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Praise for Introduction to Information Science, Second Edition
‘The publication of this second edition of David Bawden and Lyn
Robinson’s textbook is a major event in information science. The first
edition of 2012 established the highest standards; ten years later, the
second edition comfortably exceeds all expectations. Quite simply, it is
the clearest, most comprehensive and most useful introduction to the
field yet produced, and should receive the strongest possible
recommendation – equally for those just starting on their studies and
for older hands. The vitality and precision with which the authors
organize their vast and complex material make the work highly
readable, and of course it is bang up-to-date, with chapters analyzing
the latest ideas, practices and technologies. Introduction to
Information Science has no competition: it is in a class of one. Read it!’
Jonathan Furner, Professor, School of Education & Information
Studies, University of California, Los Angeles
‘Bawden and Robinson’s invaluable Introduction to Information Science
has quickly established itself as the leading textbook in LIS education
at all levels and is an essential resource for researchers and lecturers
alike. The breadth of literature the authors bring together is
astonishing, and yet they never once lose focus. Introduction to
Information Science will be a key reference in the field for years, if not
decades to come.’
Jutta Haider, Professor of Information Studies, Swedish School of
Library and Information Science, University of Borås, Sweden
‘Just as information technologies have come to pervade every aspect
of social life, information science has become a required component of
all disciplines and research endeavours, with the opportunity and the
responsibility to operate in dialogue with other forms of knowledge.
This wonderful textbook takes such pervasiveness and cross-
contamination as its starting point. It provides essential tools to
understand not just what information science is, but how it can best
operate within a world transformed by digitalisation and novel forms
of information governance. Clear, engaging and replete with useful
examples, this is a definitive reference for what an information
scientist should know in order to act effectively, reliably and
responsibly.’
Sabina Leonelli, Professor of Philosophy and History of Science,
University of Exeter
‘This is a welcome update to the excellent first edition, and the
breadth of coverage is admirable. This new edition will satisfy those
looking for the practical as well as the theoretical concepts necessary
to truly understand information science. As a textbook it is an
invaluable source that will enhance degree courses across the
information science domain, from both soft and hard approaches. As a
student text it would support every facet of an information science
curriculum, giving excellent overviews of key areas, supported by up-
to-date references to explore concepts further. From two of the world’s
leading information science academics, this is an absolutely essential
purchase for any student or practitioner in the information sciences.’
Dr David McMenemy, Senior Lecturer in Information Studies,
University of Glasgow
Introduction to Information Science
Every purchase of a Facet book helps to fund CILIP’s advocacy,
awareness and accreditation programmes for information
professionals.
Introduction
to Information
Science
SECOND EDITION
David Bawden and Lyn Robinson
© David Bawden and Lyn Robinson 2022
Published by Facet Publishing
7 Ridgmount Street, London WC1E 7AE
www.facetpublishing.co.uk
Facet Publishing is wholly owned by CILIP: the Library and
Information Association.
The authors have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as authors of this work.
Except as otherwise permitted under the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988 this publication may only be reproduced, stored or
transmitted in any form or by any means, with the prior permission of
the publisher, or, in the case of reprographic reproduction, in
accordance with the terms of a licence issued by The Copyright
Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those
terms should be sent to Facet Publishing, 7 Ridgmount Street, London
WC1E 7AE.
Every effort has been made to contact the holders of copyright
material reproduced in this text, and thanks are due to them for
permission to reproduce the material indicated. If there are any
queries please contact the publisher.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978-1-78330-495-0 (paperback)
ISBN 978-1-78330-496-7 (PDF)
ISBN 978-1-78330-526-1 (EPUB)
First published 2012
This second edition, 2022
Text printed on FSC accredited material.

