Googling in title Googling anyhow
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The library is a ubiquitous component of the information environment of any society and plays a critical role in connecting information resources and services with users. Yet, despite their ubiquity and centrality in the production, management and dissemination of information in society, libraries have been largely neglected in many CEE countries. Libraries can play a critical role in political reconfiguration of their nation by building the types of skills and competencies that will empower individuals and thereby contribute to shaping an information culture that meets the needs of the time. Nadia Caidi: Building “civilisational competence”: a new role for libraries? Journal of Documentation Volume 62 Issue 2 2006, (pp. 194-212) |
The term Infostructure has been used in the literature, since 1984. Not all agree on what is infostructure. Each writer (incl. e-writer) has used it to meet his/her end. This essay first reviews the literature in print, as well as, on the net and the results are follows:
E-publications & Web sites:
(1)
What is an
infostructure? (Dead link? - Web site unavailable? link checked Nov. 19,2002)
Extract: "Infostructure is a word that I have decided to coin, because
we need a word like it. It is an easy cognitive slip from infrastructure
to here, for both refer to a necessary groundwork that must be laid. ...
An infostructure is similar (to infrastructure), except that it doesn't
refer to anything physical. An infostructure is the layout of information
in a manner such that it can be navigated -- it's what's created any time
an amount of information is organized in a useful fashion. A table of contents
is an infostructure, as is a bibliography, or an index. GopherSpace is
an infostructure. The World Wide Web is an infostructure" (page last updated
Oct. 23, 1994)
(2)
National Information
Infrastructure (NII):
Extract: "The phrase "information infrastructure" has an expansive
meaning. The National Information Infrastructure (NII) includes more than
just the physical facilities used to transmit, store, process, and display
voice, data, and images. ... That is why, beyond the physical components
of the infrastructure, the value of the National Information Infrastructure
to users and the nation will depend in large part on the quality of its
other elements:
(3)
Providing information
as the 'Fourth Utility', Building "Infostructure" key to meeting tenant
requirements, by Herb Hauser. (Reprinted electronically from Office Life
Magazine, December 1997)
Extract: The year is 1903. A real estate developer has just decided to bring copper wires to one of his buildings in order to power up "light bulbs". ... The year is 2003. Worldwide telecommunications advances have produced a myriad of communications services and a complex array of technologies and products to deliver these now-essential services. Tenants wouldn't think of choosing a building without advanced communications capability - it would be like choosing a building without electricity. ...
How do we characterize "InfoStructure"? I have come up with the following ways that information, the fourth utility, initiates and differs from the other three (heat, water, and light) utilities (in providing residences with info structure):
A large number of projects in this area are being implemented within the framework of the Intergovernmental Informatics Programme.
This strategy includes:
(5)
A
Global Infostructure for a Global Info Society
Extract:
(7)
InfoStructure
Incorporated
Extract: InfoStructure offers professional computer services to business
in need of knowledgeable consulting for computer systems and software.
.. InfoStructure is pleased to open its doors to home PC users in the Greater
Springfield Area. (@ 1998).
(8)
A
Concept Dictionary - Working Knowledge to Support Health Infostructure
Extract: The project will develop a Concept Dictionary, a web-based
tool to help health care analysts and researchers use information resources
more efficiently, by devising terminology that will make database access
easier. (last updated on Dec. 22, 1998).
(9)
Building
a city Infostructure Additional links
Extract: "Re-engineering the desktop: Taking the knowledge-base to
the user to support education and city communities" by Jim Strom,
and George Neisser, Manchester Univ.
(10)
Infostructure Methodology (Dead link, Website unavailable, link checked on Nov. 19, 2002)
Extract: Within the Specification Documentation, we map out what the
solution should do for your company, what business needs it addresses and
how it will be utilized by end-users. Elements addressed in the documentation
may include: all components of the solution, data layouts, API interfaces,
flowcharts and/or mockups of graphic user interfaces, paper or functional
prototypes, network topology, and the requirements for hardware, software,
operating systems and storage. ...
(11)
Civil
Infostructure Technology
Extract: An interdisciplinary team of software designers, engineers,
and social scientists is working to identify ways to help organizations
use information technology more effectively in a new project funded by
the National Science Foundation. Project City will provide a demonstration
of how IT can help communities maintain their civil infrastructure -- their
buildings, roads, bridges, sewer lines, and gas and water pipelines. The
major functions of the CityScape are to support:
The process can create large infostructures easily and effectively, due to the extra navigation information it can automatically generate. ... (printed as "Weblinker, a tool for managing WWW cross-references", by Aimar A, et al., Computer Networks and ISDN Systems, 28 (1 & 2), Dec 95, 99-107).
