This paper will examine the advantages and disadvantages of belonging to the

‘information society’. In order to do this, it will first define the term ‘information

society’ and then will provide specific examples of advantages and disadvantages that

have accrued to these societies. Finally, this essay will briefly evaluate the short-term

future of the information society as it relates to libraries and information sources.

Belonging to a society rich not only in information, but also (and more

importantly) in the means to disseminate this information, has delivered extremely

powerful benefits for the developed world in the late-20th and early-21st centuries, and

holds a great deal of promise for the rest of the world as the information society goes

global. For the purposes of this essay, the ‘information society’ will be taken to mean

any society (or all taken in the aggregate) whose economic and cultural drivers are all

information based. More specifically, these economies and cultures (for those are the

relevant parts that make up a society) are dependant on the broad dissemination of

knowledge: on society as a whole being well educated and thus able to consume, use

and produce information; and on a ‘knowledge infrastructure’ that allows for the

broad dissemination and take-up of this knowledge.

An information society, therefore, is one that is interdependent—it uses and

consumes knowledge produced not only locally, but it also imports knowledge;

similarly, an information society is a knowledge exporter (to use the language of

Stonier’s ‘knowledge economy’) equally, it could be said that these societies ‘share’

knowledge and rely on a larger information society that transcends the traditional

societal borders. An information society cannot exist in isolation.

This interdependence, just like the European interdependence that grew from

the Second World War and led to the European Union, fosters strong relationships

1
between various sectors of the information society, creating and strengthening the

bonds that make society a society.

As the information society spreads, it naturally incorporates its new members.

Rather than being a zero-sum game, whereby some people in society gain information

at others’ loss, the information society is truly a positive-sum experience as all those

who gain access to the knowledge and information society help contribute to the body

of information that make up the connective tissue and sinews, connecting the various

parts of the society’s ‘body’ together.

Al Gore defined one of the foundations of the information society (the

‘information superhighway’ or internet) as a tool that “allows us to share information

to connect and to communicate as a global community.” (Mackay p.9) However, it is

important to note (per Dearnley and Feather, p.43) that the technological change

alone does not necessarily create the information society—it forms only a part of the

groundwork necessary to create such a society. This is the dilemma faced by projects

such as Nicholas Negroponte’s One Laptop Per Child—the technology, which this

project aims to contribute to the societies most deprived of it, also requires a certain

level of political will for implementation as well as support from the existing

information society in order to make that society accessible.

It is the expansion and strengthening of communities that gives the

information society its most promise. The internet revolution arose in part thanks to

the internet’s development and early adoption in academic communities as academics

recognised the promise that new technologies held for sharing and cooperation—two

elements on which the modern academic community thrives.

Similarly, it is not the quantity of information or the way in which people

relate to information that makes in information society. Rather, it is the way in which

2
information is disseminated. More specifically, rather than the way that an individual

might relate to information, the manner in which a whole society may interact with

information has created the information revolution, which brought about the

information society. There are, of course, areas of the world that are not (yet) part of

the information society, and it is by comparing these with what—for the purposes of

this essay—will be considered to be the ‘information society’ that the term may be

best defined.

Most of the tools necessary to become a member of the information society

have been in development since before the Information Revolution—the makings of

this (what Toffler describes as the third of three major revolutions) have been in broad

use since the Industrial Revolution. Universal education prepared all members to

access education and information, with the egalitarian purpose of allowing all people

equal access to information. In his book focusing on the information society (which

he calls the information economy, focusing on the wealth-creation aspect of the

information revolution) Stonier notes that “an educated workforce tends to exploit

new technology, whereas an ignorant one tends to be victimised by it.” (Stonier, 1983,

p.170)

Thus, it is not the way in which members of society interact with information

that has created an information society, as the potential for broad access to

information has existed in many countries for over 100 years. (while the free library

movement in the Victorian era existed with the broad goal to disseminate information

to those who desired it, the movement—while successful—did not have the makings

of a revolution in information because the tools were not yet in existence). While it is

possible to be victimised by the growth of an information society, one of its most

3
powerful advantages is its potential egalitarianism in that with training and education,

anybody, anywhere, can exploit it.

The coupling of technological innovation (computers, the internet, and other

ICTs) with universal education and the ability of all (or most) members of society to

access these technologies and to make use of them have created an information

revolution. It is the society that this revolution has created that can be termed an

information society.

The advantages of living in an information society (or as Stonier might

describe it, a society that exploits information as a means of production) are many, but

primarily centre on further technological and scientific advances made possible by the

information society.

The measure of an information society is not so much the extent to which the

society’s output depends on the free flow of information (making it a part of the

information economy that Stonier focuses on), but rather the extent to which the

average person has access to the benefits of the information society. An instructive

example would be that of a factory city in the developing world. While the

productive output of the city is dependent on aspects of the information society

(designs and production methods are usually computer-based, and often involve

elements from great distances; ensuring that the factory produces a desired product;

and ensuring that the product is able to reach its intended market are all aspects of

Stonier’s information economy), the society itself is not necessarily an information

society. While its existence probably depends on the information society, its

members are not part of it.

Because of the collaborative or community-building effects of the information

society, the information society has had positive effects on academic research and

4
industrial collaboration. Being able to share methods and ideas across formerly

prohibitive distances has greatly increased the speed with which research and

development have taken place.

One of the most long-term advantages of the information society—and one of

the biggest potential areas for its growth—is in the area of democracy. As the

information society is primarily concerned with the spread of news and information,

the population of a democracy has the potential to become much more aware,

informed, engaged and thus active in the political process. Not only can this take

place within existing democracies, but it is a process that can assist with the spread of

democracies throughout the world. Moore and Steele (p.122) quote Lister as

describing “accessible public information” as a part of the “infrastructure for

citizenship”. One could even go further and describe information as the sine qua non

of democracies—as the technological advances that led to the creation of a broad

information society has spread throughout the world, it has also helped affirm and

extend democratic involvement.

