Annual Review of Information Science and Technology (ARIST). Volume 44

Citation

Calvert, P. (2010), "Annual Review of Information Science and Technology (ARIST). Volume 44", The Electronic Library, Vol. 28 No. 5, pp. 755-756. https://doi.org/10.1108/02640471011082022

If there are any information managers who have been hiding under a rock for the last 20 years and do not know about the ARIST volumes, then a good friend should tell them immediately. Every year I anticipate the arrival of the latest ARIST and it never disappoints. For this year's volume the editor Blaise Cronin has chosen five broad topic areas of current interest and commissioned experts in each respective field to write a summary of the topic itself and the new literature that is appearing. This is now a familiar pattern and it creates a bibliographic resource that retains its value for many years. Indeed, the ARIST volumes are perhaps the only series of its kind that I find worth their shelf space for more than just a few years.

The first section is on metrics, which Cronin says is a la mode. The growth in use of Weblogs is an example of how metrics are spreading in their influence, and generally there has been considerable growth in the volume and variety of bibliometric applications. Egghe's chapter on the Hirsche Index introduces one of the newer tools in information science; one that is quickly gathering interest.

Cronin has called the second section fundamentals, and it has three summary chapters covering some fairly familiar territory: artificial intelligence, facet analysis, and the relationship between philosophy and information studies,. The latter chapter by Furner should be read by all teachers of information management, even if it is only to refresh familiarity with the topic.

Communication is an ever‐present topic for information managers, so it is no surprise to see it again in this year's volume. Brown's chapter on communication in the sciences gives reassurance to those who value the traditions of scholarly communication, especially peer review, which she says remains the key element in the whole process. The model of scholarly communication first proposed in 1972 by Garvey and Griffiths still holds good, even in the digital environment. Robertson and Vatrapu took on the task of writing a single chapter on digital government, which although very good can hardly cover the whole of this large and rapidly expanding field of study. They divide the chapter into six parts: the role of information in government; an attempt at defining digital government (which at first appears to focus on the ”shop‐window” approach and then shifts to a discussion of participatory government); the origins and growth of the topic, including some history about ”digital cities” or telecities that were once common projects in Europe (generally since abandoned); e‐participation – a good section including references to the Obama and McCain campaigns in 2008, and the use of blogs and social media; e‐government related technologies such as GIS; and finally, the challenges to be faced.

The economics of information, crucial yet often poorly understood, is addressed in two chapters. Some readers might already be familiar with Leydesdorff and his Triple Helix Model of the knowledge economy, which he repeats here. It is highly theoretical and its practical application escapes me. Nilsen, by contrast, has written an excellent exposition of economic theory as it applies to public sector (government) information, though she does make the point that classical theory cannot cope with many aspects of the economics of information. This chapter is a good example of the reason why ARIST volumes are not only useful for keeping current, they also retain their value for many years. Nilsen covers all the key topics, such as the economic impact of information, pricing of information, and government copyright, never taking sides but simply presenting what we know in a clear style.

The final section is called practice and here the two chapters summarise some recent research work, first on the information practice of immigrants, and second on confessional methods and information seeking. Davenport's chapter sets the confessional method into the context of the very large field of information seeking literature and compares its value with other related methods. It is sure to be read widely.

This volume is highly recommended. It is a good purchase and well priced for the quality of the content.