4.8 million in grant support from the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Knight Foundation, and the Open Society Institute. Its goals are to investigate the business practices of Web sites and report findings to the public, develop disclosure standards for the Internet, and make the public more aware of disclosure issues. Academic librarians have responded to lack of disclosure in the online environment by emphasizing critical thinking skills and verification techniques in information literacy instruction. The Persuasive Technology Lab at Stanford University maintains Stanford Web Credibility Research, a site devoted to understanding what leads people to accept information they find on the Web. (ODLIS)
• The origin of information, its quality, and its veracity (Credibility and Digital Media @ UCSB )
• The believability of a source or message, which is made up of two primary dimensions: trustworthiness and expertise. Information science perspectives...view credibility as more of an objective property of information given that field's focus on defining credibility in terms of "information quality", which is useful, good, relevant, reliable, accurate, and so forth some information is for a specific purpose. (Metzger, M. J. (2007). Digital Media, Youth, and Credibility. MIT Press.

Data Mining

• The nontrivial extraction of implicit, previously unknown, and potentially useful information from data/databases (W. Frawley, Piatetsky-Shapiro, G. & Matheus, C. (1992). "Knowledge Discovery in Databases: An Overview". AI Magazine: pp. 213-228.)
• The science of extracting useful information from large data sets or databases (Hand, D., Mannila, H., & Smyth, P. (2001). Principles of Data Mining. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA)
• Data mining is the discovery of interesting, unexpected or valuable structures in large datasets. As such, it has two rather different aspects. One of these concerns large-scale, 'global' structures, and the aim is to model the shapes, or features of the shapes, of distributions. The other concerns small-scale, 'local' structures, and the aim is to detect these anomalies and decide if they are real or chance occurrences. (Hand, D. J. (2007). Principles of Data Mining. Conference Paper. Drug Safety. 30(7):621-622).
• Data mining is the application of specific algorithms for extracting patterns from data. (Fayyad, U., Piatetsky-Shapiro, G., and Smyth, P. (1996). Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining: Towards a Unifying Framework. Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining)
• Using advanced statistical tools to identify commercially useful patterns in databases. (Storsoft Technology: IT Enterprise Solutions, Glossary)
• The extraction of interesting, meaningful, implicit, previously unknown, valid and actionable information from a pool of data sources (Dunham 2003)

Design

• (Information design) The art and science of preparing information so that it can be used by human beings with efficiency and effectiveness (Jacobson, R. editor (2000) "Information Design: The Emergence of a New Profession", Information Design, MIT Press, p. 15)
• (Information design is concerned with making all types of information accessible and usable by people (Sless, 1992a).
• User-centered design: the process and result of designing with the needs of the user in mind. The process requires that the user- interface designer adopt the mindset that the user's experience is the one that matters most. (Silver, M. Exploring Interface Design. Thomson Delmar Learning, 2004).
• Systems design is to construct a new, useful system (static structure and operating procedure) under a specified evaluation criterion by the use of scientific disciplines and empirical laws concerning systems. (Hitomi, K. Manufacturing Systems Engineering. CRC Press, 1996).
• Systems design is a community of self-actualizing individuals, that is, a group of people who mutually share their values, interests, ideals, and knowledge that is germane to the system to be created, and who, through participatory democratic actions, creatively design meaningful systems that are shared with the greater community toward the guidance of human evolutionary development and the direction of positive social development. (Reber, M. F. An Alternative Framework for Community Learning Centers in the 21st Century. Univeral Publishers, 2003).

Digital divide

• The divide between those who can read well and take full advantage of the treasures of information that will be so widely available, and those who are not fully literate and cannot take advantage of easily accessible information resources. (The Digital Divide, ed. Compaine, B.M., MIT Press, 2001)
• The tendency for technology to the most accessible to the wealthiest and most educated. (Understanding Social Problems, Mooney, Knox & Schacht, Wadsworth Publishing, 2004)
• A widening gap between haves and have-nots within a country or region based on ethnicity, income, race and other social categorizations. The haves can afford technology and the skills to manipulate it, which is not the case with have-nots, who will be relegated to "second-class citizens". (Kawooya, "The Digital Divide: An Ethical Dilemma for Information Professionals in Uganda?", 2002)

