Much has happened since the third edition of Foundations of Library and Information Science was published. Today's LIS professionals are experiencing both excitement and trepidation as sweeping societal, technological, political, and economic changes affect our users and institutions and transform our discipline. We are increasingly part of a sophisticated infrastructure: the boundaries of knowledge creation, acquisition, organization, dissemination, use, and evaluation are rapidly blurring, creating new challenges. Similarly, we are also part of a changing environment: an aging population, a ubiquitous and evolving internet, the proliferation of social media and mobile devices, significant financial stresses on public institutions, and changing information policies affecting creators and distributors of knowledge. The field of library and information science continues to expand, the issues proliferate and grow in complexity, and the challenges we face are serious and relentless. Our profession demands constant growth, continuous learning, and open minds. We are fortunate that we have a firm foundation on which to make changes: a distinguished history, strong values, and an active profession and academic communities ready to address our challenges. As with its predecessors, this new edition has been designed to respond to the many changes occurring in the field and in society at large while providing a firm grounding in the values and history of the profession. New, enhanced discussions in the fourth edition include:?The impact of digital devices and social networking?The impact of digital publishing on the publishing industry and the effects of e-books on libraries?The evolution of library services including virtual reference, embedded librarianship, digital access and repositories, digital preservation, and civic engagement?The new efforts to organize knowledge including FRBR, RDA, BIBFRAME, the Semantic Web, and the Next Generation Catalog (Catalog 2.)?The significance of the digital divide and policy issues related to broadband access and network neutrality?Legal developments such as new interpretations of copyright related to mass digitization of books (Google Books) and scholarly articles?The continuing tensions in LIS education between information science and library science?The spawning of new initiatives to integrate libraries, archives, and museums (LAMs)
