DOCUMENTATION, INFORMATION-SCIENCE, AND LIBRARY-SCIENCE IN THE USA

Three related questions are addressed: why was the work of the Europea n documentalists largely ignored in the U.S.A. before the Second World War? What was the ''information science vs library science'' argument about? Technological innovation was a vital force in library science in the late 19th century and again after 1950. Why was it not a vital force inbetween? Examination of the technological background and of th e Graduate Library School, University of Chicago, suggests that there was a temporary paradigm change away from design and technological inn ovation. Arguments over ''information science'' reflected a reversal o f that paradigm.