Week 1

Information Systems

• What are some of the problems with Soergel's definition of Information (S2).

    Soergel defines information as that which modifies an image.  The problem with this definition is the makeup of the original image.  If an image is populated with certain known facts or ideas, are these items no longer information?   Once a person has read a book, does that book cease to be information?  Are the names and faces of people we’ve met defunct information?  Soergel’s definition makes information transient, fleeting.  Using this definition information is no longer information once it is placed into an information structure and used.  This seems to make any cataloging or sorting information a fruitless effort. 

• Do you accept that information systems should be defined as being useful for problem solving?

I’ve been racking my brain for days trying to disprove Soergel’s definition.  My mind tells me that his four word definition is too easy, too simple.  And yet, I am unable to find an example that contradicts it.  Everything from the LL Bean Catalog to the TV Guide channel could be considered an information system in his definition.  Both examples are useful for problems solving of some kind.  While I cannot refute Soergel’s definition I am still wrapping my mind around it.  How does one define useful?  If an information system, for instance a library catalog, does not contain the solution to a patron’s information need is it not useful and therefore not an information system?  Maybe this is the point of Soergel’s definition; to serve as a broad base from which to start. 

Cataloguing

• Discuss the relationship between information structure and cataloguing.

If an information system is a tool for problem solving, information structure is the underlying organization that allows the system to aid the user.  Information structure allows for record keeping, searching and analysis.  Cataloging is a tool to create that structure.  Cataloging takes individual pieces of information, sorts and labels each, and finds connections.  Without individual entries, an information system is useless, empty.  In the case of libraries, cataloging is the means by which information; books, journals, etc.; is entered and organized, allowing patrons to find and retrieve the solutions to their problems.   Cataloging is used to create a particular type of information structure.