Document

• A generic term for a physical entity consisting of any substance on which is recorded all or a portion of one or more works for the purpose of conveying or preserving knowledge. In the words of the communication theorist Marshall McLuhan, a document is the "medium" in which a "message" (information) is communicated. Document formats include manuscripts, print publications (books, pamphlets, periodicals, reports, maps, prints, etc.), microforms, nonprint media, electronic resources, etc. Abbreviated doc. (ODLIS)
• Any source of information, in material form, capable of being used for reference or study or as an authority. Examples : manuscripts, printed matter, illustrations, diagrams, museum specimens, etc. (International Institute for Intellectual Cooperation)
• A document is evidence in support of a fact. Any physical or symbolic sign, preserved or recorded, intended to represent, to reconstruct, or to demonstrate a physical or conceptual phenomenon. (Briet 1951).
• Written, printed, or photographic record (Elsevier)
• Identifiable units of content, flexibly structured for human comprehension. Containers for organizational content (EIST)
• generic term for the information-bearing media - books, serials, sound recordings, films, illustrations etc. (Concise)

Facet Analysis

• Examination of the various aspects of a subject to identify the basic characteristics by which it can be divided into subclasses, the first step in developing a faceted classification system. (ODLIS)
• The mental process by which the possible trains of characteristics can form the basis of classification of a subject are enumerated and the exact measure in which the attributes concerned are incident in the subject are determined. Facets are inherent in the subject." (Ranganathan)
• The technique of separating the various elements of complex subjects in relation to a set of abstract fundamental concepts. A facet can be said to be all the classes produced when a subject is divided by one and only one characteristic. The purpose of facet analysis is to provide a framework within which all these various types of terms can be accommodated, together with rules for their contribution as required by the literature. It uses the term "analysis" to replace the older term "division" because division implies the breaking up of a single entity, but analysis has a wider connotation and may be applied to the study of complexes as well as of entities. (Foskett, ELIS).
• The enumeration of the possible trains of characteristics by which a main class can be divided (Elsevier)

Human computer interaction

• Human-computer interaction is a discipline concerned with the design, evaluation and implementation of interactive computing systems for human use and with the study of major phenomena surrounding them. (ACM SIGCHI Curricula for Human-Computer Interaction by Hewett, Baecker, Card, Carey, Gasen, Mantei, Perlman, Strong and Verplank. Retrieved from http://sigchi.org/cdg/cdg2.html#2_1 )
• The study of the relationship (interaction) between people and mobile computer systems and applications that they use on a daily basis (Love, S. (2005). Understanding Mobile Human-Computer Interaction: A psychological perspective. Butterworth-Heinemann.).
• A set of processes, dialogues, and actions through which a human user employs and interacts with a computer (Baecker 1987).
• A discipline concerned with the design, evaluation, and implementation of interactive computing systems for human use and with the study of major phenomena surrounding them. From a Computer Science perspective, the focus is on interaction and specifically on interaction between one or more humans and one or more computational machines (Greenberg 1999).
• The study of people, computer technology, and the ways these influence each other. A (human) user is defined as whoever is trying to accomplish something using the technology and can mean an individual user, a group of users working together, or a sequence of users in an organization each dealing with some part of the task or process. The computer is defined as any technology ranging from the general desktop computer to large-scale computer systems, a process control system, or an embedded system. The system may include non- computerized parts, including other people. Interaction is defined as any communication between a user and the computer, being it direct or indirect. Direct interaction involves a dialogue with feedback and control during performance of the task. Indirect interaction may involve background or batch processing. (Dix 1998).
• In HCI 'knowledge of the capabilities and limitations of the human operator is used for the design of systems, software, tasks, tools, environments, and organizations' (Helander 1997)
• HCI is concerned with studying and improving the many factors that influence the effectiveness and efficiency of computer use. It combines techniques from psychology, sociology, physiology, engineering, computer science, and linguistics (Johnson 1999).

