Abstract
The dream of an information-based global society is attributable to the flawless integration of the information and communication technologies with the traditional one, merged with proactive government policies, technical skills-set, strategic learning approach, an inclination towards improvements in efficiencies and, promotion of modernization in a caringly and an environmentally sustainable way. This paper researches the variables of an information society that impact on information services through a scalable structure presentation that encourages information society analysis, comparison of varied information societies and propose new frontiers for scholars and decision-makers.
Keywords:
Information society, knowledge society, information services
Background
The early forebear of humankind around ten thousand years ago began to establish agrarian societies and, managed to survive by gathering and hunting. The evolutions of previous agrarian civilizations started in the middle of the 18th century. The span of professional setups underwent in different professional settings, like industrial production, global trade and transactions, technological developments, improved substantial dissemination of education and, generation of libraries. Industrial societies experienced huge advancements in material expansion all the way through the 20th century. There are five means to outline an information society including technical modernization, professional transition, financial value, stream of information and, the span of signs and symbols . The theoretical principles that Webster applied to depict theories of an information society is the measurement of society that they fundamentally aimed. Another categorization of theories is achievable through gathering the level of innovation and the form of sociologically theorizing as dissimilar criteria. There are two axes to categorize the dialogue of information society theory in which the first axis discusses levels of societal transition and second, illustrates the informational qualities of these transitions.
The information society went through four transformational development periods, in which the highly fundamental phase began at end of the 20th century. The end phase exposed an endless rebellion, specifically with the foreword of information and communication technologies . The 20th century revealed unparalleled advancements that significantly impacted the social structure in which the information-rich sector grew extensively, and manufacturing sector turned down . The notion of knowledge societies represents a growth in an information society. The information society makes information available and procures the required technology and, the knowledge society establishes knowledge, generate civilization of sharing and create internet-oriented applications . The objective of the knowledge society is to bridge communal needs, generate wealth and improve the life quality in a sustainable way.
Information and communication control systems play crucial role in locating scientific research program. A Mathematics Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) showed his attention in neurological, feedback and information processing systems. Claude Shannon, a mathematician and an electric engineer, MIT, and Warren Weaver, Director, Rockefeller Institute of Natural Sciences and a scientist, published a Mathematical Theory of Communication . These authors focused to generate fresh considerations in computerization and automation methods in order to procure advanced control systems in non-military and military applications. Weiner, particularly, focused on philosophical implications of his work and proposed that messages and communication variables are the best to depict a society .
Impact of an Information Society on Current Information Services
Internet access in a desirable manner ensures to defeat discrepancy in a society, where dominant roles and social teams are manageable around the internet. There are four types of obstacles to internet access according to in which the lack of adequate access to mental (basic digital exposure), material (possession of computers and network connections), skills access (digital skills) and, usage access (purposeful usage opportunities). The physical access to internet and computers in the growing societies is still striving according to Van. Information skills that serve the objective of probe, choose, and proceeds information in network and computer sources and, strategic skills that depict the abilities to employ these sources for entertaining particular objectives and for the common objective of enhancing individual’s status in society, are the forms of skills access reveal significant unparalleled divide among the family units of developed and developing economies.
The information use reveals that individuals that bear advanced education levels and revenue prefer to employ database, bookkeeping, spreadsheet, and applications of presentation compared to their colleagues having meager education and income levels that prefer simple consultations, games, and other entertainment activities . The Association for Progressive Communication (APC) is a global network of civil-society organizations promotes masses that strive for human rights, freedom, development, and technologies of communication. The APC established internet rights charter in order to confirm rights of individuals to freely communicate, speech, associate, organize and, protest and gauge the impact on information services. The internet requirements cover usability, gender parity, the clearness of public information, the free information trade, political online debates, the right for contribution in online complaints, the support of the usage of free software and open-source observation, admission for marginalized teams, affordability, free speech, no restriction of debates, the right for the free organization of complaints, the diversity of contents, data protection, and the right for encrypted announcement. APC created the software action-oriented applications that helped information services in friendly and, divided manner in order to establish cooperative website management and knowledge sharing. The notion that capitalism and markets are self-ruling, and the political impacts are damaging both revealed the illustration of Friedrich August von Hayek.
