(C) Grolier 1991

information science

Information science is the study of the ways in which organisms process information. It embraces such disparate topics as the means of genetic information processing in cells, the individual's use of information concerning the environment, and the methods of human learning and information generation. The dominant emphasis of information science today, however, is the last of these: human information processing at the conscious level. Information science integrates parts of other disciplines, such as biology, physics, computer science, sociology, psychology, and librarianship, insofar as they involve human information processing.

It is common to speak of the present as the Information Age, or to refer to the information explosion. About 50 percent of all workers in the United States today are in some way involved in information processing. Many people do not receive the right information at the right time, however, because they are not aware the information exists, because they do not know where to look for it, or because it is buried in a mass of extraneous information and is difficult to find.

Uses of Information Science.

In the theoretical sense, information science tries to increase understanding of the ways in which information is generated, stored, made available, and used. In the practical sense it undertakes specific actions to try to improve these same functions of information science. The information scientist may compare alternative means of making information available, as by INDEXING, to determine which means work most satisfactorily, or the scientist may devise tools and methods for improving the transfer of information. One of the earliest of these tools was Keyword in Context (KWIC) indexing, first introduced in 1959 and developed by Hans Peter Luhn and his colleagues at IBM. In a KWIC index, the computer is used to generate entries from title words, saving the time and cost of human indexing but losing the benefits of human understanding of the document. In Selective Dissemination of Information (SDI) a list, or profile, of topics of continuing interest to a user is prepared. This is then compared to the index terms of particular documents in the current literature on an ongoing basis, and the user is notified of those that match the profile.

The concept on which these and other new methods of disseminating information depend is that of the data base, which is a body of information, usually computer-stored, that can be searched and manipulated for a variety of needs. Data bases have grown out of computer-based publishing, in which the material is keyboarded for computer typesetting; once this process is completed, the information can be reused for other purposes. These data bases are of two main varieties: bibliographic and numeric. Bibliographic data bases are usually spinoffs from printed abstracting and indexing services, and are searched for similar needs in libraries and other organizations. A user usually works with a searcher to phrase a request to produce the needed information. Millions of bibliographic citations can be searched simultaneously, with retrieval of only those that match the search request.

Numeric data bases are much more varied, consisting of any sort of data an organization has found it needs. While some of these are publicly available, far more are reserved by their owners for their private use. A sophisticated data base technology based on magnetic tapes, drums, and disks has developed for INFORMATION STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL, and for DATA PROCESSING. When large quantities of information on printed pages must be stored, microforms are usually used (see MICROFILM). These permit maintenance of a vast number of documents in a very small space.

Future Techniques.

A number of factors are coalescing today to make information science quite different in the future. Computer conferencing uses sophisticated computer networks to permit interchange of a great variety of computer conferencing messages among users. Although still experimental, computer conferencing shows promise of rapid development and may lead to the integration of all current processes of generation, storage, and transfer of information. Advances in communication technology may produce the "global village" envisioned by Marshall McLuhan--or they may instead lead to greater isolation.

In the future, a researcher who is engaged in experimental work and needs the advice of colleagues in other locations may go to a computer terminal and send a message concerning the work in progress. The colleagues, at their own terminals, would receive the message, and reply at their convenience. This dialogue could continue for some time, until the researcher's work was completed, whereupon a report would be prepared at the same terminal and transmitted by computer to the editor of a journal, to be considered for publication. After the editor receives it, he or she would transmit it to reviewers who would judge its publication worthiness and send their comments back to the editor, who would synthesize them for the author. After revising the paper, the author would retransmit it; the editor would then arrange for it to go through composition and publication in the journal. At the same time the paper would go to the abstracting and indexing services that covered it in their publications.

A scenario such as this one is technically possible at present; all these steps can be carried out at electronic speeds on the basis of only one keyboarding. Omission of the final step of paper publication is also possible, with substitution of direct transmission, as in SDI, to workers who have registered an interest in the topic of the paper.

These technologies will also affect daily life. Libraries are becoming access points for information, not just repositories for books. A person may telephone or go to the library to locate information on community agencies and services, on jobs, on the stock market, or any other need. If the library does not possess the information, it is likely to have network connections with other libraries or agencies that do. The potential of accessing information resources by means of computer terminals within the home is growing rapidly. Various systems that permit viewers to have interactive access to data bases via their television sets are being market tested. They include QUBE in the United States and Prestel in Great Britain. Viewers can call for information on the weather, the price of a stock or of grocery items, consumer information, or any other information that a provider wishes to make available.

Jessica L. Harris
Bibliography: Artandi, Susan, An Introduction to Computers in Information Science, 2d ed. (1972); Becker, Joseph, First Book of Information Science (1973); Elias, Arthur W., ed., Key Papers in Information Science (1971); Hammer, Donald P., ed., The Information Age: Its Development, Its Impact (1976); Kent, Allen, et al., Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science, 25 vols. to date (1968-75); Lancaster, F. Wilfred, and Fayem, Emily G., Information Retrieval On-Line (1973); Rowley, J. E., and Turner, C. M., The Dissemination of Information (1978); Saracevic, Tefko, Introduction to Information Science (1970).