Information

• Data that has been processed into a meaningful form. Seen in this way, information is an assemblage of data in a comprehensible form capable of communication and use; the essence of it is that a meaning has been attached to the raw facts. Increasingly, information is the word that is applied in the broad professional and technical context represented in such phrases as 'information technology' or 'information retrieval' or 'information management'. It is thus used in a general sense to encompass all the different ways of representing facts, events and concepts in both digital and analogue systems, and in all media and formats. (IE)
• Information as personal construct: there is no information but only information behavior, i.e., information is embodied in information behavior. Information is therefore a personal construct, subjective and contextual, since it exists only in a mentally processed form. (ELIS)
• Anything that can be stored or retrieved. (IAG)
• The meaning that a human assigns to data by means of the known conversations used in its representations (Elsevier)
• The act of informing; that which reduces uncertainty; the "knowledge communicated concerning some particular fact, subject or event"; objects, such as data and documents, that are referred to as "information" because they are regarded as being informative (Buckland, "Information as Thing" 1991)
• Any difference you perceive, in your environment or within yourself. It is any aspect that you notice in the pattern of reality (Case)

Information access

• In the simplest terms, we can say that if an individual with an information need is able to obtain information that satisfies the need, the individual has access to information. (ALA) The ALA then details a number of barriers, including cultural, technical, economic, and legal and ethical, that can prevent a person from accessing information, but does not address the quality or suitability of the information retrieved. (IAG)
• The process by which users use information technology to seek, organize, and understand information (Heart, M., Assistant Professor, School of Information, UC Berkeley)
• The capacity of users to find, digest, and use relevant information. (Al-Hakim, L. Global E-government: Theory, Applications and Benchmarking. Idea Group Inc, 2007.)
• An area of informatics and library science which concerns ensuring free and open access to information. Information access covers many issues such as copyright, open source, privacy, and security. (Wikipedia)

Information behavior

• Information Behavior is the totality of human behavior in relation to sources and channels of information, including both active and passive information seeking, and information use. Thus, it includes face-to-face communication with others, as well as the passive reception of information as in, for example, watching TV advertisements, without any intention to act on the information given. (Wilson, T. D. (2000). "Human Information Behavior." Informing Science)
• The study of how people need, seek, give, and use information in different contexts, including the workplace and everyday living. (Pettigrew et al. 2004)
• A person's ongoing relationship with information; it includes a person's self-perceived information needs, information seeking, passive acquisition of information, information avoidance, and information use and transfer (Wilson 1999, Case 2002).

Information Flow

• The organized graphic process of data collection, processing, and final reporting (Bilingual Chinese-modern machinery Manufacturing Technology Dictionary)
• Information flow is when x/carries/bears/conveys the information that y (Barwise & Seligman, 1997)
• Information flow is the object which is flowing on the Internet/ intranet within the targets of some certain rules. The carrier is the Internet/Intranet. It depicts the information transmission direction and the handling process to the information (Hong Fang, 2001)
• The procedures whereby information is communicated to various parties both within an organisation and between the organisation and the outside world. Effective information flow is essential for an organisation as it enables the efficient maintenance of key processes. (Garnder, A. (2003). AS & A Level ICT Through Diagrams. Oxford University Press)
• The movement of information objects from the point of origin to the "target" user over time. Simple objects may combine to form complex objects. The object is modified along the way. The object may be used at different points in the flow. (Southampton University Computing Services).
• Information flow is stored in various systems in ways that make it available to those who need it for their day-to-day business decisions. Some pieces of information are needed immediately while other pieces may not be needed for years. An information flow model needs to exist as an important part of the overall process. In this way, the proper information is available when needed for making sound information-driven business decisions. In other words, the information needs to be in the right place at the right time. How it does or does not get there is the problem to be solved. (Thomas, S. J. (2005). Improving Maintenance & Reliability Through Cultural Change. Industrial Press, Inc.)

