This article outlines the history of library and information science (LIS), from its roots in library science, information science and documentation. It considers various conceptions or “paradigms” in the field and discusses the topical content of LIS as well as the relationships between LIS and other disciplines. The main argument of the article is that answers to all such questions concerning LIS are related to conceptions of LIS. It is argued that an updated version of social epistemology (SE), which was founded by Egan and Shera in 1952, may in hindsight provide the most fruitful theoretical frame for LIS. SE is related to the domain-analytic approach, which was suggested by Hjørland and Albrechtsen in 1995.