Subject: Information science
Course: Theory of information science
ECTS credits: 3
Language: Croatian
Duration: 1 semester
Status: compulsory elective for DHI study, elective for all other studies
Method of teaching: 1 lecture hour and 1 hour of seminar every week
Prerequisites: none
Assessment: oral exam and written report

Course description:
The course is divided into four parts: a) information science development; b) methods and methodology of information science; c) information retrieval systems; d) knowledge typology. Within a framework of the Information science development part of the course the subject of the information science is being explored, as well as its origin, its definition, field and theoretical problems of information science in the period 1960 – 2000. Furthermore, the historical overview of the origin and development of information science is given. The part of the course called Methods and methodology of information science discusses and explains the following terms: relevance, bibliometric laws, texture and morphology of information, types of INDOC objects, structure and development of information systems, and knowledge representation. Within a framework of the Information retrieval systems part of the course different information retrieval techniques are described, as well as the statistic and linguistic methods of text processing that are used in document retrieval systems. The part of the course called Knowledge Typology encompasses the representation of the different types of knowledge, such as public and private knowledge, corporative knowledge, historic knowledge and intelligence knowledge.

Course objective:
The main objective of the course is to give students introduction to the theory and history of knowledge organization and knowledge representation and to teach them techniques and methods of document processing. Students need to understand the determination of different knowledge forms through social, technological and communication models and to understand the research methods through the written work and own research.

Quality check and success of the course: Quality check and success of the course will be done by combining internal and external evaluation. Internal evaluation will be done by teachers and students using survey method at the end of semester. The external evaluation will be done by colleagues attending the course, by monitoring and assessment of the course.

Reading list:
1. Saračević, T.: Relevance reconsidered '96, Second International Conference on Conception of Library and Information Science, 1996.
2. Tuđman, M.: Teorija informacijske znanosti, Zagreb: Informator, 1990.

Additional reading list:
1. Tuđman, M.: Obavijest i znanje, Zagreb: Zavod za informacijske studije, 1990.
2. Tuđman, M.: Prikazalište znanja, Zagreb: Hrvatska sveučilišna naklada, 2003.