SIGIA-L Mail Archives: Re: SIGIA-L: What do IAs need to know?
Re: SIGIA-L: What do IAs need to know?
From: Michael Angeles (angeles_at_lucent.com)
Date: Thu Feb 15 2001 - 07:44:49 EST
Jesse James Garrett wrote:
>
> Darryn Sneller:
> >The question seems to be who is going to define the 'baseline' of
> >knowledge for IAs. For a field that desires to place itself at the
> >apex of the pyramid of knowledge of how to create value on the Web,
> >the amount of knowledge necessary before one can begin calling
> >oneself an IA is awfully thin.
>
> In my experience, "knowledge" is nowhere near as important as
> "know-how". I have seen an IA with nothing more than instinct run
> circles around one who's read all the "right" books. So, yes, the
> amount of necessary knowledge *is* awfully thin -- because it doesn't
> take all that much knowledge to do this job well.
i agree to an extent with the notion that a superficial reading of the usual
"ia" books and good instinct make someone qualified to do typical ia work for
the web or other electronic devices. i also hold the belief that a lot of us
with training in disciplines such as hci or library and information science tend
to be inclined to excel at ia, because we bring with us not only the knowledge
of the literature we've absorbed, but hopefully with some experience researching
and engaging users in their information-use environments. call it added-value.
i've found that many people with library and information science backgrounds
that have studied information retrieval have spent a lot of time reading
literature about users and information-use in physical spaces as well as in
electronic spaces. being one of these people, i have found it easy to make the
transition from performing information organization for library users to
strategizing information organization and information access for web users.
in any case, i believe that since we have the opportunity to define this
unusual, multidisciplinary field, that we need to consider the value that each
individual discipline brings to ia. having said that, the above is my 2 cents
for the lis side. any dissenting opinions?
-michael
--
<lucent_associate>
<who>michael angeles</who>
<where>lucent technologies integrated info. solutions</where>
<voice>908 582 5589</voice> <fax>908 582 7001</fax>
<email>angeles_at_lucent.com</email>
</lucent_associate>
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