| Chaos Theory has its roots in the revolutionary sixties. It rose almost simultaneously in astronomy, physics and mathematics in the mid-1970’s. Chaos theory reached widespread popularity in the late 1980’s, and since has migrated from the hard sciences into the social sciences, achieving either paradigmatic status as an analytical methodology, or dismissal as a postmodern meme. There has been strong recent interest in chaos theory in the information sciences, and now, chaos theory knocks firmly at librarianship’s door. This investigation explores the philosophical, epistemological and methodological issues presented by chaos theory. Citation analysis and a bibliographic and search review are used as a first step in evaluating the viability of chaos theory as a potential triangulator for traditional qualitative/quantitative research in library and information studies. |