OCLC Report: Information Format Trends: Content, Not Containers (2004).
- Introduction
- The rapid “unbundling” of content
from traditional containers such as books, journals and, CDs has had a
significant impact on the self-search/find/obtain process
- Digital content is often
syndicated instead of being prepackaged and distributed, and access is provided
on an as-needed basis to the information consumer by providers outside the
library space
- Content consumers are “format
agnostic” or do no care what sort of container the content comes from
- Commercial content deployers are
increasingly catering to these more experimental information consumers by
providing content in a variety of formats/different price structures
- Increasingly, the “format” is a
communication device that moves from creator to consumer in channels outside of
the traditional ones such as the library
- Content is no longer
format-dependent and users are not dependent on traditional distribution
channels for access
- A Sudden Shift
- In 2004, traditional publishing
was slowing, and e-books were adopted, and quality content was making its way
to the internet
- Libraries must now also manage
content that is unbound from any sort of identifiable container
- The major trends in the content
space are technological and social, and are profoundly changing how content is
created, collected, used, shared, and preserved
- Many of the most disruptive
changes are taking place outside of the arena of traditional information
management
- Contextual guides must be built
into the “search, find, and obtain” event and librarians will need to pay
attention to how content is created, found, and used
- McLuhan Saw It Coming
- The use of communication devices
and networks to move multimedia content around worldwide is huge, and
increasing rapidly
- Content consumers will tolerate
some costs for content they value but that value is increasingly related to
control over the content
- New communication channels then
become a disruptive technology
- Content Explosions
- the significance of tis
convergence of technologies is that people are not tied to a computer for the
delivery of content
- a major social change is underway
as that content is inextricably woven into the content of people’s lives
- Smaller Pieces, Smaller Payments
- Content companies react to the
consumers’ expectations for delivery of content just in time by reducing
content to smaller and smaller consumable units, often with downsized cost as
well
- Micropayment for microcontent is
increasingly common
- Pieces of microcontent do not
currently figure large in the collections of libraries
- New Voices All Around
- There is a growing atomization of
content interests and he resulting publications that serve them
- Social publishing
- Wikis/blogs are indicators of
further change in the information landscape that could lead to a new publishing
paradigm
- Librarians need to find ways to
fit into a world where content and the channels to distribute it are ubiquitous
- Popular Materials
- Consumer consumption continues to
shift from print to all things digital
- E-books are the fastest growing
segment of the publishing industry
- Scholarly Materials
- In the academic library
environment, some of the trends are less trendy than they are facts of life,
having been challenges for many years
- University presses in the US
continue to struggle
- Conclusion
- Libraries should move beyond the
role of collector and organizer of content to a role that establishes the
authenticity and provenance of content and provides the imprimatur of quality
in an information rich/context poor world
Clifford Lynch, "Information Literacy and Information Technology Literacy: New Components in the Curriculum for a Digital Culture"
- Introduction
- Response to a call for input to a
study of information technology literacy
- Information Literacy and
Information Technology Literacy
- Information technology literacy
- deals with an understanding of the technology
infrastructure that underpins much of today’s life
- understanding of the tools
technology provides and the interaction with the technology infrastructure
- understanding of legal, social,
economic, and public policy issues that shape the development of the
infrastructure/applications/use of technologies
- Information literacy
- deals with content and
communication (authoring, information finding/organization, research, etc.)
- the information can take many
forms
- content can serve many purposes
(news, art, entertainment, etc.)
- both forms of literacy are
essential for people to function and succeed in today’s society
- Information Technology Literacy
- Two general perspectives on information
technology literacy
- Emphasis on skills in the use of
tools (internet, word processing, computers, etc.)
- Understanding how technologies,
systems, and infrastructure work
- Immediately applicable
skill-oriented training is useful for the short-term goal of employment, but
leaves people poorly prepared for a life in an information/information
technology intensive culture
- The use of software tools to
communicate information is a particularly important area of both technology and
information literacy
- An understanding of the principles
of how the technological world works is a key component of information
technology
- Key question that must be
addressed is the extent to which the base understanding is “useful” knowledge
for most people
- Information Literacy
- The body of knowledge related to
the text needs to be extended to the full range of visual and multimedia
communication genres
- An understanding of how searching
systems work, and of the indexing techniques, descriptive practices, and
organizational systems, searching, and information accessibility, visibility,
and impact is becoming essential
- People need an understanding of
information resources and how they are mapped into technological and economic
structures, and how these resources interrelate
- Other issues related to
information policies and practices that are an essential part of information
literacy
