Information: Objective or Subjective/Situational?

Birger Hjrland
Royal School of Library and Information Science, 6 Birketinger, DK2300, Copenhagen S, Denmark.
E-mail: [email protected]

This article contrasts Bates understanding of information as an observerindependent phenomenon with an

understanding of information as situational, put forward
by, among others, Bateson, Yovits, Spang-Hanssen, Brier,
Buckland, Goguen, and Hjrland. The conflict between
objective and subjective ways of understanding information corresponds to the conflict between an understanding of information as a thing or a substance versus an
understanding of it as a sign. It is a fundamental distinction that involves a whole theory of knowledge, and it has
roots back to different metaphors applied in Shannons
information theory. It is argued that a subject-dependent/
situation specific understanding of information is best
suited to fulfill the needs in information science and that
it is urgent for us to base Information Science (IS; or
Library and Information Science, LIS) on this alternative
theoretical frame.
It is said that we live in an Age of Information, but it is an
open scandal that there is no theory, nor even definition, of
information that is both broad and precise enough to make
such an assertion meaningful.
Goguen, 1997

Introduction
Marcia Bates has recently (2005b and 2006) proposed a
definition and an understanding of the concept of information. In this article, we will demonstrate that more useful
conceptions have already been suggested in the literature of
information science, and that the arguments put forward by
the proponents of these views unfortunately have been ignored
by Bates.
Different definitions and understandings of information
are more or less conflicting and may be more or less fruitful
(or harmful) for information science. It is important to realize this and to take the risk defending a particular theory
(as Bates actually does). If this was not done, the views will
never be sufficiently falsified, confirmed, or clarified.

Received May 9, 2006; revised July 25, 2006, October 2, 2006, November 15,
2006; accepted November 15, 2006

2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Published online 12 June 2007 in Wiley

InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/asi.20620

In the process of defending a particular view, one has to

find out what other views are consequently rejected, implying
that one has to consider other suggestions and the arguments
put forward. In this respect, Bates two articles are weak.
They do not consider the accumulated arguments for a subjective/situational or domain specific understanding of information. They are also weak in another respect: The pragmatic
philosophers suggest that all theoriesin addition to issues
of completeness, internal consistency, and efficiencyare
provisional and justified or not justified by their utility. What
can they do for us? How well do they do it? Do they meet
our needs? So, different theories could be useful for different
purposes. Thus, in order to make our thoughts clear, we should
ask: What practical consequence does it make whether one
or another theory is taken as true? (Or whether one or another
definition is used?) If no practical implications follow, our
theory (or definition) is of no consequence and thus not
important. What are the implications of different definitions
and understandings of information for the work of information professionals?
Bates does consider the concept of information in relation
to information seeking as well as to The Information and
Curatorial Sciences; however, in these examples, the two
different definitions are not kept clearly separate. She defines
information (sometimes termed information 1) as an objective phenomenon and information 2 as a subjective
phenomenon, thus trying to have it both ways; but, in the
practical examples, the defense of the objective definition is
not maintained.
This article only focuses on only one point in Bates
work. Bates has made important contributions to information
science and, in important ways, seems to be theoretically in
agreement with me. Bates (2005a) is, for example, the best
overview of approaches to information science available
today. However, her theory of information appears inadequate and inappropriate for Library and Information Science.
In order to clarify this concept, the arguments should be put
forward as clearly as possible, i.e., why we focus on only one
conflicting issue: the objectivity/subjectivity of the concept
of information. Arguments will be put forward that Bates
understanding of information as an objective phenomenon
is not fruitful for our field and that it is urgent for us to base

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, 58(10):14481456, 2007

Information Science (IS; or Library and Information Science,

LIS) on an alternative theoretical frame.
Bates Understanding of Information
Bates (2006, p. 1033) quotes the definition of information
from Edwin Parkers Information and Society (1974, p. 10):
Information is the pattern of organization of matter and energy. Bates (2006) further writes:
Information is the pattern of organization of the matter of
rocks, of the earth, of plants, of animal bodies, or of brain matter. Information is also the pattern of organization of the
energy of my speech as it moves the air, or of the earth as it
moves in an earthquake. Indeed, the only thing in the universe
that does not contain information is total entropy; that alone is
pattern-free. (p. 1033; emphasis in original)

And: We can talk about information as an objectively

existing phenomenon in the universe (p. 1034).
An alternative understanding of information is presented
in short and rejected by Bates: One approach to information
(Brier, 1996) draws on Batesons definition of information
as a difference that makes a difference (Bateson, 1972,
p. 453). A difference to whom or what? Here, I argue that we
must begin prior to that understanding, begin even before a
sensing animal detects or assigns meaning to an experienced
difference. As we shall see, humans and other animals can
usefully identify a number of distinct types of information
even prior to meaning assignment. Later, we will relate this
definition of information to a more familiar understanding of
the term, addressing what happens when we become informed. (Bates, 2006).
Although Bates (2005b and 2006) cites Hjrland (2002)
and many other viewpoints, she does not describe them, neither positively nor negatively. They are just mentioned and
Bates continues with the point of view introduced by Parker
(1974), ignoring the arguments, which have been put forward
by many authors. The implication of Bates view (which she
does not consider) is that any difference is information,
whether or not it makes a difference to anybody or anything.
Two basic views of information
1. The objective understanding (Observer independent,
situation independent). Versions of this view have been
put forward by, for example, Parker, Dretske,1 Stonier,2
and Bates. Bates version implies: Any difference is
information.
2. The subjective/situational understanding. Versions
have been put forward by, for example, Bateson, Yovits,
Spang-Hanssen, Brier, Buckland, Goguen, and Hjrland.
This position implies: Information is a difference that
makes a difference (for somebody or for something or
from a point of view). What is information for one person
in one situation needs not be information for another
person or in another situation. This view of information
1

See, for example, Dretske (1981).

