From Gutenburg to the Global Information Infrastructure – Access to Information in the Networked World (Digital Libraries and Electronic Publishing Series) - Hardcover

Borgman, Christine

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 026202473X ISBN 13: 9780262024730

Publisher: MIT Press, 2000

Synopsis

Will the emerging global information infrastructure (GII) create a revolution in communication equivalent to that wrought by Gutenberg, or will the result be simply the evolutionary adaptation of existing behaviour and institutions to new media? Will the GII improve access to information for all? Will it replace libraries and publishers? How can computers and information systems be made easier to use? What are the trade-offs between tailoring information systems to user communities and standardizing them to interconnect with systems designed for other communities, cultures and languages? This book takes a close look at these and other questions of technology, behaviour and policy surrounding the GII. Topics covered include the design and use of digital libraries; behavioural and institutional aspects of electronic publishing; the evolving role of libraries; the life cycle of creating, using and seeking information; and the adoption and adaptation of information technologies. The book takes a human-centred perspective, focusing on how well the GII fits into the daily lives of the people it is supposed to benefit. Taking a holistic approach to information access, the book draws on research and practice in computer science, communications, library and information science, information policy, business, economics, law, political science, sociology, history, education and archival and museum studies. It explores both domestic and international issues. The author's own empirical research is compelemented by extensive literature reviews and analyses.

About this title

Review

"No doubt this book will become a modern classic... a bookmark in the literature to which other writers refer continuously."-- Philip Calvert, "Online Information Review"

From the Author

Why I wrote this book (and why you may wish to read it)
Providing access to information is only one of many reasons for constructing a global information infrastructure, but an essential one. The success of applications such as electronic commerce, electronic publishing, distance-independent education, distributed entertainment, and cooperative work depends upon the ability to discover and locate information, whether about products, services, people, places, facts, or ideas of interest. None of these applications are new. What is new is the process by which they are conducted. Activities associated with familiar physical spaces for working, shopping, browsing through bookshelves, wandering through galleries, playing games, or meeting friends for coffee are occurring in virtual spaces. Many activities associated with separate places are converging, all conducted from a single computer console. Yet other activities that were associated with a single place are now diverging, conducted over mobile and tetherless information appliances.

The success of a global information infrastructure will depend upon how well it fits into people’s daily lives. To be attractive, it should be easy to use, available, affordable, and fill perceived needs. But what do these terms mean, and to whom? What is known about information-related behavior, and how can that knowledge be applied to designing a GII that will achieve its promise of improving access to information? Therein lies the focus of this book. Much is known about the information-related behavior of individuals and institutions, yet relatively little of that knowledge is being applied to the design of digital libraries, national and global information infrastructures, or information policy. This book draws upon that body of research and practice to identify ways it can be employed in constructing a GII that is useful and usable to a broad audience.

I wrote this book for a couple of reasons. One is that I had long sought a book that provides a broad sweep of current thinking about information, technology, behavior, and policy. Few of my colleagues could recommend a general starting point, and it has been hard to find sources to which I could direct people -- so I wrote that book myself. The second reason is that I’d reached a point in my career where it was time to consolidate and integrate my work into a larger conceptualization, pulling together disparate threads of design, behavior, and policy, drawing upon research and practice in computer science, communication, library and information science, education, law, information policy, sociology, history, political science, economics, business, archives, and museum studies. The book took 10 years from conceptualization through completion, a period of dramatic global changes in technology, business, and politics. My challenge was to write a thoughtful analysis that is current today and will be relevant five years from now, incorporating what has been learned about access to information over the last several decades, and in some cases, over the last several centuries.

This book raises more questions than it answers. But now is the time to be raising these questions. Individuals, institutions, businesses, and governments are making strategic decisions that will influence the design of information systems and services and associated applications in commerce, education, communication, entertainment, and government. The audience for this book is scholars, practitioners, and policy makers involved in making these decisions, as well as students, and yes, even users. I hope this book will stimulate discussion among all of these players, because decisions made now will influence access to information, for everyone, for generations to come.

Edition details

• Publisher: MIT Press
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 026202473X
• ISBN 13: 9780262024730
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 350