Information management

• The skillful exercise of control over the acquisition, organization, storage, security, retrieval, and dissemination of the information resources essential to the successful operation of a business, agency, organization, or institution, including documentation, records management, and technical infrastructure (ODLIS)
• The means by which an organisation efficiently plans, collects, organises, uses, controls, disseminates and disposes of its information, and through which it ensures that the value of that information is identified and exploited to the fullest extent. (Queensland Information Planning Branch Information Standards No. 24).
• Information Management (IM) describes the measures required for the effective collection, storage, access, use and disposal of information to support agency business processes. The core of these measures is the management of the definition, ownership, sensitivity, quality and accessibility of information. These measures are addressed at appropriate stages in the strategic planning lifecycle and applied at appropriate stages in the operational lifecycle of the information itself. (New South Wales Government, Office of Information Technology, Information Management Framework Guidelines, 4-5).
• The entire process of defining, evaluating, protecting, and distributing data within an organization. (Storsoft Technology: IT Enterprise Solutions, Glossary)
• Information management is a cycle of processes that support the organization's learning activities: identifying information needs, acquiring information, organizing and storing information, developing information products and services, distributing information, and using information. The basic goal of information management is to harness the information resources and information capabilities of the organization in order to enable the organization to learn and adapt to its changing environment (Choo 1998)
• Information management is a fuzzy term covering the various stages of information processing from production to storage and retrieval to dissemination toward the better working of an organization, where information can be from internal and external sources and in any format (Mezgar (2005). "Building and Management of Trust in Information Systems." EIST).

Information literacy

• Skill in finding the information one needs, including an understanding of how libraries are organized, familiarity with the resources they provide (including information formats and automated search tools), and knowledge of commonly used research techniques. The concept also includes the skills required to critically evaluate information content and employ it effectively, as well as an understanding of the technological infrastructure on which information transmission is based, including its social, political, and cultural context and impact. (ODLIS)
• The ability to access, evaluate and use information. IL is also described as a way of learning, or as a conglomerate of ways of experiencing information use. (IE)
• The ability to use information, knowing that "information matters", knowing where and how to get information, knowing how to interpret information, and knowing how to use and communicate information. (ELS)

Information policy

• A governing principle, plan, or course of action concerning information resources and technology adopted by a company, organization, institution, or government, for example, the political decision to use public funds to subsidize Internet access for schools and public libraries. In the United States, Congress and the president are advised by the National Commission on Library and Information Science (NCLIS) on decisions concerning national library and information policy. (ODLIS)
• At its highest level, information policy comprises all the laws, regulations and public policies that encourage, discourage or regulate the creation, use, storage and communication of information. (IE)
• A set of rules, standards, and accepted practices that regulate the users and service providers' behavior in the cyberspace. (ELIS)
• Information policy, a field encompassing both public policy and information science, treats information as both a commodity - adheres to the economic theory of property rights - and a resource to be collected, protected, shared, manipulated, and managed. Although the literature often refers to information policy in the singular, there is no single all-encompassing policy. Rather, information policies tend to address specific issues and, at times, to be fragmented, overlapping, and contradictory. (ELIS)

Information security

• Preservation of the confidentiality, integrity and availability of information. (University of Miami)
• Refers to the policies, practices and procedures that are applied to information systems to ensure that data and information that is held within or communicated along those systems is not vulnerable to inappropriate or unauthorized use, access or modification and that the networks that are used to store, process or transmit information are kept operational and secure against unauthorized access. (http://www.securityfocus.com/glossary/I)
• The term "information security" means protecting information and information systems from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification, or destruction in order to provide integrity, confidentiality, and availability (U.S. Code Title 44, chapter 35, Subchapter III, § 3542)

Information Seeking

• Information-seeking behaviour: the complex patterns of actions and interactions that people engage in when seeking information of whatever kind and for whatever purpose (IE)
• A conscious effort to acquire information in response to a need or gap in your knowledge (Case)
• The process or activity of attempting to obtain information in both human and technological contexts. (Wikipedia)

Information Technology

• A very broad term encompassing all aspects of the management and processing of information by computer, including the hardware and software required to access it. The Library and Information Technology Association (LITA) publishes the quarterly journal Information Technology and Libraries (ITAL). (ODLIS)
• Information technology is an umbrella term that encompasses disciplines dealing with the computer and its functions. These disciplines originated from interests in using the computer to solve problems, the theory of computation, and the development of the computer and its components. (Scime, A. 2005. "Computing Curriculum Analysis and Development." EIST).
• All hardware, software, communications, telephones, facsimiles, all personnel and resources dedicated to the delivery of information and processes via computerised mediums. (Dery, K.F. & Samson, D.A. 2005. Alignment of Information Technology and Human Resources Strategies. EIST)
• Computer systems and applications that include the organization's hardware, software, networking, and telecommunications. (McManus, E. & Carr H.H. 2005. E-Mail as a Strategic Tool in Organizations. 2005. EIST)

