This paper offers an analysis of scientific creativity based on theoretical models and experimental results of the cognitive sciences. Its core idea is that scientific creativity--like other forms of creativity--is structured and constrained by prior ontological expectations. Analogies provide scientists with a powerful epistemic tool to overcome…

The current evaluation literature tends to conceptualize evaluator roles as a single, overarching orientation toward an evaluation, an orientation largely driven by evaluation methods, models, or stakeholder orientations. Roles identified range from a social transformer or a neutral social scientist to that of an educator or even a power merchant.…

Discusses infoethics, i.e., the ethics of information systems that address the use of information in relation to human values. Topics addressed include models of moral agency; librarians and information professionals as moral agents; the professional ethical self; levels of ethical orientation in the workplace; and ethical selves in the global…

Discusses the literature that has become associated with Lotka's Law of Scientific Productivity (a general theoretical estimate of author productivity in the sciences) and attempts to identify the important factors of Lotka's original methodology that should be considered when attempting to test applicability of Lotka's Law. Forty-seven references…

Two dimensions of Carl Jung's psychological system (preference for information and choice of decision making processes) are applied to creativity research. Examples of four personality types (sensing- thinking, sensing-feeling, intuition-feeling, and intuition-thinking) are represented by prominent social scientists. A systems model of science is…

Discusses ethical concerns of information science professionals from two viewpoints: concerns of practitioners and the information industry, including a prototype for ethical contexts and principles for ethical actions; and concerns of theoreticians and researchers, including system principles and ideological, political, and social frameworks.…

Presented are selected analytical papers from a Workshop of Specialists in Forecasts of Demand for Scientists and Engineers, convened in 1979 in Washington, D.C. This workshop was part of a study by the Commission on Human Resources of the National Research Council charged with evaluating existing projections of the demand for young faculty in the…

Using a model of scientific and technical information transfer as a framework, this document focuses on four types of activities: the generation or authorship of telecommunications information and its publication, distribution, and use. Different forms of publication are considered in each functional area, though primary emphasis is on the…

Presents a management model of ethical decision making in librarianship. Highlights include a definition of ethics; ethical concerns in information professions; the concept of social responsibility; ethical dimensions of decision making, including access to information and hiring decisions; ethical considerations for managers; and strategies for…

Discusses operational, organizational, and technological developments that are transforming the workplace; describes the concept of knowledge worker and the information utility model; considers how these factors provide opportunities for library administrators and other information resource management professionals to improve user services; and…

The Milan model of systemic family therapy, developed in Italy and based on G. Bateson's cybernetic epistemology, can help meet the goals of a feminist/systemic epistemology in research by accepting data in its "traditional" form yet also connecting it to the act of researching, itself, thereby merging a feminist perspective with the…

Offers a concise, abstract description of the scientific method different from the historical, philosophical, and case-study approaches, which lead to comprehension of this method. Discusses features of scientific models, dynamic interactions underlying scientific progress, ways that scientist successfully understand nature, mechanisms for…

Discusses the changing nature of library and information professions in response to the impact of emerging technology and examines necessary changes in library and information studies school curriculums to adapt to and reflect the needs of future practitioners. Highlights include a review of educational models, philosophies, and change strategies.…

Outlines a behavioral approach to information retrieval system design based on the derivation of a behavioral model of the information-seeking patterns of academic social scientists. The extent to which identified information-seeking characteristics are supported by existing systems is considered, and requirements for implementing these features…

Considers the role of library and information science professionals as knowledge engineers. Highlights include knowledge acquisition, including personal experience, interviews, protocol analysis, observation, multidimensional sorting, printed sources, and machine learning; knowledge representation, including production rules and semantic nets;…