Introduction to LIS508

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Introduction to LIS508

• Thomas Krichel
• 2002-09-05

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Structure of talk

• First talk about me
• Then talk about you.
• Then talk about the course

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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

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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).

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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

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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

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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)

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What is IT

• Computer
• Some devices attached to computers, such as
  printers, screens etc
• Networks
• In colloquial language, also related to
  information that is being transformed by these
  tools. This is the I without T, IwoT.

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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

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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.

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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

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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.

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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 dont will perish
• Networked information and archiving will become
  more important

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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

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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

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What do you want to learn

• Computers
• Networks
• IwoT

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http//openlib.org/home/krichel

• Thank you for your attention!