contextual 'reading' of information objects: do we know how?

With respect to the Ranganathan's second law, "EVERY PERSON HIS OR HER BOOK” (OR BOOKS ARE FOR ALL) (p.81), a comparable enunciation would be EVERY PERSON/USER HIS OR HER DIGITAL INFORMATION OBJECT (OR DIGITAL INFORMATION OBJECTS ARE FOR ALL). Obviously, in the context of the digital library, this enunciation has far reaching consequences and implications in terms of legal issue such as copyrights, ownerships, freedom of speech, information democracy, etc.

However, an interesting implication is related to the aspect of information literacy or even better said digital information literacy. Given the multitude of digital information objects, even if it is possible and feasible to make available all digital information objects to all users (the obvious hard issue of relevance both research and practice related), it is hard to say whether the users will be able to ‘read’ and ‘understand’ the various digital information objects. We are all familiar how to read text as narrative. However, does every user know how to contextually read a chart, a bar graph, or a video presentation of unknown phenomena?

It appears that the information and medial literacy issues are lacking in the study of digital libraries. Marchionini indirectly raised the issue of technology vs. user in context: “The experience of this case [The Baltimore Learning Company] demonstrated that advanced technical solutions and high-quality content are not sufficient to initiate or sustain community in settings where day-to-day practice is strongly determined by personal, social and political constrains” (p.23).

Technology alone can’t fix problems.

Marchionini, G., Plaisant, C., & Komlodi, A. (in press) The people in digital libraries: Multifaceted approaches to assessing needs and impact. Chapter in Bishop, A. Buttenfield, B. & VanHouse, N. (Eds.) Digital library use: Social practice in design and evaluation. Retrieved October 26th, 2002 from: http://ils.unc.edu/~march/revision.pdf

Ranganathan, S. R. (1957). The five laws of library science. London: Blunt and Sons, Ltd. pp. 11-31, 80-87, 258-263, 287-291, 326-329