Library science (often termed
library studies or
library and information science) is an
interdisciplinary or
multidisciplinary field that applies the practices, perspectives, and tools of
management, information technology, education, and other areas to
libraries; the collection, organization,
preservation, and dissemination of information resources; and the
political economy of information. Martin Schrettinger, a Bavarian librarian, coined the discipline within his 1808 work, Versuch eines vollständigen Lehrbuchs der Bibliothek-Wissenschaft oder Anleitung zur vollkommenen Geschäftsführung eines Bibliothekars in wissenschaftlicher Form abgefasst. Rather than classifying information based on nature-oriented elements, as was previously done in his Bavarian library, Schrettinger organized books in alphabetical order. The first American school for library science was founded by
Melvil Dewey at
Columbia University in 1887. It is an aspect of the broader field of librarianship.