This module discusses the nature and definition of information. It describes the classic definition (a collection of ‘bits’ of information recorded in agreed symbols) and the semantic definition (the content of a message). The data-knowledge continuum positions the message between chaos, data, information, knowledge and wisdom, moving along the continuum as comprehension increases.

Increasingly, information is a trade-able commodity. Yet it is different to other trade-able goods in a number of ways.

• information is inconsumable – that is, even when you use it, you still have it. Other goods, eg chocolate, disappear once they have been used. They are consumed by use.
• information is untransferable – that is, even if you give it to someone else, you still have it. If you give chocolate to someone else, they have it and you don’t.
• information is indivisible – that is, you can’t use only part of it without changing it. It is possible (however unlikely) that you might use only part of the chocolate. In that case, a smaller part remains, as delicious as ever. You have divided the chocolate into parts. If you divide information into parts, the meaning is changed and so the original information is lost or becomes new or misinformation.
• information is accumulative – that is no matter how often you use it, it still remains with you, building up over time. If you get more information, it adds to the collection but can never be consumed by use (only by deleting and even then other versions often exist especially with digital information). Chocolate, on the other hand, can only be used once. Once eaten, it is gone. It does not remain to be accumulated once it is used.
  (Combes, Fitzgerald & O’Connell, 2019)

This has implications for the work of educators everywhere. We need to develop knowledge and understanding in students in a well-thought out order, such that each skill or piece of information builds upon the last and we need to make clear where the new information sits with the current schema. We need to make sure students are taught how to think about the information they are presented with and learn to critically evaluate it, adding it to the appropriate schema or rejecting it as misinformation. It also has implications for how librarians organise information. Related pieces of information should lead the learner from one to another. Currently all I can think of is positioning related topics close by each other and using catalogue software that might suggest to users the topics related to each other. I am convinced that there are a great many other strategies librarians use.  I am keen to learn more about them.

When we want to communicate information, we want the receivers to understand and be able to use that information as easily as possible. We therefore need to encode it into a format they can easily decode (choose the relevant language and format) transfer it as a whole package or in a series of sequenced, related packages and make clear to them where this new information sits within their current knowledge and understanding of the topic.

References

Combes, B., Fitzgerald, L. and O’Connell, J. (2019). The Information Environment. In ETL401: Introduction to Teacher Librarianship. Retrieved from  https://interact2.csu.edu.au/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?course_id=_42381_1&content_id=_2899453_1