(13)
Infostructure
Abstract: Provides extensive training and access based information
services
(14)
NPS Home Infostructure
History (Naval Postgraduate School) (dead link, Web site not available: checked on Nov. 19, 2002)
Extract: "In addition to all the usual little editing here and there,
I changed the link to the research web page, as the Research Department
has now taken over that responsibility. Also changed the graphics for the
NPS Infostructure slightly (March 6, 1996). ... added the "building
web pages at NPS" page, as well as made some changes and updates to the
various pages. The central Home Page infostructure looks like this: ...
(March 13, 1995)
(15)
Infosurge
and Infostructure
Extract: (Written for NORTEL). by James Burke.
Thanks to information surge, each one of us in the modern world has
more machine power available at a fingertip than any Roman emperor. ...
Most important of all, information surge changes the way we think. We are
experiencing a transformational surge of innovation and convergence of
information technologies.
(16)
McLean, Neil, "Global access to scholarly communication: The quest
for sustainable solutions"
Extract: Almost all developed countries are now engaging in open debate
on the nature of the information infrastructure required to compete successfully
in the global market. The debate is fraught with problems for a variety
of reasons, including:
the lack of any agreed definition of national
information infrastructure;
the difficulties in defining and describing
the inextricable links between technological infrastructure and information
infrastructure;
the high number of stakeholders and the diversity
of visions;
the uncertainty of the role of public intervention/investment
in an enterprise that is so market-driven;
the rapid pace of technological change, which
appears to defy the normal rules of strategic planning;
the very different rates of progress between
the various service sectors;
the doubts in many countries on how they can
influence what appears to be a global development, primarily driven from
the US.
All these problems have led to doubts as to whether the paradigm of
the national information infrastructure is a useful
vehicle for addressing the developmental issues.
(17)
McLean, Neil, "Information architectures: Why do they matter?"
Extract: This paper aims to explain the importance of defining and
understanding the concepts and content which underpin the information infrastructure
required to support the library and information industry. It also explores
the inextricable link with technological infrastructure and the importance
of defining the functionality required to allow transparent access to information
resources. Finally, there is reference to a series of potential service
paradigms, all of which are dependent on the development of open systems
architecture based on common technical standards.
(18)
McLean, Neil. "Investment in information and knowledge infrastructure:
A Strategic Framework for Australia's Research Enterprise"
Extract: It is widely accepted at the international level that there
are inextricable links between information and knowledge infrastructure
and technological infrastructure. This has led to the tentative use of
the term 'infostructure' to embrace both concepts, although it is not entirely
satisfactory because both components require different, but complementary,
strategies for achieving success.
The relationship between both types of infrastructure need, therefore, careful definition and consequent synchronization of development strategies. When analyzing policy development at the international level, there are many signs of dysfunctional strategies either because of undue concentration on the importance of technological infrastructure or, conversely, an unfounded optimism by information and knowledge policy makers that the technological infrastructure will be automatically in place to fulfill service requirements. It is critical, therefore, that technical requirements for supporting a highly distributed information and services environment be clearly specified, both in functional and technical terms.
(19)
McLean, Neil, "Strategic directions for Australia's research infrastructure."
Extract: The Project Workshop was sponsored by nine universities with
a strong interest in research, together with the CSIRO. In the latter half
of 1998, Colin Steele, the University Librarian at the Australian National
University, canvassed opinion at various levels within the university research
community, within CSIRO and with the primary funding agencies DETYA and
the ARC, concerning the impending crisis facing Australia in terms of library
and information support for research.
The main symptoms of this perceived crisis are:
(1980)
Zurkowski, Paul G. "Information Industry Association," In Simora, Filomena,
editor. The Bowker Annual of Library & Book Trade Information.
New York, R.R. Bowker Company, 1980. pp. 149-155
Abstract: The Information Industry Association, established in 1968,
is a trade group for those concerns that
"create, assemble, organize, manage, or distribute information products
and services through any
medium appropriate to the client or customer." The association has
firmly established the concept of the
information industry as a separate and identifiable industry and has
identified common interests for a
large and growing list of companies. A brief review of the highlights
of the association's activities in 1979
included the launching of a new membership campaign, the publication
of the third edition of Information
Sources (a membership directory) and of The Information Resources:
Policy, Background and
Issues--An Infostructure Handbook by Forest Horton, and the development
of an industry survey. Also
described were the National Information Conference and Exposition and
the activities of the various
committees of the association.
