Taking Bearings

September 16, 2003

The developing information age — of which we are still seemingly in the Wild West years — presents us with an increasingly vexing paradox. Although we are able to use applications that greatly simplify many tasks and, therefore, should increase efficiency (e.g., the word processor program used to write this article) we are at the same time increasingly drowning in a sea of data.

Some researchers estimate that up to 800MB of information is now produced for every person living on Earth. Growing at 30% or better per year, we can at least give thanks that the rate of information growth is sure to far exceed the rate of population growth.

A recent study by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley showed that the amount of information stored on paper, film, and computer-based magnetic and optical devices has doubled since 1999, an astounding rate when considering that in just four short years, mankind has stored as much information away as was done since the dawn of civilization.

Levels of data generation and storage can boggle the mind with exponents. For example, the United States Library of Congress print collection, totaling nearly 20 million volumes of books and more than 50 million manuscripts, can be stored in approximately 10 terabytes of information. As vast an amount of data as that represents, the world output of data now reached levels 500,000 times more than currently contained in the Library of Congress’ print collection — a staggering five exabytes of data. An exabyte is a unit of data storage equal to 1.024 × 10¹⁸ bytes. Now throw in the still far greater amounts of non-print electronic data streaming about the world via the Internet, crossing telephone lines or optic cables, or transmitted via radio and microwaves, and the size of the data flow becomes a cosmic-scale 18 exabytes.

The Internet itself sometimes struggles with information overload. Some research applications generate such vast amounts of data that it can takes hours to transmit the data even over the fastest of links. Although distributing computing networks such the one used by the pioneering Seti@home project helps alleviate some problems and unlocks vast computing potential, there are concerns about the ability of the Internet to handle present rates of growth. The rules and procedures used to send and sort packets of data — the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) — ensure that data reaches its intended destination. But even at the Internet’s highest speeds, TCP must slow transmission down as it checks to see if all packets of data comprising a letter, video, or other format of information have arrived as intended. TCP was designed to handle the kilobyte transmissions of the early Internet, not the speeds that will be needed to keep the net efficient in the future.

Aside from purely technical problems for researchers, the downside to the rapid growth of information comes when attempting to sort through chatter and sift through the pile to find the information that truly increases productivity.

Remember all those “World of the Future” presentations that teachers showed in elementary school (on a rasping a flickering reel machine projector or side projector with sound track supplied by a vinyl record) where machines and automation promised to make our lives simpler and carefree?  In those films, narrators wondered how mankind would put their abundant carefree hours to good use. In the real world of today, most of mankind longs for a few unencumbered hours. Rather than freeing our hands for pottery, the computer has become another appendage.

A recent government study in Britain showed that employees in the UK spend more time handling email than playing with their children. The British report found that workers spent an average of 49 minutes a day sorting out their inboxes, but only 25 minutes a day playing with the kids. Alas, occupying the tots with a long book or television may provide the only means for the privacy necessary to wade out the Internet porn spam on the family computer. Some relief from spammed inboxes may be forthcoming, as lawmakers currently are considering a national “no spam” law that maintains a list of those persons not wishing to receive the unsolicited adverts, similar to the “do not call” list under which telemarketers must operate. Internet spam arrives at your computer from destinations all over the world, however, so if enacted, the no spam law would do little to hinder spam from destinations outside the U.S.

The pace of technology may find adults also longing for worlds of childlike fantasy where a Harry Potter can wave a wand or a Hermione casts a spell that solves a problem.

We have gone from television shows where a bewitched wife is discouraged from the use of magic to a world where, if I had a similar opportunity, my wife’s nose would most certainly be encouraged to twitch the electrons fashioning this article into a better order.

I’d then put such a magical nose to the modern grindstone of reading email, a wonderfully productive tool that has sometimes become such a communications burden

that several large businesses have eliminated it from their workplace. More than just an annoyance, information overload can result in worker stress that results in illness and missed work that can kill productivity and profit.

The modern librarian may be the best candidate to successfully navigate the growing sea of data. Librarians have been tackling information overload for centuries. In addition to acting as guardians of civilization, librarians have historically tackled the task of turning mounds of data into chartable paths for readers and researchers. As the data mounts, future librarians will be called upon to utilize near magical powers to organize and synthesize electronic and print data.

In addition to traditional forms of organization, resource centers, whether real or virtual, can also help with the task because they integrate data from multiple sources into useable themes. Resource centers are proving especially helpful when asking students to tackle problems in areas where their fledgling skills can easily be overwhelmed by too much information, or when an employee needs to quickly find relevant information. Expert guidance, whether provided online or over-the-shoulder, also helps to insure that data utilized is reliable and appropriate.