Typeset from authors’ files in 10/13pt Palatino Linotype and Myriad

Pro by
Flagholme Publishing Services.
Printed and made in Great Britain by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon,
CR0 4YY.
Contents
Figures
Preface
Foreword – Curators of Semantic Capital, by Luciano Floridi
List of Acronyms
1 The Information Science Discipline
Introduction
The nature of information science
What kind of discipline?
Constituents and core
Overlaps with other information disciplines
History of information science
Summary
Key readings
References
2 History of Information: the Story of Documents
Introduction
Information ages?
Prehistory and the ancient world
The classical world
The medieval world
The age of print
The age of mass communication
 The documentation age
Summary
Key readings
References
3 Philosophies of Information
Introduction
Philosophy and its relevance to information science
Philosophies of information
Philosophies of knowledge
Critical theory and media theory
Summary
Key readings
References
4 Paradigms, Turns and Theories in the Information Sciences
Introduction
Paradigms and turns
Theories
Summary
Key readings
References
5 Information
Introduction
Information in computing and communications: Shannon theory
 Information in the physical world
Information in the biological world
Information in the social world
Mind the gap: unified theories of information
Summary
Key readings
References
6 Documents and Documentation
Introduction
Document theory
Categorising and organising documents
Collections
Summary
Key readings
References
7 Domain Analysis
Introduction
Information domains
Domain terminologies
Domain analysis
Examples of domains
Domain-specialist information work
Summary
 Key readings
References
8 Information Organisation
Introduction
Fundamentals of information organisation
Metadata
Resource description
Classification and categorisation
Taxonomy and ontology
Alphabetic vocabularies
Creating subject metadata
Summary
Key readings
References
9 Digital Technologies and Data Systems
Introduction
Digital technologies
Networks
Interfaces, interaction and information architecture
Data systems
Summary
Key readings
References
10 Information Systems
Introduction
Information systems
Information retrieval, databases and discovery tools
Library, repository and collection management systems
Systems for digital scholarship
Information systems for creativity and innovation
Summary
Key readings
References
11 Informetrics
Introduction
Historical developments
How much information is there?
The main informetric laws
Network analysis
Applications of informetrics
Summary
Key readings
References
12 Information Behaviour
Introduction
Origins and development of information behaviour studies
 Methods for studying information behaviour
Information behaviour concepts
Theories and models of information behaviour
Information behaviour of groups
Individual differences and information styles
Summary
Key readings
References
13 Communicating Information: Changing Contexts
Introduction
Information chains and lifecycles
Communicating data
Communicating knowledge
Quality and ethical issues
Information places and spaces
Summary
Key readings
References
14 Information Management and Policy
Introduction
Information management: fundamentals and models
Data management
Document management and content management
 Library and repository management
Memory institutions’ information management
Archives and records management
Knowledge management
Business intelligence and environment scanning
Collection management
Information governance
Information policies and strategies
User needs analysis and information audit
Valuing information and evaluating information services
General management issues
Summary
Key readings
References
15 Information Law and Ethics
Introduction
The legal and ethical context
Information law
Information ethics
Ethics of informational privacy
Legal and ethical implications of artificial intelligence
Summary
Key readings
 References
16 Information Society
Introduction
Understanding information society
Information society infrastructures
Social informatics
Pathologies of the information society
Summary
Key readings
References
17 Digital (Onlife) Literacies
Introduction
Why ‘digital literacies’?
A variety of literacies
Contexts for digital literacies
Evaluating information and avoiding mis- and disinformation
Promoting digital literacies
Summary
Key readings
References
18 Research in the Information Sciences
Introduction
Research and the practitioner
 Information research approaches
Information research methods: general aspects
Research methods (1): document-based research
Research methods (2): experiment and observation
Research methods (3): evaluation and design
Research methods (4): surveys, interviews and Delphi
Sampling, data analysis and statistics
Research ethics
Summary
Key readings
References
19 The Future of the Information Sciences
Introduction
Predicting and prophesying
Curating the infosphere
The future of a multidiscipline
The big issues
Summary
Key readings
References
Additional Resources
Other textbooks
Journals
 Abstracting and indexing services
Reference sources
Index
Figures
2.1 Proto-writing on bone tags from tomb U-J at Abydos, Egypt, c. 3320
BCE
2.2 Cuneiform tablet
2.3 Library of Ashibanurpal, British Museum
2.4 Chinese star chart, earliest-known manuscript atlas of the night sky,
produced in central China around 700
2.5 A page from Bede’s Ecclesiastical History, 731
2.6 St Cuthbert Gospel of St John (Stonyhurst Gospel), the oldest intact
European book, early 8th century
2.7 A page from the Domesday Book covering modern Oxfordshire
2.8 Frontispiece of the Diamond Sutra
2.9 Koenig’s steam-powered printing press, 1814
2.10 Subject card catalogue of the library of the University of Graz
2.11 Paul Otlet in his home office, 1937
2.12 Henri La Fontaine
5.1 Claude Shannon
5.2 Information communication in Shannon theory
5.3 The DIKUW hierarchy
7.1 The periodic table of the elements
7.2 Chemical structure representations
8.1 IFLA LRM: overview of relationships
8.2 Main classes in the Dewey Decimal Classification
Dewey first hundred subdivisions the 700s
 Dewey first hundred subdivisions – the 700s
8.3
8.4 Dewey first thousand subdivision – the 780s
8.5 Number building in UDC
8.6 Example of a thesaurus term, from the Archaeological Object Type
thesaurus
9.1 John von Neumann
9.2 Von Neumann computer architecture
12.1 Components of information behaviour
12.2 The Information Seeking and Communication Model
13.1 The information communication chain
13.2 The data curation lifecycle
15.1 Relations between governance, regulation and ethics
Preface
The aim of this second edition remains that of the first edition: to
provide a clear and succinct synthesis of the information science
discipline, in as holistic a way as possible; to give the reader a grasp of
the basics and a platform to go into all aspects in more depth. It is
intended as an overview, showing the scope and the landscape of the
subject. We have tried to examine, in reasonably consistent if brief
way, all the aspects of the subject and their interrelations, while not
allowing details to obscure the whole picture.
As with the first edition, the book is rooted in the scholarly and
professional literature, with a substantial number of references. We
hope that it may act as a useful sourcebook for the subject and a
reminder that no textbook can be an alternative for engagement with
the subject’s literature. The conceptual and historical dimensions have
been retained, since we feel that it is vital that students and
practitioners alike have an appreciation of these, to complement more
practice-focused materials.
The book has been substantially rewritten to reflect the great
changes in the information environment. Compared to the first
edition, there is a greater emphasis on theory, philosophy and ethics,
on data and algorithms and on documents and documentation. The
increasingly important links between information science and the
newer disciplines of data science and digital humanities also receive
more attention, as does the avoidance of misinformation and
disinformation. Chapter 3 of the first edition (Philosophies and
paradigms of information) has been divided into two chapters,
dealing with philosophies of information and with paradigms and
theories in the information sciences, respectively. Similarly, the first
edition’s fourth chapter, which dealt with the basic concepts of the
information sciences, has been converted into two, focusing on
concepts of data, information and knowledge and on the concepts of
documents and documentation. The chapter on information
technology has also been divided, into one chapter on data handling
and one on information systems. A new chapter on information law
and ethics has been spun out from the first edition’s chapter on
information management and policy. The digital literacy chapter has
been largely rewritten, and retitled, to reflect the variety of digital
literacies needed in an onlife environment. ‘Onlife’, a term coined by
Luciano Floridi to denote the seamless blending of our online and
physical activities, due to the ever-increasing pervasiveness of digital
information and communication technologies into all aspects of our
lives, is a fundamental underpinning of much of this book. All the
other chapters have been extensively revised.
To keep the length of the book within reasonable bounds, and to
help readability, content and references have been replaced rather
than just added, so that the first edition will still be worth consulting,
particularly for those interested in older material. Similarly, new
images have been used, with only one retained from the first edition.
We thank Luciano Floridi for providing a foreword to the book,
Peter Baker and Michelle Lau of Facet Publishing for their assistance
throughout the process, Vanda Broughton for advice on the content of
Chapter 8, the Royal Society of Chemistry for use of screenshots from
their Chemspider software, and Erica Mosner of the Shelby White and
Leon Levy Archives Center, Institute for Advanced Study, Andrew
Robson, Facet Publishing, Mustafa Tupev of the German
Archaeological Institute, Cairo and Laurel Bestock and Jess Porter of
the Joukowsky Institute of Archaeology at Brown University for
assistance with permission to reproduce images. We are grateful to
colleagues, and particularly to our students on the CityLIS courses at
City, University of London, for their positive reaction to the first
edition and for the comments and suggestions which we have, so far
as possible, incorporated into this second edition.
Foreword – Curators of Semantic Capital
Sometimes, a task (from baking a cake to studying the evolution of
stars, planets, galaxies, and other objects in the universe) requires only
one specific agent to be performed. In this case the agent in question,
say A (Alice or astrophysics, in our example), is supposed to be both
necessary and sufficient to deliver the required result. A can be the
agent and the only agent for that task, and hence her unique identity
as the deliverer is uncontroversial. Because she is both necessary and
sufficient, she may find her role ethically demanding in two senses.
Not only must she deliver but she can also deliver by herself. When
things develop, this twofold responsibility may become less clear. A
may no longer be sufficient, perhaps she needs to coordinate with
other agents, yet she is still necessary, sometimes even more so than in
the past.
The debate on the future of Westphalian nation-states seems to
suffer from such confusion sometimes. Given the global and very
pressing challenges we face, nation-states are far from obsolete. On
the contrary, they are even more necessary than in the past. However,
they are no longer sufficient, since nation-states now need to
coordinate their efforts with many more agents required to make
things happen, from companies to NGOs and supranational
organisations (think of climate change efforts).
The digital revolution seems to have brought a similar change in
information science too. We need information science to curate our
expanding space of information (infosphere) and all the growing
semantic capital that we inherit, accumulate, enrich, refine and bestow
to future generations. It is a crucial role because semantic capital is the
most precious outcome of all our activities, since it is what enables us
to understand, make sense, and shape ourselves and our realities. And
yet, information science today is no longer sufficient to take care of it,
but must interact, coordinate and collaborate with many other
disciplines (think of computer science) and agents (think of Google
and its scholarly services) to fulfil its task. This ‘insufficient necessity’
of information science is challenging for anyone who still thinks of its
definition in terms of ‘necessary and sufficient’ conditions, and hence
seeks to identify a role, a field, a subject, an approach, a methodology,
a tradition, a canon or any other combination of variables that may
establish (for some people, restore) such twofold conditions. But it is
an intellectual opportunity for anyone who can embrace a
collaborative spirit. From this perspective, information science is one
of the necessary curators of semantic capital, has all the responsibility
of being increasingly necessary and has the added responsibility of no
longer being sufficient but in need of being seriously multidisciplinary
in its cooperation with a larger group of stakeholders. This means that
the epistemological status of information science has evolved.
Perhaps there was a time when information science was necessary
and sufficient and did not have to be but could afford to be self-reliant
and unrelated. But now that it has become even more important and
yet insufficient, the solution is to join forces, create relations of trust
with other disciplines and agents and become a crucial node in a
network of curators of semantic capital. The uniqueness of
information science is not (or no longer) provided by some necessary
and sufficient status as a scientific discipline, but by the specific
contributions that it must provide to the larger context of taking care
of our semantic capital and the infosphere. It is a collaborative and
