Foundations of Library and Information Science: Fifth Edition

by Richard E. Rubin

Richard E. Rubin's book has served as the authoritative introductory text for generations of library and information science practitioners, with each new edition taking in its stride the myriad societal, technological, political, and economic changes affecting our users and institutions and transforming our discipline. Rubin teams up with his daughter, Rachel G. Rubin, a rising star in the library field in her own right, for the fifth edition. Spanning all types of libraries, from public to academic, school, and special, it illuminates the major facets of LIS for students as well as current professionals. Continuing its tradition of excellence, this text addresses

the history and mission of libraries from past to present, including the history of service to African Americans;critical contemporary social issues such as services to marginalized communities, tribal libraries, and immigrants;the rise of e-government and the crucial role of political advocacy;digital devices, social networking, digital publishing, e-books, virtual reality, and other technology;forces shaping the future of libraries, including Future Ready libraries, and sustainability as a core value of librarianship;the values and ethics of the profession, with new coverage of civic engagement, combatting fake news, the importance of social justice, and the role of critical librarianship;knowledge infrastructure and organization, including Resource Description and Access (RDA), linked data, and the Library Research Model;the significance of the digital divide and policy issues related to broadband access and net neutrality;intellectual freedom, legal issues, and copyright-related topics;contemporary issues in LIS education such as the ongoing tensions between information science and library science; andthe changing character of collections and services including the role of digital libraries, preservation, and the digital humanities.In its newest edition, Foundations of Library and Information Science remains the field's essential resource.

Genres: Nonfiction, School, Textbooks

648 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 7, 2022

Reviews

[Dusti Falgoust · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most enjoyable and informative textbooks I’ve read!

[Jessica Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

FIRST SEMESTER DONE

[Kylie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was probably the best textbook I was assigned this semester and possibly the only good reading this particular professor assigned. It is informative, fairly interesting, and covers many different branches of LIS. Its biggest fault is definitely the length and repetition of some chapters.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars rounded up. Interesting material but fairly dry reading. Very balanced in its delivery of issues, debates, and opposing perspectives. It showed how messy history is. Probably one of the least openly biased textbooks I've ever read.

[J. (JL) Lange · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this for INFO5000 at Penn West before transferring to the SLIS program at UA. While they touch on the issue, I wish it would've focused more on social justice and inclusivity, hence the half star deduction. What's kind of frustrating, and this isn't the fault of either Rubin, is that the subject matter for this book, and as a result the INFO5000 class material as a whole, kind of covers things from all 3 core courses required in the SLIS program. Not that there's anything necessarily wrong with that, but it made it a little more difficult when trying to get the core credit hours transferred. I'd say this was a pretty good introductory text. I really liked the information policy and information ethics sections, however, I deducted the other half star because they seemed to frame intellectual freedom and social justice as inherently contradictory ideals. This book is definitely focused more on the library side of the field of library and information sciences, though they do cover some topics that were more information science-y. All in all I thought this was a pretty solid textbook.

[Cecilia Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

Extremely informative but equally dry. Getting through most of the chapters was about as interesting as waiting at the DMV. The exception being the chapter over the history of libraries, I was surprised to find myself enjoying that chapter a lot, especially in comparison to the rest of the book.

[Jaelynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was actually a surprisingly well formulated textbook. It covered a wide array of issues in the field and discussed many relevant topics. My only real complaint is that much of the information is already outdated due to the rapid progression of technological developments and societal changes.

[Joe Lopez · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a textbook. So "like" and "don't like" don't necessarily apply.

[Sara]

Can't really rate this since this was for school but iykyk.

[Breen · Rating 4 out of 5]

School textbook.

[Dawn]

This book is great for sleeping. It might have great info, but it gives it in the most dull way possible.

[Shannon Boxell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A textbook I actually didn't mind reading!

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Or a textbook, not bad.

[Inga Schmidt]

What a page turner!!!