(1984)
Zurkowski, Paul G., "Integrating America's infostructure", JASIS,
35 (3) May 84, 170-178.
Abstract: Infostructure is defined by using a map of information industry
to show interrelationships of various segments. There is an interrelationship
of the 8 information industry segments, viz., content services, content
packages, facilitation services, information technologies, integrating
technologies, communication technologies, communication channels, and broadcast
channels. A new, vertically integrated infostructure is revealed, based
on information and communication technology and designed to deliver information
content. Criteria for identifying information businesses are identified
and each segment of map is reviewed in relation to parameters.
(1987)
Levitan, K.B. Government Infostructures: A Guide to the Networks
of Information Resources and Technologies at Federal, State, and Local
Levels. Westport CT, Greenwood Press, 1987. 320 pp.
Abstract: The chapters in this book address the components of information
infrastructures and their interrelationships in supporting selected policy
topics and processes. The significance of information resources management
to the formation, execution, and direction of public policies at national,
state and
local levels are directly and indirectly examined. The text is divided
into three sections: descriptions and
discussions of infostructure components at 1) the federal level; and
2) the state level; and 3) case
studies of policy areas and their underlying infostructures. Specific
application areas include civil
liberties, congressional uses of information technologies, decision
analysis, service policies to specific
groups, such as the aging and the handicapped and the dynamics of policy
making as it parallels
information resource management.
(1987)
Barth, P.D. "The Veterans Administration: organizational and information
structures," In Government Infostructures: A Guide to the Networks of
Information Resources and Technologies at Federal, State, and Local Levels.
Westport, CT, Greenwood Press, 1987. pp. 219-241.
Abstract: In a detailed case study, the author described the parallels
between the information and organizational structures of the Veterans Administration
in handling its policies. She provides descriptive
profiles of the organizational units that are the primary loci of information
collection, use and
dissemination and access to rule making. For each unit, relevant infostructure
considerations are
presented, including 1) the network of information technologies and
associated people; 2) information
resources (collection, records and reports) and their physical and
functional placement; and 3) the
organizational placement of workers involved with information.
(1992)
Ellis, William W., "Changing information infostructure", in The
Future of Information: Money, Management and Technology. Edited by Carolyn
Mulford. Summaries of proceedings of the FLICC Forum on Federal Information
Policies, 9th, Washington DC., March 17, 1992.
(1994)
Fielding, R., "Maintaining distributed hypertext infostructures: Welcome
to MOMspider's Web," Computer Networks and ISDN Systems, 27
(2), November 1994, 193-204.
Abstract: Most documents made available on the World-Wide Web can be
considered part of an infostructure --an information resource database
with a specifically designed structure. Infostructures often contain a
wide variety of information sources, in the form of interlinked documents
at distributed sites, which are maintained by a number of different document
owners (usually, but not necessarily, the original document authors). Individual
documents may also be shared by multiple infostructures. Since it is rarely
static, the content of an
infostructure is likely to change over time and may vary from the intended
structure. Documents may be moved or deleted, referenced information may
change, and hypertext links may be broken. As it grows, an infostructure
becomes complex and difficult to maintain. Such maintenance currently relies
upon the error logs of each server (often never relayed to the document
owners), the complaints of users (often not seen by the actual document
maintainers), and periodic manual traversals by each owner of all the webs
for which they are responsible. Since thorough manual traversal of a web
can be time-consuming and boring, maintenance is rarely or inconsistently
performed and the infostructure eventually becomes corrupted. What is needed
is an automated means for traversing a web of documents and checking for
changes which may
require the attention of the human maintainers (owners) of that web.
The Multi-Owner Maintenance spider (MOMspider) has been developed to at
least partially solve this maintenance problem. MOMspider can periodically
traverse a list of webs (by owner, site, or document tree), check each
web for any changes
which may require its owner's attention, and build a special index
document that lists our the attributes and connections of the web in a
form that can itself be traversed as a hypertext document. This paper describes
the design of MOMspider and how it was influenced by the nature of distributed
hypertext maintenance and requirements for the good behavior of any web-traversing
robot. It also includes discussion of the efficiency requirements for maintaining
world-wide webs and proposed changes to HTML and HTTP to support distributed
maintenance. The paper concludes with a short description of MOMspider's
future and pointers to its freeware distribution site.