Information Use

• Information or knowledge production and use is the process whereby information is formulated and then used to some advantage. (Zaltman and Duncan, Strategies for Planned Change)
• The individual making a choice or selection of messages from a larger pool of messages to attend to or to act on (Choo, 1998)
• The ways in which people use various information sources to meet information needs (Savolainen, Everyday Life Information Seeking)
• The ways in which information being sought or received from various sources helps to bridge the information gap and create a new sense (Dervin, Sense-Making)

Intellectual Freedom

• The right under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution of any person to read or express views that may be unpopular or offensive to some people, within certain limitations (libel, slander, etc.). Legal cases concerning free speech issues are heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. (ODLIS)
• Intellectual freedom is the right of every individual to both seek and receive information from all points of view without restriction. It provides for free access to all expressions of ideas through which any and all sides of a question, cause or movement may be explored. (ALA)
• The fundamental right to have access to all expressions of knowledge, creativity and intellectual activity, and to express their thoughts in public (IFLA/FAIFE)

Internet (or Internet & society)

• The high-speed fiber-optic network of networks that uses TCP/IP protocols to interconnect computer networks around the world, enabling users to communicate via e-mail, transfer data and program files via FTP, find information on the World Wide Web, and access remote computer systems such as online catalogs and electronic databases easily and effortlessly, using an innovative technique called packet switching. The Internet began in 1969 as ARPAnet, a project of the U.S. Department of Defense. It now has hundreds of millions of regular users worldwide. Click here to read A Brief History of the Internet, courtesy of the Internet Society. The Computer History Museum provides an illustrated chronology of events in the history of the Internet. Abbreviated Net. Synonymous with information superhighway. (ODLIS)
• World's largest network, a worldwide collection of networks that link together millions of businesses, governments, educational institutions, and other individuals using modems, telephone lines, and other communications devices and media. Also called the Net. (Inoue Y. & Bell, S. T. (2005). "Electronic/Digital Government Innovation, and Publishing Trends with IT." EIST)
• A worldwide system of networks that has transformed communications and methods of commerce by allowing various computer networks to interconnect. Sometimes referred to as a "network of networks," the Internet materialized in the United States in the 1970s but did not become overtly visible until the early 1990s. (Nightingale, J.P. (2005). Classroom Communication on a Different Blackboard." EIST).
• A large system of interconnected computer networks composed of backbone networks, mid-level networks, and local networks. This includes networks owned and managed by public, private, and nonprofit sector organizations. (Hinnant, C. C. & Sawyer, S. (2005). Electronic Government Strategies and Research in the U.S. EIST)

Knowledge management

• KM, simply put, is the recognition that arose in the business community in the 1990s that knowledge is an important organizational asset, a 'factor of production' as economists would phrase it, in the same category with land, labour, capital and energy and by no means least important among them. And further, that the effective deployment of that knowledge is a key factor, perhaps the key factor in the post- industrial economy, in an organization's effectiveness and success. (IE)
• The process of capturing, distributing, and effectively using knowledge (Davenport 1994)
• A discipline that promotes an integrated approach to identifying, capturing, evaluating, retrieving, and sharing all of an enterprise's information assets. These assets may include databases, documents, policies, procedures, and previously uncaptured expertise and experience in individual workers' is illuminating because it makes very implicit the aspect of KM of including not just conventional inforation and knowledge units, but also 'tacit knowledge', that which is known but not captured in any formal or explicit fashion. (Gartner Group)
• A management practice that uses an organization's intellectual capital to enable the enterprise to achieve its organizational mission. The accepted operational attributes associated with KM are innovation, collaboration, and knowledge development/knowledge sharing (ELIS)

