Muddiest Point for September 1 class

Monday, September 5, 2011
Muddiest Point for September 1 class
First and foremost, I want to say that Dr. He did a fantastic job articulating the pertinence of Information Technology to the field of library and archives... and this is coming from a student who has not taken a computer or information science class since high school. After class I felt like I understood the vision of this class and its place in a masters program for library and information science.
My muddiest point for this week is related to the topic of information management. As Dr. He demonstrated during class, we as humans generate an immensely larger sum of information than we could ever take in. Dr. He continued by saying that libraries and archives have historically stood as the gate-keepers to knowledge and that we have been entrusted with manipulating information in the past. I was just wondering if he could provide a tangible example of one way in which libraries and archives are facing the expanse between the levels of information generated and the levels of information individuals can take in.
I am sure that we will discuss some of these approaches as the semester goes on, but it would be great to have a glimpse of one such strategy that attempts to bridge this gap. Thanks!