Informationswissenschaftlern

Informationswissenschaft, or information science, is an interdisciplinary field that studies the collection, organization, storage, retrieval, dissemination, and use of information. It seeks to understand information needs and behaviors of people and organizations and to design systems that support decision making, learning, and communication. The field draws on library and information science, computer science, cognitive science, linguistics, and communications theory, with a focus on how information is represented, accessed, and navigated.

The discipline has roots in library and documentation science and information retrieval research in the 20th century. With the rise of electronic databases and the digital revolution, information science broadened to cover metadata standards, digital libraries, information architecture, and user-centered design. In German-speaking contexts the term Informationswissenschaft is used to denote the same broad field, sometimes emphasizing documentation and knowledge organization as well as the study of information as a cultural artifact.

Common topics include information retrieval, knowledge organization (classification, indexing, metadata, ontologies), information behavior, information architecture and usability, digital libraries, data management and governance, information policy and ethics, and the intersection with data science and analytics. Education typically leads to degrees in information science, library and information studies, or informatics, with careers as librarians, information architects, data managers, or knowledge workers in technology, education, and research organizations.