See, for example, Stonier (1997), reviewed by Hjrland (1999).

as a noun is related to becoming informed (informing as

a verb). Something is information if it is informativeor
rather, something is information when it is informative.
(This view is also considered by Bates but is termed
information 2.)

Bates (2006) relates information to scientific observations: In the end, the fundamental stance taken here is one
of scientific observation. The phenomenon being observed is
information, the pattern of organization of matter and energy
as it exists in the universe and in living beings. However,
Bates does not say how information is observed, what kinds of
scientific observations counts as observations of information.
This may be taken as evidence that her view is problematic:
If it is not possible to differentiate between observations of
information and observations of other physical characteristics, the concept is meaningless. It is of course possible for
scientistsas for anybodyto observe a lot of differences,
but why should any difference observed count as information?
Bates has an example of a frosted window representing
information. Before considering that example, let us review
an example put forward by Hjrland (1997):
A stone on a field could contain different information for
different people (or from one situation to another). It is not
possible for information systems to map all the stones possible information for every individual. Nor is any one mapping
the one true mapping. But people have different educational backgrounds and play different roles in the division of
labor in society. A stone in a field represents typical one kind
of information for the geologist, another for the archaeologist. The information from the stone can be mapped into
different collective knowledge structures produced by e.g.
geology and archaeology. Information can be identified,
described, represented in information systems for different
domains of knowledge. Of course, there are much uncertainty and many and difficult problems in determining
whether a thing is informative or not for a domain. Some
domains have high degree of consensus and rather explicit
criteria of relevance. Other domains have different, conflicting paradigms, each containing it own more or less implicate
view of the informativeness of different kinds of information
sources. (p. 111, emphasis in original) 3

In a similar way, it should be possible to say that a frosted

window might be regarded as answers to different kinds of
questions and thus represent different kinds of information
(e.g., for the artist, the physicist, and the meteorologist). The
problem with understanding frosted windows as objective
information is: What should the purpose be in representing
this information in an information system? How does the
concept of information serve us in relation to this example?
3
Bowker (2006) also discusses stones in fields. He says that stones had
dual existences: As objects they function in the world, and as archives they
maintain traces of their own past. Thus a rock can be read as an object that
constitutes part of the lithosphere, and equally as a document that contains
its own history written into it: striations on the surface indicate past glaciation, strata indicate complex stories of deposition over time (p. 36). Note
the phrase can be read as.

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGYAugust 2007
DOI: 10.1002/asi

1449

These examples demonstrate, in my opinion, that the

domain-specific understanding is the way of understanding
most in correspondence with ordinary views of science and
knowledge: Researchers in each domain look at the world
from a specific perspective and define and process information accordingly. Scientists do not just describe or collect
differences mechanically. On the contrary, they usually
describe differences from a theoretical point of view or from
a stated purpose. Randomly collected descriptions of differences are not as fruitful as are differences described in relation
to carefully planed observations as a part of scientific work
and influenced by a paradigm in the field.
While I do agree with Bates that, for example, genetic
information is encoded in the DNA, I do not consider this information to be independent of the biological theories. It may be
objective in the way that different observers describe it
the same way (although I prefer to use the term intersubjective
in this connection). But this objectivity (or intersubjectivity)
is dependent on a scientific consensus in biology. It is only
within this theoretical framework that DNA may be understood as information in an objective way.
Bates (2006) also discusses the concept of information in
relation to semiotics. She writes:
In the language used here, information can be seen as the raw
material, the fodder, that goes into the process of semiosis, as
well as into individual acts of interpretation. For example, in
various cultures over the years, waving a hand toward oneself
has come to mean, come here. Thus, a long-term semiotic
process has resulted in that association being present in many
human beings minds. My culture shares that association.
When, at a party, I interpret that hand motion from a friend
across the room as a sign to come join him, I am selecting out
a certain subset of all the information around me. From all the
patterns of organization of sound, sight, smell, and touch that
I experience in the room, I separate out the hand motion and
read it as come here, and then heed the call.

Again, for Bates, the physical pattern of a moving hand is

information as an objective phenomena. In semiotics, on the
other hand, the physical pattern of a moving hand is a sign if
interpreted as such, and thus a subjective phenomenon. An objective understanding of information, like Bates', consider the
hand motion a kind of information independent of whether it is
observed or not and independent of how it is interpreted. In this
way, there is a conflict between whether somebody is being
informed about that hand waving or not: The hand waving is
information for Bates whether anybody is informed or not.
Information as a noun is not linked by Bates to the verb to
inform because hand motion is considered information whether
or not somebody is being informed (cf. Spang-Hanssen, 2001).
In order to cope with this problem, Bates has to establish
another concept, information 2, which is defined in this
way: Information 2: Some pattern of organization of matter
and energy given meaning by a living being (or its constituent parts).
Blair (2006) interprets at length for Information Science
Wittgensteins later philosophy. The position is rigorously
1450