One of the disadvantages of the information society is that displayed by the

example of a factory town producing goods for the developed world. The information

society enables a level of world-wide inequality that can be considered unjust. While

it does not necessarily create levels of inequality, the information society—and its

concurrent information economy—create circumstances that can perpetuate this

situation. Those who live on the edge of the information society (such as the factory

workers in this example) often work to serve the information society in that they are

necessary to maintain its existence, but they are not themselves members. Just as

Mackay (26) notes that the difference between the service and manufacturing sectors

are no longer so clearly defined, the differences between the information economy

5
and the service/manufacturing economy that in effect supports it, are not always clear.

One may to define these distinctions is to differentiate the information economy (of

which a manufacturing enterprise producing motherboards or other computer parts in

the developing world is certainly a part) and the information society (of which the

factory workers are almost certainly not members, event though the information

society would not exist without the product of their labour).

While in many ways the information society is a societal equaliser (members

of the information society living in County Durham can have many of the same

opportunities as those in London; just as those in Ghana may have many of the same

opportunities as those in Germany) it can also extend the differences between those

who are members of the information society, those who work to support it, and those

who are completely divorced from it as members of the societies that have not

benefitted from any of the technological advances that have helped bring the

information society to those who were not otherwise members of .

Despite its many potential disadvantages in terms of equality and equity,

therefore, the information society carries with it many more advantages in terms of

global connectivity that can and does transcend geographic, political and social

barriers. Without the information society, and the technological improvements that

allow it, many of the improvements and developments outside of the developed world

would not have been able to occur. Instead, the developments that have been brought

about by the information society would have been reserved for those already well

endowed with technological, educational and economic wealth. Rather than being

considered tools in the advancement of societies throughout the world, these

developments would have been reserved for the information rich.

6
 Instead, the information society—and its global nature—have allowed for

many otherwise isolated societies to share in the collaborative and informative

benefits of the technological improvements such as the internet. Without the creation

of a quasi-global information society (i.e., the aspect that has allowed it to affect rich

and poor members of society, as well as rich and poor societies) the technological

advancements that led to (and allowed) the information society would not have

become known as an information revolution, and rather would have remained

technological improvements, but not revolutionary in terms of societal or personal

advancement.

Therefore, both aspects of the information society are important—

revolutionary technological changes that led to important changes in the way that

information is consumed, created and accessed; and the fact that these changes apply

throughout society, impacting the way that those who were previously information-

poor are able to access information the same as those who were previously

information-rich. Therefore, while in many ways one of the greatest disadvantages of

the information society is that so many people are excluded from it, inclusion is

probably one of the greatest advantages, as theoretically anybody has the same

opportunity of joining the information society.

Some of the advantages for belonging to the information society include

advantages both for those who use libraries and those who access libraries. Small,

rural libraries that physically do not have a large collection can access larger libraries’

collections and digital libraries without encountering many of the geographical

barriers that would otherwise prevent their accessing this sort of information. In

addition, the development of digital libraries has allowed people who do not have

ready access to a physical library (or who cannot readily access such a library) the

7
ability to access a library’s collection. This does not apply simply to those who are

geographically isolated, it also has become an important aspect of information access

for those who need to use niche or specialised libraries.

For example, specialised libraries that would have otherwise been inaccessible

to those who use their content are now accessible through online content and

catalogues as well as other forms of access. This also allows both a real and effective

consolidation of collections as (a) there is now less need for physically distinct

collections now that regions can all access a main library, and (b) for the end-user,

collections appear to be seamlessly combined, despite being physically housed in

different locations, and possibly managed by librarians in more than one place. An

example of this is the libraries of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS)

which provides distance lending services to all RICS members, a digital library

collection including access to online journals, and physical access to libraries in both

London and Edinburgh. While there are physically two RICS Libraries, there is

digitally one library, and it is this digitally library that provides the broadest access to

the RICS Library collection.

Another example is that of a specialised commercial library that serves offices

throughout the UK and Europe. Historically, there may have been small regional

libraries maintained by non-library staff, along with a larger central library in London

that was essentially only available to London staff and those from the regions who

visited London. However, with the advent of the digital library and broad access to

online collections, the London library will have been able to expand its offerings to

reach al regions, thus allowing regional collections to be amalgamated into the central

library. This will have resulted in greater professional management of the library

collection and broader access to the collection, even though the total size of the

8
collection will not necessarily have changed and the physical library locations will

have become fewer.

9
 Bibliography

Buckland, Michael. ‘Information as thing.’ Journal of the American society for

information science. 42 (1991) pp. 351-160.

Dearnley, James and John Feather. The wired world. London: Library Association
Publishing, 2001. pp. 43-59.

El-Hadidy, B. ed. The infrastructure of an information society. Amsterdam: Elsevier

Science Publishers BV, 1984.

Howland, Joan S. ‘The digital divide: are we becoming a world of technological

“haves” and “have-nots”?’ The electronic library. 16 (1998) pp. 287-289.

Mackay, Hugh, et al. Investigating the information society. London: Routledge and
the Open University, 2001. pp. 7-12 and 21-41.

Moore, Nick and Jane Steele. Information Intensive Britain. London: Policy Studies
Institute, 1991. Chapter 14, pp. 122-126.

Stonier, Tom. The wealth of information. London: Methuen, 1983.

--- ‘Towards a new theory of information.’ Journal of Information Science, 17, pp.
257-263.

Webster, Frank. Theories of the information society. London: Taylor and Francis,
2006.

Word count:
0

10