Foundations of the information science : history and contemporary theories

It presents the result of theoretical research on the history of information science from its theories and concepts. From the systematization of the collected data, a framework has been built in which information science is divided into three major moments: the founding period, in which information science was born as a result of five distinct phenomena (the 1960s); the period of expansion of the problems, with the constitution of six sub-areas (1970s to 1990s); and contemporary perspectives, presented here from the identification of twelve distinct approaches developed in the last twenty years. Next, the six dimensions of the information concept are presented in which the most significant conceptual advances have been made over these decades. Its findings show that the diversity of theories is an enriching factor for the field, but also produces the need for systematization and mapping works. [Publisher's Text]