Our aim in writing this book was to describe in outline, and to set into context, all the important topics within the information science discipline. Since this covers a very wide area, we have not covered any topic in elaborate detail. We have, rather, pointed out the topics and issues, described them briefly and shown how they fit together, explained the terminology, and shown where more detail can be found. The result, we hope, is a good introduction to the ‘logic and language’ of information science. It is intended primarily for students of information science and related topics, but should be accessible to practitioners.

We have gone into particular detail for those topics not well covered elsewhere. For topics such as information technology, information organization and information retrieval, where there are numerous good sources, we have mainly restricted ourselves to an outline with references. We have not given details of systems, metadata formats and the like, as these change often and can easily be found on the web.

While we have tried to give up-to-date information, we are well aware that books can get out of date rapidly if they attempt to give too much detail, and so we have focused on basic principles which should not go out of fashion too quickly. Our book has a slightly different emphasis from other texts in the information sciences. We have emphasized concepts and theories, as we believe that a good understanding of these is of more use in the long term than specifics of current systems, services and techniques. We have also emphasized the historical dimension, as we believe it is essential to understand where the discipline and its constituents came from, and why some things are as they are.

Our approach is rooted in the literature, with copious references, presented at the end of each chapter for ease of access. Our hope is that the text of this book will be sufficient to give a basic understanding of the whole area, and that readers will follow the references for details and examples of those aspects in which they are most interested. The summary text and boxes, and the key references, at the end of each chapter are intended to convey the basic messages in a concise way. The section ‘Additional resources’ mentions a diverse range of sources complementing this book.