Situating logic and information in information science

Information Science (IS) is commonly said to study collection, classification, storage, retrieval, and use of information. However, there is no consensus on what information is. This article examines some of the formal models of information and informational processes, namely, Situation Theory and Shannon's Information Theory, in terms of their suitability for providing a useful framework for studying information in IS. It is argued that formal models of information are concerned with mainly ontological aspects of information, whereas IS, because of its evaluative role with respect to semantic content, needs an epistemological conception of information. It is argued from this perspective that concepts of epistemological/aesthetic/ethical information are plausible, and that information science needs to rise to the challenge of studying many different conceptions of information embedded in different contexts. This goal requires exploration of a wide variety of tools from philosophy and logic. © 2009 ASIS&T