Patrick Wilson (December 29, 1927–September 12, 2003) was a noted librarian, information scientist and philosopher who served as a professor at the University of California, Berkeley and as dean of the School of Library and Information Studies there. Earlier in his career, Wilson taught philosophy at the University of California, Los Angeles.
He is the author of three books:
- Wilson, Patrick (1968). Two Kinds of Power: An Essay on Bibliographical Control. University of California Press. p. 155. ISBN 0-520-03515-1.
- Wilson, Patrick (1977). Public Knowledge, Private Ignorance: Toward a Library and Information Policy. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 156. ISBN 0-8371-9485-7.
- Wilson, Patrick (1983). Second-Hand Knowledge: An Inquiry into Cognitive Authority. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 210. ISBN 0-313-23763-8.
Wilson is noted within the library and information science communities for his work on the philosophical underpinnings of bibliographic control, that is, the ways in which knowledge is organized and the relationships between different documents and pieces of knowledge. He also did work on what he called "cognitive authority," which is the study of how people gain reputation and the authority of possessing knowledge in the eyes of other people.
He is the subject of an oral history.
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