Users lost: reflections on the past, future, and limits of information science

Authors:
Tefko Saracevic
Affiliations:
School of Communication, Information and Library Studies, Rutgers University, 4 Huntington Street, New Brunswick, NJ
Venue:
ACM SIGIR Forum
Year:
1997

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Abstract

The paper is the acceptance address for the 1997 ACM SIGIR Gerard Salton Award for Excellence in Research. In the preamble, the approach of dealing with the broader context of information science when considering information retrieval (IR) is justified. The first part contains personal reflections of the author related to the major events and issues that formed his professional life and research agenda. The second, and major part, considers the broad aspects of information science as a field: origin, problems addressed, areas of study, structure, specialties, paradigm splits, and education problems. The third part discusses the limits of information science in terms of internal limits imposed by the activities in the field and external limits imposed by the very human nature of information processing and use. Throughout, issues related to users and use are transposed, as being of primary concern.