LIBRARIES, INFORMATION AND KNOWLEDGE-BASED SOCIETY

LIBRARIES, INFORMATION AND KNOWLEDGE-BASED SOCIETY

Modern society is a society of institutions. Peter Drucker observes that “every major task, whether economic performance, or health care, education, or protection of environment, the pursuit of new knowledge or defence, is today being entrusted to big organisations, designed for perpetuity and managed by their managements. On the performance of these institutions, the performance of modern society – if not the survival of each individual – increasingly depends”.

He further af firms that every institution comprises human beings – men and women, whose performance brings success or failure to the institution and thereby to the society.

1. Modern Society: Some Characteristics

In the modern society, the general trend is for organizations and nations to globalise and work in a burden less open manner. Geographic, time and culture barriers are no longer issues of concern. People are in a position to communicate with each other across boundaries. They are able to tap talent, expertise and content from a vast reservoir of resources. In education, variation from previous norm is becoming as something to be consciously planned. In addition to all these developments taking place in consumerisation of goods and services, and changes taking place in social and cultural arena, the modern society has varied needs not the least of which is education. Education helps to mould well-informed, knowledgeable and responsible citizens who will be able to contribute to theprogress and advancement of the nation.There is the goal of the economic well being of the society. 

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1.1 Role of Libraries in Society

“When thinking of libraries people have many different images in front of them. By stepping back from individual cases and examining the context in which library services are provided and the trends which are likely to af fect them in future, it is possible to arrive at some conclusions about how libraries’ roles are likely to develop and to start to answer the central question “do libraries have a central role to play or are they in fact simply anachronisms?”

Brophy identifies four models in this context. These are:

    libraries as collection;

    the library as an organization of resource sharing;

    the library as a provider of access; and

    the embedded or immersive library.

1.2 Information and its Impact on Society

There has been an informatisation of contemporary society. The whole information environment or info sphere is understood to be of growing importance. Even at the untutored level of experience, there is wide spread awareness that information in some ways is effecting a transformation of the social world. All the three realms of society – polity , the economy and the culture are subject to major principles of innovation.


Information and knowledge are deemed to be social wealth.The benefits of this social wealth should be available to all the members of the society. This social wealth is available in a variety of physical forms (e.g. books, periodicals, microfilms, computerized databases, etc.). Ordinary citizens require a variety of information in their daily discharge of duties. Use of information certainly affects their mental growth and brings changes in their outlook as well as lifestyles.

2. Information Society

The deep transformations that come with the accelerated insertion of artificial intelligence and new Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) in our present society? Is it a question of a new stage in the industrial society or are we entering into a new era?Global village, technocratic era, post-industrial society, information society, or information age, and knowledge society are just a few of the terms that have been coined in an attempt to identify and understand the extent of these changes. But, while the debate proceeds in the theoretical
sphere, reality races ahead and communication media select the terms that we have to use. It is the case with the term Information Society. In the present decade, the expression Information Society has without doubt been confirmed as the hegemonic term, not because it necessarily expresses theoretical clarity but rather due to its baptism by official policies of the more developed countries and the fact that it merited a World Summit dedicated in its honor (2003 in Geneva and 2005 in Tunis). However, let us try to understand the concept and its development. 

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2.1 Information Society: Evolution of the Concept

The concept of Information Society emerged during the 1970s and throughout the 1980s and rapidly gained popularity and currency , its proponents ranging from scholars and academic authors to popular writers. Prominent among the first group of writers were Masuda, who in the Japanese context, perceived an eventual transition of the society to the point at which the production of information values became the driving force for the development of the society. The second writer belonging to this group was Tom Stonier, who perceived the
dawning of a new age for Western Society. He draws explicit parallels and contrasts between industrial and information societies. Although not very comfortable with the term information society, Daniel Bell did much to sustain it through his work on post-industrial society.

2.2 Definition and Meaning of Information Society

Information society is a much used expression.The term has been characterized by various dimensions. Several authors have tried to define and interpret this term according to their own perceptions. What strikes one in reading the voluminous literature on the information society is that “so many writers operate with underdeveloped definitions on their subject. They write copiously about particular features of the information society, but are vague about their operational criteria. Eager to make sense of change in information, they rush to interpret these in terms of different forms of economic production, new form of social
interaction, innovative process of production, or whatever.
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3. Knowledge Society

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are seen as the facilitators of change.The current revolution around the importance of information and knowledge is profound. In fact, a new class structure is being created around the wealth of information and knowledge. Nowadays, knowledge has come to be constitutive of the way that we live.
Historically speaking, it is correct to say, to a greater or lesser extent, knowledge has always followed the development of man and mankind. It has been seen as a kind of measurement to the success and achievements of society or mankind. Nevertheless, no society until the present one has ever been called or referred to as knowledge society. This term developed relatively shortly after the term information society was introduced in the last decades of the 20 th century.

3.1 Definition of Knowledge Society

“The transformation of existing societal structures by knowledge as a cor e resource for economic growth, employment and as a factor of production constitutes the criteria for designating advanced modern society as a Knowledge Society”

Such a society, in which knowledge plays a crucial and decisive role, with its entire mechanisms and organization gives an impetus for new knowledge, ensuring the conditions of its inception and use, which further increases new knowledge, etc. Society is therefore, structured on knowledge, it is simply deeply penetrated so that complete functioning of society, including the entire development and progress, rests on Knowledge

3.2 Characteristics of Knowledge Society

First of all, there is a huge quantity of newly created knowledge in all fields continuously expanding and exponentially growing. Statistics are known about the exponential growth of knowledge to the entire past historical period, including all kinds of publications as one of the proofs of the whole process.The situation with the total number of researchers in the world, and the entire research capacity can be compared with past times. Not only the number of literate people, but also that of the educated people has increased enormously in the whole world.To this we need to add new possibilities of informing, communicating and team work which were incomparable and unthinkable earlier.

Knowledge is no more connected with an individual; it is today the characteristic of the society as a whole, an interconnected society.
 

In a perfect knowledge society all people have:

    Open and timely access to information and knowledge;

    The capacity to absorb and interpret information; and

    Avenues and opportunities to use knowledge and

    decision making and for transformation to higher quality lives  

3.3 Establishment of Knowledge-based Society

A careful analysis of the literature available on knowledge society reveals that establishing a knowledge-based society is clearly desirable and, looking from the perspective of the imminent future, it may well be the only possible society.

 
“The establishment of such a society is a political process – it requires political decision making and political actions.The process of establishing a knowledge- based society would be facilitated if one would define bench marks, indicators providing quantifiable measurements indicating whether we are going in the right direction and how far we have progressed. In fact, the essence of progress is to assure order among changes and preserve changes amid order”

3.4 Knowledge-based Economy (KBE)

Most advanced economies have undergone significant structural changes in recent years. One of the key characteristics of the changes is the growing importance of knowledge in all sectors of economic activities.These economies have developed from an agricultural economy in which land is the key resource, then to an industrial economy in which natural resources and laborer the main resources, and now to a knowledge-based economy (KBE) in which knowledge is the key resource. In order to facilitate economic analysis, distinction can be made between different kinds of knowledge which are important in the knowledge-based economy: know-what, know-why, know-how and know-who. Knowledge is a much broader concept than information, which is generally know-what, and know-why components of knowledge.