The Librarian's Equilibrium: Cycles and Epicycles, Centers and Epicenters of Information Revolution

Citation

(2014) The Librarian's Equilibrium: Cycles and Epicycles, Centers and Epicenters of Information Revolution. BOBCATSSS 2014 Proceedings, Barcelona, Catalunya, 29.01.2014.

Abstract
The term “Information Revolution” is widely used in a broad range of scientific and parascientific studies and no unified definition has ever been established. At the same moment Library and Information Science questions its very existential position in relation to the fields of Humanities. Does it generally import elements from these fields or does it agreeably export elements towards them? Which is the center and which the periphery? Are partial schemes operative for this question? This paper (1) aims at a general definition of “Information Revolution” under the theoretical light of Thomas Kuhn, Luciano Floridi, Vilém Flusser, Bruno Latour and Manuel Castells, and, through that, (2) proposes a dialectic relation between the field of LIS and the fields of Humanities expressed by defining Information Revolution as an continuous social and scientific oscillation between shifting humans, tools, networks and societies. A Pascalian/Borgesian spherical model is proposed towards further elaboration of this paper’s findings.

People

Dr Vassilis Galanos

Lecturer in Digital Work, Management, Work and Organisation