ecological task that readers of this textbook will be able to appreciate.
Luciano Floridi, University of Oxford – University of Bologna
List of Acronyms
AACR Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules
ACM Association for Computing Machinery
ACRL Association of College and Research
Libraries (US)
ACTA Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement
ADI American Documentation Institute
AI artificial intelligence
AI4SG Artificial Intelligence for Social Good
ALA American Library Association
ANCIL A New Curriculum in Information Literacy
ANSI American National Standards Institute
AO3 Archive of our own [repository]
API Application Programming Interface
AR augmented reality
ASCII American Standard Code for Information
Interchange
ASI Academic Standards Institute
ASIS American Society for Information Science
(now ASIST)
ASIST Association for Information Science and
Technology (formerly the American
Society for Information Science and
Technology)
ASK Anomalous State of Knowledge
ASLIB Association of Special Libraries and
Information Bureaux (UK)
BARTOC Basic register of thesauri, ontologies and
classification
BASH Bourne Again Shell
BC Bliss Classification
BC2 Bliss Classification (second edition)
BCC Basic Concepts Classification
BCE Before Common Era (equivalent to BC)
BIOS Basic Input Output System
BL British Library
BOAI Budapest Open Access Initiative
BSI British Standards Institute
CC Colon Classification
CCO Cataloging Cultural Objects (metadata
standard)
CDWA Categories for the Description of Works of
Art (metadata standard)
CI Competitor, or Competitive, Intelligence
CIDOC CRM CIDOC Cultural Reference Model
(metadata standard)
CILIP Chartered Institute of Library and
Information Professionals (UK)
CLEF Cross Language Evaluation Forum
CMS collection management system
CLI Command Line Interface
CLIR Cross Language Information Retrieval
CPU Central Processing Unit
CRAAP Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy,
Purpose (evaluation checklist)
CRG Classification Research Group
CSCW Computer Supported Collaborative Work
CSV Comma Separated Values (file format)
DACS Describing Archives: a Content Standard
(metadata standard)
DAMS Digital Asset Management System
DBMS database management system
DC Dublin Core
DCMI Dublin Core Metadata Initiative
DDC Dewey Decimal Classification
DESI Digital Economy and Society Index
(European Union)
DH digital humanities
DOI Digital Object Identifier
DORA San Francisco Declaration on Responsible
Assessment
EAD Encoded Archival Description (metadata
standard)
ECM enterprise content management
EDRMS Electronic document and records
management system
EFI Extensible Firmware Interface
eGMS electronic Government Metadata Standard
(UK)
ELIS Everyday Life Information Seeking
FAIR findability, accessibility, interoperability,
reuse (data sharing principles)
FID International Federation for Information
and Documentation
FOSS Free and Open Source Software
FRAD Functional Requirements for Authority
Data
FRSAD Functional Requirements for Subject
Authority Data
FRBR Functional Requirements for Bibliographic
Records
FWCI Field Weighted Citation Impact
GDI General Definition of Information
GIS Geographic Information Systems
GLAM Galleries, Libraries, Archives and
Museums
GOFAI Good Old Fashioned Artificial Intelligence
HCI human–computer interaction
HIB Human information behaviour
HMD Head Mounted Display
HR Human Relations
HTML Hypertext Markup Language
HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol
IA Information Architecture
ICP International Cataloguing Principles
ICT information and communication
technology
IDI ICT Development Index (of the ITU)
IGUS Information Gathering and Utilizing
System
IFLA International Federation of Library
Associations
IIB Institut International de Bibliographie
(later FID)
IIS Institute of Information Scientists (UK –
now CILIP)
ILC Integrative Levels Classification
ILS Integrated Library System
IM information management
IO Information Overload OR Information
Organisation
IP intellectual property
IR information retrieval
IRM Information Resource Management
ISAD(G) International Standard for Archival
Description (General)
ISBD International Standard Bibliographic
Description
ISBN International Standard Book Number
ISCM Information Seeking and Communication
Model
ISI Institute for Scientific Information
ISIC Information Seeking in Context
(conference series)
ISKO International Society for Knowledge
Organization
ISO International Standards Organization
ISSN International Standard Serial Number
IT Information Technology
ITU International Telecommunication Union
JIF Journal Impact Factor
JISC Joint Information Systems Committee (UK)
KM knowledge management
KO Knowledge Organisation
KOS knowledge organisation system
LCC Library of Congress Classification
LCSH Library of Congress Subject Headings
LIS library and information science
LISA Library and Information Science Abstracts
LISTA Library and Information Science and
Technology Abstracts
LMS Library Management System
LOM Learning Object Metadata
LRM Library Reference Model
LSP Library Service Platform
MARC MAchine Readable Cataloguing
METS Metadata Encoding and Transmission
Standard
MILA Media and Information Literacy Alliance
MODS Metadata Object Description Schema
MTC Mathematic Theory of Communication
(Shannon/Weaver)
NGO Nongovernmental organization
NISO National Information Standards
Organization (USA)
NIST National Institute of Standards and
Technology (USA)
NLM National Library of Medicine
OA open access
OAI Open Access Initiative
OAIPMH Open Access Initiative Protocol for
Metadata Harvesting
OCLC Online Computer Library Centre
OCR Optical Character Recognition
OD Open Data
OJS Open Journal Systems
ONIX Online Information Exchange [metadata
standard]
OPAC Online Public Access Catalogue
OpenDOAR Open Directory of Open Access
Repositories
OSI Open Society Institute
OSS open source software
OWL Web Ontology Language
PDA Personal Digital Assistant
PESTLE Political Economic Social Technological
Legal Environmental
PI Philosophy of Information
PMEST Personality, Matter, Energy, Space and
Time (facet analysis)
PREMIS Preservation Metadata: Implementation
Strategies (metadata standard)
QR Quick Response (codes)
RDA Resource Description and Access
RDBMS Relational Database Management System
RDF Resource Description Framework
RDM Research Data Management
REF Research Excellence Framework (UK)
RFID Radio Frequency Identification
ROAR Registry of Open Access Repositories
ROI return on investment
SE Social Epistemology
SCONUL Society of College, National and University
Libraries (UK)
SKOS Simple Knowledge Organisation System
SLA Special Libraries Association
SNA social network analysis
SQL Structured Query Language
SSCI Social Science Citation Index
STEM science, technology, engineering and
medicine
SWOT Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities
Threats
TAGS Twitter Archiving Google Sheet
TCP/IP Transmission Control Protocol / Internet
Protocol
TEI Text Encoding Initiative
TMI Too Much Information
TREC Text Retrieval Conference
UDC Universal Decimal Classification
UDK see UDC
UEFI Unified Extensible Firmware Interface
UK United Kingdom
UKMARC obsolescent national version of MARC
UMLS Unified Medical Language System
UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization
UNIMARC obsolescent international variant of MARC
URI Uniform Resource Identifier
URL Uniform Resource Locator
USMARC obsolescent national variant of MARC
US(A) United States (of America)
UX User Experience
VLE Virtual Learning Environment
VLSI Very Large Scale Integration
VRA Visual Resources Association (metadata
standard)
VR Virtual Reality
VRE Virtual Research Environment
W3C World Wide Web Consortium
WHO World Health Organization
WIPO World Intellectual Property Organization
WWW World Wide Web
XML Extensible Markup Language
1 The Information Science Discipline
Information science is, or should be, involved with the whole
concept of knowledge in whatever form its manifestations may
take.
Jesse Shera (1973, 286)
Let us not restrict ourselves to grubbing around in the garden patch
of a limited, little information science, restricted to the relationship
between information and machine. Instead, let us expand, reach
out, embrace and explore the wider world of information, to
develop a vision of information science as a central synthesising
discipline in understanding not simply information, but the world
we live in. Because the world we live in is surely a world of
information.
Tom Wilson (2010)
Introduction
The subject of this book is information science. We begin by asking
what information science is, as an academic discipline and profession.
Obviously, and simplistically, it is the science of information. But this
is not sufficient, since the multiple meanings and implications of
information, which will be discussed in Chapter 5, have given rise to
different conceptions of information science (Buckland, 2012; Limberg,
2017). One such conception is of information science as being
concerned with computing, algorithms and data science, a second
with information and communication technologies and a third with
information as an entity with physical and biological science. A fourth
conception sees information science as concerned with information
recorded in documents, with meaning and knowledge, and hence as
growing from the older disciplines of librarianship and
documentation. We will focus on the last of these in this book,
although we will mention aspects of the others at appropriate points.
We will therefore be following the kind of definition which goes
back at least as far as Borko (1968) and is expressed by Saracevic (2010,
2570) as:
Information science is the science and practice dealing with the
effective collection, storage, retrieval and use of information. It is
concerned with recordable information and knowledge, and the
technologies and related services that facilitate their management
and use.
This gives us a general idea of the nature of the subject, but there is
still scope for much difference in viewpoint as to exactly what the
subject comprises and how it should be understood; see Bates (1999),
Hjørland (2000), Robinson (2009), Ibeque-SanJuan et al. (2014) and
Bawden and Robinson (2016).
We now examine the nature of the subject in more detail.
The nature of information science
Information science is an academic discipline which supports areas of
professional practice. We will think first about the discipline, although
we should note that there have always been some doubts as to what
extent it is a real discipline, still less a ‘science’ (Robinson, 2009;
Buckland, 2012; Furner, 2015).
One way to accommodate the wide range of views about, and
diverse approaches to, the subject within a coherent framework is to
regard information science as a field of study, using this phrase in the
specific sense of Paul Hirst, the philosopher of education (Hirst, 1974).
A field of study is an alternative to ‘disciplines’ based on a unique
form of knowledge, such as mathematics or the physical sciences, and
to ‘practical disciplines’ based on one of the forms of knowledge but
oriented to solving practical problems, such as engineering or
medicine. For Hirst, a field of study is focused on a topic or subject of
interest, using any of the forms of knowledge – sociological,
mathematical, philosophical, etc. – which may be helpful in studying
it. Bawden (2007, 320) argues that it may be appropriate to regard
information science as such a field of study, focused on the topic of
information, understood as information recorded in documents
produced and used by individuals and societies:
a multidisciplinary field of study, involving several forms of
knowledge, given coherence by a focus on the central concept of
meaningful recorded information.
This is reminiscent of the insistence of Machlup and Mansfield (1983)
that the field should be described as the information sciences,
emphasising the plural, to show the breadth of approach needed.
Ibeque-SanJuan et al. (2014) reinforce this, referring to the ‘pluri-,
multi-, trans-, meta- and interdisciplinary’ nature of the discipline; see
also Bates (2015), Limberg (2017) and Hjørland (2018). Evidence for
the interdisciplinary is also given by the extent to which authors from
the information sciences publish in journals outside the subject, and
vice versa; see, for example, Chang (2018a; 2018b).
 We can give some more precision to this general idea by arguing
that the focus on recorded information can be expressed specifically as
a focus on the communication chain of recorded information: from its
creation, through dissemination, indexing and retrieval, use and
archiving or disposal (Duff, 1997; Robinson, 2009). This is implied in
earlier formulations, but noting that it explicitly helps to clarify what
are the concerns of information science. Details of the chain, and the
ways in which it is being changed by new technologies, are discussed
in Chapter 13. Information is recorded in documents, and information
science has a close affinity with the documentation movement and
document theory, as will be covered in Chapter 6.
We can also explain more precisely what information science does,
in terms of both research and scholarly study and of practice, through
the components of domain analysis, as propounded by Birger Hjørland
(2002). This will be discussed fully in Chapter 7. For now, we will just
note that there are a number of aspects which represent both the
activities of the information practitioner and the ways in which
research and study are carried out. Examples are user studies,
historical studies, studies of terminology, research on indexing and
retrieval and so on.
Considering information science as an academic discipline,
comprising the study of the components of the communication chain
of recorded information through the perspective of domain analysis,
provides the understanding of information science which we shall use
throughout this book.
 Information science is a field of study, with recorded information and
documentation as its concern, focusing on the components of the
information communication chain, studied through the perspective of
domain analysis.

