The series on "Emerging interdisciplinary curricula in information science"

Library and Information Science (LIS) education has been traditionally concerned with all aspects of data, information and document management, ranging from creation, collection, organization and storage to retrieval, dissemination and preservation. As more data and information are produced and managed in digital form, digital methods and approaches become integrated in all aspects of the information management cycle. The emergence of new interdisciplinary fields of investigation, such as Data Science, E-Health, and Digital Humanities, share common concerns with LIS, including the management, preservation, analysis, and retrieval of digital objects. Computer science and engineering have also studied the techniques for proper treatment of digital products. As digital information pervades our daily lives, increased attention to both the technical aspects and social aspects of digital objects becomes increasingly important to all disciplines. In this special series devoted to Emerging interdisciplinary curricula in information science, we invited researchers, teachers, and professionals to submit original research, review articles, and position papers on new interdisciplinary curricula related to digital methods and data-intensive approaches in Library and Information Science education. The first contributions for this special series already demonstrate different models of implementation across a number of educational contexts. The first paper, “Librarianship and Beyond: The Twenty-Year Evolution of an Interdisciplinary Curriculum,” is representative of a traditional Library and Information school that gradually, along the years, adjusting its perspective in response to the digital evolution of the field, is becoming more interdisciplinary in the process. The second paper, “Educational ecosystems for Information Science: The Case of the University of Pisa”, argues for a flexible and interdisciplinary educational environment from the start as the ideal groundwork where new educational paths, including competencies associated with Information Science, can almost spontaneously evolve, as in a natural ecosystem. Finally, the third paper, “Teaching Undergraduate Data Science for Information Schools,” is the conscious design of a brand-new curriculum for data science driven by a theoretical model and a thoughtful understanding of the processes involved in data-driven research, and the many interdisciplinary competencies it requires.