Speaker
Description
Science communication is one of the aspects of Science engagement. A debate on who should communicate science, why and how has been going on in the past few years. Scientists' fear of distortion of scientific facts by journalists and the journalists' fear of scientists' lack of enthusiasm in their writing end up bringing disharmony between the two and leaving the public without accurate information. Research information is a crucial tool for policy formulation and for sustainable development. It is observed that the roles of librarians’ mediation between documents and their contents as well as users have been distorted and nearly unrecognizable in science communication. Therefore, this paper argues that librarians who are custodians of research information documents as well as trained information managers are able to analyze repackage and disseminate science information to any target audience by any media without distorting it. The paper further argues that the Library and Information Science (LIS) profession covers the entire universe of knowledge and has professionals from all disciplines. For these reasons, librarians are best suited to partner with researchers from the beginning of their research to the end and to communicate science to the public. The paper uses various LIS curricula, LIS student entry requirements, the different career paths that the LIS graduates take to support the argument.
Key words: Science communication; Library and Information Science; Policy formulation; Sustainable Development
