ABSTRACT
Design is a core professional responsibility in the information professions as in others. It may be local and idiosyncratic, or it may be the focus of a major research project. Design researchers have argued that there are fundamental design problems and design solutions that cross scale and domain boundaries; if this is so, then design science, the study of design, should build knowledge both about particular domains and also about what is true across domains. This entry examines design science in several fields to indicate where it might inform design in the library and information sciences. It concludes with two examples from the information sciences, one a design science study of vocabulary design and one a design research project, in which the research consisted of design of an information retrieval system.
