Rencana-Rencanal Articles

Accessing Information In An Information Society*

George W. Huang+

Abstrak: Di da/am sebuah masyarakat maklumat, teknologi baru diperlukan untukmengakses secara berkesan sumber-sumber maklumat yang luas. Kepentingan danunsur-unsur maklumatdibincangkan. Teknologi maklumat baru dan kaedah-kaedahmengakses maklumat digambarkan untuk membolehkan pengguna da/am masyar-akat maklumat menggunakan maklumat secara positit.

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Abstract: In an information society new technologies are required to efficiently accessthe vast information resources. The importance and elements of information arediscussed. The new information technologies and methods of access to informationare illustrated to enable users in the information society to make positive use ofinformation.

We are in the information era and all aroundus we are witnessing an information explosion.To locate a piece of information from the vast in-formation resources, application of technologyseems to be absolutely necessary today. In infor-mation access, 'technology is used to extendhuman capability. It can be used to compensate,remediate, amplify, and optimize"! Thus, effi-cient access to information in an informationsociety requires users to be in possession ofadequate knowledge of jntorrnatlon technolo-gies, information handling environments, infor-mation resources, and methods of access.

What is an information society?

According to Daniel Bell, in the book entitledMegatrends by John Naisbitt, the post-industrialsociety is basically an information society. 'Infor-mation explosion' is the term used to describethe enormous amount of information generatedby this information society.f Forthe first time theAmerican economy is based on a so-called 'stra-tegic resource's which is not only renewable, butself-generating. For instance, between 6,000 and7,000 scientific articles are published each day;

scientific and technical information increases 13percent per year and doubles every 5.5 years;and indeed information is likely to double everytwenty months due to the increase in more pow-erful information systems and an inc easingpopulation of scientlsts."

What is information?

According to The Oxford English Dictionary,information is 'Knowledge communicated con-cerning some particular fact, subject, or event; in-telligence, news'. ihe location of toilets in a build-ing is information, and 'Who in Kuala Lumpurmade a million dollars but paid no income tax lastyear?' is also a piece of information. Encyclope-dia of Computer Science and Engineering (VanNostrand, 1983) notes that 'information is datawhich is used in decision-making'. This definitionimplies that information and decision making areclosely related so that a piece of information maybe extremely valuable in one decision but use-less in another."

Information in the electronic age may includeali of the data, Information and knowledge thatcan be accessed and transmitted in electronic

*Originally presented at the Malaysian Association for American Studies (MAAS) dinner talk at Rumah Universiti. University ofMalaya, on 23 January 1989.

+Visiting Fulbright Professor, Coordinator MLiS Programme, Institute of Advanced Studies, University of Malaya.

Kekal Abadl 8(1) Mac 19891

form, either video or computerized, and may consistof:6

a. The community information files that aregenerated by the community information sys-tem. .

b. The online catalogues of all nonelectronicforms of information in libraries and informa-tion centres.

c. The electronic messaging system, which en-ables one to ask information and referencequestions and to receive the answers via thesame mode.

d. Files of data about the community, for ex-ample, demographic or consumer files.

e. Various electronic encyclopedias producedcommercially.

f. A local online encyclopedia which organizesand indexes the question's asked and ans-wered through the computer.

Importance of information

Each individual in our society needs informa-tion about education, employment, taxes, con-sumer protections, banking and financing, etc.,and the list can go on depending on the indivi-dual. Anuar states that 'Our individual needs ofinformation vary in relation to our stages and ratesof development, economic and social circum-stances, and roles and relationships in our familygroups as well as in our larger social and workinggroups and the still larger groups we belong to ascitizens of nations of the wortc'.? According to

. Jackson, the importance of information in thedevelopment of industries could be equal to thatof financial or manpower resources.f Studies showthat more than one half (59%) of the informationusers in the industrial sector in Indonesia neededscientific and technological information at leastonce a week and about one fourth of the users(26.3%) wanted their information immediately, but40.3% of them could wait for their information forat least a week.9.

Trade information is also extremely importantto present-day society. For example, a joint-ven-ture company comprising Malaysian, Taiwanese~nd Australian interests are planning to organizeI~ Mala~sia a database of market intelligence onMalaysia covering online services, product data,company credit information, market informationand media coverage. The database will be avail-able not only to bankers, manufacturers, impor-

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ters, exporters, whole-salers, consultants and ho-tels but also the foreign investors in the country.Nigel Page, the managing director of FBR Data-base Inc., the Taiwan - based company specializ-ing in market intelligence services, states 'Suchspecialized information will eventually filter throughto potential investors from the European Commu-nity and the Japanese, for instance, who will berelocating their manufacturing operations to t ispart of the world'.' 0 Information is also of vitalimportance to a government. For instance, to helpthe Malaysian government better formulate itsindustrial policy, The Asian Development Bankhas recently provided a US$188,000 grant toMalaysia to establish an industrial sector data-base."

Elements of 'access to information

Access to information requires attention to allthese four elements namely legal, physical, af-fordable, and organized access. All these fourelements must exist for total access and the ab-sence of anyone element may cause disruptionto access. These elements may be defined asfollows:12

a. Legal access means that one has the right tothe information, whether established throughlaws such as the 'Sunshine Laws' or Freedomof Information Act, or by a transaction withthe owner. Sunshine laws include those lawmaking official meetings and records of mostgovemment agencies accessible to the public.To access information legally, a user mustsubscribe to an online information service ora database owner. The user will then beassigned an account number and a passwordto use the service.

b. Physical access means the ability to get tothe information in whatever form is useful.Although online print copies are the quickestway of obtaining a search, sometimes, offlineprint option should be available. Downloadinghas become another option nowadays.

c. Affordable access means that the cost ofobtaining the information is not greater thanthe value of the information.

d. Organized access means that the informationand the sources of information are arrangedin such a manner that finding the informationdoes not make the cost prohibitive or time-consuming.

Modes of access to information

Today's technology offers the opportunity toincrease access far beyond what has been achievedthus far. The increased use of computers, tele-communications, optical discs is changing ourways of access to information. Not too long ago,'online' became a new term used in the informa-tion services, and since the mid-1980s CD-ROMS(Compact Disc Read-Only-Memory) has becomethe foundation for a major revolution in the stor-age and delivery of textual information. Thus,online and CD-ROMS are the two very importantmodes of access to information.

a. Online Searches:

Online Simply means that a user is directly incommunication with the computer, just as onewould be when talking to someone on the tele-phone. Therefore, online information servicesconsist of the following six components: 13

1. Electronic data compilation -- databases arecreated by a computer to be retrieved throughonline services systems.

2. Computer timesharing -- many users canshare the processing time simultaneously.

3. Random-access storage devices - databasesare stored on magnetic disks so that items ofinformation can be scanned at very highspeed.

4. Interactive information retrieval software --computer programs will allow users to activelycommunicate with the databases by enteringcommands.

5. Data telecommunications -- data must betransmitted by telephone systems betweenthe user's terminal and the host computer.

6. Computer terminals -- devices for sendingand receiving information to and from thecomputer. They consist of a keyboard anddata displayer.

Incorporating the above components, the wholedata communication process always involves thefOllowing five basic steps: 14

1. Information input: enter information into atransmitting device such as the keyboard ofa computer terminal which will convert theinput into a stream of digital pulses of electri-city representing the characters of informa-tion using ASCII (American Standard Code

for Information Exchange) codes.

2. Signal modulation: the information, after theconversion, is in a digital mode (a discreteunit) so that it must be converted or modifiedto an analog mode in order to be transmittedby normal telephone lines. A modem (modu-lator-demodulator) is used to convert thesignals for transmission. The modem willchange the digital data signals generated bythe transmitting devices (computer terminals)to audio signals for transmission over voice-carrying telephone lines.

3. Information transmission: information is trans-mitted from the databases to the users overthe communication links or channels. Twocommon types of links or channels are usedfor data communication namely dial-up orpublic-switched lines and private or leasedlines. The ordinary telephone line is the bestexample of a dial-up facility. A data communi-cations system can be easily establishedwherever a telephone is located. A private orleased line meanwhile requires a lease andremains connected for the duration of a lease.It provides unlimited use of the facility andbetter quality of transmission.

The ability of a channel to transmit informationis usually measured in terms of bits per second(bps), which is roughly the equivalent to the baudrate. Baud rate is a measure of transmission ofelectrical signals and is named after a French-man, Baudot who was a pioneer in the develop-ment of the telegraph. The most common speedsare 30 and 120 characters per second, referred toas 300 and 1200 baud.1s While transmission speedcan range from 300 to 9600 bps, 'libraries areaccustomed to transmitting and receiving data ata speed of 1200 bits per second when usingservices like BRS (Bibliographic Retrieval Serv-ices) and DIALOG. Transmission over optical fibergenerally occurs at a rate of 90 million bits persecond or greater. At this speed, the full text of a3D-volume encyclopedia could be transmitted overa distance of 25 miles in less than six seconds!"

Fujitsu Ltd. of Japan has begun exportingoptical fiber transmission devices to MCI Commu-nication Corp. in the United States. These newdevices can transmit 1.8 gigabits (1.8 billion bits)of information per second, which will make theMCI system the fastest in the world. With a capac-ityof 1.7 gigabits American Telegraph and Tele-phone currently operates the fastest system.!?

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4. Signal demodulation: at the other end of thecommunication link, the audio signalstransmitted aver the voice-carrying telephoneline must be converted or modified back todigital form by another modem before thecomputer terminal can accept and processthe information.

5. Information output: information as output inthe data communications system is receivedby the computer terminal.

Now, the question is 'where can a user getonline services?' Owning a PC, a modem, a com-munication software, and a printer how should theuser start? The answer is 'What kind of informa-tion does the user need?' or more specifically,'Which database would he/she like to search?' Asof spring 1984, there were more than 2,000 onlinedatabases offered for public use by about 275online commercial retrieval services worldwide.18

Some of the most popular and easy-to-use onlineinformation services can be categorized into fourtypes:"? .

1. Popular information utilities: include serviceslike CompuServe, Dow Jones News/Retrievaland The Source. Dow Jones News/RetrievalService's database consists of itemsappearing on the Dow Jones News Wire, inthe Wall Street Journal, and in Barron'smagazine. Users can obtain up-to-the-minutestock quotes and business and financialnews from these sources. Compu-ServeInformation Service and The Source offerelectronic mail, bulletin boards for exchangeof hobby information and computerprogramming online as well as news andbusiness information. Dow Jones aims at thefinancial information consumers whileCompuServe and The Source serve the homeusers.

2. FUll-text retrieval services: include Mead DataCentral (MDC) and NewsNet Service. Theformer's NEXIS incorporates the full text ofnews stories from several major wire servicesand periodicals, while the latter contains thefull text d more than 100 newsletters producedby various organizations in the United States.

3. Library research services: designed to simplifyand vastly reduce the research time, theseservices index and identify published Itteraturein every form on every topic. DIALOGInformation Services is a leader in the social

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sciences, humanities, and arts, whileBibliographic Retrieval Services (BRS) leadsin specialized databases in the educationfield such as bilingual, exceptional child, andvocational education. Systems DevelopmentCorporation (SDC) ORBIT Infoline (changedto Pergamon ORBIT Infoline in 1987) is aservice specializing in scientific databasessuch as chemica, engineering, rubber, plastic,packaging, etc.

4. Numeric data services: include economictime series and forecasts, financial balancesheets and income statements, and othernumber series. The major companies areADP Network Services and LP. SharpAssociates. I.P. Sharp provides economicdatabases and econometric modeling andforecasting programs used by academic,banking, governmental, manufacturing, andretailing organizations. The numeric dataare mostly 'in the form of time series, mea-surement variables taken at specfted intervalover given periods (e.g., values for wineexports from France to the United States,1980-84),.20