Information science is a vocational discipline, underlying a number

of professional activities, including: data, information, and knowledge
management; librarianship; metadata and taxonomy management;
records management and archiving; and documentation in museums,
galleries and heritage institutions.
What kind of discipline?
There is little agreement as to how information science should be
categorised as an academic discipline. It has been called, among other
things, a meta-science, an inter-science, a postmodern science, an
interface science, a superior science, a rhetorical science, a nomad
science, an interdisciplinary subject which should be renamed
knowledge science, a liberal art, a form of cultural engagement, a
subject which may assume the role once played by philosophy in
mediating science and humanism, and the applied philosophy of
information. There have also been national variations in the way the
subject is regarded in, for example, the United Kingdom (Robinson
and Bawden, 2013), France (Ibeque-SanJuan, 2012; Hudon, 2018), the
Nordic countries (Limberg, 2017) and the United States (Buckland,
1996).
University departments teaching and researching the subject may
be found in faculties of arts and humanities, social sciences,
computing and technology, education, science, and business and
management. This scatter may be a natural consequence of the status
of information science as a field of study, but it has been held to be a
weakness of the discipline. The related question of the extent to which
information science has its own body of concepts and theories, as
opposed to simply borrowing them from other disciplines, will be
considered in Chapters 3 and 4; see Dillon (2007) for some concerns on
this aspect.
It is clear that many other professions are interested in components
of the communication chain: journalists are concerned with creation,
publishers with dissemination, computer scientists with information
retrieval and so on. Even accepting that information science is a meta-
discipline, surely it must have some ‘academic turf’ of its own? We
suggest that the uniqueness of information science lies in its concern
for all components of the communication chain and the ways in which
they interact with, and impact upon, each other. Other disciplines are
interested in specific aspects, but only the information sciences see
their concern as being the totality. We might also name some aspects
of information organisation and information behaviour, seemingly
invariant to technology or to context, which are the particular concern
of information science. But our main claim to a unique area is the
totality of the communication chain; for more discussion, see
Robinson and Bawden (2012), Robinson (2009) and Robinson and
Karamuftuoglu (2010).
Constituents and core
Other documents randomly have
different content
 Pleasures of time and sense can give
No hope or real joy;
They leave an aching void behind,
Are mixed with base alloy.

Say, wouldst thou twine a lasting wreath

To deck thy forehead fair,
Go—wipe away the widow's tear,
And sooth the orphan's care.

Wouldst thou be meet to join the choir

Who sing in endless bliss,
Go—drink at that Eternal Fount,
Whose stream shall never cease.

Wouldst thou improve the talents here,

Transmitted from above;
Go—turn the sinner from his way,
And prove a Saviour's love.
POWHATAN.

EXTRACT.

Men will wrangle for religion; write for it; fight for it; die for it; any
thing but—live for it.
 For the Southern Literary Messenger.

ELOQUENCE.

In the long list of powers and endowments, we can select no faculty

or attainment more useful and ennobling than that of eloquence.
Brightening the gloom of intellect, and awakening the energies of
feeling, it holds reason mute at its will and enkindles passion with its
touch. The soldier on the tented field is incited to the charge, and
animated in the conflict, and his last moments sweetened, by the
magic of its influence. The cries of injured innocence it converts into
notes of gladness, and the tears of sadness and sorrow into smiles
of pleasure and rejoicing. The miser, gazing on the beauty of his
coin, and living on the manna of its presence, and kneeling to its
power as his idol, is taught to weep over his error, bow to his
Creator, and despise the degrading destroyer of his peace. The
infidel, unswayed by the voice of divinity, and ignorant of its
attributes, and doubtful of its existence, enraptured with the glowing
efforts of ethereal eloquence, is convicted of his depravity, and yields
to the resistless current, which swelling in its onward course, dispels
the cloud that obscures the mind, and leaves it pure and elevated.
In the courts of justice, the criminal, his heart imbittered with
torturing despair, and his soul torn with agonizing anguish, beholds
his arms unshackled, his character unsullied by even suspicious
glance, and futurity studded with honors, station and dignity. In the
halls of legislation, corruption is unmasked, intrigue is exposed, and
tyranny overthrown. Where is its matchless excellence inapplicable?
The rich and the poor experience its effects. The guilty are living
monuments of its exertion, and the innocent hail it as the vindicator
of its violated rights and the preserver of its sacred reputation. In
the cause of mercy it is ever omnipotent; bold in the consciousness
of its superiority, and fearless and unyielding in the purity of its
motives, it destroys all opposition and defies all power. The godlike
Sheridan, unequalled and unrivalled, swayed all by its electric fire,
charmed and enthralled the weak and the timid, and chained and
overpowered the profound and the prejudiced. Burke, the great
master of the human heart, deeply versed in its feelings and
emotions, "struck by a word, and it quivered beneath the blow;
flashed the light'ning glance of burning, thrilling, animated
eloquence"—and its hopes and fears were moulded to his wish.
Curran, whose speeches glitter with corruscations of wit, and
sentiment, and genius, and whose soul burned with kindred feelings
for its author, and teemed with celestial emanations, astonished,
elevated and enraptured. Pitt, and Fox, and Henry, and Lee, and
other great and gifted spirits of that golden age, have all unfolded
the grandeur of its sublimity, the richness of its magnificence, and
the splendor of its sparkling beauties.

