Information Overload Research
Eysenbach (2008) describes disintermediation as a process that empowers and enables users and creators of content to sidestep the middleman or intermediary (e.g. librarians, health professionals, travel agents) and access and even create information or services directly.
Information overload is an inability to efficiently use information due to the huge amounts of information available and its relativity. There are two types of information overload: macro level, which is represented by limitation of physical storages and processing capacities; and micro, which is about failure to filter information. Generally, information overload is considered negative and there are techniques to overcome the problem, such as literacy, which allows to properly filter information and therefore solve the issue on microeconomic level.
Web 2.0 has changed research and in turn, information literacy for researchers should affect the interrelation. In spite of the fact that the IL is concentrating on discovering, assessing and utilizing data; there are circumstances of current web-based social networking and Web 2.0 environments. The primary subjects and issues that are organized in IL research or practice should be reevaluated. There are such issues that could be faced as information overload, credibility, recognition and others. The core values of IL and Research 2.0 represent the same principles and create a great basis for understanding both concepts. Web 2.0 development has opened up many paths such as “ a holistic approach to IL in social media environments implies a shift towards social dimensions and practices that would affect and remodel the processes of discovering, evaluating, using and producing/communicating information». The idea is to make researches familiar with appropriate literacies, so that they reconsider the whole approach. A revised from of IL would create opportunities for academic libraries to prove their value and regain their positions.
There was so much to learn from the article about Web 2.0 and its influence on IL and research. Reconsideration of the principles could create an added value and open up new horizons in terms of research and information access.
Works cited
Koltay, Tibor, Sonja Spiranec, and L. Z. Karvalics. "The Shift of Information Literacy Towards Research 2.0." The Journal of Academic Librarianship 41.1 (2015): 87-93. ScienceDirect. Web. 30 Mar. …
