On Tue, 07 Apr 1998 14:04:20 GMT Dave Kerry wrote:

> On Tue, 7 Apr 1998 9:46:23 +0100
> Ian Winship, Univ. Northumbria wrote
> >
> >The Dearing Report on higher education introduced the concept of 
> Communications
> >and Information Technology (CIT or C&IT or CITs). 
<snip>
> >
> >Do these terms have distinct meanings, or is ICT/CIT just a a fashion 
> change  -
> >a sort of New IT or Cool IT?
> >
> 
> I think it's just change of fashion, leading to confusion until everyone 
> get's used to it. I still stick to IT, or sometimes "computing". 
> 
> What I really object to is IT people or posts simply being referred to  
> as "information", when they are far more technology-oriented than 
> information-oriented. Having worked for many years in IT before 
> switching to librarianship, I am aware of how little IT people know 
> about many issues concerning information, as well as only being 
> concerned with a limited range of media which does not include the most 
> prevalent (print).
I assume this excludes the ever increasing mountains of paper (books, 
manuals, journals, trade-papers, etc.) that we IT people accumulate in our 
rooms!

One of the difficulties has been the gap between librarians and 
technologists.  I am sure that Dave Kerry will have been aware when 
wearing his IT hat that librarians have been among the last to take any 
interest in the application of computers to their craft/art/profession 
beyond the valuable but (relatively) technically trivial cataloguing of 
paper objects.
There have been exceptions of course, but there been very much a cultural 
division: Humanities (librarianship) versus Science/Engineering 
(computing);  traditional human intellectual activity versus upstart metal 
boxes; etc.

Librarian: "How can a mere calculating machine handle the subtle 
outpourings of the human mind?"

Computer Person: "How can a computer deal with anything so ill defined and 
imprecise as what librarians call 'information'?"

Since the word "information" has so many different meanings, mostly with 
fuzzy boundaries, it is hardly surprising that mutual incomprehension has 
existed and still exists.

Peter.

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Peter W Duncanson                E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Principal Analyst                   Fax:  +44 (0) 1232 230592
Computing Services                Phone:  +44 (0) 1232 273410
The Queen's University Of Belfast    or:  +44 (0) 1232 335375
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