Knowledge Representation

• Covers known facts, common sense, subject-specific details, and facts about cause and effect (Concise)
• The term used in artificial intelligence to cover the study of formalisms which model human forms of knowledge. (Computers and Thought: A Practical Introduction to Artificial Intelligence by Mike Sharples, David Hogg, Chris Hutchinson, Steve Torrance and David Young)
• The notation or formalism used for coding the knowledge to be stored in a knowledge-based system. (http://www.pcai.com/ )
• The process and the result of formalization of knowledge in such a way, that it can be used automatically for problem solving. (www.centc251.org/Ginfo/Glossary/tcglosk.htm)
• "Knowledge representation" refers to a transitory construction built up in memory for the processing of a specific situation ( Robillard, P. N. (1999). The role of knowledge in software development. Commun. ACM 42(1), 87-92)
• Knowledge representation refers to how best to represent the information that the experts and written sources provide. Production rules, frames, semantic networks, cases, and scripts are examples of knowledge representation approaches. (Liebowitz, J. & Wilcox, L. C. (1997). Knowledge Management and its integrative element. CRC Press.)
• Knowledge representation refers to the field of study that seeks to portray the state of knowledge of a person in ways that allow conclusions about what is being modeled to be drawn through the examination of the representations. It is concerned with how people take in information and create new knowledge, how this is represented and structured in the mind, and how this might be acquired, externalised, and developed to be made available to be used by others. This arena has a scholarly tradition spanning many decades, and draws on interdisciplinary studies from diverse areas such as cognitive psychology, cognitive science, information science, linguistics, semantics, and education (Todd, R. J. and Southon G. (2001). "Educating for a knowledge management future: Perceptions of library and information professionals." The Australian Library Journal 50(4)).

Knowledge sharing

• Knowledge sharing "takes place each time you communicate what you are doing, who you are, or what you know to one person or to many people", and "covers a variety of activities - a talk with a colleague at the coffee pot, an educational situation, a document in a database, an email, an information board with notices, etc." (Peterson & Poulfelt 2002)
• The deliberate act in which knowledge is made reusable for one party through its transfer by another (Lee and Al-Hawamdeh 2002)

Mediation

• Mediation refers to the process of filtering information to the viewer (Rountree, J., Hannah, R., & Wong. (2004). "A fide- mediation framework for virtual objects." International Journal of Learning Technology 1(2).
• Information counseling across the professional landscape of library and information service. Mediation derives its definition from the ever-increasing technological competence required in the use of data, information, and knowledge resources demanded by an ever- increasing task complexity. The information counselor, as a mediator, is a service professional with communicative skills centered on the identification of human cognitive-affective needs and the ability to organize both human and physical resources required to meet these needs. (Debons, A. Information Counseling. ELIS)
• The term mediator, rather than intermediary, is used for human intervention to assist information seeking and learning from information access and use. An intermediary intercedes between the information and the user but this interchange need not involve any human interaction. A mediator, however, implies a person who assists, guides, enables, and otherwise intervenes in another person's information search process. (Kuhlthau, C. C. (1996) Information Seeking: A Process Approach to Library and Information Services. Ablex Publishing Corporation: Norwood, NJ.)
• Information counseling: the interactive process by which an information professional (a) assesses the information needs of an individual or organization; (b) determines the optimal ways to fill such a need and assists the client in information use; and (c) assures systematic follow-up and feedback in order to evaluate the effectiveness of counseling. (Dosa, M. (1977). Information Counseling: The Best of Eric. Eric Clearinghouse on Information Resources.)

Metadata

• Literally, "data about data." Structured information describing information resources/objects for a variety of purposes. Although AACR2/MARC cataloging is formally metadata, the term is generally used in the library community for nontraditional schemes such as the Dublin Core Metadata Element Set, the VRA Core Categories, and the Encoded Archival Description (EAD). Metadata has been categorized as descriptive, structural, and administrative. Descriptive metadata facilitates indexing, discovery, identification, and selection. Structural metadata describes the internal structure of complex information resources. Administrative metadata aids in the management of resources and may include rights management metadata, preservation metadata, and technical metadata describing the physical characteristics of a resource. (ODLIS)
• Structured information used to find, access, use and manage information resources, primarily in a digital environment. A metadata scheme consists of a pre-defined set of elements that contain information about a resource. Two major factors influenced the development of metadata schemes: the needs for systematic discovery and retrieval of networked resources; and the ability to embed metadata in the digital object. (IE)
• Structured data about an object that supports functions associated with the designated object. (ELIS)

