First off: Apologies, Janeanne! I've been trying my best to keep this updated but, as you can see, it's been tough. And although I know this isn't assigned, I thought this was not only interesting, but highly relevant in thinking about the evolution that information technologies--including Library Science--has been undergoing in just the last few years.
What inspired this post was this video: Did You Know?
It's a rather fast-paced and packed look at the developments in Information Technology. What caught my attention was the section that looked briefly at Google: in just four years, the number of Google searches has risen from 2.7 billion searches annually to 37 billion in a single month.
Has the demand for information increased over that time, or just the availability of almost anything a person could dream up?Either way, this would seem to be a terrific time to be entering into jobs in the information field. Some might think access to technologies like Google and all the information therein might be over-saturation; should we really have all this information open to just anybody? And just what are people getting out of emerging technologies? Faster internet, online archives, internet access on mobile phones--are these creating a smarter society, more earnest to learn, or a more vapid one, drowning in a flood of too much, perhaps unimportant, information?
Myself, I have always believed that access to information--the ability to educate oneself--should be considered as important as any other of a human being's inalienable rights. It's my hope that technologies progressing today will see benefit all over the globe. Access to information should not be a privilege kept by those in industrialized nations but a right to all those who should want it. I could say much more on this subject, but I'll keep it here for now!
