"For [Erica] Schoenberger, academic disciplines are both an object of study, as well as a method of study. For example, anthropologists study culture through participant observation [Sch01]. Geographers may add place to the criteria that define a discipline; for example, historians study in archives. Forms of discourse, the rhetorical strategies, also vary among the disciplines; some are linguistic, while others are mathematical. Finally, evidence and epistemological commitments define a discipline. For Hurd, disciplinarity is defined by Roy as 'a field of knowledge which some minimum number of universities (say, 12–20) have established in departments labeled with the discipline's name.' [Hur92]. Disciplines are thus constructs as well as ways for controlling knowledge production. Disciplinary cultures produce objects and methods of study, the credentialed practitioners of the discipline, values and ways of knowing, and identities.
'The impact of knowledge on action – whether in the field of social or natural phenomena – forces interaction between the disciplines and even generates new disciplines. The 'inter–discipline' of today is the 'discipline' of tomorrow.' [INT72]. Therefore, proposing and structuring Digital Libraries as an academic inter–discipline is in one sense knowledge fragmentation but it also has the potential for unification. Since interdisciplinarity can be defined as the integration of concepts and epistemologies from different disciplines, digital libraries constitute a problem domain to which both LIS and Computing (among others) contribute. The only relevant question in this context is how can interdisciplinary DL education be truly achieved and disciplinary protectionism battles be avoided [Abb87]? Explicating the nature of the disciplines and professions involved may move us closer to the goal of interdisciplinary DL education."
(Anita Coleman, 2002)
Coleman, A. (July/August 2002). 'Interdisciplinarity: The Road Ahead for Education in Digital Libraries.' D–Lib Magazine 8(7/8).
[Sch01] E. Schoenberger. Interdisciplinarity and Social Power. Progress in Human Geography, 25 (3): 365–382, 2001
[Hur92] J. Hurd. The Future of University Science and Technology Libraries: Implications of Increasing Interdisciplinarity. Science and Technology Libraries, 13 (1): 17–32, Fall 1992.
[INT72] Interdisciplinarity: Problems of Teaching and Research in Universities. Paris, OECD, 1972.
[Abb87] A. Abbott. The System of Professions: An Essay on the Division of Expert Labor. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1987.
