Information as Thing by Michael Buckland—What Makes This Paper Great?
Information as Thing by Michael Buckland—What Makes This Paper Great?
Jenna Hartel
Information as Thing (Buckland, 1991) is a famous and highly-cited paper in Information Science. At the 80th anniversary of the American Society for Information Science, it was voted the best paper to appear in the field’s journal, JASIS&T. This article is almost universally assigned to students across educational programs in our field. The author, Michael Buckland, is a renown historian of Information Science, past President of ASIS&T, and former Dean of UC Berkeley’s School of Information.
—Over 14 minutes, this 10th episode of the What Makes This Paper Great? video series unpacks, critiques, and celebrates Information as Thing—
Over 14 minutes, this 10th episode of the What Makes This Paper Great? video series unpacks, critiques, and celebrates Information as Thing. The video begins by noting its citation record; profiles the author; and explains the paper’s method of conceptual analysis. Information As Thing is then situated alongside other definitions that similarly cast information as having multiple types. Next, the mainstay of the video offers accessible synopsis of key arguments in the article proceeding page-by-page, including Buckland’s trifold conception of information; historical roots in the European documentation movement; and implications for Information Science. Dear readers: I am intentionally sketching the video in broad strokes so that you are inspired to watch it—yourselves! A detailed and hyperlinked Table of Contents for the video appears further below, outlining the main themes.
As a paper, Information as Thing has received acclaim. However, in my opinion, Buckland’s argument has a few problems, too. The video does not shy away from respectfully stating three shortcomings. An upbeat conclusion applauds Buckland’s thoroughly successful career and returns to the overwhelmingly positive contributions of Information as Thing.
WARNING: ARTIFICIALLY GENERATED CONTENT!
This video is one of my first to employ multiple kinds of artificially generated content. The documentalists Suzanne Briet (1894 – 1989) and Paul Otlet (1868 – 1944) appear to be alive, thanks to the “animate photos” tool at MyHeritage (as shown, below). A synthetic male voice with an English accent, fabricated by Speechify, repeats the verbatim words of the paper, giving the impression that Buckland himself is speaking. These tools are becoming ubiquitous in video-creation and popular culture. I feel they have potential to bring the ideas of Information Science to life in novel ways. My intention is to use such devices for maximum educational benefits. As required by YouTube, these forays into unreality are tagged within the video’s metadata; further, by my choice they are disclosed in the video’s description box.
Here’s a link to a preprint version of Information as Thing for anyone who wishes to (re) read it. Below is a hyperlinked Table of Contents for the video Information as Thing in the What Makes This Paper Great? series at INFIDEOS.
00:00 — Introduction
00:59 — Situating Information as Thing in the Literature (Multi-Type Definitions of Information)
02:10 — The Author, Michael K. Buckland (A Short Biography)
02:50 — Research Method (Conceptual Analysis)
03:28 — Descending into the Paper
03:34 — The Introduction and Three Main Concepts (Information as…)
05:26 — Types of Information (as Thing) or “Species”
06:26 — “The Unhelpful Conclusion” (Everything is Information!)
06:58 — An Historical Interlude, The European Documentation Movement
07:06 — Paul Otlet Comes to Life!
07:24 — Suzanne Briet Comes to Life! (And Her Famous Antelope Statement)
07:55 — Information is Situational and Formed by Consensus
08:24 — Practical Matters of Copies, Summaries, and Representations
09:19 — Implications for Information Science
09:49 — Summary and Review (In Buckland’s Words)
10:44 — Three Problems with the Pape
12:07 — What Makes This Paper Great?
13:43 — Thanks for Watching! Please Like, Comment, Share, and Subscribe to INFIDEOS Relevant
Cite this article in APA as: Hartel, J. Information as Thing by Michael Buckland: What makes this paper great? (2024, July 25). Information Matters, Vol. 4, Issue 7. https://informationmatters.org/2024/07/information-as-thing-by-michael-buckland-what-makes-this-paper-great/
