abstract:The term information scientist developed in the latter part of the twentieth century to describe an individual, usually with a relevant subject degree or high level of subject knowledge, providing focused information to scientific and technical research staff in industry, a role quite distinct from and complementary to that of a librarian. Developments in end-user searching, together with some convergence between the roles of librarian and information scientist, have led to a diminution in its use in this context, and the term information officer or information professional are also now used.
In November,Anthony Colaprete, a leading scientist with the LCROSS project, spoke about information gathered by the spacecraft.
VOA: special.2009.12.30
But ultimately, the competitive difference will be made by the level of organizational influence exerted by the data scientist to make the information from the data actionable.
According to information specialist John Seely Brown, a former chief scientist at XEROX, that is a model the rest of us need to adopt for our world of gargantuan monsters of information.