CHAP 3 Entity of Information

WEEK 3
ENTITY OF
INFORMATION
THE BASIC NATURE OF
INFORMATION
Information as facts:
Information as data:
Information as knowledge:
Information as communication:
Information as a commodity:
Value of Information
 Value of information may be discussed from this
perspective:
Getting information at the right time, right place,
right format, and right person.
 Value of information varies from one person to another
 An information may be useful to A, but useless to B
 An information may be useful today but not tomorrow
Cont.
 Data is needed immediately to solve problems, if not
may lead to disasters
 One suggestion is that information has economic value
if it leads to the acquisition is a matter of form, not of
amount.
In spite of its importance, information is secondary to people’s
principle needs – food and shelter.
THE KNOWLEDGE SPECTRUM
Enlightenment (ability to take advantage of the

knowledge acquired)
Wisdom (application of knowledge contained in human
judgement)
*Knowledge (understanding & ability to extend it to

meet life's necessities)
Information (organized meaningful data)
Data (raw facts)
The above diagram shows how data is transformed into knowledge

**categories of knowledge
 TACIT – is personal, context-specific knowledge that is

difficult to formalize, record or articulate. It is stored in the
heads of people. It is mainly developed through a
processing of trial and error encountered in practice (e.g.
experience)
 EXPLICIT – knowledge that can be codified and
transmitted in a systematic and formal language (e.g.
documents, databases, charts, etc)
The Information Cycle
Creation of a new Knowledge,
Record, Manuscript
Read, Assimilate, Publication

Applied
Retrieval of Bibliographic control,

Information Indexing, Abstracting,
Classification
Storage (Library / File /

CDs)
Information dependency phenomena i.e. new knowledge is
created based on old and existing knowledge
Information Life Cycle
Flow of scientific information
Idea
Research
Invisible college
Conference Preprints
Proceedings
Secondary
Journal articles Literature
Indexes, Abstracts, Monographs, Tertiary

Handbooks, Encyclopedias, Textbooks Literature
SOURCES OF INFORMATION
1. People
2. Organization
3. Information System
4. Literature :
 Primary e.g. Manuscript, document, file that contains
agreement letters)
 Secondary e.g. Books, journals

 Tertiary e.g. Bibliographies, indexes, abstracts
DEFINITION OF INFORMATION
SCIENCE
“ Field of knowledge, theory and technology dealing with
the collection of facts and figures and the processes and
methods involved in their manipulation, storage,
dissemination, publication and retrieval. It includes the
subject areas of communication, publishing, library
science and informatics”
[English Glossary Series]
Related terms:
 Information center
 Information handling
 Information dissemination
 Information infrastructure
 Information literacy
 Information retrieval
 Information resource
 Information overload
 Information professionals
Information Science
Information science is concerned with the science and

practice of the provision of information. It includes the
study of information from its generation to its
exploitation, and of its transmission in a variety of
forms through a variety of channels
Cont.
Right information in the
Right format into
Right hands at the
Right time for the
Right purpose, all within
Ethical commitment to society.
4 Media Cultures:
 Oral
 Literate – manuscript
 Literate – print
 Electronic – digital
What is Information Science?
The study of information science involves the following:
MATERIALS
 Identifying / locating of information
 Gathering / collecting / acquiring of information
 Processing of information
 Preservation of information
 Dissemination
Cont.
ORGANIZATION
 Keeper / guardian of materials
 Government organizations
 Business organizations
 Institutions of higher learning
 Private organizations
 Archives
 Museums
INFORMATION PROFESSIONALS
Those who are directly involved in the work of

identifying, acquiring, collecting, processing,
organizing, preserving and disseminating of
information
Cont.
In short:
Information science is the study of the collection,
recording / processing and distribution / dissemination
of data or information, by the information
professionals, especially by electronic means.
Information Management
Definition:
The management of a network of processes that

acquire, creates, organize, distribute and use
information.
Goals:
1. To transform information into learning, insight and commitment

2. To help achieve organizational goals & objectives
- Information resources, technological tools and policy
standards form the technical infrastructure of
information management
- A unifying framework is needed to bind these functions
together
Cont.
- Therefore the generation and transformation

of information in an organization are shaped by
the organization’s culture, organization’s
interpretation of its purpose and specification of
rules, routines and roles
- Information and meaning are forged in the
thoughts, feeling and actions
How to implement Information
Management?
 Identification of information needs
 Information acquisition
 Information organization and storage
 Development of information products and services
 Information distribution and dissemination
 Information use and application
Information Explosion
 Phenomenal increase in available information
 Too much information being published in all fields
 Extensive research works being done, both in the fields of social
sciences and science & technology
 The exponential increase in the growth and diversification of all forms
of information:
- Print
- Non-print / AVM
- Digital & Virtual
- The emergence of the WWW
Statistical way of describing
information explosion:
 Increase in the number of books, scientific and technical publications,
journal articles
 In the 1800, the amount of human knowledge was doubling every 50
years
 In 1970 it was doubling every 5 years
 Ever increasing amounts of information are becoming available
 More difficult for the scientist, businessman and administrator to

locate what is relevant to him
IMPLICATIONS OF ICT
 Information explosion
 Development of ICT
 Information is received within minutes
 Global village
 Free information become widespread with WWW
 E-mail become very popular and is extremely cheap & fast
 Development of computer software becomes meteoric
 Knowledge workers / Knowledge management

Cont.
 Tremendous change in the media of information storage and retrieval
[printed-visual-virtual / internet]
 Change in the information profession – cyberian, web master,
information broker, internet consultant, etc
 E-government / E-commerce / E-office / E-economy / E-library / E-
education
 Social implications [digital divide, Internet marriage]
 Society’s acceptance [negative / positive]

Information overload
 Information overload refers to the state of having too
much information to make a decision or remain informed
about a topic. This term is usually used in conjunction with
various forms of computer-mediated communication such
as electronic mail. Large amounts of currently available
information, a high rate of new information being added,
contradictions in available information, a low signal-to-
noise ratio, and inefficient methods for comparing and
processing different kinds of information can all contribute
to this effect.
 The term was coined in 1970 by Alvin Toffler in his book
Future Shock.
Cont.
Information overload – Too much information that
navigating the net can be time consuming and lead
to productivity loss. Therefore need powerful
search engine [yahoo.com, altavista, metacrawler]

Information overload is caused by:
1. IT
2. Increase in research and innovations
3. Advancement in telecommunications, therefore
information can be disseminated very fast.

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WEEK 3

Enlightenment (ability to take advantage of the

*Knowledge (understanding & ability to extend it to

Data (raw facts)

The above diagram shows how data is transformed into knowledge

 TACIT – is personal, context-specific knowledge that is

Read, Assimilate, Publication

Retrieval of Bibliographic control,

Storage (Library / File /

Indexes, Abstracts, Monographs, Tertiary

 Secondary e.g. Books, journals

Information science is concerned with the science and

Those who are directly involved in the work of

The management of a network of processes that

1. To transform information into learning, insight and commitment

- Therefore the generation and transformation

 Ever increasing amounts of information are becoming available

 More difficult for the scientist, businessman and administrator to

 Information is received within minutes

 Free information become widespread with WWW

 E-mail become very popular and is extremely cheap & fast

 Development of computer software becomes meteoric

 Knowledge workers / Knowledge management

 Society’s acceptance [negative / positive]

Information overload – Too much information that

navigating the net can be time consuming and lead

to productivity loss. Therefore need powerful

search engine [yahoo.com, altavista, metacrawler]

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