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I. Underlying Problem (or Opportunity?)

Historical Information Technology Context

  Are we living in Interesting Times?

Gertrude Himmelfarb, "Revolution in the library." American Scholar, Spring97:v66 iss2 p197(8)

There have been few "serious" revolutions that "dramatically alter the course of centuries."

[At the time the printing press was developed] "ephemeral popular books could be produced as cheaply as classical ones, and heretical tracts as readily as canonical ones... Thus every literate person could have access to the same text of the Bible, and could interpret and judge it without benefit of the mediating authorities of church or state..."

"Now, with the electronic revolution, we are taking that democratizing process a giant step forward... It can make you not only the recipient of all this information but the creator of it, an active partner in this "interactive process".... Your thoughts on any subject, your reflections, impressions, opinions, even your latest term paper, can find their way into the Internet by means of your "home page.  If ... students and scholars find themselves consulting the Internet more often than books, then something momentous is happening, something far more consequential than a mere technological innovation..."
 

Committee on Information Technology Literacy, Computer Science and Telecommunications Board, Commission on Physical Sciences, Mathematics, and Applications, National Research Council, Being Fluent with Information Technology, (Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1999), p12.

"Information technology is an enabler for the opportunity for individuals to express themselves freely, unfettered by intermediaries. For a modest investment in a computer and the nominal cost of a connection to an Internet service provider, anyone can post anything [to the Web] and the potential audience for such postings is quite large. Such convenient, inexpensive and sustained opportunities for free speech are unprecedented..."
 

Lida L. Larsen, "Information Literacy: The Web is not an Encyclopedia," University of Maryland, Office of Information Technology Web site, (revised 1999), http://www.inform.umd.edu/LibInfo/literacy/

"... the Web democratizes information ownership, provision, and retrieval... The Web allows us to speak directly to the purveyors of information in every imaginable field. Few reference librarians, teachers, publishers, or other mediating forces stand between us and information on the Internet...  While this does have great advantages in expanding our information base..., it also means, perhaps, more intellectual effort on the part of the information consumer to develop valuable critical thinking skills and to evaluate the sources, quality, and quantity of that information."
 

Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), "Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education," ACRL Web site, (2000).

"Because of the escalating complexity of this environment, individuals are faced with diverse, abundant information choices ...and increasingly, information comes to individuals in unfiltered formats, raising questions about its authenticity, validity, and reliability... [and] in evaluating and understanding it. The uncertain quality and expanding quantity of information pose large challenges for society. The sheer abundance of information will not in itself create a more informed citizenry without a complementary cluster of abilities necessary to use information effectively."
 

Web Environment - Key terminology and concepts:

• Democratization
• Intermediaries?
• Heretical vs. Canonical tracts
• Authorities
• Unfettered, Unfiltered information
• Authenticity, validity, and reliability
• Abundance
• Critical thinking skills
• Bottom Line — decentralization of dissemination and access
   

Changing Technology Means Changing Info Environment

• A decade back, central information resource on campus — library
• Library interaction with faculty to assure quality and authority of collections
• Selection, i.e., filtering
• Mostly Canonical tracts, i.e., acceptable to academia
• Strong role as intermediary — reference assistance for "captive" audience
• Manageably sized collections
• Critical thinking routinely addressed in reference process