At a later period, when the rising generation caught the living spark
as it fell from the lips of their giant fathers; a Phillips has pleased
and fascinated by the grace and vigor of his action, the strength and
fervor of his imagination, and the dignity and suavity of his manner;
by the warmth of his feelings and the quickness of his perceptions. A
Canning, by the brilliance of his mind, beaming with gems of classic
literature; the perspicuity of his diction, rich in the beauties of our
language; and the commanding force of his voice, now surpassing in
its deep sternness the echoing thunder, and now, soft, and sweet,
and mellow as the dying cadence of a flute, has never failed to
arouse, and enliven, and convince. And a Brougham, with a
profound and comprehensive intellect, deep and capacious as
ocean's channels, with great powers of close and sound reasoning;
with an extensive knowledge of the past and the present, with
untiring energies and unremitted industry, wields a concentrated
mass of overwhelming argument, and hurls a thunderbolt of
eloquence, subduing and crushing in its impetuous course. In our
own country, so fertile in the highest orders of mind, and so
successful in nurturing, and expanding, and invigorating its faculties,
we may point to Calhoun, and Webster, and Clay, and McDuffie, as
the master spirits of the age. Their varied endowments; their chaste
language; their pure and sublime style; their bitter and withering
irony; their keen and searching sarcasm; their vast range of thought
and unequalled condensation of argument, command the admiration
and excite the wonder of men.

That eloquence has been productive of immense good, no one can

deny or doubt. From the earliest ages it has been assiduously
cultivated, and ranked among the highest attainments of the human
mind. So great and elevated was it deemed by the Athenians—so
grand the results of its application, and so distinguished in their
councils were those who possessed it—that the young Demosthenes,
inspired with quenchless ardor for its acquisition, bent all the
energies of his gifted intellect to the task—opposed and triumphed
over every obstacle that nature presented to his advancement—
heeded not the scoffs and hisses of the multitude on the decided
failure of his first endeavors—and at length as the recompense for
his toils, reached the pinnacle of renown—received the gratulations
of an admiring age, and beheld his brow encircled with the wreath of
victory, immortal as his glory, and unfading as the memory of his
deeds. While language continues to exist, and breathe in beauty and
vigor the conceptions of mind, his phillippics, rich in forcible and
magnificent expression, in sublime thought, and bold and resistless
eloquence, will survive. And the fervent, and holy, and incorruptible
patriotism that speaks in every line, must elicit unbounded
veneration. His matchless powers, never exerted but for the public
good, inspired his enemies with respect and fear, and forced the
mighty Philip to acknowledge, "that he had to contend against a
great man indeed." Cicero too, entitled by a contemporary
philosopher and orator,1 one by no means addicted to flattering or
giving even unnecessary praise, "The Father of his Country," has
proved by a long and active career of usefulness and honor, the
beneficial effects of this inestimable power. Who can conceive any
thing more thrilling and overwhelming than his orations against
Cataline? We can see the patriot orator, sternly bold, from the
magnitude of his cause—for the lives of millions depended upon his
success—hatred and abhorrence depicted in his face; indignation
flashing from his eye—for love of country was his impelling motive;
energy and passion in his every action, and the living lava bursting
from his lips;—and the victim, shrinking awe-stricken away—his
baseness exposed—his treacherous schemes unfolded to public
gaze; he flies a blasted and withering thing—a reckless and
degraded outlaw. This is but one of his numerous triumphs, which,
stamped with the seal of immortality, have secured to him a fame as
imperishable as time itself. It was by eloquence that the apostle of
christianity so aroused the apprehensions and pierced the hardened
conscience of the heathen Agrippa, that in the fulness of contrition
he exclaimed, "thou almost persuadest me to be a christian." With it,
the fisherman2 of Naples declared to the populace the sanctity of
their rights—explained the violation of their chartered privileges, and
pointed out the means of securing justice—denounced their rulers as
tyrants, and swore upon the altar of his country to revenge them.
The multitude, through instinctive esteem for intellectual capacities,
however humble the station of their possessor, and urged by the
enthusiasm he had excited, obeyed his every word. Passive in his
hands, he guided them to the maintenance of their freedom and the
expulsion of domestic foes. To its influence we may ascribe the
commencement of our Revolution, and the tameless spirit which
animated our fathers in the struggle. Even now its effects are visible
every where around us. We see that the seducer is lashed into
remorse and contrition, and the traitor has received the reward for
his crime. In the chambers of congress its fire burns with increasing
lustre, and sheds unending sparks of brilliancy and strength. When
properly directed, it is the inseparable companion of liberty; and so
long as it continues thus—so long as its efforts are characterized by
purity and patriotism, the prosperity, union, and above all, the
freedom of these states, will remain secure.
1 Cato of Utica.

2 Massaniello.
 H. M.

LETTERS FROM NEW ENGLAND.—NO. 2.

Our readers will participate with us in the pleasure of reading the second letter from
New England, by an accomplished Virginian, whose easy and forcible style is so well
employed in depicting the manners and character of a portion of our countrymen,
separated from us not more by distance, than by those unhappy prejudices which too
often spring up between members of the same family. The acute observation of men
and things which these letters evince, will entitle them to be seriously read and
considered,—and they will not have been written in vain, if they serve to remove the
misconceptions of a single mind. We repeat what we stated in our last number, that
although they were originally published in the Fredericksburg Arena, they have since
undergone the revision and correction of the author expressly for publication in the
Messenger.

Northampton, Mass. July 25, 1834.

