The International Conference Information Science. New Challenges, New Approaches took place within the Doctoral School of Communication Sciences from the Faculty of Journalism and Communication Studies of the University of Bucharest on Wednesday, 12th of December 2018.
The event was organized by Octavia Madge, associate professor at the Faculty of Letters of the University of Bucharest and member of the Doctoral School of Communication Sciences from the Faculty of Journalism and Communication Sciences.
The conference aimed to outline the current framework of information science, discuss how new technologies influence information needs, practices and behavior, discuss the current role of the information scientist and to also focus on the new research directions in the field.
During the conference, there were interventions on topical issues by invited renowned professors and information scientists from prestigious universities and institutions in Australia, England, Finland, the Netherlands, South Africa, and Sweden.
The keynote speaker of the conference was Jan Nolin, professor of library and information science, head of research at the Swedish School of Library and Information Science, University of Borås. Besides his contributions to the development of information science as a discipline in its own right, Professor Nolin has also made significant contributions to specific areas of library research including on special librarianship and development of public libraries as community services. In 2010, Professor Nolin introduced the concept of “sustainable information” to information studies, situating this as a tool for information scientists to talk about their specific contributions to sustainable development. He has published on freedom of information, information practices, the expanded use of bibliometrics, and overall strategic development of information science.
Professor Nolin has worked within several fields of policy studies including cultural policy studies, research policy studies, environmental policy studies and information policy studies. He has also published extensively within Internet studies and social media studies, focusing on ideologies of the Internet, social media policies, Internet of things, learning technologies and Twitter. In recent years, Professor Nolin has engaged in definition and critical scrutiny of transparency movements, including such entities as open science, open access, open data and Creative Commons.
The full programme of the conference can be accessed here.