Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
and printing, have tended to be universalized and treated as if they were
independent of their dominant technological realizations (Wilson 2001).
The information and computer science tradition probably inherited the
assumed need for brief index descriptions directly from existing informa-
tion products and not from theories that informed the construction of
those products (Cleverdon 1962; Cleverdon, Mills, and Keen 1966). A
further limitation of library studies involves its focus on training in the
use of information retrieval systems, which often concentrates on the level
of system commands rather than understanding their value in communi-
cation (Roberts 1989). Disturbing evidence suggests that formal infor-
mation retrieval systems are marginal in communication (particularly
scholarly communication), especially in the sense of information, topic,
or subject retrieval rather than document identification (known author or
title) and supply (Bath University Library 1971; Smithson 1994).
Two valuable elements are carried forward from librarianship and
indexing. The first is a partly implicit stress on selection power, conceived
as bibliographic control in librarianship (Wilson 1968) and implied by
valuing the discriminatory power of index terms in indexing but made
fully explicit here. The second is an acknowledgment of the role of direct
human intellectual labor in creating selection power, transforming into a
fuller understanding distinguished from specific technological constraints
and their partly covert influence on theory and practice.
Information Society Discussions
Information society discussions have given some rather limited attention
to information retrieval. For instance, Lyotard comments:
It is reasonable to suppose that the proliferation of information-processing
machines is having, and will continue to have, as much an effect on the circulation
of learning as did advancements in human circulation (transportation systems)
and later, in the circulation of sounds and visual images (the media). (1984, 4)
Other comments remain similarly unfocused, recognizing the significance
of information retrieval but not providing full research or intellectual con-
text for its consideration. In particular, some information society discus-
sions have treated technology unsatisfactorily (Webster 2002), possibly
due to wariness about being stigmatized as technologically determinist
(Wilson 1996a), and there has been a limited understanding of funda-
