Everything Old is New Again: The Evolution of Library and Information Science Education from LIS to Ifield (Report‪)‬

The disciplinary identity of LIS has been contested since its origins in 19th century librarianship training programs (Burnett & Bonnici, 2006). Inter-professional and interdepartmental competition, jurisdictional disputes--first between library science and information science, and more recently between LIS and computer science over the emergence of information technology as a discipline--have problematized the establishment of a lasting disciplinary identity. Over the past few decades, shifts in the professional marketplace, globalization, and a rapidly changing technological landscape have further complicated the disciplinary identity formation process. A caucus of 22 iSchools, 14 of which are also members of the ALISE and offer master's degree programs accredited by the ALA has held conferences annually since September 2005 (see ASIS&T Bulletin, April/May 2006 for reports on this conference). The caucus announced the intention to establish a new iField (iSchools Caucus, n.d.), with the explicit goal of coming to grips with the "elusive identity [that] poses a challenge for the I-School movement" (King, 2006). The iSchools Caucus created the term iField to capture this elusive identity, and defined it as: