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I. THE INFORMATION AGE
THE INFORMATION EXPLOSION
Every day, over one thousand new books are published worldwide and
thousands of various newspapers, magazines and journals are sold.
The Internet provides access to millions of Websites authored by
various individuals and organizations. It is appropriate, therefore,
that the era in which we live is often called the "Information
Age." In contrast to the Industrial Age
that preceded this era, information --rather than
natural resources or capital -- has become the strategic resource
upon which the economy revolves, and it is being produced in ever-greater
quantities with ever-greater speed. In fact, experts believe that
the amount of available information doubles every 4-5 years and
that more new information has been generated in the last 30 years
than in the previous 5,000 (Wurman 32).
WHAT IS INFORMATION AND WHO PRODUCES IT?
What exactly do we mean by "information,"
and where does it come from? One definition is offered by the American
Library Association:
"All ideas, facts, and imaginative works of the mind
which have been communicated, recorded, published and/or distributed
formally or informally in any format" (List 1).
Under this broad definition, information is everything that's been
created or studied by the human mind and recorded in some way.
Information comes to you first and foremost through your own direct
experience, i.e. your own five senses provide you with "data"
on what you see, hear, taste, etc. Conversations with friends, teachers,
parents, and other people in your social world also provide you
with important types of information. But for information outside
of your immediate experience, you depend on a variety of individuals
and institutions in society, including: scholars, researchers, the
news media, non-profit organizations, various kinds of "think
tanks" and research institutes, public policy groups, the courts,
government bodies, international organizations, businesses, and
many others, all with varying degrees of objectivity and credibility.
Information, however, is not the same as knowledge.
Knowledge is acquired only when one is able to understand, interpret,
and synthesize information productively, toward some valued purpose.
This distinction between information and knowledge
is crucial. In Lesson 2, you will learn that the goal of most college-level
research is not merely to gather and present information, but to
gain genuine knowledge and understanding.
INFORMATION ANXIETY
As stated earlier, more and more information is being produced and
distributed now that at any other time in human history. Consider
this fact: a weekday edition of the New York Times newspaper
offers more information than the average person living in 17th-century
England would come across in a lifetime (Wurman 20).
It should be noted, however, that the fact that more information
is available now than at any other time in history does not necessarily
mean that our lives are easier, or that we are somehow better off.
In fact, people today often experience what has become known as
information anxiety, a state of frustration brought
about by all or some of the following factors:
- feeling overwhelmed with too much information
- not being able to understand or evaluate the available information
- not knowing for certain if certain information exists or where
to find it
- knowing where to find information, but being unable to access
it
(Wurman 44)
In other words, society has reached the point where our ability
to generate and distribute information has far exceeded our capacity
to find, manage, and understand it. This situation leaves many people
feeling so overwhelmed with information that they cannot process
it in such a way that it becomes meaningful. The end result is often
an individual so discouraged by an unmanageable glut of information
that he or she falls into a state of numbness, passivity, and indifference.
The goal of this course is to equip you with the concepts and skills
that will help you avoid this unhappy state.
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