Information science

This essay is a personal analysis of information science as a field of scie ntific inquiry and professional practice that has evolved over the past hal f-century. Various sections examine the origin of information science in re spect to the problems of information explosion; the social role of the fiel d; the nature of "information" in information science; the structure of the field in terms of problems addressed; evolutionary trends in information r etrieval as a major branch of information science; the relation of informat ion science to other fields, most notably librarianship and computer scienc e; and educational models and issues. Conclusions explore some dominant tre nds affecting the field.