A detailed literature reviewing, analysing the multiple and confusing concepts around the ideas of information literacy and digital literacy at the start of the millennium. The article was well-received, and is my most highly-cited work, with over 1100 citations.

Reviews developments in the information science discipline over thirty years, by selecting topics covered in early issues of the Journal of Information Science, and tracing their influence on subsequent developments. Major themes are: the information science discipline itself; foundations of the discipline; nature of information; relations between…[Read more]

A literature review of problems of the digital information environment. It has been quite widely cited in a variety of disciplines in the decade since its publication.

A literature review of individual differences in information behaviour; those due to personality, and to thinking and learning styles.

A chapter in a Festschrift for the occasion of Blaise Cronin’s retirement, this chapter reflects Cronin’s concerns that undue focus on informetrics may lead the information science discipline to descend into a “new age of numerology.
So It reflects on the ways in which a few numbers may helpfully encapsulate important aspects of the subject.

Discusses the collaborations over the past decade between in which the Department of Library and Information Science at City University London and the Department of Librarianship, Information Science and Book Studies at the University of Ljubljana.

The history of Aslib, an independent library/information membership organisation in the United Kingdom between 1924 and 2014, is outlined, with emphasis in the ways in Aslib acted as a de facto national centre for special librarianship and information work, for documentation, and for technical and commercial information. Its activities in this…[Read more]

Gives a short history of Aslib, which was from 1924 to 2010 an independent membership organisation for special librarianship, technical and commercial information work, and latterly for information management, It was highly influential in the development of documentation and information science, in the UK and worldwide. Its activities included…[Read more]

This paper examines B.C.Vickery’s contributions to the development of information science, as an academic discipline and a field of professional practice.

This paper examines some characteristics of the ‘British School’ of information science, tracing its origins in the documentation movement, special librarianship, and the handling of scientific and technical information.

Brookes’ equation, hitherto regarded as a kind of non-mathematical shorthand description of information use in the cognitive paradigm of information science, is extended to show a qualitative pattern of information behaviour.

Describes the development of education for library and information science at City University London over a 50-year period, focusing on seven themes: the nature of the discipline; the library/information science spectrum; the student group; the academic/professional balance; curriculum design; local and global issues; and educational methods.

The changing nature of chemical information literacy over 50 years is examined by a comparison of a number of guides to chemical literature and information. It is concluded that: an understanding of the world of information is the sole aspect to have remained important and essentially unchanged over time; that knowledge of sources, ability to…[Read more]

Based on a paper given at the 2013 CoLIS conference in Copenhagen.

Rolf Landauer famously declared in 1991 that ‘information is physical’. Since then, information has come to be seen by many physicists as a fundamental component of the physical world; indeed by some as the physical component. This idea is now gaining currency in popular sci…[Read more]

The relationship between information and complexity is analysed, by way of a detailed literature analysis. Complexity is a multi-faceted concept, with no single agreed definition. There are numerous approaches to defining and measuring complexity and organisation, all involving the idea of information. Conceptions of complexity, order,…[Read more]

A review is presented of the relation between information and entropy, focusing on two main issues: the similarity of the formal definitions of physical entropy, according to statistical mechanics, and of information, according to information theory; and the possible subjectivity of entropy considered as missing information. The paper updates the…[Read more]

Assignment for the Information Retrieval (INM305) module, completed as part of the Information Science MSc at City, University of London. This report investigates pre-release rumours of the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 consoles, and evaluates bag of words and Boolean searches when using online and web search engines.

A random sample of UK veterinary practitioners was surveyed to identify key issues in veterinary information use (IU) and information seeking behaviour (ISB) and the corresponding implications for the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons Wellcome Library (RCVSWL). Interviews were also conducted with a small cross-section of the sample population…[Read more]

Introduced in parliament in November 2015, the Draft Investigatory Powers Bill was the most recent version of legislation written to provide a statutory basis for a range of powers providing police and security services with various means of capturing or intercepting electronic communications. Previous efforts at legislating for these powers…[Read more]

This opinion piece considers the relative importance of individual and social factors in determining information behaviour. It concludes that individual factors are more central and fundamental, though they may certainly be qualified by social and cultural factors, and though there are good reasons for studying and analyzing information behaviour…[Read more]