Library and Information Science

The Information in ``Library and Information Science'' is used in the pre-Shannon/pre-information theory sense to meaning `knowledge.' LIS degrees are indeed strongly rooted on the humanities side of C. P. Snow's ``Two Cultures'' (C. P. Snow's 1959 book was the the first widely circulated and clearly defined drawing of a line between the sciences and the humanities in terms of academic culture, perception of purpose and motivation). Librarians, as maintainers of the physical manifestation of the the Literary Canon, are arguably as deeply part of the humanities as the classicists.

The following is a list of common fields of study/practice which lie within the scope of Library and Information Science:

• special (i.e., specialized, non-traditional) librarianship (e.g., law, medicine, business, etc.)
• academic librarianship (emphasis on institutions of higher education)
• public librarianship (emphasis on local, government-funded libraries)
• children's librarianship (emphasis on primary & secondary schools)
• preservation & conservation (includes archival activities)
• information brokerage (generally concerned with the collection, organization, presentation, and sale of information)
• records management