Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
If we look at this collection from the perspective of the research function, we
recognize that it includes primary source materials that researchers in a variety of
disciplines can use. They may use the wool science that includes the processes
for cleaning fleece and shrinkage that occurred, the nutrition and breeding science
that took place over many decades, and the possible new knowledge from the
DNA in the jars of wool fleece that the American sheep industry deems valuable as
a historical record for sheep breeds from the samples of sheep flocks throughout
the world.
When thinking about the collection through the perspective of the education
function, the notion of overlap becomes clearer. Many of these primary sources
were used for instructional purposes for the wool science program, providing edu-
cation on such topics as animal husbandry, fabric and fiber uses, the business of
ranching, and the economics of wool. When many of these educational resources
become digitized, the wool collection can become openly available for other edu-
cators. When available digitized, K-12 schoolchildren learning about history or pre-
paring for a History Day competition and needing primary resources (education
function) have information; so do 4H clubs working with sheep or wool fiber arts
and crafts (recreation), ranching and the Basque influence in the community (cul-
tural function), or stories about life in the West (cultural) or the cost of wool (in-
formational); so do the hobby farmers who didn't grow up on a ranch but now find
themselves raising sheep or selling wool (education and recreation).
As information and knowledge are used to teach or learn, enjoy, appreciate, and
understand our world, make decisions, create new information or knowledge, and
to find or locate information, there is an increased blurring of these functions. By
shifting the perspective to a different function, a different insight is provided, mak-
ing the overlap more readily identifiable. These six functions involve many moving
parts, coalescing and separating; consequently, the professional's role with inform-
ation and knowledge becomes more dynamic than ever before.
The work to make the collection organized and accessible on paper is a chal-
lenge, but to digitize the collection and increase the opportunity to have it found on
the open Web will continue to open the collection to a variety of uses. The inform-
ation infrastructure in the emergent paradigm is nonlinear, and the values of the
emergent paradigm remain undefined in its flexibility, unpredictability, and fullness.
Summary
The emergent paradigm breaks through traditional barriers and definitions,
providing an automatic opportunity for information professionals to embrace their
roles as leaders in the digital age. Learning is taking place in many aspects of our
Search WWH ::
Custom Search