sustained that the meanings ascribed to words do not arise

from the words themselves, but arise from the ways in which
words are used. The position that words have meanings only
temporarily and situationally given to them, may be compatible with Bates Information 2 but not with Information 1.
We shall not dwell much with the new concept information 2, which may be seen as an indication of a problematic
understanding of information, possibly a way of admitting
that an objective conception of information cannot do the
work we need it to do. Bates suggests that we understand
information to be objective while information 2 is subjective. By introducing two definitions, information and
information 2, one may say that Bates is trying to have it
both ways. Thus, Bates and I agree that we need the subjective concept of information, but we disagree on how is
should be labeled because we disagree about the need for an
objective understanding of information. In analyzing the
practical implications, Bates does not maintain a clear argument for the usefulness of an objective understanding. By
introducing information 2 Bates uses the concept of meaning which is almost as difficult a concept as information
itself, i.e., why it should not be used without a careful analysis and explication of its meaning.4
There is at least one serious problem with Bates definition of Information 2: It is not just living beings for which
such a concept is needed, it is also needed for computers.
A string of 0s and 1s is a pattern of organization of matter
and energy, but it is not this pattern in itself, which is
considered information in computers. It is considered information in relation to a specific way it is coded and used by
computer programs. Information in computers is thus not
objective but depending on what the string is programmed to
represent (by the programmers). The same string of characters may, for example, represent a phone number or a fax
number depending on context or situation.
Information theory (Shannon & Weaver, 1949) is also
important to consider in this perspective. Although briefly
discussed by Bates, the problem of whether this theory is subjective or objective is not addressed. According to Qvortrup
(1993), Shannon and Weaver were unclear as to whether they
conceive information as a substance or as a sign5:
4
The problem of subjectivity/objectivity is repeated in the concept of
meaning as illustrated by this quote from a researcher in computational linguistics: There are three distinct views on exactly where the meaning of
a text can be found: 1) Meaning is in the text 2) Meaning is in the writer
3) Meaning is in the reader. These different views of text-meaning often
lead to heated debates in semiotics, literary theory, the philosophy of language, and semantics. In computational linguistics, however, all three views
are found in the research literature, with different degrees of prominence at
different times in the fields history, and researchers are rarely explicit as to
which view they are takingoften they dont distinguish the views at all or
they slide back and forth between them. (Hirst, in press).
5
One of the anonymous referees suggested the term reification about
information as a physical pattern or a thing and wrote: The reification of
information as physical patterns is maintained Maintaining the reification is problematic because it requires either mentalist assumptions and/or a
departure from contemporary semiotic theory which (I believe) rejects natural
signs in favor of privileging the construction of meanings.

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGYAugust 2007
DOI: 10.1002/asi

Thus, actually two conflicting metaphors are being used:

The wellknown metaphor of information as a quantity, like
water in the waterpipe, is at work, but so is a second
metaphor, that of information as a choice, a choice made by
an information provider, and a forced choice made by an
information receiver. Actually, the second metaphor implies
that the information sent isnt necessarily equal to the information received, because any choice implies a comparison
with a list of possibilities, i.e., a list of possible meanings.
Here, meaning is involved, thus spoiling the idea of information as a pure Ding an sich. Thus, much of the confusion regarding the concept of information seems to be related
to the basic confusion of metaphors in Shannons theory: is
information an autonomous quantity, or is information
always per se information to an observer? Actually, I dont
think that Shannon himself chose one of the two definitions.
Logically speaking, his theory implied information as a subjective phenomenon. But this had so wide-ranging epistemological impacts that Shannon didnt seem to fully realize this
logical fact. Consequently, he continued to use metaphors
about information as if it were an objective substance. This
is the basic, inherent contradiction in Shannons information
theory. (p. 5)

Qvortrup has thus demonstrated that the distinction

between an objective and a subjective understanding of
information is a built-in conflict in theories of information
at least back to Shannon. As Qvortrup states, this question
seems to be innocent, because everybody talks about
information, information technology and an information
society. It is however significant, because its definition
implies a whole theory of knowledge. This problem is
important in general as well as in relation to information
science.

An Alternative to Bates: The Situated

Understanding of Information
Karpatschof (2000, p. 128ff) provides an understanding
of information. In order to define this concept, he introduces the concept of release mechanisms, being systems or
organisms having at their disposal a store of potential
energy; the systems being designed to let this energy out
in specific ways, whenever trigged by a signal fulfilling the
specifications of the release mechanism. The signal that
triggers a certain release mechanism is a low energy phenomenon fulfilling some release specifications. The signal
is thus the indirect cause, and the process of the release
mechanism the direct cause of the resulting reaction, which
is a high-energy reaction compared to the energy in the signal. Information is thus defined as a quality by a given
signal relative to a certain mechanism. The release mechanism has a double function: (1) it reinforces the weak signal and (2) it directs the reaction by defining the functional
value of a signal in the predesigned system of the release
mechanism.
Karpatschof writes that there has been a tendency to consider information to be an obscure category in addition to the

