Information History–An Introduction. Exploring an Emergent Field

154 Pages·2008·0.668 MB·English

by  Toni Weller (Auth.)

Information History – An
Introduction
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Information History – An
Introduction:
Exploring an Emergent Field
T W
ONI ELLER
CP
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First published in Great Britain in 2008
ISBN:
978 1 84334 394 3 (paperback)
978 1 84334 395 0 (hardback)
1 84334 394 0 (paperback)
1 84334 395 9 (hardback)
© T. Weller, 2008
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The material contained in this publication constitutes general guidelines only and
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Typeset by Replika Press Pvt Ltd in India.
Printed in the UK and USA.
For my parents.
And for my husband, Edward.
About the author
Toni Weller was educated at Newnham College, Cambridge
University, and City University, London, in the fields of
history and information science. She is an Honorary Visiting
Fellow at City University, London, where she has been an
associate lecturer since 2004. Previously she worked for
four years as a researcher for the corporate law firm
Linklaters. She has taught at undergraduate and
postgraduate level at Loughborough and City universities,
and has explored the idea of information history within
the existing information science curriculum at City
University. She has a particular interest in the theory and
practice of information history and in the social and cultural
roles of information in nineteenth-century England and has
lectured and published internationally on both the theory
and practice of the field. She is Chair of the Library and
Information History Group, established in 1962 as a special
interest group of the Chartered Institute of Library and
Information Professionals.
ix
Acknowledgements
Some of the material and ideas in this book were originally
included in my unpublished PhD thesis undertaken at the
School of Informatics, City University, London. This
doctoral research was funded by a grant from the Arts and
Humanities Research Council. I am grateful to both
institutions for permission to reproduce the relevant parts
of my thesis in this book.
Thanks also to the students at the Department of
Information Science, City University, London, for allowing
me to develop some of these thoughts with them, and for
making some invaluable comments about the role of
information history in the curriculum and for library and
information science. There have been numerous individuals
whose discussion on the topic of information history has
helped develop the ideas expressed in this book, and
therefore for the same reason thanks to Andrei Franklin,
Madeleine Gabriel, Eddy Higgs, Eric Howard, Helen Yallop
and to colleagues at City University, London, Lund
University, Sweden, the Royal School of Library and
Information Science, Copenhagen, Denmark, University
College, London, Reading University, Essex University,
Leeds Metropolitan University and Loughborough
University.
xi
Preface
This book is the first of its kind explicitly to explore the
emergent field of information history. Information is
ubiquitous in our contemporary society. It permeates almost
every political and economic debate and has become a
fashionable topic for social and technological discussion.
Data protection, the digital divide, global infrastructures,
social networking, instantaneous communication systems,
skills and education, personal privacy, the nanny state, the
knowledge economy, censorship, preservation of digital
records, centralised collection of information, fraud,
information management – these issues concern all of us
in some way and form part of the discourse of the world
as we understand it.
But none of these debates are entirely new and many
have long histories. Information has existed or been
understood in some form for as long as humanity and
therefore has one of the most pervasive and durable histories
of any subject. Yet despite this, it is only in the last decade
of the twentieth century that this history began to be
theorised and conceptualised in its own right. As society’s
interest in, and its valuation of, information increased, so
did the desire to know more about humanity’s past
understandings and uses of information. The gradual
emergence of scholarly and public interest slowly formalised
into what has been termed information history.
It would seem obvious that such a strong contemporary
interest in all things informational would lead to an interest
xiii
Information history
in its history and its origins, yet few have explicitly
recognised this trend. This book attempts to explain how
our contemporary interest in information, in all its
manifestations, has influenced the way in which we study
our history, and the values we give most attention in the
information age.
This book discusses both the theoretical and practical
aspects of the field, taking the approach that for information
history to be further developed it needs to be explored and
understood not just on a conceptual level but also with a
practical relevance to the information scholar, student and
professional. The field of information history is a young
and dynamic one and it offers some new and exciting
methodological approaches to studying past societies and
cultures. It also allows new ways of exploring and
understanding the origins of our current fascination with
all things informational.
Since the field of information history is so young, this
book aims to be an introduction for anyone with an interest
in the history of information in its broadest sense. This
includes those working in related areas of book and print
history, library history, communication and media history,
and also anyone interested in exploring our understandings
of the information world in which we live. It is written for
the advanced student and interested amateur just as much
as for the information professional and information scholar.
By attempting to include ‘something for everyone’ the
danger is always that ultimately the end result is too general
for anyone. I hope this is not the case here. As the first
book to focus explicitly on information history as a field
of interest it necessarily covers a lot of ground and does
not focus in detail on any particular information age. I hope
that those reading this book find an interesting and
encouraging exploration of a field that is still in its
xiv
Preface
emergent stages but which holds enormous potential for
the future.
The first chapter explores the idea and concept of
information history, tracing its development and theoretical
origins through to the information age. It also considers
the ongoing debates on the terminology and scope of what
constitutes information history, offering some thoughts on
the historiography of information.
Chapter 2 reflects on the relevance of information history
for the information scholar, the information professional,
the information student, and the public of the information
age. It looks specifically at the skills gained through the
study of information history and its significance as a holistic
tool to contextualise and analyse our own society and
social values. It also considers the importance of seeking
a historical understanding to professional practice and the
development of the information disciplines more generally.
This chapter also includes some practical observations and
reflections on the relevance of information history from
information science students at City University, London.
In Chapter 3 we move on to examine the five key schools
of thought in contemporary information history scholarship:
library and book history; the history of information systems
and infrastructures; the history of information disciplines;
cultural and social explorations of information; and the
origins of the information society. Key works and research
for each school of thought are discussed, as well as their
development and historiography.
The practice of information history is covered in Chapter
4, looking in more detail at the theoretical and practical
methodological issues of research and teaching. There are
some examples of how information history might be
incorporated into existing library and information science
and history syllabi with reference to some of the challenges
xv