{ "model": { "rank": 7038, "code": "thing-q16387", "model_id": "vr.tr.information-science", "name": "information science", "purpose": "Let an agent explain information science and its subfields, help with organising and retrieving information, and support study, careers and professional practice.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Information and virtual systems", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "INF", "domain": "INF.KNW", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q16387/", "tier": 2, "score": 57, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "crisis digital heritage", "legal informatics", "information availability", "archival studies", "postcards", "spatial information science", "user studies", "bibliology", "geographic information science", "informetrics", "archival science", "information management", "pragmatic information theory", "semantic information theory", "syntactic information theory", "Computational law", "multicriteria decision analysis", "cybermetrics", "archival restoration", "archive theory", "digital heritage", "BS 5454", "personal information management", "Māori information and knowledge management systems", "strategic information management", "Health information management", "Entity Engineering", "product information management", "collections management", "content management", "enterprise information management", "security information management", "Health Information Management", "information lifecycle management", "collection development", "culling", "administrative control", "curating", "historical manuscripts tradition", "manuscript curation" ], "aliasCount": 42, "merged": 43, "knownIn": 57, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q16387", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q16387", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-11T15:46:30Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 1, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q16387", "registryId": "vr.tr.information-science", "name": "information science", "version": "0.2.0-wave.1", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "INF.KNW" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q16387/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.information-science", "name": "information science", "purpose": "Let an agent explain information science and its subfields, help with organising and retrieving information, and support study, careers and professional practice.", "definition": "The academic and professional field concerned with the collection, organisation, storage, retrieval, dissemination and use of information, including library science, archival studies, information retrieval, informatics in domains such as law and geography, and information behaviour; it underpins libraries, archives, search systems and information management.", "what_it_is_for": "Managing and using recorded information.", "affordances": [ "explain subfields and concepts", "help design information organisation and retrieval", "find study programmes and professional bodies", "apply information ethics" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Concerned with information", "Interdisciplinary", "Theory and practice", "Domain informatics" ], "appearance": "Not physical; a field of study and practice.", "visual_identification": [ "Libraries, archives and search systems", "Metadata and classification schemes", "Computer science focuses on computation" ], "physical_properties": [], "families_and_kinds": [ "library and information science", "archival studies", "information retrieval and search", "domain informatics such as legal and spatial", "information behaviour and ethics" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "science", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "logic", "why": "foundations of retrieval" }, { "relation": "is applied in", "target": "library", "why": "institution" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "computer programming", "why": "implementation" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "ISO standards for information and documentation", "Metadata standards such as Dublin Core", "Data protection and freedom of information law" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Poor findability", "Privacy breaches", "Loss of digital heritage" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "field", "name": "Field", "description": "What it covers.", "rationale": "Broad and applied.", "layers": [ { "id": "scope", "name": "Scope", "description": "Subfields.", "findings": [ { "id": "scope-finding", "name": "Scope", "description": "Subfields.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which subfield of information science does this question concern?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "How does it relate to computer science and librarianship?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "concepts", "name": "Concepts", "description": "Key concepts.", "findings": [ { "id": "concepts-finding", "name": "Concepts", "description": "Key concepts.", "questions": [ { "text": "What do concepts like relevance, metadata and information behaviour mean?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Which theories are foundational?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "apply", "name": "Apply", "description": "Practice.", "rationale": "Organise and retrieve.", "layers": [ { "id": "organise", "name": "Organise", "description": "Organising information.", "findings": [ { "id": "organise-finding", "name": "Organise", "description": "Organising.", "questions": [ { "text": "How should this collection be organised and described for findability?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "Which metadata standard fits?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "retrieve", "name": "Retrieve", "description": "Search.", "findings": [ { "id": "retrieve-finding", "name": "Retrieve", "description": "Retrieval.", "questions": [ { "text": "How can retrieval be evaluated and improved?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "Which measures such as precision and recall apply?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "preserve", "name": "Preserve", "description": "Archives and heritage.", "rationale": "Keep the record.", "layers": [ { "id": "archives", "name": "Archives", "description": "Archival practice.", "findings": [ { "id": "archives-finding", "name": "Archives", "description": "Archival practice.", "questions": [ { "text": "How should records be appraised, arranged and preserved?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which digital preservation standards apply?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "crisis", "name": "Crisis", "description": "Heritage at risk.", "findings": [ { "id": "crisis-finding", "name": "Crisis", "description": "Heritage at risk.", "questions": [ { "text": "How is digital heritage protected in crises and conflicts?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which organisations help?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "career", "name": "Career", "description": "Study and profession.", "rationale": "Paths exist.", "layers": [ { "id": "study", "name": "Study", "description": "Programmes.", "findings": [ { "id": "study-finding", "name": "Study", "description": "Programmes.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which programmes and qualifications exist in information science here?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which professional bodies accredit them?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "ethics", "name": "Ethics", "description": "Information ethics.", "findings": [ { "id": "ethics-finding", "name": "Ethics", "description": "Ethics.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which ethical principles govern access, privacy and intellectual freedom?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "How do they apply to this case?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should each subfield be a separate entry?", "How should standards be linked?", "How should professional bodies be localised?