classical categories of physics. Information is indeed a new

category, but it cannot be placed, eclectically, beside the
prior physical categories. Information is a category, not beside,
but indeed above the classical categories of physics. Therefore,
information is neither directly reducible to these classical
categories nor is it a radically different category of another
nature than mass and energy. Information is, in fact, the causal
result of existing physical components and processes. Moreover, it is an emergent result of such physical entities. This is
revealed in the systemic definition of information. It is a relational concept that includes the source, the signal, the release
mechanism, and the reaction as its relatants. The release mechanism is a signal processing system and an information
processing system.
Karpatschofs understanding of information has many
merits. Among them is that it explains the basic mechanism
in computers as well as in living beings. It is also possible, as
done by Hjrland (2002), to use it to explain basic principles in
information systems and services, including in what Bates
terms the curatorial sciences. Karpatschofs understanding is also, in important ways, in accordance with views held
by prominent contributors to information science such as
Michael Buckland.
Buckland (1991) analyses the concept of information. In
his analysis the word information can be used about things,
about processes and about knowledge:
According to Buckland (1991), things can be informative. A stump of a tree contains information about its age on
its rings as well as information about the climate during the
lifetime of the tree. In similar ways, everything can be informative: We conclude that we are unable to say confidently
of anything that it could not be information (p. 50, emphasis in original).
But if everything is information, then the concept of
information is all embracive. If the concept of information
has no limits, it becomes too vague and useless. What kind
of advise can that concept provide with regard to what to
represent in information systems?
To say about something that it is informative means that
this thing may answer a question for somebody. The informativeness is thus a relation between the question and the
thing. No thing is inherently informative. To consider something information is thus always to consider it as informative
in relation to some possible questions. We do not always
realize this because it is mostly implied. It is implied, for
example, that an article about a disease may help answer
questions about that disease. It is less obvious, however,
that a meteorite from outer space may answer questions
about the origin of life. A good deal of scientific knowledge
is needed to understand why this is the case (and a claim
about the informativeness of something is theory-dependent
and may turn out to be wrong). In the wider sense, background knowledge is always important to establish the informativeness of any object (including documents and
texts).
Buckland (1991) finds, that It follows from this that the
capability of being informative, the essential characteristic

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGYAugust 2007
DOI: 10.1002/asi

1451

of information-as-thing, must also be situational (p. 50).

This view was also formulated in this journal (then named
American Documentation) already in 1969: It is very important to note that information is a relative quantity and cannot
be defined except in terms of a specific situation with a
specific set of observable actions. Then, and only then, can
we define a quantitative measure for information (Yovits,
1969, p. 374).
Hjrland (1997) used this view as point of departure:
The domain analytic view develops this view further: users
should be seen as individuals in concrete situations in social
organizations and domains of knowledge. A stone on a field
could contain different information for different people (or
from one situation to another). It is not possible for information systems to map all the stones possible information
for every individual. But people have different educational
backgrounds and play different roles in the division of labor
in society. A stone in a field typically represents one kind of
information for the geologist, another for the archeologist.
The information from the stone can be mapped into different collective knowledge structures produced by e.g., geology and archaeology. Information can be identified,
described, represented in information systems for different
domains of knowledge. Of course, there is much uncertainty and many and difficult problems in determining
whether a thing is informative or not for a domain. Some
domains have high degree of consensus and rather explicit
criteria of relevance. Other domains have different, conflicting paradigms, each containing it own more or less
implicit view of the informativeness of different kinds of
information sources.
Conclusion: The analysis of the concept of information
made above implies that informational objects should not
only be analyzed and described according to an objectivistic
epistemology. It is not sufficient to describe information
according to universalistic principles, as permanent, inherent characteristics of knowledge. Instead, information must
be analyzed, described and represented in information systems according to situational, pragmatic and domain-specific
criteria. (p. 111)

A similar theoretical position was independently developed

by Goguen (1997), who defines information in this way:
An item of information is an interpretation of a configuration of signs for which members of some social group are
accountable. This definition is narrower than Karpatschofs
because it is only about human beings but it has the same
implications. Goguen continues:
That information is tied to a particular, concrete situation
and a particular social group has some important consequences, summarized in the following list of qualities of
information:
1. Situated. Information can only be fully understood in
relation to the particular, concrete situation in which it
actually occurs.
2. Local. Interpretations are constructed in some particular
context, including a particular time, place and group.
1452

3. Emergent. Information cannot be understood at the level

of the individual, that is, at the cognitive level of individual
psychology, because it arises through ongoing interactions
among members of a group.
4. Contingent. The interpretation of information depends
on the current situation, which may include the current
interpretation of prior events [note: Of course, an
event is what some group counts as an event]. In particular, interpretations are subject to negotiation, and
relevant rules are interpreted locally, and can even be
modified locally.
5. Embodied. Information is tied to bodies in particular
physical situations, so that the particular way that bodies
are embedded in a situation may be essential to some
interpretations.
6. Vague. In practice, information is only elaborated to the
degree that it is useful to do so; the rest is left grounded
in tacit knowledge.
7. Open. Information (for both participants and analysts)
cannot in general be given a final and complete form, but
must remain open to revision in the light of further analyses and further events. (At the analyst level, one may say
all theories leak.)

The theoretical connection between information science

and semiotics has recently been emphasized by Raber &
Budd (2003): The affinity between the informative object
and the sign, and between information and language as
theoretical objects, is based on the fact that all informative
objects are necessarily signs, ultimately expressive of a relationship between a signifier and a signified. The sign, although
a material object, is always much more than this. It is also a
psychological and cultural entity (p. 515).
The understanding of information as subjective, observerdependent, and situated has thus been well argued in the literature by a number of researchers. It is embarrassing that its
impact has not been greater and that the opposite view can
be suggested in a leading journal without considering the
arguments which have been put forward.
The Evolutionary and Cultural Point of View
Bates (2005b) suggests an evolutionary framework for information science. Her evolutionary point of view is based on
philosophical realism: The first assumption is that there is a
real universe out there, that we are not solipsists, that is, what
we see as being outside ourselves is not a movie we are running in our minds, but an actual universe independent of ourselves. I, as well as Karpatschof (2000), for example, share
these views. Both Bates objective understanding and the the
situationists subjective understanding of information are
thus in agreement about the importance of an evolutionary
point of view based on an understanding of organisms adaptation to their environment. The difference is that Bates regards
information as the object to which organisms adapt during
evolution, whereas Karpatschof (2000), Hjrland (2002), and
others regard signals as the objects to which organisms adapt.
Physical signals are selected and the information processing
mechanism selecting the signal is an emergent phenomenon in

