The Yin and Yang of Knowing

Information theorists and practitioners have announced the information revolution. Postmodernists like Sherry Turkle, professor of Sociology of Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, claim that in this new, revolutionary information age "no unitary truth resides anywhere. Claims for the revolutionary nature of digitized information are often based on assumptions that everyone will have access to everything quickly and at a cost that is trivial. Information that is better in digitized form includes items that benefit from the characteristics of the electronic media: speed in access, currency, and the ability to skip from screen to screen. Some libraries, like the Cleveland Public Library, have been offering Internet access to the public for several years and have found that instead of replacing the conventional use of the library, electronic access has stimulated book borrowing, browsing, and use of printed reference material. Issues of copyright in an electronic environment are complex and unlikely to be resolved anytime soon.