Of Yankee hospitality (curl not your lip sardonically—you, or any

other Buckskin,)—of Yankee hospitality there is a great deal, in their
way—i.e. according to the condition and circumstances of society.
Not a tittle more can be said of Virginia hospitality. Set one of our
large farmers down upon a hundred, instead of a thousand, acres;
let him, and his sons, cultivate it themselves; feed the cattle; rub
down and feed the horses; milk the cows; cut wood and make fires;
let his wife and daughters alone tend the garden; wash, iron, cook,
make clothes, make the beds, and clean up the house; let him have
but ten acres of wood land, in a climate where snow lies three, and
frosts come for seven, months a year; surround him with a dense
population—80, instead of 19, to the square mile; bring strangers,
constantly, in flocks to his neighborhood; place a cheap and
comfortable inn but a mile or two off; give him a ready and near
market for his garden stuffs, as well as for his grain and tobacco—
and ask yourself, if he could, or would, practise our "good old
Virginia hospitality?" To us, who enjoy the credit and the pleasure of
entertaining a guest, while the drudgery devolves upon our slaves;
the larger scale (wastefully large) of our daily rations, too, making
the presence of one or more additional mouths absolutely unfelt;—
hospitality is a cheap, easy, and delightful virtue. But put us in place
of the yankees, in the foregoing respects, and any man of sense and
candor must perceive that we could not excel them. Personal
observation and personal experience, make me "a swift witness" to
their having, in ample measure, the kindliness of soul, which soothes
and sweetens human life: a kindliness ready to expand, when
occasion bids, as well towards the stranger, as towards the object of
nearer ties. No where have I seen equal evidences of public spirit; of
munificent charity; of a generous yielding up of individual advantage
to the common good. No where, more, or lovelier, examples of
domestic affection and happiness—evinced by tokens, small it is
true, but not to be counterfeited or mistaken. And no where have I
had entertainers task themselves more to please and profit me, as a
guest. Yet, as you know, few can have witnessed more of Virginia
hospitality than I have. It would be unpardonable egotism, and more
personal than I choose to be, even in bestowing just praise; besides
"spinning my yarn" too long—to do more than glance at the many
kindnesses, which warrant the audacious heresy, of comparing our
northern brethren with ourselves, in our most prominent virtue.
Gentlemen, some of them of advanced years, and engaged in such
pursuits, as make their time valuable both to themselves and the
public, have devoted hours to shewing me all that could amuse or
interest a stranger, in their vicinities—accompanying me on foot, and
driving me in their own vehicles, for miles, to visit scenes of present
wonder, or of historic fame: patiently answering my innumerable
questions; and explaining, with considerate minuteness, whatever
occurred as needing explanation, in the vast and varied round of
moral and physical inquiry. In surveying literary, charitable, and
political institutions—in trying to ascertain, by careful, and doubtless,
troublesome cross-questionings, the structure and practical effects of
judicial, and school, and pauper systems—in examining the
machinery (human and inanimate) of manufactories—in probing
their tendencies upon minds and morals—in 'stumbling o'er
recollections,' in Boston, on Bunker's hill, and around Lexington—I
found guides, enlighteners, and hosts, such as I can never hope to
see surpassed, if equalled, for friendliness and intelligence. A friend
of ours from Virginia, who was in the city of Boston with his family
when I was, carried a letter of introduction to one of the citizens.
"This gentleman, for three days," said our friend, "gave himself up
entirely to us; brought his carriage to the hotel, and carried us in it
over the city, and all its beautiful environs; in short, he seemed to
think that he could not do enough to amuse and gratify us." To
enjoy such treatment as this, one must, of course, in general, come
introduced, by letter or otherwise. Then—nay, according to my
experience, in some instances without any introduction,—the tide of
kindness flows as ungrudgingly as that of Virginia hospitality, and far
more beneficially to the object: at an expense, too, not only of
money, but of time—which here, more emphatically than any where
else in America, is money. When travelling on foot, I had no letters
to present—no introduction, except of myself. Still, unbought
civilities, and more than civilities, usually met me. A farmer, at whose
house I obtained comfortable quarters on the first night of my walk,
refused all compensation, giving me at the same time a hearty
welcome, and an invitation to stay to breakfast. Next day, a man in a
jersey wagon, overtook me, and invited me to ride with him. I did
so, for an hour, while our roads coincided: and found him intelligent,
as well as friendly. Whenever I wanted, along the road, refreshing
drinks were given me;—cider, switchell, and water—the two first
always unasked for. One gudewife, at whose door I called for a glass
of water, made me sit down, treated me abundantly to cider; and,
finding that my object was to see the country and learn the ways of
its people, laid herself out to impart such items of information as
seemed likely to interest me: wishing me 'great success' at parting.
Many similar instances of kindness occurred. It is true, none of the
country people invited me to partake of their meals, except my first
host just mentioned—an omission, however, for which I was
prepared, because it arose naturally from the condition of things
here. One testimonial more you shall have, to New England
benevolence, from a third person. A deserter from the British navy—
moneyless, shoeless, with only yarn socks on; feet blistered—and
actually suffering from a fever and ague—told me that he had
walked all the way from Bath, in Maine, to the neighborhood of
Hartford, where I overtook him, entirely upon charity; and had never
asked for food or shelter in vain. A lady that day had given him a
clean linen shirt. There was no whining in this poor fellow's tale of
distress: his tone was manly, and his port erect: he seemed, like a
true sailor, as frank in accepting relief, as he would be free in giving
it.

The result of all my observation is, that the New Englanders have in
their hearts as much of the original material of hospitality as we
have: that, considering the sacrifices it costs them, and the
circumstances which modify its application, they actually use as
much of that material as we do; and that, although their mode of
using it is less amiable than ours, it is more rational, more salutary—
better for the guest, better for the host, better for society. And most
gladly would I see my countrymen and countrywomen exchange the
ruinous profusion; which, to earn, or preserve, a vainglorious name,
pampers and stupifies themselves and impoverishes their country,
for the discriminating and judicious hospitality of New England:
retaining only those freer and more captivating traits of their own,
which are warranted by our sparser settlements, our ampler fields,
and our different social organization.

Yet, while such praise is due to the general civility and kindness of
the New Englanders, it must be qualified by saying, that several
times, I have experienced discourtesy, which chafed me a good deal:
but always from persons who, in their own neighborhoods, would be
considered as vulgar. The simplest and most harmless question,
propounded in my civilest manner, has occasionally been answered
with a gruffness, that would for half a minute upset my equanimity.
For example—"Good morning sir" (to a hulking, rough, carter-looking
fellow, one hot morning, when I had walked eight miles before
breakfast)—"how far to Enfield?" "Little better 'an a mile,"—was the
answer; in an abrupt, surly, unmodulated tone, uttered without even
turning his head as he passed me. Two or three of "mine hosts," at
inns, were churlishly grudging in their responses to my inquiries
about the products, usages, and statistics, of their neighborhoods.
For these, however, I at once saw a twofold excuse: they were very
busy and my questions were very numerous—besides the irritating
circumstance, that answers were not always at hand—and to be
posed, is what flesh and blood cannot bear. And it makes me think
no worse than before, either of human nature in general, or of
Yankee character in particular, that such slights occurred, nearly in
every instance, whilst I was a somewhat shabby looking way-farer
on foot; scarcely ever, while travelling in stage, or steamboat. Such
distinctions are made, all the world over: in Virginia, as well as
elsewhere.

A Southron, not accustomed to wait much upon himself, here feels

sensibly the scantiness of the personal service he meets with. Even I
—though for years more than half a Yankee in that respect—missed,
rather awkwardly, on first coming hither, the superfluous, and often
cumbersome attentions of our southern waiters. Besides having
frequently to brush my own clothes, I am put to some special
trouble in the best hotels, to get my shoes cleaned. In many village
inns, sumptuous and comfortable in most respects, this last is a
luxury hardly to be hoped for. This scarcity of menial service arises
partly from the nice economy, with which the number of hands
about a house is graduated to the general, and smallest possible,
quantity of necessary labor; and partly, from a growing aversion to
such services among the "help" themselves, caused, or greatly
heightened, by the increased demand and higher wages for them in
the numerous manufactories throughout the country. Almost every
where, I am told of their asking higher pay, and growing more
fastidious, and intractable, as household servants. "Servants" indeed,
they will not allow themselves to be called. A "marry-come-up-ish"
toss, if not an immediate quitting of the house, is the probable
consequence of so terming them. The above, more creditable
designation, is that which must be used—at least in their presence.
By the by, though the gifted author of "Hope Leslie" says that the
singular plural, "help," alone, is proper, I find popular usage ("quem
penes arbitrium"—you know) sanctioning the regular plural form
"helps," whenever reference is made to more than one.