(1994)
Ball, M.J. and Reese, E.L. "Information services at the University
of Maryland at Baltimore. Giving the vision life," JASIS
45 (5), Jun 1994, 326-330
Abstract: The strategic vision for information services at the University
of Maryland at Baltimore incorporates the integration concept advocated
by the National Library of Medicine. Computing, library, and telecommunications
services report to a single vice president; services are being redesigned
for optimal functionality. Recent accomplishments include transmitting
radiographic images between the campus network and the Johns Hopkins and
televising interactive grand rounds-other projects also target networking
visual information. A new Health Sciences Library/Information Services
Building, scheduled to open in 1997, will
house the "infostructure " for "the virtual library."
(1994)
"Infostructure for the 21st century", Science in Parliament,
51
(6) Dec. 94, 13-16.
Extract: Infostructure for the 21st century is the use of IT in the
development of infrastructure for tomorrow's needs.
(1995)
Floridi, L., "Internet: Which future for organized knowledge, Frankenstein
or Pygmalion?", Int. J. Human Computer Studies, 43 (2) August 1995,
261-74.
Extract: The Internet is like a new country, with a growing population
of millions of well educated citizens. If it wants to keep track of its
own cultural achievements in real time, it will have to provide itself
with an infostructure like a virtual National Library system. Proposes
that institutions all over the world should take full advantage of the
new technologies available, and promote and coordinate such a global service.
This is essential in order to make possible a really efficient management
of human knowledge on a global scale.
(1996)
Green-Kenneth, C, "Building a campus infostructure", Trusteeship,
spec. issue, 4-9, 1996.
ABSTRACT: Colleges and university administrations must recognize and
accommodate change more quickly and efficiently if the institutions are
to remain competitive. Trustees must examine the policies they create from
this perspective, also keeping in focus the institution's mission, strategic
direction, and future. Institutions need periodic professional renewal
just as individuals
do.
(1999)
Summary of the CHLA/ABSC response to the Interim Report of the Advisory
Council on Health Infostructure, Bibliotheca Medica Canadiana, 20
(3) Spring, 1999, p. 133-4.
Extract: The Canadian Health Libraries Association has developed a
response. Summarizes the response which addresses the lack of reference
to knowledge-based information as part of a health infostructure, outlines
the need for a national network of health libraries in the context of Interim
report's recommendations, and emphasizes the role of health libraries and
librarians in Canadian health infostructure and as partners with other
information creators and providers.
(2002)
The IM building blocks, by Robert Meagher, Information Management, 36 (1) Jan / Feb 2002, p. 26-35
Abstract: Information professionals are challenged to think of information management not just as records management but as a business and strategic issue. The article gives the blocks that form the infostructure (p.29). Meagher can be reached at: [email protected]
Infostructure: Defining what comprises infostructure is then the most complicated task. It is essential that there must be a national consensus of what pertains to information infrastructure or infostructure, necessary for an all round development of nation. While there is a link between technological infra-structure and informational infra-structure (or info-structure), for the purpose of our discussion we will retain this link as indispensable. But our primary discussion relates to infostructure. This paper does not intend to be a recommendatory source for actions and solutions, rather it aims at raising issues that are involved in the development of the nation and its relationship to infostructure.
To begin the discussion it must be explicitly stated that infostructure as construed here is not taken as just one segment of the information society, like a web page or national information policy document, or documentation services, or documentation that supports networking and technological systems.
Infrastructure is understood as the fundamental structure of a unit or system or organization. The basic, fundamental architecture of any infrastructural edifice (be it economy, machine, society, polity, religion, institution), determines how it functions and how it will be prepared to meet requirements of future. But then what is infostructure:
Infostructure, as discussed here, is the base for all information incorporating and information related activities, in the following areas: a) dealing with development of individual or social good or national development; b) meant for academia or business, c) distributed in the society as a free product or value added service; and d) enabling functions such as, education, information, news, entertainment or knowledge building.
For functional purpose, infostructure, is defined here as: developing an integrated support mechanism for information related activities within the framework of library and information industry. Support can be interpreted as regulatory, documentational, metadata, database, etc. These would facilitate, explicitly and implicitly, in manpower development, documentary resource development, organizational development, information and knowledge based content development, etc. These could manifest in the form of guidelines, procedures, policies, plans, manuals, records, reports, databases, web sites, communication technologies, information technologies, etc.. The development of infostructure then concerns creation, generation, assembling, organizing, managing, and distributing information based products and services.