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "discipline or field of knowledge", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a information science, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent explain information science and its subfields, help with organising and retrieving information, and support study, careers and professional practice.", "characteristics": { "substance": "information", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "read and interpreted" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: crisis digital heritage, legal informatics, information availability, archival studies, postcards, spatial information science, user studies, bibliology, geographic information science, informetrics, archival science, information management.", "43 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 57 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a information science, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "content that has to be carried by something else", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "read it and act on what it says" ], "howItIsRecognised": [], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "crisis digital heritage", "legal informatics", "information availability", "archival studies", "postcards", "spatial information science", "user studies", "bibliology", "geographic information science", "informetrics", "archival science", "information management" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 57 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 43 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one information science from another, and a information science from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a information science, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a information science, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a information science is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a information science, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a information science, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a information science is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a information science sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a information science, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a information science, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a information science is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a information science from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a information science, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a information science, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a information science is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a information science passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a information science between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a information science, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a information science, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a information science is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a information science, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a information science is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a information science, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a information science, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a information science is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "content-and-access", "name": "Content, encoding and access", "description": "What a information science says, how it is encoded and who may read it.", "rationale": "An informational thing carries content that can be copied, versioned and withheld, none of which its physical carrier explains.", "layers": [ { "id": "content-and-encoding", "name": "Content and encoding", "description": "The content itself, its format and its language.", "findings": [ { "id": "content-and-format", "name": "Content, format and language", "description": "What a information science contains and in what form it is held.", "questions": [ { "id": "content-and-format-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the content of a information science, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "content-and-format-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the content of a information science, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "content-and-format-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the content of a information science is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "access-and-rights", "name": "Access, rights and retention", "description": "Who may read, copy or change it, and for how long it is kept.", "findings": [ { "id": "access-rules", "name": "Access rules and retention", "description": "The permissions attached to a information science and the period it survives.", "questions": [ { "id": "access-rules-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes access to a information science, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "access-rules-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about access to a information science, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "access-rules-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once access to a information science is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "subject-and-method", "name": "Subject matter and method", "description": "What information science studies and how it establishes anything.", "rationale": "A field is identified by its questions and its methods, and those are what distinguish it from the fields next to it.", "layers": [ { "id": "subject", "name": "Subject matter", "description": "The questions it takes as its own.", "findings": [ { "id": "subject-record", "name": "Questions and objects of study", "description": "What it is about, stated so a neighbouring field can be told apart.", "questions": [ { "id": "subject-record-q01", "text": "What questions and objects does information science take as its own?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "subject-record-q02", "text": "Which questions does it share with a neighbouring field, and who claims them?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "method", "name": "Method and evidence", "description": "How claims are established and what counts as evidence.", "findings": [ { "id": "method-record", "name": "Methods and standards of evidence", "description": "The methods used and what they are taken to establish.", "questions": [ { "id": "method-record-q01", "text": "By what methods does information science establish claims, and what counts as sufficient evidence?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "method-record-q02", "text": "What kind of claim can this field not settle, and where should an agent look instead?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "institutions-and-classification", "name": "Institutions and classification", "description": "Where information science is practised and how catalogues place it.", "rationale": "The institutional footprint is the evidence that a field exists as a field rather than as a topic.", "layers": [ { "id": "institutions", "name": "Institutional markers", "description": "Societies, journals, degrees and departments.", "findings": [ { "id": "institution-record", "name": "Bodies and venues", "description": "Where the field organises itself.", "questions": [ { "id": "institution-record-q01", "text": "Which societies, journals or degrees mark information science as an established field?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "institution-record-q02", "text": "What would show that it is emerging or dissolving rather than established?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification", "name": "Classification schemes", "description": "Where library and research classifications put it.", "findings": [ { "id": "classification-record", "name": "Codes and their disagreements", "description": "The classification codes that place it, and where they differ.", "questions": [ { "id": "classification-record-q01", "text": "Which classification schemes place information science, under what codes?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "classification-record-q02", "text": "Where do those schemes disagree about its scope?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a information science came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a information science and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a information science, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a information science, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a information science is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a information science is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a information science, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a information science, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a information science is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 12, "findings": 14, "questions": 38 } } } }