Library Science is the study of librarianship. The future of Library Science is simply digital libraries where information can be stored and retrieved electronically; where there will be no access to brick-and-mortar libraries.

Hi Joel,

Thanks for your post.

I personally feel that initiation of OPAC & BAR Code Technology is one of the big problems solved. One can understand about availability of a particular resource and its specific location amidst host of documents. As I believe, these two are actually a single aspect an user needs to know in a library.

Today, theoretical aspects of Librarianship is virtually on the backseat. Admittedly, some brainstorming works conducted/being conducted mainly in the East European Countries are of high caliber but in today's world applicability of theories to solve real life situations, gets more priority & appreciation. Never-the-less, Librarianship today has become predominantly technology driven ( and in that sense, the old "Academic Flavour" of the profession is missing to some extent!) as such, easy & full-proof cyber storage & accessibility in desired format especially for materials/scripts with diacritical marks seems to be exiting research issue. I must admit here that my knowledge about contemporary research is rather poor and what I "foresee" might be an already solved issue in recent past.

The future of library science will most likely be combination of digital libraries and gathering and saving information. We must not forget the importance of information literary. Since everything cannot be found via google.

The future of library science should be Open Science to ensure that knowledge can circulate faster and rich to everyone generating new science and new discoveries. Hybrid Libraries environments will be the future to cover all necessities in any part of the planet. Librarian must permanently develop their competencies on information literacy and informatics to be able to correspon to all kind of user needs.

This is off the cuff. Library Science per se is sometimes more of an art than a science. Cataloging is a great example of that. It's not exact, I've seen where books have completely different call numbers for universities in the same library system.

Library science research has worked on various types of issues. Studies have been done to learn about user behavior, retrieval methods, information literacy, etc. Without this research we wouldn't be able to understand the trends of information use.

That said, I think one of the things that be a challenge is preservation of historical materials. Electronic files are great for space savings and search-ability, but by their nature they break down unless we use formats that are lossless (PDF/A as opposed to just PDF).

One of the best ways to see where the research has been is to look in the top library research journals for the topics that have been discussed.

Have a look here:

http://www.scimagojr.com/journalrank.php?category=3309

You can also look at Universities with Library Science program (especially the ones with programs that offer PHD program). Some they showcase professor's work or work from students in the program.

Hope this helps :)

I have the feeling that it will disappear at the hands of the big search engines and I think that the specialists of each subject will be the ones who prepare the things with the computer scientists

I find Robert Cole"s answer to be the most suitable one. The most important contribution of Library Science is the management of information. It could be in any form,and in any route whatsoever. But Library Science research has contributed immensely in preservation of information, and also bridging a social gap through proper utilisation of resources of a library.

Check out ranganathan’s laws for the answer. Connecting the right digital information seeker with the right digital information will be the biggest job. Computers will help and yet at some juncture even with machine learning doing most of the work, the information seeker will still need to ask a human or it will be faster or better to ask another human.

Thinking about the past and present of LIS has been hugely on my mind recently in order to help think about the future of LIS. I saw several answers mentioned the importance of preservation. I saw another that talked about the role LIS can play in Open Science. I saw someone mention information literacy, and others mention that libraries will be all digital in the future. I think maybe the only viable future role of the librarian is as an information litercacy teacher, which may be more valuable than ever moving forward. As for important historical contributions, I would have to agree that Ragananth’s 5 laws are a seminal work and I think bibliometrics have made a significant impact on science. Currently, I’d like to see more research studying the applications and implications of machine learning in LIS. Interestingly, MIT Libraries have identified 3 key areas of important future LIS research: open science, scholarly discovery, and digital preservation.

https://grandchallenges.mit.edu/‬

Library Science is a course that will never die but it evolves just like every other subjects. Librarianship is a career that has lived as long as the world. Librarians are ever needed. The issue that is of concern is how prepared the librarians are to incorporate the new age technology into their profession. Library Science may not be the right title for this profession again; but the duties may be the same with a technological embellishment. Librarians should have a kind of training that will position them to work in industries, organizations and companies and not only in LIBRARIES. The name may need to change to something modern.

Hi

In Library and Information Science there are a lot of challenging topics to be investigated. As Information and Library Scientists we must find solutions to cope with all the new technical gadgets and services and with the increasing information overload. Only a few studies describe the interaction between searching and the functionality of the brain (Ferebee and Davis, 2011, see reference). There is a great need to learn more about the brain while information seeking. This could result in a collaboration between Information Scientists and Neuroscientists… to best meet the requirements of the researchers and to support them (so we can create a Think Tank where best and outstanding research will be prospering: Neuro-Information Science, as I have mentioned in my poster presentation at ISIC2016). There is another source where you will find further information: NeuroIS: http://www.neurois.org.

Reference:

Ferebee, Susan / Davis, James Wayne: Persuading library use in technologically structured individuals. In: Library Hi Tech, Vol. 29(2011), no 4. p. 586–604. DOI 10.1108/07378831111189714.

Best

Anne-Katharina

To organize or not to organize ... that is the question

Hi,

The main function of LIS is the organization of knowledge. It is especially important in the age of information overload.Libraries organize information that is converted into knowledge, and it is accessible to library users. As you probably know, a single person cannot subscribe to so many journals and databases, and the library is making information sources accessible to many.