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGYAugust 2007
DOI: 10.1002/asi

nature. What is regarded information by one biological

species need not be regarded as information by other species.
One advantage of the activitytheoretical point of view as
developed by the Russian psychologist Leontyev (1940/1981)
is that the biological development is specified in levels, which
may be interpreted as more advanced kinds of information
processing mechanisms. He described the development of
psychological functions as a set of functions developed by
higher animals in order to improve their adaptation to the
changing conditions of life, and he distinguished five stages
or levels from primitive organisms to Homo sapiens:
1. The stage of irritability is characteristic of the absorption
of food particles through the surface of the body of
onecelled animals. Leontyev does not see such behavior
as evidence of something psychical. (It is a preform of
psychological behavior).
2. The stage of sensory psyche can be exemplified by insects, birds, and fish. It is characterized by the ability of
the organism to sense influences, but the animal cannot
integrate different influences into a whole. Animals at
this stage of development show stiff or rigid patterns of
reactions, i.e., instinctive forms of behavior. Leontyev
sees this stage as psychical in its most primitive form.
3. The stage of perceptual psyche is first and foremost characterized by the perception of objects. The organism is
now not just limited to sensing and responding to sound,
light, simple forms, etc., but perceives specific objects
(e.g., flies). This allows much more flexible forms of behavior directed towards that object.
4. The stage of intellect is associated with actions, which
presuppose the use of tools. The organism is no longer
solely dependent on its own body. This stage is found in
man and chimpanzees.
5. The stage of consciousness is specifically human. According to the theory of Leontyev, it is associated with
language and societal production.

What is described here can be interpreted as a theory of

the development of biological stages of information
utilization behavior from more primitive, specific, and
passive forms of sensing information towards more advanced, complex, flexible, and active forms of information
utilization.
Leontyevs theory is materialistic in the sense that its
stages are motivated by the view of the psychical as being
something secondary compared to its environment. The subjective, consciousness, concepts, psychological processes,
and states are all seen as phenomena developed from the
material world in order to improve higher animals adaptation
to their environment. Psychological phenomena cannot be
understood without considering the environment and the
challenges that face the organism. Subject and object are two
interwoven parts, which can be understood as a historically
developed relationship. From Leontyevs perspective,
psychical and subjective phenomena are naturalistic; they
developed with birds, fish and insects, and further through evolution. Activity theory is in fact a semiotic theory (a biologicalsocial semiotic theory). Organisms are seen as reacting to

informative objects as signs.6 Information is not a thing or

substance but a sign.
Most evolutionary theories of cognition and information
processing suffer from neglect of human cultural development (i.e., anthropogenesis). These theories tend to regard
human information processing in a biological perspective
assuming species-general ways of processing information.
In other words: They tend to regard different human beings
as having similar mechanisms and capacities for information
processing. These theories consider phylogenesis but do not
consider anthropogenesis. They do not realize, for example,
that the development of human languages changes the way
human beings process information.
This is also the case with Bates (2005b). There is no discussion of how information processing in individuals is different by, for example, people in oral cultures compared to people
in literate cultures. The most important theory that does consider anthropogenetic aspects of cognition and information
processing is activity theory, which originated in Russia,
and has recently been outlined by, for example, Karpatschof
(2000) and Hjrland (2002). The biological-evolutionary perspective is here supplemented with a developmental view of
information processing in the perspective of cultural history.
Compared to other species, human beings depend far less
on their biological cognitive systems and depend much more
on their cultural heritage. This is something strongly neglected by mainstream behavioral and cognitive theories
from the 20th century. A persons capacity to process and
store information is not just dependent upon his/her biological make-up but also upon the language and symbolic systems that the person masters. This is empirically shown by
cultural anthropologists like Goody (1987) and, theoretically, mostly developed in activity theory. Jack Goody is
probably the most important researcher on the cognitive implications of writing, literacy, and the alphabet. His research
has immense relevance for cognitive science and information science.
The line of theory developed by Vygotsky maintains that
when an individual comes to master writing, the basic system underlying the nature of his mental processes is changed
fundamentally as the external symbol system comes to mediate the organization of all his basic intellectual operations.
Thus, for example, knowledge of a writing system would
alter the very structure of memory, classification and problemsolving by altering the way in which these elementary
processes are organized to include an external (written)
symbol system. (Goody, 1987, p. 205)

Important cultural developments include the development

of oral languages, the development of written languages, and
the development of mathematical symbols, music scores,
and other symbolic systems. Also, the development of institutions of learning, of different media and genres, and different
6
For Charles Sanders Peirce, a sign is a triadic unity of something (the
sign vehicle, e.g., a footprint), which stands to somebody (the interpretant)
for something else (the object, e.g., that a person has passed by).

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGYAugust 2007
DOI: 10.1002/asi

1453

TABLE 1.

Cultural relativity in word meanings.

