Inaugural issue perspectives on Information and Learning Sciences as an integral scholarly nexus
| Published date | 14 January 2019 |
| Date | 14 January 2019 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/ILS-01-2019-138 |
| Pages | 2-18 |
| Author | Rebecca Reynolds,Sam Chu,June Ahn,Simon Buckingham Shum,Preben Hansen,Caroline Haythornthwaite,Hong Huang,Eric M. Meyers,Soo Young Rieh |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Librarianship/library management,Library & information services |
EDITORIAL
Inaugural issue perspectives on
Information and Learning Sciences
as an integral scholarly nexus
Rebecca Reynolds
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA
Sam Chu
Faculty of Education, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
June Ahn
School of Education, University of California Irvine, Irvine, California, USA
Simon Buckingham Shum
Connected Intelligence Centre, University of Technology Sydney, Australia
Preben Hansen
Department of Computer and Systems Sciences, Stockholms Universitet,
Stockholm, Sweden
Caroline Haythornthwaite
School of Information Studies, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York, USA
Hong Huang
School of Information, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, USA
Eric M. Meyers
School of Library, Archival and Information Studies, University of British
Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, and
Soo Young Rieh
School of Information, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
Abstract
Purpose –Many of today’s information and technology systems and environments facilitate inquiry,
learning, consciousness-raising and knowledge-building. Such platforms include e-learning systems which
have learning, education and/or training as explicit goals or objectives. They also include search engines,
social media platforms, video-sharing platforms, and knowledge sharing environments deployed for work,
leisure, inquiry, and personal and professional productivity. The new journal, Information and Learning
Sciences, aimsto advance our understanding of human inquiry, learningand knowledge-building across such
information,e-learning, and socio-technical system contexts.
Design/methodology/approach –This article introducesthe journal at its launch under new editorship
in January, 2019. The article,authored by the journal co-editors and all associate editors, explores the lineage
of scholarly undertakingsthat have contributed to the journal's new scope and mission,which includes past
ILS
120,1/2
2
Informationand Learning Sciences
Vol.120 No. 1/2, 2019
pp. 2-18
© Emerald Publishing Limited
2398-5348
DOI 10.1108/ILS-01-2019-138
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/2398-5348.htm
and ongoing scholarshipin the following arenas: Digital Youth, Constructionism,Mutually Constitutive Ties
in Informationand Learning Sciences, and Searching-as-Learning.
Findings –The articleoffers examples of ways in whichthe two fields stand to enricheach other towardsa
greater holistic advancement of scholarship. The article also summarizes the inaugural special issue contents
from the following contributors: Caroline Haythornthwaite; Krista Glazewski and Cindy Hmelo-Silver;
Stephanie Teasley; Gary Marchionini; Caroline R. Pitt; Adam Bell, Rose Strickman and Katie Davis; Denise
Agosto;Nicole Cooke;and Victor Lee.
Originality/value –The article, this special issue, and the journal in full,are among the first formal and
ongoing publication outletsto deliberately draw together and facilitate cross-disciplinary scholarship at this
integral nexus. We enthusiastically and warmly invite continued engagement along these lines in the
journal’s pages, and also welcome related,and wholly contrary points of view, and points of departure that
may build uponor debate some of the themes we raise in the introduction and special issuecontents.
Keywords Information literacy, e-learning, Learning analytics, Digital literacy, Library leadership,
Constructionism, Maker spaces, Digital youth, Information and Learning Sciences, Inaugural issue,
Searching as learning, Culturally responsive computing
Paper type Editorial
Introduction
Many of today’s information and technology systems and environments facilitate inquiry,
learning, consciousness-raising and knowledge building. Such platforms include e-learning
systems which have learning, education and/or training as explicit goals or objectives. They also
include search engines, social media platforms, video-sharing platforms and knowledge sharing
environments deployed for work, leisure, inquiry and personal and professional productivity.
Learning may be an outright target goal of designers and/or users in such environments, or it
may be an implicit by-product of naturalistic technology design and engagement in such
contexts, occurring socio-cognitively behind the scenes in both developers’goals and objectives,
andinparticipants’experiences. These socio-technical system convergences in information and
communications technologies (ICTs) and information systems, as they relate to learning
phenomena, are also occurring in parallel within the scholarly literature.
Information science (IS) and the learning sciences (LS) are two disciplines in which these
convergences are being increasingly recognized. Information science is a field of scholarly
inquiry whose boundaries and dynamics are constantly evolving, and the field has been
described as the science and practice of effective collection, storage, retrieval, and use of
information,concerned with recordableinformation and knowledgeand the technologies and
related servicesthat facilitate theirmanagement and use (Saracevic,2009). Scholarship in this
inter-disciplinary field integrates perspectives from the social and behavioral sciences,
computer science, socio-technical systems research, archival and library science, cognitive
science,digital humanities, linguistics,museology, management,public policy and more.
Learning Sciences is anotherinter-disciplinary scholarly domain that has been definedas
the study of teaching and learningin both formal and informal settings, and which draws on
knowledge from fields including cognitive science, sociocultural theory and social
constructivism, educationalpsychology, computer science, informationsciences, and design
studies among others (Sawyer, 2014). Approaches privilege design in methodology and
pedagogy, emphasizinginterdisciplinarity and methodologicalinnovation in research that is
grounded in real-world contexts(Journal of the Learning Sciences mission, 2018). This work
answers questions aboutlearning processes and mechanisms, alongside outcomes. Research
in this domain pursues technological and pedagogical innovation, maintaining a strong
connection between research and practice(2018). A broad range of contexts are represented
in this research; any contextin which learning is occurring, is open terrain. The fundamental
Editorial
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