Networks

• A group of physically discrete computers interconnected to allow resources to be shared and data exchanged, usually by means of telecommunication links and client/server architecture. Most networks are administered by an operations center that provides assistance to users. The largest "network of networks" in the world is the Internet, allowing users of computers of all types and sizes to communicate in real time. (ODLIS)
• A new form of organization. Networks are loose sets of actors who work together in order to promote their interests within a common operational framework that is held together by some shared interests, reciprocity, and trust. In their most characteristic form, networks are flexible ways of organizing activities that require the competencies of several independent actors. (Anttiroiko, A. (2005). "Democratic E-Governance." EIST).
• An independently formed entity that has a defined set of shared values, roles, responsibilities, and governance, and is characterised by lateral connections, mutuality, and reciprocity between the network members. (Vrazalic, L., MacGregor, R., & Bunker, D. (2005). "Networks and electronic commerce adoption in small businesses." EIST)

Precision and Recall

• Precision: In information retrieval, a measure of search effectiveness, expressed as the ratio of relevant records or documents retrieved from a database to the total number retrieved in response to the query; for example, in a database containing 100 records relevent to the topic "book history," a search retrieving 50 records, 25 of which are relevant to the topic, would have 50 percent precision (25/50). Synonymous with relevance ratio. Compare with recall. See also: fallout.(ODLIS)
• Precision is the percentage of relevant document in a given query in the set of documents that are returned by an information retrieval system. Recall is the percentage of relevant documents in a given query in a collection that are returned by an information retrieval system. (Meng, X. & Chen Z. (2005). "Web Search via Learning from Relevance Feedback." EIST).
• The terms "precision" and "recall" refer to measures that are commonly used to evaluate the performance of a literature search, especially a search conducted in some type of information retrieval system. Recall relates to the ability of the system to retrieve relevant documents and precision relates to its ability not to retrieve irrelevant documents. (Lancaster, F. W. "Precision and Recall." ELIS)
• Precision and recall: measure of the efficiency of an indexing system, shown by the ratio of the number of relevant documents retrieved over the total number of documents that could have been retrieved. (Concise)

Record

• An account of something, put down in writing, usually as a means of documenting facts for legal or historical purposes. Also, to make such an account. In a narrower sense, a formal document in which the content is presented in a named set of standardized data elements treated as a single unit, for example, a certificate, deed, lease, etc. In archives, a document created or received, and subsequently maintained, by an institution, organization, or individual in the transaction of official or personal business or in fulfillment of a legal obligation. (ODLIS)
• In archives and records management it chiefly refers to a document arising from some transaction that preserves and account of the fact of the matter in permanent and discrete form. In a catalogue, it is the data relating to a document that forms the substance of a catalogue or other entry. In computing it means a collection of related items of data, which for the purposes of operating systems is treated as representing a unit of information (IE)
• A unit in a file or database. A bibliographic record is a record containing details with regard to identification, physical and other characteristics, and subject access information of a bibliographic item. (Chan)
• An electronic record is a form of information produced in the course of an event or a routine activity by an individual or an organization. Electronic records can include information originally created in an electronic format or information created in hard copy or analog format and subsequently digitized. (ELIS)

Relevance

• The extent to which information retrieved in a search of a library collection or other resource, such as an online catalog or bibliographic database, is judged by the user to be applicable to ("about") the subject of the query. Relevance depends on the searcher's subjective perception of the degree to which the document fulfills the information need, which may or may not have been expressed fully or with precision in the search statement. Measures of the effectiveness of information retrieval, such as precision and recall, depend on the relevance of search results. Compare with pertinence. See also: false drop and relevance ranking. (ODLIS)
• Relevance indicates a relationship existing between a document and a request statement in the eyes of a particular judge. (Lancaster, F. W. & Gale, V. (2003). "Pertinence and Relevance." ELIS)
• A measure of the closeness of a retrieved piece of information to an enquiry. The state or quality implying close logical relationship with, and importance to, the matter under consideration. (Concise)
• The criterion used to quantify the phenomenon involved when individuals (users) judge the relationship, utility, importance, degree of match, fit, proximity, appropriateness, closeness, pertinence, value or bearing of documents or document representations to an information requirement, need, question, statement, description of research, treatment, etc. (Rees 1966)

