A cc e s s ,

m a tio n
Info r r an d
eh av i o
U s e r B
ra cti o n
Int e
Information access is the ability to
identify, retrieve, and use information
effectively.
Information Access in
the 21st Century
The long-awaited and oft-predicted "electronic
information superhighway" is actually better
described as an electronic wish list, compiled so
as to promise at least something for any and all
possible users. In fact, this particular model has
about it many of the trappings of a ritualistic
construct -- it provides "an occasion for
reflection and rationalization in the fact that
what ought to have been done was not done,
and what ought to have taken place did not
occur" (Smith, 1982, p. 63).
 ELECTRONIC SUPERHIGHWAY
MODEL
• Connect every scholar in the world to every
other scholar and thus reduce the barriers to
scholarly interaction of space, time, and
cultures.

• Connect to the network all important

information sources, specialized instruments,
and computing resources worth sharing.
• Build databases that are collaboratively and
dynamically maintained that contain all that
is known on a particular subject.

• Create a knowledge management system

on the network that will enable scholars to
navi-gate through these resources in a
standard, intuitive, and consistent way.
"nirvana;" a time when all people will
be able to access effortlessly all
known existing information.
• Omni-Presence

• Omni-Information

• Omni-Collaboration

• Omni-Access.
Omni-Presence

"Connect every scholar in the world to every

other scholar and thus reduce the barriers to
scholarly interaction of space, time, and
cultures."

Omni-Knowledge

"Connect to the network all important

information sources, specialized instruments,
and computing resources worth sharing."
Omni-Collaboration

"Build databases that are collaboratively and

dynamically maintained that contain all that is
known on a particular subject."

Omni-Access

"Create a knowledge management system on

the network that will enable scholars to
navigate through these resources in a
standard, intuitive, and consistent way."
Information Retrieval and
Use
In fact, the "universal access" model glosses
over or disregards a number of concrete
require-ments, costs, and restrictions that are,
and that will continue to be, associated with
information access and use. These factors are
inherent in the various stages of information
use -- access, filtering, comprehension, and
synthesis
Access

Information access is neither free nor

universal. Certain essential levels of
access technology (e.g., pen, telephone
lines, fax machine or computer) must be
made both affordable and readily
available. The requisite information-
access nodes or routes (e.g., telephone
switches, Internet nodes, satellites, or
anonymous FTP-access computers) also
must be made affordable and easily
available.
Filtering

All information can be, or has been, filtered

-- screened or refined either by the end-
user or by any of the human and non-
human nodes between the raw information
itself and the end-user of that information
(Norman 1969:23-31).
Comprehension and Synthesis

Information comprehension and synthesis is

subject to a factor commonly known as "infor-
mation overload" -- the inability to understand,
utilize or manipulate information due to the
sheer quantity or complexity of it. This
phenomenon already is obvious in many of
today's organiza-tions (Woodman, 1985, p. 99;
Connors, 1993).
RESTRICTED ACCESS MODEL

This model predicts that future access to

information will be based in large part on the
end-users' budget for both information access
and use; that technological expertise and
capabilities will continue to be unevenly
distributed; and, that the great bulk of available
information will become a commodity -- the end
result of these factors being both local and global
information "haves" and "have nots."
Affordability

Only those who can afford to purchase, or

obtain access to, the requisite hardware
and soft- ware will be able to utilize
electronic information.
• User account costs in dollars per
connection unit time as well as per CPU
use unit,

• Pertinent telecommunication line

installation cost and use charges,

• Purchase costs of all requisite hardware,

• The maintenance, repair and replacement

costs for requisite hardware,
• Costs inherent in the purchase and
upgrading of any requisite software,

• Costs of requisite printer paper, ribbons

or output page charges,

• Costs of the requisite electricity, and

climate control, needs and usage,
• Any initial and on-going staff and user
training costs and all training materials
costs and, - Cost of the user's time while
accessing and using the information
source(s) -- for while they are doing so,
their time does represent a real cost to
their employing/sponsoring organization.
Data Repositories and Their Costs

The major electronic information

repositories, and the access to them, will
be held by either major research
universities or private corporations, who
will pass on the storage, access and
overhead costs to organizational or
individual users.
Proprietary Access

Competing or similar databases or data

repositories will be accessed by proprietary
means.

Access Control and Cost

The next transmutation of today's "Internet"

will be controlled by private corporations.
Information Censoring

Certain databases or data repositories will

be selectively censored by the
organizations that maintain them or
maintain access to them; such censoring
may or may not be made known to the end
users.
Information Limitations

Software and hardware errors,

incompatibilities, and malfunctions will limit
an end-user's knowledge of, access to, and
use of the entire information universe -- in
an unknowable random or non-random
pattern.
The Fallacy of "All Data"

Access to all of the information and data

available for any given subject is not knowingly
possible, nor is it necessarily a desirable goal.
Thank
You!