Encyclopedia of Communication and Information. Ed. Jorge Reina Schement. Vol. 1. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2002. p172-180.
This article describes computers and its significant role in people's lives. From it's primary source of performing mathematical tasks, computers now gave way to becoming a handy tool for "communication, artistic expression, and managing the store of human knowledge" Its history has 2 stories to tell -- the hardware story and the software story.
The author also described the way writers would do research and how it has evolved from the early 70's to the present time. It described the use of keypunchers, mainframe computers, use of paper cards or computer output microform (COM), microfiche, to an easier access to information such as Online Computer Library Center (OCLC), Machine-Readable Cataloging format (MARC) that made it possible for the world to exchange information, use of compact disc read only memory (CD-ROM), which was largely used by EBSCO and Info Trac, and of course, over the Internet.
Searching for data electronically may produce unexpected results at times. This is because the computer does not really understand a set of strings such as "Jim Smith". The results vary on occurrences that it finds, thus process of information retrieval.
Searching for data electronically may produce unexpected results at times. This is because the computer does not really understand a set of strings such as "Jim Smith". The results vary on occurrences that it finds, thus process of information retrieval.
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From this reading I've realized how convenient our lives have been, how computers have affected the way we live our lives. It has brought great advancement in the workplace, in schools and in running a business, offering different levels of information to respond to different information needs. With computers we were able to expand our knowledge and with the increasing knowledge we've learned to explore things like Digital Information.
As an Information Management Specialist, it is important for me to understand how to maximize/make full use of the available information. Apart from that, it is handy to know the role of computers (that we unconsciously take for granted) in making the information available.These machines are capable of assisting us humans with complicated tasks making information retrieval much faster and much easier at a much cheaper cost.
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