Introduction to LIS508

Thomas Krichel

2003-09-23

Structure of talk

• Admin matters

• First talk about me

• Then talk about you.

• Then talk about the course

Admin matters

• I am not on strike. • Difficult personal circumstances.• The fact that we start late comes from

prior engagements.• Two ways to recover time

– Add 30 minutes to each lecture– Make a special week end double class

• Saturday until 11-03• Sunday after that date

Organization

• Normal lecture

• Quiz at the beginning of every lecture

• Topics to be fixed by next week

• Essay 50% on an approved topic

• Since the course is NOT a hands-on introduction, I will add a hands-on tail after each lecture

• No text purchase required

Course homepage

• http://wotan.liu.edu/home/krichel/lis508w03a

• Not final, comments welcome.

• I do not hold a copy of the textbook right now but will add information regarding the book to the course page.

About me • Born 1965, in Völklingen (Germany)• Studied economics and social sciences at

the Universities of Toulouse, Paris, Exeter and Leiceister.

• PhD in theoretical macroeconomics• Lecturer in Economics at the University of

Surrey 1993 and 2001• Since 2001 assistant professor at the

Palmer School

Why?

• During research assistantship period, (1990 to 1993) I was constantly frustrated with difficult access to scientific literature.

• At the same time, I discovered easy access to freely downloadable software over the Internet.

• I decided to work towards downloadable scientific documents. This lead to my library career (eventually).

Steps taken I

• 1993 founded the NetEc project at http://netec.mcc.ac.uk, later available at http://netec.ier.hit-u.ac.jp as well as at http://netec.wustl.edu.

• These are networking projects targeted to the economics community. The bulk is– Information about working papers– Downloadable working papers– Journal articles were added later

Steps taken II

• Set up RePEc, a digital library for economics research. Catalogs– Research documents– Collections of research documents– Researchers themselves– Organizations that are important to the

research process

• Decentralized collection, model for the open archives initiative

Steps taken III

• Co-founder of Open Archives Initiative

• Work on the Academic Metadata Format

• Co-founded rclis, a RePEc clone for (Research in Computing, Library and Information Science)

What is IT

• Computer hardware

• Some devices attached to computers, such as printers, screens etc

• Computer networks

• Computer and network software

Why study IT

• Mastery of a tool

• Understanding information in a precise way

• Interact with service providers in a competent way

• Play an active role in transformation of library and information services

• Saving the planet

Study IT to master a tool

• A computer is not like a car• A network more than a wire• Arguably one of the most complex thing

create by (wo)man, subject to its own scientific discipline

• Since much time is spent on computers optimizing interaction is productive.

• But there is a danger to study proprietary technology.

Study IT to understand Information

• To make information computer processable, it needs to be digitized and

• there have to be precise instructions for the computer to deal with the information in every situation that can possibly arise

• Learning how to do that is a considerable help to understanding information itself

Study IT to interact with others

• In many libraries, there is insufficient computer support. “The answer is no, what is the question?”

• Without knowledge, you are completely at the mercy of your surroundings for help.

Study IT to transform services

• Walk-in physical libraries will decline over time, and this decline will take place over your professional work time

• Those who have good IT skills with thrive, and those who don’t will perish

• Networked information and archiving will become more important

Study IT to save the planet

• There is a divide between have and have-nots in information.

• More free information will make the world a better place– Move away from commercial information– Organize freely available information– Promote access to information

What do you want to learn

• Information

• Computers

• Networks

http://openlib.org/home/krichel

Thank you for your attention!