The spirit, and the habits, which oblige one to do so much for
himself within doors, produce corresponding effects without. Useful
labor is no where disdained in New England, by any class of society.
Proprietors, and their sons, though wealthy, frequently work on the
farms, and in the gardens, stables, and barns. Two or three days
ago, I saw an old gentleman (Squire ——) a justice of the peace,
and for several years a useful member of the Legislature, toiling in
his hay harvest. Two of the richest men in this village—possessing
habitations among the most elegant in this assemblage of elegant
dwellings—I have seen busy with hoe and rake, in their highly
cultivated grounds. The wife of a tavern-keeper, in Rhode Island,
worth $40,000, prepared my breakfast, and waited upon me at it,
with a briskness such as I never saw equalled. Similar instances are
so frequent and familiar, as to be unnoticed except by strangers.
Many of New England's eminent men of former days, were constant
manual laborers; not only in boyhood, and in obscurity, but after
achieving distinction. Putnam, it is well known, was ploughing when
he heard of the bloody fray at Lexington; and left both plough and
team in the field, to join and lead in the strife for liberty. Judge
Swift, of Connecticut, who wrote a law book1 of some merit, and, I
believe, a History of Connecticut, was a regular laborer on his farm,
whilst he was a successful practiser of the Law. An amusing story is
told (which I cannot now stop to repeat) of his being severely
drubbed by the famous Matthew Lyon, then his indented servant;
while they worked together in the barn. Timothy Pickering, after
serving with distinction through the revolution—being aid to General
Washington, Representative and Senator in Congress, and Secretary
of State—spent the evening of his unusually prolonged and honored
life, in the culture of a small farm of 120 or 130 acres, with a
suitably modest dwelling, near Salem, Mass.: literally, and through
necessity, (for he was always poor) earning his bread by his own
daily toil. With Dr. Johnson, I deride the hacknied pedantry of a
constant recurrence to ancient Greece and Rome—without, however,
being quite ready to "knock any man down who talks to me about
the second Punic War." But, in contemplating the stern virtues, that
poverty and rural toil fostered in those earlier worthies of New
England, and that still animate the "bold yeomanry, a nation's pride,"
who yet hold out against the advancing tide of wealth, indolence,
and luxury—I cannot forbear an exulting comparison of these my
countrymen, with the pure and hardy spirits that graced the best
days of republican Rome:

Regulum, et Scauros, animæque magnæ

Prodigum Paulum superante Poeno,

* * * * *

Fabriciumque,
Hunc, et incomptis Curium capillis
Utilem bello, tulit, et Camillum,
Sæva paupertas, et avitus apto
Cum lare fundus.

1 On Evidence, and Bills of Exchange and Promissory Notes.

In the household economy of these thrifty and industrious people, it

were endless to specify all the things worthy of our imitation. Their
use of cold bread conduces to good in a threefold way: a less
quantity satisfies the appetite, and it is in itself more digestible than
warm bread; thus doubly promoting health: while there is a sensible
saving of flour. The more frugal scale upon which their ordinary
meals are set forth, is another point in which for the sake of
economy, health, and clearness of mind, we might do well to copy
them. By burning seasoned wood, kept ready for the saw in a snug
house built on purpose, and by the simple expedient of having the
doors shut and all chinks carefully closed, they secure warm rooms
with half the fuel that would otherwise be necessary. I cannot,
however, forgive their bringing no buttermilk to table. The natives
seem wholly ignorant, how pleasant and wholesome a food it is for
man; and give it to their pigs. The hay-harvest lasts from four to six
weeks; it has been going on ever since the 1st of July. Of course,
the hay cut at such different periods must vary greatly in ripeness:
and here they confirm me in a long standing belief, which I have
striven in vain to impress upon some Virginia hay farmers—that the
hay, cut before the seeds are nearly ripe, is always best. The earlier
part of the mowing, (where the crop is about equally forward) is
most juicy, sweet and tender. The corn is now in tassel, having
attained nearly its full height: the height of about five feet, on rich
land! It is a sort differing from ours: small in grain and ear, as well
as in stalk; and very yellow grained. It ripens in less time than ours;
adapting itself to the shorter summers of this latitude. It is planted
very thick: three or four stalks in a hill, and the hills but three feet
apart.

With many vegetables and fruits, the season is five or six weeks
later here than in Virginia. Thus, garden peas are still, every day, on
the tables: I had cherries in Boston last week, of kinds which
ripened with us early in June; and it is but a fortnight, since
strawberries, both red and white, were given me in Connecticut—by
the way, it was at breakfast.

On the margin of this village, is a curious agricultural exhibition. It is

a large tract of flat land upon Connecticut river, of great fertility and
value (one hundred and fifty or two hundred dollars an acre,)
containing altogether several thousand acres. With one or two
trifling exceptions, it has no houses or dividing fences upon it,
though partitioned among perhaps two hundred proprietors. Hardly
an opulent, or middling wealthy man in Northampton, but owns a lot
of five, ten, twenty, or fifty acres, in this teeming expanse. The lots
are all in crops, of one kind or other; and being mostly of regular
shapes (oblongs, or other four sided figures,) the various aspects
they present, accordingly as the crop happens to be deep green,
light green, or yellow—mown, or unmown—afford a singular and rich
treat, to an eye that can at once survey the whole. Most
opportunely, Mount Holyoke (the great lion of western
Massachusetts, to scenery-hunters,) furnishes the very stand,
whence not only this lovely plain is seen, but the river, its valley, and
the adjacent country, for twenty or thirty miles around. Nearly a
thousand feet below you, and not quite a mile from the foot of the
mountain, the low ground, fantastically chequered into lots so
variously sized and colored—dwindling too, by the distance, into
miniatures of themselves—reminds you of a gay bed-quilt. A lady of
our party (we ascended the mountain this afternoon, and staid till
after sunset,) aptly compared it to a Yankee comfort; the elms and
fruit trees dotted over the surface, and shrunk and softened in the
distance, representing the tufts of wool which besprinkle that
appropriately named article of furniture. The whole landscape, seen
from Mount Holyoke, it would be presumptuous in me to try to
describe. I have said, twenty or thirty miles around: but in one
direction, we see, in clear weather, the East and West Rocks, near
New Haven—about seventy miles off. Fourteen villages are within
view. The whole scene is panoramic: it is as vivid and distinct as
reality; but rich, soft and mellow, as a picture. We descended; and
as we recrossed the river by twilight, the red gleams from the
western sky, reflected in long lines from the dimpling water, forced
upon more than one mind that fine passage in a late work of fiction,
where the remark, that "no man can judge of the happiness of
another," is illustrated by the reflection of moon-beams from a lake.
But I am growing lack-a-daisical: and must conclude.

I set off in the stage for Albany, at two o'clock in the morning. Good
night.
 We copy the following production of Mrs. Sigourney from the "American Annuals of
Education and Instruction," a periodical published in Boston. It is difficult to decide
whether the prose or poetry of this distinguished lady is entitled to preference. Her
noble efforts in behalf of her own sex deserve their gratitude and our admiration.

ON THE POLICY OF ELEVATING THE STANDARD OF FEMALE

EDUCATION.

Addressed to the American Lyceum, May, 1834.

The importance of education seems now to be universally admitted.

It has become the favorite subject of some of the wisest and most
gifted minds. It has incorporated itself with the spirit of our vigorous
and advancing nation. It is happily defined by one of the most
elegant of our living writers, as the "mind of the present age, acting
upon the mind of the next." It will be readily perceived how far this
machine surpasses the boasted lever of Archimedes, since it
undertakes not simply the movement of a mass of matter, the lifting
of a dead planet from its place, that it might fall, perchance, into the
sun and be annihilated; but the elevation of that part of man whose
power is boundless, and whose progress is eternal, the raising of a
race "made but a little lower than the angels," to a more entire
assimilation with superior natures.

In the benefits of an improved system of education, the female sex

are now permitted liberally to participate. The doors of the temple of
knowledge, so long barred against them, have been thrown open.
They are invited to advance beyond its threshold. The Moslem
interdict that guarded its hidden recesses is removed. The darkness
of a long reign of barbarism, and the illusions of an age of chivalry,
alike vanish, and the circle of the sciences, like the shades of Eden,
gladly welcome a new guest.