Among the major American online informationservices, DIALOG, BRS, SDC, MDC and Medlinedominate the field, and 'account for 98 percent ofthe revenue and 96.5 percent of the use' of the250 most-used databases. Actually, DIALOG andMDC alone account for 81.8 percent of the reve-nue and 68.56 percent of the usage.21

Online searches are not free. The costs aremade up of a number of variables. In addition tothe basic cost of a telephone line, some major ele-ments are connect hour charges, cttation charges,and telecommunication costs. Some vendorsdemand additional service charges. For example,users have to pay a US$50 administrative chargefor open access to BRS (Bibliographic RetrievalServices), while DIALOG now charges US$25 ayear for maintaining the standard service agree-ment. 22 In Kuala Lumpur, subscription for Law-search is M$1,200 per year with a 30 cents-per-minute connect-time charge (offset against a M$500deposit).

Currency is one of the major advantages ofonline searches. For example, The New York TimesIndex database may be updated daily and weeklyonline. Users may be able to have access to thedatabase online only four hours after the actualnews occurred, rather than waiting fortwo to three

months for a printed version. It is even faster intoday's business world. 'Online information serv-ices can help you keep up with what's happeningin the business world almost as it occurs. Newsand stock exchange wires, for example, appearonline within 15 to 90 minutes,.23

b. CD-ROMS:

After quoting all the costs of online searchesyou may wonder what sort of library profession Iam in. Don't all libraries provide free services?How about the third element of access to informa-tion which was mentioned earlier? 'Affordableaccess' means the cost of obtaining the informa-tion is not greater than the value of the informa-tion. If I have a term paper or conference paperdue tomorrow, every piece of information relatedto the topic of my paper is valuable. However, thetelecommunications costs are on the rise so thatthe cost of mysearches could be very high. Icouldpossibly access the same information directlyand eliminate the middle persons and vendors.Such an alternative is a new mass data storagetechnology called CD-ROM.

The storage compacity of a compact disc isphenomenal. A single 4.72-inch disc stores 550megabytes of data, the equivalent of ~500 floppydisks or 28 units of 20-megabyte hard disks.That's 250,000 pages or 500 books, or wholeencyclopedias.24 Doing it manually, one secre-tary, typing 90 words per minute, has to work 8hours per day for 8 years. For online searchers,'one tiny CD-ROM can hold 46 entire day's worthof continuous online information transmitted at1200 baud'. 25

Speed is another strength of CD-ROM; anypiece of information on the disc can be locatedand displayed within two orthree seconds. 'In onesecond the drive can read 75 blocks or 150Kbytes of user information,.26

There isalready at least one whole encyclope-dia (all 20 volumes worth) on a compact disc --TheAcademic American Encyclopedia by Grolier,which contains 9 million words under more than30,000 articles. The disc includes over 110 mega-bytes of text and indexing, and costs only US$299.Incidentally, we should be able to store 5 sets ofthis encyclopedia on a single disc (550 mega-bytes).

Many online databases are now also availableon CD-ROM format. For example, ERIC of DIA-LOG has been a very popular and inexpensiveonline database and is now available on CD-ROM.Compact Disclosure contains business andfinancial information extracted from reports pro-duced by public companies; PsycLit is a biblio-graphic database compiled from PsychologicalAbstracts. Dissertation Abstracts and NewspaperAbstracts are also available on disc. The H.W.Wilson Company has already published its twelveindexes in CD-ROM format and named Wilson-dics. Even Bowker's Books in Print is on a com-pact disc.

CD-ROMinformation can only be accessed bya CD-ROM drive connected to a microcomputer.Thus, the actual costs include hardware and soft-ware costs. Hardware costs for one workstation isabout US$7,000 including CD-ROM drive, micro-computer, monitor, and printer. Software costs ofCD-ROM vary according to the ownership of thesoftware -- nonsubscription vs. subscription.Nonsubscription by definition means that thepurchasing library or individual will own the CD-ROM outright once it is purchased. You can buythe Grolier's The Electronic Encyclopedia forUS$299 and own it; you also can purchase a setof Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Tech-nology by Wiley in the same manner. However,CD-ROM is typically on a subscription-lease ar-rangement -- libraries purchase only permissionto use a CD-ROM database, not the discs them-selves. Under this arrangement, if a current sub-scription is cancelled, all discs must be returnedto the publisher. Thus, subscribers will no longerhave access to retrospective information on discif they cancel their current subscription. Most ofthe major CD-ROM indexes operate this way, butthere are exceptions. For example, when anupdated Wilsondisc is received by a subscribinglibrary, the library may give the old disc to abranch or another library (but they may not sell it).Public Affairs Information Service (PAIS)will allowthe library to keep the last disc received if thecurrent subscription is canceued? The annualsubscription fees of some selected CD-ROM'da-tabases are as follows:

BiblioFile:Compact Disclosure: Not-for-profit organization rate:Commercial rate:ERIC:

US$ 870

US$3,200US$4,500US$1,995

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Wilsondisc: Readers' Guide toPeriodical Literature: US$1,095

Index to Legal Periodicals: US$1,495

Social Science Index: US$1,295

In conclusion, even though precise predictionof societal trends are difficult, it is still believed that

References

1. Molhot, Pat. 'Libraries and the new technolo-gies: courting the Cheshire Cat'. LibraryJour-nal (November 15, 1988): 37-41.

2. Naisbitt, John. Megatrends. New York: WarnerBook,1984.

3. Ibid. p.6.

4. Ibid. p.16.

5. Palmer, Roger C. Online Reference and Infor-mation Retrieval. 2nd ed. Littleton, CO: Li-braries Unlimited, 1987. p.6.

6. Dowlin, Kenneth E. The Electronic Library.New York: Neal-Schuman, 1984. p.29.

7. Anuar, Hedwig. Issues in Southeast AsianLibrarianship. Aldershot, Hampshire: Gower,1985. pp.82-83.

8. Quoted in The Library in the Information Revo-lution: Proceedings of the Sixth Congress ofSoutheast Asian Librarians, Singapore, 30May - 3 June, 1983. Singapore: MaruzenAsia, 1983. pp,426-432.

9. Ibid.10. New Straits Times, Kuala Lumpur (December

14, 1988).

11. New Straits Times, Kuala Lumpur (February 9,1989).

12. Dowlin, Kenneth E. op.cit. pp,24-25.

13. Hoover, Ryan E. Executive's Guide to OnlineInformation Services. White Plains, N.Y.:Knowledge Industry Publications, 1984. pp.3-7.

technology will continue to affect people's lifesty-les, and that access to information will be a keyvariable in people's ability to solve problems, toform a better society, and even to survive. Be-cause of the importance of information in an infor-mation society, it is imperative to apply technolo-gies to access the vast information resources forpositive purposes.

14. Corbin, John. Developing Computer-basedLibrary Systems. Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press,1981. pp.11-13.

15. Hoover, Ryan E. op.cit. pp.24-25.

16. Reynolds, Dennis. Library Automation: Issuesand Applications. N.Y.: Bowker, 1985. p.204.

17. New Straits Times, Kuala Lumpur (January 12,1989)

18. Hoover, Ryan E. op.cit. p.21.

19. Ibid. pp.63-64.

20. Palmer, Roger C. op.cit. p.3.

21.Katz, William A Introduction to Reference Work.5th ed. N.Y.: McGraw-Hili, 1987. v.1, p,42.

22. Anderson, Charles & Weston, Ann. 'The costsof online searching', Library Journal (April 1,1987): pp,44-47.

23. Hoover, Ryan E. op cit. p.2.

24. Roose, Tina. 'The new papyrus: CD-ROM inyour library?' Library Journal (September 1,1986): pp.166-167.

25. Ibid.

26. Murphy, Brower. 'CD:ROM and libraries'. Li-brary HI Tech, v. 3, no. 2 (1985): p.23.

27.Tenopir, Carol. 'Costs and benefits of CD-ROM'. Library Journal (September 1, 1987):pp.156-157.

Editor's note: Dr. George W. Huang will complete his visiting professorshiP. in the ~niv~rsity of ~ala~aon 25 April 1989. He will return to the Department of Education, University of California

(Chico), U.S.A.

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