According to , competition refers to attempts to receive what another attempts to receive at the same time. It indicates that one gets a benefit on behalf of other individuals. An asymmetrical division of reserves and strength may expose outcomes. The basis of capitalism shows unconscious self-management. A narrow point of view of cooperation goes with unity and unselfishness, and they are significant individual instinct. The groups of prehistoric masses are attributable to the available collectivism and instincts. The impact of information services is quite certain and limited. The culture development depends on the appearance of principles that require forwarding to forthcoming generations with tradition and not only through instinct and that must comprise of restrictions that forbade man to go according to his instinct demands. In order to advance information services, man confirms civilizations through property, contract, trade, gain, the market system, honesty, exchange, competition, privacy, and money. The internet was the dominating phenomenon that enabled everybody to advertise his data online and implant it into the web globally.
A probe for the set of words “information society” available in the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) reveals an academic preference. The data available in SSCI consisted of many years. Therefore, the interest generated to acquaint with the concept of the information society and its impact on current information services since 1980s. There were two fundamental eras in terms of published articles occurred that revolutionized the modern information services including (1980: 1, 1981:2, 1983: 22, 1984: 2 published articles). The period commenced after two years introduction of the personal computer of IBM and at the period when the first graphical user interface of the Apple Macintosh computer launched in 1984. The second era comes near to 1995 which is two years after the Mosaic World Wide Web graphic browser introduction that enabled favorable user’s surfing on the internet (1994: 4, 1995:14, 1996: 24, 1997: 43 published articles).
The enhancement in familiarity of computing devices in personal lives of individuals, professional commitments, and the economy brought radical impact on information services that ultimately attracted attention of stakeholders to probe the concept of the information society further. The impact of the information society on information services is significant as it gave birth to multiple societies in the world that played dissimilar roles on contemporary mediums of information services. Computer, information, knowledge-based, ICT, communication, media, postmodern, digital, knowledge, network, internet, cyber, post-industrial and, virtual are the societies, each impacts on information services in a different manner. Most of the societies encourage the significance of knowledge, generation, information application, production, diffusion, digital network and computer technologies .
Analysis, Comparison and Evaluation
The contemporary knowledge society encompasses multiple forms of library models that play a radical role. In the current contemporary culture in which the application of electronic services and web-oriented information improve consistently, management of libraries revealed new borders for stakeholders as libraries bear advanced elastic communication system and work organization, and their service growth is attributable to the quality and user-orientation of services. The models of library encompass traditional library (memory institution), learning and research centre, cultural and communication centre, electronic library, digital library and virtual library (without walls).
Knowledge Culture
Libraries performed a radical function in the previous industrial and agrarian societies but, restricted in scope. The twenty-first-century demands libraries to behave fundamentally in spanning and sharing the knowledge culture. The current era expects knowledge libraries to have more than enough information and knowledge gathered worldwide by humankind. They should also store complete aspects and categories of material and information in order to expand beyond the geographical boundaries. In today’s world, IT enabled libraries to achieve this enormous job.
Information Trade
The transaction of information is the most basic focus of libraries. The creation of multiple systems helped to share and trades the data of human information. A universal availability of publications and universal bibliographic control are two fundamental agendas of IFLA (Int. Federation of Library Associations and Institutions) that trade information worldwide. OCLC is a renowned library based in USA that aims to disseminate intellectual information among academic groups. However, libraries in the current contemporary world have to add further dynamically as they must go beyond the conventional practices and trade information and knowledge with stakeholders locally and globally. The execution of modern practices is possible through employment of expansion strategies including reach beyond the geographical boundaries through state of art technology applications.
Resource Digitalization
The advanced libraries in the twenty-first century do not reveal inactive repository for printed materials and books. The deployment of information and communication technologies ensures management of improved bunch of materials and books in a favorable manner, and in various accessible forms. The use of applications through internet assists libraries to digitalize their resources for online purpose. The services should entail the accessibility to anybody, apart from location or time through digital communication devices.
Libraries have a crucial function in procuring a desired education and above average knowledge. People around the globe excluding their status access information and knowledge on internet libraries, for instance, library of congress.
Conclusion
The paper suggests that internet converted ways of businesses, markets, learning, worldwide information dissemination, knowledge-sharing, groups and citizens that redefine governance, and develop important wealth and economic expansion despite the continuous transition in political and military confrontation in different economies of the world. However, the patterns of access are unfavorable worldwide and reveal a socio-economic gap which is a phenomenon that opened new boundaries of research for scholars and researchers. The developed economies focused on the information society vision and employed sequential socio-economic attempts to achieve the objectives. The ideal information society requires knowledge-centric behavior at all levels including organization, vocation, states, multilateral institutes, the individual, industrial sector, private/non-profit/public actors and regions.
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