Patrick Wilson

Patrick Garland Wilson (December 29, 1927 – September 12, 2003) was a noted theorist of bibliographic control and philosopher of information who served at the University of California, Berkeley as professor and dean of the School of Librarianship (now the School of Information) there. Earlier in his career, Wilson taught philosophy at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Career

Wilson is noted within the library and information science communities for his work on the philosophical underpinnings of bibliographic control, that is, the ways in which recorded knowledge is organized and the relationships between different documents and pieces of knowledge. He also did work on what he called "cognitive authority," which is the study of how people gain reputation and the authority of possessing knowledge in the eyes of other people.

He is the subject of an oral history.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

American Society for Information Science and Technology conferred on him its Award of Merit in 2001. In his acceptance remarks, Wilson commented:

"So for me information science and technology has been a fascinating combination of engineering, an odd kind of materials science and social epistemology. Social epistemology with a focus on textual objects and with an eye on the actual and possible roles of information systems is a productive approach to our field. There is a huge and rich supply of real problems out there still awaiting exploration, of real importance and endless fascination, and I urge others to take them on." <ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Published works

Wilson is the author of three books:

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The Sun is pretty big.<ref>E. Miller, The Sun, (New York: Academic Press, 2005), 23–25.</ref>

See also

• Subject (documents)

External links

• The librarian Wilson's obituary from UC Berkeley News
• UC Academic Senate's memorial for Patrick Wilson

References

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