For the sake of illustrating my view point, in a realistic perspective, India is taken here as a case. Two reasons compel me to use India in this illustration. Firstly, India has no such official talk about Infostructure or Infrastructure, and I can illustrate my own perspectives and use my own analogies! Second, India is the country that has the potential to develop Infostructure, with its vast expertise, resources, existing sectoral information systems, and with an ironically obvious vacuum in terms of developing the national information infrastructure initiative. Let me further elaborate. India has been at the forefront in technological infrastructure, and instances of electronic waves reaching corners of the country is no news. One single state, Andhra Pradesh, has made much inroads in implementing its technological initiatives. Technology apart, and proposed cyber cities in India, apart, there is no inkling of infostructure any where. No official medium has given a hint on how and where is the information support that is required for all the technological infrastructure that is being imported or generated using the indigenous resources. Internet is globally growing as a supplement to the existing information resources. Contradictorily, in India, all attempts are in isolation, and it is aimed to develop the Internet information resource. Library development and library movement, which had undergone tragicomic stage in the last fifty years, has been altogether by-passed in this process. No single source in any place can provide all information to all the needs of the information society. This has not yet dawned to Indian cyber maniacs, and soon they will have a nose dive!!!
While it is only the US that has explicitly stated the national goal
of creating a Information Infrastructure, a few countries followed the
agenda. As seen above, African Information Society Initiative, Canadian
Health Infostructure Program, are the two main programs among the nations.
UNESCO's proposed 'development of a sound "Infostructure" (policies, networking
and applications), for its Member States' is a step in this regard to achieve
global outlook. But in all these initiative technological infrastructure
dominates, and Infostructure does not seem to occupy a distinct place.
All talk, ubiquitously, is for building the high-tech and building bridges
to achieve global telecommunication connectivity. Further it is directly
focused on lining computers with communications, as C & C the watchword
developed by Japanese industrialist, Koji Kobayashi, as early as 1977.
Irony is information processing as a term is now directly related to IT
and not much of a relative of LIS!!! I quote from eb.com:
'information processing':
"the acquisition, recording, organization, retrieval, display, and dissemination of information. In recent years, the term has often been applied to computer-based operations specifically."
What is then the agenda for the infostructure in terms of national development perspective? In highlighting the agenda, I will attempt to illustrate Infostructural perspective in the context of India's development needs.
My agenda for infostructure includes:
In-house alterations:
a) LIS, to break its ivory tower and start playing a creative role
in national development;
b) Teaching in LIS to be revitalized, as a value added product, and
concentrate on national development;
c) Project based research in LIS to be initiated, as a value
added product, and concentrate on national development;
d) Projects have to be in collaboration with business and industry,
to make the projects feasible;
e) LIS has to assert and activate all its organs, so that these commence,
at least playing, the pro-active role in the national development programs;
f) If the profession finds today itself as a loose configuration and
lacks coherence, it is time for a century old profession to re-assess its
boundaries in holistic sense, and re-define its territorial limits and
frontiers;
g) the profession must wake at least now from slumber and re-install
its (e-)reference desks (reference desk - a concept now reminiscent
via library history books), lest they, en-masse, will be soon buried under
the debris of reference dust;
h) break the style of waiting for the information seeker, today they
must go in search of seekers in the Wild Wide Web, and get back those
potential knowledge seekers into library portals, instead of allowing them
to wander in a wasteland;
i) initiate value added products in the new environment of Manmohaniac
economy. Today Indian info society is ready to pay any amount for quality
based service;
j) re-vitalize the sectoral information systems, that were founded
for science literature, and expand its role for all social sciences and
humanities, integrating CSIR, NISSAT, INSDOC, NASSDOC in a manner that
there is more purpose based cooperation leading to the development of a
library and information consortium;
k) integrate all information handling agencies that form the information
industry components, i.e., consider these sisterly organizations as one
whole - content services, content packages, facilitation services, information
technologies, integrating technologies, communication technologies, communication
channels, and broadcast channels (Zurkowski, 1984);
l) Consolidate and broaden the inter-disciplinary vistas (based on
whose continued support does the foundation of LIS stand) - social, economic,
historical, anthropological, scientific and technological, and others;
m) mindset and attitudinal overhaul are a must to achieve infostructural
superiority in the world, and to bring man-machine-material balance in
the infostructure.
External manifestations:
a) the national programs must at least now incorporate library and
information science (LIS), in addition to the on going talk to enhance
telecommunications and power among the technological infrastructural initiatives;
b) so also, incorporate LIS in national development programs and projects;
c) while energy, light and water are considered as essential infrastructure
for the national development, information must be explicitly incorporated
as a fourth essential component;
d) Infostructural paradigm must be manifestly incorporated in the constitutional
and legal frame of reference, and proper remedial measures to implement
infostructure in all relevant context;
e) the society must find for itself that LIS is more than the person
behind the reference desk.
[Other details to follow]