Library and Information Science

Library and information science (LIS) (sometimes given as the plural library and information sciences) is a merging of the two fields library science and information science. The phrase "library and information science" is associated with schools of library and information science (abbreviated to "SLIS"), which generally developed from professional training programs (not academic disciplines) to university institutions during the second half of the twentieth century. In the last part of 1960s schools of librarianship began to add the term "information science" to their names. The first school to do this was at the University of Pittsburgh in 1964. More schools followed during the 1970s and 1980s, and by the 1990s almost all library schools in the USA had added information science to their names. The trend was more for the adoption of information technology rather than the concept of a science.

A similar development has taken place in large parts of the world. In Denmark, for example, the 'Royal School of Librarianship' in 1997 changed its English name to The Royal School of Library and Information Science. Another indication of this name shift is that Library Science Abstracts in 1969 changed its name to Library and Information Science Abstracts. In spite of this merge are the two original disciplines (library science and information science) still by some considered to be separate fields while the main tendency today is to use the terms as synonyms, but with different connotations.

In some parts of the world the development has been somewhat different. In France, for example, information science and communication studies form one interdiscipline. In Tromsö, Norway documentation science is preferred as the name of the field.

In the beginning of the 21st century one tendency has been to drop the term "library" and to speak about information departments or I-schools. There has also been an attempt to revive the concept of documentation and speak of Library, information and documentation studies (or science). Another tendency, for example in Sweden, is to merge the fields of Archival science, Library science and Museology to develop an integrated field: Archival, Library and Museum studies.