Knowledge Space Revisited: Challenges for Twenty-First Century Library and Information Science Researchers

This paper suggests writing a companion work to the Bourne and Hahn book, History of Online Information Services, 1963–1976 (2003), which would feature milestone improvements in subject access mechanisms developed over time. To provide a background for such a work, a 1976 paper by Meincke and Atherton is revisited wherein the concept of Knowledge Space is defined as “online mechanisms used for handling a user’s knowledge level while a search was being formulated and processed.” Research that followed in the 1980s and 1990s is linked together for the first time. Seven projects are suggested for current researchers to undertake so they can assess the utility of earlier research ideas that did not get a proper chance for development. It is just possible that they may have value and be found useful in today’s information environment.