English

Germana

Danisha

Frencha

Italian

Spanish

Tree

Baum

Tr

Arbre

albero

rbol

Wood

Holz

legno

Lea

Bois
Woods
Wald
Forest

skov
Fort

Madera
bosco

Bosque

foresta

Selva

Originally presented by the Danish structural linguist Louis Hjelmslev

(1943). Extended by information from Buckley (2001).

kinds of quality management (including peer reviewed scientific journals, historical criticism or source criticism, and
research methodologies such as experimental methods) are
important. All such kinds of developments alter the ways in
which information is being processed both in an individual
and in a social perspective.
How, for example, our concepts are influenced by our
languages is shown in Table 1. It shows that there is no oneto-one relation between meanings in different languages.
Languages affect the way we conceptualize the world. According to Hjelmslev (1943), each language puts arbitrary
borders on reality, while activity theory finds that our symbolic systems tend to capture functional aspects or affordances
in the things we perceive.
For human informative activities, the proper perspective of
the meaning of meaning is very important. This is a difficult
concept for which activity theory provides a fruitful understanding. The production of books, texts, and other documents
is a special development in literate cultures. Documents are
tools having specific kinds of functional values in those cultures. The view of social semiotic theories is that meanings,
signs, and documents are developed to function in relation to
standardized practices in communities. We use, e.g., the Bible
and the Hymn Book in our standardized religious practices.
We use textbooks in our standardized teaching practices, law
books in standardized legal practices etc. Concepts and documents have more or less stable functional values in relation to
such standardized practices. There are of course always different views of whether such standardized practices should
be changed or remain unchanged, and there are always different kinds of possible changes of those practices. Often scientific and technological development changes standardized
practices in a rather uncontroversial way. In other cases, however, changes in practices are related to different political
interests, to different theories or paradigms. Different paradigms tend to influence given practices in different ways, and
by doing so they also tend to change our symbolic systems as
well as our production of documents and the form, content,
and use of those documents. The proper study of symbols and
documents is thus based on the study of the functions and interests those documents are serving.
It is very naive and reductionistic to disregard such kinds
of cultural intermediating factors in peoples relationship with
1454

information. The dominant traditions in both information

science and in behavioral and cognitive sciences have, however, neglected such cultural aspects and just tried to study
generalized persons relation to something termed information. This dominant approach may broadly be termed
behavioral in spite of different attitudes to versions of
behaviorism. In this tradition, people are expected to react to
something in a specific, mechanical way without considering the culturally determined meanings and without considering the different goals and values in the meanings and in
the documents. This has, in my opinion, brought about a situation in which we have inherited very little useful knowledge from these areas on which to advance our field and
practice.
Information as a Concept in Information Science
The last section before the summary in Bates (2006) is
termed The Information and Curatorial Sciences. In this section, the reader expects to get some ideas on why Bates find her
objective conception of information fruitful for, among others,
library and information professionals. However, this expectation is not fulfilled because this section is not formed as a
defense for the objective definition proposed earlier.
Information is a concept that is used in many sciences, social sciences, and humanistic fields. We have to consider both
the general meaning of information and the role and the
meaning of the term in our own field. What is today termed
information science was formerly termed documentation and the term library and information science is often
used synonymously. Bates (2006) uses the term The Information and Curatorial Sciences. The Dewey Decimal Classification uses the plural: information sciences, indicating
that we are dealing with more than one field. What we are
dealing with is thus both the possible meanings of the term
information, and with a proper theoretical basis for our field,
which have consequences for what label seems adequate for
that field. It is not given that the concept of information is the
key concept even if the field is termed information science.7

7
Buckland (1991), Hjrland (2000), Lund (2004), rom (2007), and others
have for years been arguing that the concept of document is the most fruitful
one to consider as the core concept in LIS. The concept of document is
understood as any concrete or symbolic indication, preserved or recorded,
for reconstructing or for proving a phenomenon, whether physical or mental
(Briet, 1951/2006, 7; here quoted from Buckland, 1991). Recently additions
to that view are Frohmann (2004) and Furner (2004). Frohmann (2004) discusses how the idea of information as the abstract object sought, processed,
communicated and synthesized sets the stage for a paradox of the scientific
literature by simultaneously supporting and undermining its significance for
research front work. Furner argues that all the problems we need to consider
in information studies can be dealt with without any need for a concept of information. He suggests that to understand information as relevance is
currently the most productive for theoretical information studies. All these
authors assume that the concept of document is a more precise description of
the objects that information science is about, but they see documents as part
of a larger universe of informative objects. Unfortunately, Bates (2006) does
not relate to this point of view and she does not try to argue what her
conception of information may contribute in relation to this view.

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGYAugust 2007
DOI: 10.1002/asi

However, whatever the label we preferdocumentation,

information science, curatorial sciences, or LIS etc. it
is also important to have a proper theoretical understanding
of the concept of information.
It is outside of the scope of the present article to discuss
the history and theory of information science in relation to the
information concept (this has partly been done in, for example,
Hjrland, 2000, and Werzig, 2003). It is important, however,
to establish a fruitful theoretical and conceptual foundation
for the field. When theoretical concepts (e.g., information,
document, relevance or subject) are discussed, it is important to consider the question: What practical implications
follow from understanding the concept in one way as contrasted to other ways? You can also say that arguments should
be put forward and concepts should be developed to support
the arguments of a scholarly article (and, in the end, the justification of the field).
Epistemological questions are important in the process of
clarifying and constructing concepts in information science:

Is information in the author/sender of the information?

Is information in the texts/symbols/messages?
Is information in the receiver understood as a biological
being?
Is information in the receiver understood as a social/
cultural/specialized being?