While gratitude to the liberality of this great and free nation is

eminently due from the feebler sex, they have still a boon to
request. They ask it as those already deeply indebted, yet conscious
of ability to make a more ample gift profitable to the giver as well as
to the receiver. It seems desirable that their education should
combine more of thoroughness and solidity, that it should be
expanded over a wider space of time, and that the depth of its
foundation should bear better proportion to the height and elegance
of its superstructure. Their training ought not to be for display and
admiration, to sparkle amid the froth and foam of life, and to
become enervated by that indolence and luxury, which are
subversive of the health and even the existence of a republic. They
should be qualified to act as teachers of knowledge and of
goodness. However high their station, this office is no derogation
from its dignity; and its duties should commence whenever they find
themselves in contact with those who need instruction. The adoption
of the motto, that to teach is their province, will inspire diligence in
the acquisition of a knowledge, and perseverance in the beautiful
mechanism of pure example.

It is requisite that they who have, in reality, the moulding of the

whole mass of mind in its first formation, should be profoundly
acquainted with the structure and capacities of that mind; that they
who nurture the young citizens of a prosperous republic, should be
able to demonstrate to them, from the broad annals of history, the
blessings which they inherit, and the wisdom of preserving them, the
value of just laws, and the duty of obeying them. It is indispensable
that they on whose bosom the infant heart is laid, like a germ in the
quickening breast of spring, should be vigilant to watch its first
unfoldings, and to direct its earliest tendrils where to twine. It is
unspeakably important, that they who are commissioned to light the
lamp of the soul, should know how to feed it with pure oil; that they
to whose hand is entrusted the welfare of a being never to die,
should be able to perform the work, and earn the wages of heaven.

Assuming the position that females are by nature designated as

teachers, and that the mind in its most plastic state is their pupil, it
becomes a serious inquiry, what they will be likely to teach. They
will, of course, impart what they best understand, and what they
most value. They will impress their own peculiar lineaments upon
the next generation. If vanity and folly are their predominant
features, posterity must bear the likeness. If utility and wisdom are
the objects of their choice, society will reap the benefit. This
influence is most palpably operative in a government like our own.
Here the intelligence and virtue of every individual possesses a
heightened relative value. The secret springs of its harmony may be
touched by those whose birth-place was in obscurity. Its safety is
interwoven with the welfare of all its subjects.

If the character of those to whom the charge of schools is

committed, has been deemed not unworthy the attention of
lawgivers, is not her education of consequence, who begins her
labor before any other instructor, who pre-occupies the unwritten
page of being, who produces impressions which nothing on earth
can efface, and stamps on the cradle what will exist beyond the
grave, and be legible in eternity?

The ancient republics overlooked the worth of that half of the human
race, which bore the mark of physical infirmity. Greece, so
exquisitely susceptible to the principle of beauty, so skilled in
wielding all the elements of grace, failed to appreciate the latent
excellence of woman. If, in the brief season of youth and bloom, she
was fain to admire her as the acanthus-leaf of her own Corinthian
capital, she did not discover, that like that very column, she might
have added stability to the temple of freedom. She would not believe
that her virtues might have aided in consolidating the fabric which
philosophy embellished and luxury overthrew.
Rome, notwithstanding her primeval rudeness, and the ferocity of
her wolf-nursed greatness, seems more correctly, than polished
Greece, to have estimated the "weaker vessel." Here and there,
upon the storm driven billows of her history, the form of woman is
distinctly visible, and the mother of the Gracchi still stands forth in
strong relief, amid that imagery, over which time has no power. Yet
where the brute force of the warrior was counted godlike, the
feebler sex were prized, only in their approximation to the energy of
a sterner nature, as clay was held in combination with iron, in the
feet of that mysterious image which troubled the visions of the
Assyrian king.

To some of the republics of South America, the first dawn of liberty

gave a light which Greece and Rome, so long her favored votaries,
never beheld. Even in the birth of their political existence, they
discovered that the sex whose strength is in the heart, might exert
an agency in modifying national character. New Grenada set an
example which the world had not before seen. Ere the convulsive
struggles of revolution had subsided, she unbound the cloistered
foot of woman, and urged her to ascend the heights of knowledge.
She established a college for females, and gave its superintendence
to a lady of talent and erudition. We look with solicitude toward the
result of this experiment. We hope that our sisters of the "cloud-
crowned Andes," may be enabled to secure and to diffuse the
blessings of education, and that from their abodes of domestic
privacy, a hallowed influence may go forth, which shall aid in
reducing a chaos of conflicting elements to order, and symmetry, and
permanent repose.

In our own country, man, invested by his Maker with the "right to
reign," has nobly conceded to her, who was for ages a vassal,
equality of intercourse, participation in knowledge, guardianship over
his dearest possessions, and his fondest hopes. He is content to
"bear the burden and heat of the day," that she may dwell in plenty,
and at ease. Yet from the very felicity of her lot, dangers arise. She
is tempted to rest in superficial attainments, to yield to that
indolence which spreads like rust over the intellect, and to merge
the sense of her own responsibilities in the slumber of a luxurious
life. These tendencies should be neutralized by an education of
utility, rather than of ornament. Sloth and luxury, the subverters of
republics, should be banished from her vocabulary. It is expedient
that she be surrounded in youth with every motive to persevering
industry, and severe application; and that in maturity she be induced
to consider herself an ally in the cares of life, especially in the holy
labor of rearing the immortal mind. While her partner stands on the
high places of the earth, toiling for his stormy portion of that power
or glory from which it is her privilege to be sheltered, let her feel
that to her, in the recesses of the domestic sphere, is entrusted the
culture of that knowledge and virtue, which are the strength of a
nation. Happily secluded from lofty legislation and bold enterprise,
with which her native construction has no affinity, she is still
accountable to the government by which she is protected, for the
character of those who shall hereafter obtain its honors, and control
its functions.

Her place is in the quiet shade, to watch the little fountain, ere it has
breathed a murmur. But the fountain will break forth into a stream,
and the swelling rivulet rush toward the sea; and she, who was first
at the fountain head and lingered longest near the infant streamlet,
might best guide it to right channels; or, if its waters flow
complaining and turbid, could truest tell what had troubled their
source.

Let the age which has so freely imparted to woman the treasures of
knowledge, add yet to its bounty, by inciting her to gather them with
an unremitting and tireless hand, and by expecting of her the
highest excellence of which her nature is capable. Demand it as a
debt. Summon her to abandon inglorious ease.—Arouse her to
practise and to enforce those virtues, which sustain the simplicity,
and promote the permanence of a great republic. Make her
answerable for the character of the next generation. Give her this
solemn charge in the presence of "men and of angels,"—gird her for
its fulfilment with the whole armor of education and piety, and see if
she be not faithful to her offspring, to her country, and to her God!

L. H. S.

We beg our readers to amuse themselves with the following article from Mr. Fairfield's
Magazine. We cannot however, whilst we value the importance of having an
euphonous and pleasant sounding name, sympathise very sincerely with Mr. Rust in
the horror he has conceived towards his own. We had rather be Lazarus in all his
misery than Dives in "purple and fine linen."

From the North American Magazine.

MY NAME.

"Quid rides? mutato nomine, de te

Fabula narratur."—Horace, Sat. 1. Lib, I. 70.

"Nil admirari" has always been my maxim, yet there is one thing
which excites my wonder. It is astonishing, that a man, who leaves
his son no other legacy, cannot at least give him a good name. What
could have been my father's motive, in inflicting upon me that curse
of all curses—my name, I cannot determine. Trifling as so small a
matter may appear, it has been my ruin. Bah! I shudder when I think
of it! shade of my honored parent! would nothing but a scripture
name satisfy thee? Why didst thou not then entitle me Ezra?—
Zedekiah?—Nimri?—anything—it must out—but Lazarus!