Retrieval / Retrieval evaluation

• Information retrieval: The process, methods, and procedures used to selectively recall recorded information from a file of data. In libraries and archives, searches are typically for a known item or for information on a specific subject, and the file is usually a human- readable catalog or index, or a computer-based information storage and retrieval system, such as an online catalog or bibliographic database. In designing such systems, balance must be attained between speed, accuracy, cost, convenience, and effectiveness. (ODLIS)
• Computer-aided retrieval: The use of a computer to facilitate access to information stored in physical media, especially microfilm. CAR systems generally include an index, with or without a brief searchable description of the stored material. Once desired information has been identified, the system may be designed to: 1) automatically load microfilm or offline storage media containing the relevant materials, 2) locate the material within the appropriate container, and 3) display it to the user. Click here to see an example of a document management system that uses automatic indexing and blip codes to locate documents on microfilm. Synonymous with computer- assisted retrieval. (ODLIS)
• Bibliographic retrieval: The process in which a user queries a library catalog or bibliographic database, usually by author, title, subject heading (descriptor), or keyword(s), and receives a list of records representing items that satisfy the parameters of the search. Most commercial databases allow the searcher to use techniques such as Boolean logic, truncation, and proximity to refine search statements. (ODLIS)
• Retrieval: accessing stored information from the database (Geisler, S. & Kao, O. 2005. "Parallel and Distributed Multimedia Databases." EIST)
• Information retrieval: process of searching a collection of items in order to identify those documents that deal with a particular subject (Concise)
• Selection or identification of documents; finding an item with known characteristics; and the fetching or delivering of material (Concise)

Searching

• A systematic effort on the part of a library user or librarian to locate desired information by manual or electronic means, whether successful or not, as opposed to browsing a library collection casually with no clear intention in mind. (ODLIS)
• The act of a user, an information worker on the user's behalf, or an automated system activated by the user or the intermediary, in making a systematic investigation to obtain data or information. Information professionals will be expected to devise a coherent search strategy for this purpose. In database software, the process of seeking out an entry, keyword or phrase is called the search and may, for instance, use several keywords strung together and qualified by Boolean logic operators such as 'and', 'or' and 'not'. (IE)
• The process of users entering terms into a system that results in a selection of content objects. The system can search the full text of content objects or attributes of those content objects. Search can be limited to one part of a site. Users who search may have more definite ideas of their information needs than those who browse. (IAG)
• Examining a set of items for those that have a desired property (Elsevier)

Taxonomy

• The science of classification, including the general principles by which objects and phenomena are divided into classes, which are subdivided into subclasses, then into sub-subclasses, and so on. Taxonomies have traditionally been used in the life sciences to classify living organisms (see Tree of Life), but the term has been applied more recently within the information sector to the classification of resources available via the World Wide Web. (ODLIS)
• Hierarchical browsing: the process of users following the primary path through a site to access content objects. The primary path is generally called the site hierarchy, but can also be known as a classification, a directory, an ontology or a taxonomy. The site hierarchy reflects the site's information ecology and an appropriate grouping method. (IAG)
• The science of classification; also, the study of names and naming of items in generic assemblies (Elsevier)

Ubiquity

• The state of being everywhere at once (or seeming to be everywhere at once) (http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn)
• The capacity of being everywhere or in all places at the same time (Oxford English Dictionary)
• Ubiquity refers to the ability to access information from any location at any time (Looney, C. A., Jessup, L.M., & Valacich, J.S. (2004). "Emerging business models for mobile brokerage services." Communications of the ACM.
• Ubiquity refers to a situation in which we are surrounded by a multitude of interconnected embedded systems, which are invisible and moved into the background of our environment. (Kuniavsky 2004)
• Ubiquitous computing: the trend of the technological development to integrate into any kind of object information processing and communication capabilities (Falcone, r. & Castelfranchi C. (2005). "Socio-cognitive model of trust." EIST)
• Ubiquitous computing: an environment where computers are embedded in our natural movements and interactions with our environments. Combines mobile and pervasive computing. (Krogstie, J. (2005). Usable M-Commerce Systems. EIST).

Users

• An individual that is accessing the Web through a browser. (Yao, J.F. & Xiao, Y. 2005. Traversal Pattern Mining in Web Usage Data. EIST)
• A person who makes use of a thing; someone who uses or employs something (wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn)
• The individual who is using a computer/visiting a web site (www.folly.co.uk/)
• A person who requires a computer for the performance of a task or recreational activity. Also called an end-user. (javaworkshop.sourceforge.net/glossary.html)
• A person who requires the services of a computing system. (www3.sympatico.ca/bkeevil/tapuser/gloss.html)