Let us consider, for example, the indexing of a document

or the description of an informative object. Should such
indexing or description be based on a theory intended to
inform the users and on a kind of semiotic understanding
that signs (and document descriptors) have different meaning
for different target groups? These are the kinds of questions
at stake when discussing the objectivity/subjectivity of informative objects or documents.
Capurro & Hjrland (2003, p. 377ff.) argue that information
scientists have to specify what kind of information belongs to
sciences like astronomy and biology, and what kind of information belongs to information science. What is the social
division of labor in relation to studies of information phenomena? A concrete proposal is provided in this article and
elsewhere. Information science is seen as a metascience based
on the findings and documents of other fields. An astronomer
processes information about stars and produces documents
on his/her observations and conclusions. Information science
studies, for example, documents and genres of scientific
communication, citation patterns in astronomy, i.e., how to
optimize knowledge organizing systems to serve astronomers.
Both astronomers and information scientists may thus be said
to deal professionally with information. Capurro & Hjrland
(2003, p.377ff.) and Hjrland (1997, 2002) offer a view of
the respective jobs of ordinary professionals and LIS professionals in relation to dealing with information. And we offer
an information concept that makes this view coherent. Other
information scientists theorizing information, like Marcia
Bates, should relate to this important problem, which involves the professional identity of all of us.

Bates fails to provide any arguments for how her conception of information as an objective phenomenon can be useful
in relation to practical work in computer science, information science, library science, or any related fields. This is
regrettable so much more because the alternative, subjective
understanding of information has been presented in the literature, including a concrete examination of its implications
for information science.
The problem is also about whether problems in information
science are best served with theories like Shannon & Weavers
information theory or with theories more related to semiotics. In the history of information science, the tendency has
been a development from information theory toward more
semiotic theories. (See also Werzig, 2003.)8
Conclusion
Why has the theoretical point of view concerning information as a situational concept had serious difficulties gaining
ground both in Library and Information Science (LIS) and in
interdisciplinary contexts? It may be because it is a frustrating way of understanding for many people, and that other
ways of using the term information, for example, as BITs
derived from information theory has a much stronger appeal.
However, while the concept of BITs may allow us to measure the capacity of a floppy disc or a hard-disk, it is useless
in relation to tasks such as indexing, collection management,
bibliometrics, and so on. For such purposes, the meaning of
the signs must be involved, i.e., why a kind of semiotic theory
is a much better theoretical frame of reference compared to
information theory. An objectivist and universalist theory
of information has a much stronger appeal than theoretical
views that make information, meaning, and decisions contextdependent. However, the costs of searching in the wrong
places for the understanding of a fundamental concept have
been high because the superficial considering of the nature of
information has left us without a proper theoretical foundation.
Acknowledgment
Thanks to two anonymous reviewers for valuable comments and suggestions.
8
In Shannons theory, these interpretations were not incompatible: Due
to the known probabilities of the signs and the assumption that source and
receiver used the same system of signs, the amount of information in the
sign and the impacted information were more or less the same. This was not
so in human contexts, where neither the assumption of coherent sets of
signs nor the assumption of the identity of the original message, signs and
reconstructed messages were applicable. The very notion of SEMIOTICS,
which in fact, became one of the most important critiques of too simple an
application of information theory to human communication led to the
insight that Shannons mathematical theory was a theory on the syntactical
level (relation of signs to signs), but with no reference to the semantic only
(relation of signs to meanings) and pragmatic (relation of signs to humans)
levels. In consequence, some attempts were made to develop out of Shannons theory a semantic (e.g. Bar-Hillel and Carnap, 1953) or pragmatic
(e.g. Yovits, 1975) information theory, but these remained in the literature
with no great success. (Werzig, 2003, p. 312).

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGYAugust 2007
DOI: 10.1002/asi

