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The Value of Information : Normativity, Epistemology, and LIS in Luciano Floridi

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This paper is a critical reconstruction of Luciano Floridi's view of librarianship as "stewardship of a semantic environment" a view that is at odds with the dominant tradition in which library and information science (LIS) is understood as social epistemology
creator Fyffe, Richard (Faculty/Staff)
Title The Value of Information : Normativity, Epistemology, and LIS in Luciano Floridi
supporting host Grinnell College. Libraries
Publisher Johns Hopkins University Press
Genre Essays
Digital Origin born digital
Extent 21 pages
Media Type application/pdf
description This paper is a critical reconstruction of Luciano Floridi's view of librarianship as "stewardship of a semantic environment" a view that is at odds with the dominant tradition in which library and information science (LIS) is understood as social epistemology. Floridi's work helps to explain the normative dimensions of librarianship in ways that epistemology does not, and his Philosophy of Information frames librarians' traditional stewardship role in terms appropriate for our growing involvement in the management and preservation of information through its entire life cycle. Floridi's work also helps illuminate what is coming to be called "knowledge as a commons." Librarianship is concerned with maintaining and enhancing information environments over time, environments that include the behavior of the people who create and use them. The integrity of these environments makes possible the epistemic projects of faculty, students, and other researchers, but librarianship is not, itself, epistemological. Floridi's ecological reframing of philosophy of information and information ethics, bridging the dichotomy between information and user, has a variety of implications for information literacy education and other academic library services in higher education.
citation Fyffe, Richard. 2015. "The Value of Information: Normativity, Epistemology, and LIS in Luciano Floridi". portal: Libraries and the Academy, V. 15, no. 2, April, pp. 267-286. DOI: 10.1353/pla.2014.0020 ~ citation
Language English
Topic Information ethics
Topic Knowledge commons
Topic Preservation
Topic Philosophy of information
Classification Z
Related Item Faculty Scholarship
Related Item Scholarship at Grinnell
Related Item Digital Grinnell
Identifier (hdl) http://hdl.handle.net/11084/6527
Identifier (local) grinnell:6527
Access Condition Copyright to this work is held by the author(s), in accordance with United States copyright law (USC 17). Readers of this work have certain rights as defined by the law, including but not limited to fair use (17 USC 107 et seq.).
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