1455

References
Bar-Hillel, Y., & Carnap, R. (1953). Semantic information. British Journal
of Science, 4, 147157.
Bates, M.J. (2005a). An introduction to metatheories, theories, and models.
In K.E. Fisher, S. Erdelez, & L. McKechnie (Eds.), Theories of information behavior (pp. 124). Medford, NJ: Information Today.
Bates, M.J. (2005b). Information and knowledge: An evolutionary framework for information science. Information Research, 10(4). Paper 239.
Retrieved May 14, 2007, from http://InformationR.net/ir/10-4/paper
239.html
Bates, M.J. (2006). Fundamental forms of information. Journal of the
American Society for Information Science, 57(8), 10331045.
Bateson, G. (1972). Steps to an ecology of mind. New York: Ballantine.
Bowker, G. (2006). Memory practices in the sciences. Cambridge, MA: The
MIT Press.
Blair, D. (2006). Wittgenstein, language and information: Back to the rough
ground! Berlin: Springer.
Brier, S. (1996). Cybersemiotics: A new interdisciplinary development
applied to the problems of knowledge organisation and document retrieval
in information science. Journal of Documentation, 52(3), 296344.
Briet, S. (2006). What is documentation? (R.E. Day & L. Martinet, with
H.G.B. Anghelescu, Trans. and Eds.). Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press.
(Original: Quest-ce que la documentation? Paris, EDIT, published 1951)
Buckland, M. (1991). Information and information systems. New York:
Greenwood Press.
Buckley, G. (2001). Semantics. Retrieved July 25, 2006, from http://web.
archive.org/web/20010509042930/http://www.ling.upenn.edu/courses/
Spring_2001/ling001/semantics.html
Capurro, R., & Hjrland, B. (2003). The concept of information. Annual
Review of Information Science and Technology, 37, 343411.
Dretske, F.I. (1981). Knowledge and the flow of information. Cambridge,
MA: The MIT Press.
Frohmann, B. (2004). Deflating information. From science studies to documentation. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Furner, J. (2004). Information studies without information. Library Trends,
52(3), 427446.
Goguen, J. A. (1997). Towards a social, ethical theory of information.
In G. Bowker, L. Gasser, L. Star, & W. Turner, Erlbaum (Eds.), Social
science research, technical systems and cooperative work: Beyond the
great divide (pp. 2756). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Retrieved May 14, 2007,
from http://wwwcse.ucsd.edu/~goguen/ps/sti.pdf
Goody, J. (1987). The interface between the written and the oral. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Hirst, G. (in press). Views of text-meaning in computational linguistics: Past,
present, and future. In G. Dodig-Crnkovic & S. Stuart (Eds.), Computing,
philosophy, and cognitive science: The Nexus and the Liminal. Newcastleupon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Press. Retrieved May 14, 2007, from
http://66.102.1.104/scholar?num=l00&h1=da&lr=&q=cache:6sXrALu6w
fMJ:www.cs.toronto.edu/pub/gh/Hirst-ECAP-2006.pdf+ Abstract retrieved
May 14, 2007, from http://www.cs.toronto.edu/compling/Publications/
Abstracts/Papers/Hirst-ECAP-2006-abs.html
Hjelmslev, L. (1943) Omkring sprogteoriens grundlggelse [Prolegomena
to a theory of language]. Kbenhavn: B. Lunos bogtrykkeri a/s.
Hjrland, B. (1997). Information seeking and subject representation. An
activity-theoretical approach to information science. Westport: Greenwood Press.
Hjrland, B. (1999). Review of the book: Information and meaning: An
evolutionary perspective. World Futures, 53(4), 371375.
Hjrland, B. (2000). Documents, memory institutions, and information science.
Journal of Documentation, 56, 2741. Retrieved May 14, 2007, from

1456

http://www.db.dk/bh/Core%20Concepts%20in%20LIS/articles%20az/Docu
ments%5Fmemory%20institutions%20and%20IS.pdf
Hjrland, B. (2002). Principia informatica: Foundational theory of information
and principles of information services. In H. Bruce, R. Fidel, P. Ingwersen, &
P. Vakkari (Eds.), Emerging frameworks and methods (pp. 109121).
Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Conceptions of
Library and Information Science (CoLIS4). Greenwood Village, CO:
Libraries Unlimited.
Karpatschof, B. (2000). Human activity. Contributions to the Anthropological Sciences from a Perspective of Activity Theory. Copenhagen: Dansk
Psykologisk Forlag. Retrieved May 14, 2007, from http://informationr.
net/ir/12-3/Karpatschof/Karp00.html
Leontyev, A.N. (1981). Problems of the development of the mind. Translated from Russian. Moscow: Progress. (Originally published 1940)
Lipetz, B.A. (1980). Educating the information science professional.
Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science, 6(4),
2122.
Lipetz, B.A. (2005). Defining what information science is or should be: A
survey and review of a half-century of published pronouncements (chap.
14, pp. 187197). In R.V. Williams & Ben-Ami Lipetz (Eds.). Covert and
overt: Recollecting and connecting intelligence service and information
science. Medford, NJ: Information Today.
Lund, N.W. (2004). Documentation in a complementary perspective.
In W. Boyd Rayward (Ed.), Aware and responsible! Papers of a nordicinternational colloquium on Social and cultural awareness and responsibility in library, information and documentation studies (pp. 93102).
Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, Inc.
rom, A. (2007). The concept of information versus the concept of documet. In R. Skare, N. Windfeld Lund, & A. Vrheim (Eds.), Document
(re)turn. Contributions from a research field in transition (pp. 5372).
Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
Parker, E.B. (1974). Information and society. In C.A. Cuadra & M.J. Bates
(Eds.), Library and information service needs of the nation: proceedings
of a Conference on the Needs of Occupational, Ethnic and other Groups in
the United States (pp. 950). Washington, DC: U.S.G.P.O.
Qvortrup, L. (1993). The controversy over the concept of information. An
overview and a selected and annotated bibliography. Cybernetics &
Human Knowing 1(4), 324.
Raber, D. & Budd, J.M. (2003). Information as sign: Semiotics and information science. Journal of Documentation, 59(5), 507522.
Shannon, C.E., & Weaver, W. (1949/1964). The Mathematical Theory of
Communication. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1964. (Original:
1949).
Spang-Hanssen, H. (2001). How to teach about information as related
to documentation. Human IT, (1), 125143. Retrieved May 14, 2007,
from http://www.hb.se/bhs/ith/1-01/hsh.htm
Stonier, T. (1997). Information and meaning: an evolutionary perspective.
Berlin: Springer.
Wersig, G. (2003). Information theory. In J. Feather & P. Sturges (Eds.), International encyclopedia of library and information science (pp. 310319).
London: Routledge.
Yovits, M.C. (1969). Information science: Toward the development
of a true scientific discipline. American Documentation (Vol. 20,
pp. 369376).
Yovits, M. C. (1975). A theoretical framework for the development of information science. In International Federation for Documentation. Study
Committee Research on the Theoretical Basis of Information. Meeting
(1974: Moscow) Information science, its scope, objects of research and
problems: Collection of papers [presented at the meeting of the FID
Study Committee Research on the Theoretical Basis of Information]
2426 April 1974, Moscow (pp. 90114). FID 530. Moscow: VINITI.

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGYAugust 2007
DOI: 10.1002/asi