[Information explosion in a better light after fifty years].
The phenomenon of "Information explosion" emerged in the professional and later also in the unprofessional community in the middle of the twentieth century. It expresses feeling of an unexpected general congestion with increasing number of published articles and books, which are not possible to go through, process and use in the real time. Unexpected development of the science after the Second World War resulted in unusually high production of new data and information. Their fast release was enabled by modernization of the publication process together with an increase of the number of scientific journals. Despite the relative information isolationism during the totalitarian regiment, this worldwide process soon emerged also in our region. However, the overload in information was not balanced by modernization of methods in the bibliographic and librarian systems, which could bring the new information to the scientific community. The turning point in the transfer of information was the development of worldwide interconnection - the word wide web or the Internet. For the processing of new information it was possible to introduce gradually still more powerful information technologies based on computers with on-line connection to the Internet. To solve the information explosion it was necessary to possess such technology and necessary programs and to master the elements of information and computer know-how. Contemporary modern technology with various user-friendly search engines, catalogues, repositories, and with voluminous bibliographic databases enable the use of full-text sources and give a better view on the formerly catastrophically looking information explosion. Along with that it is necessary to find financial sources to cover the access to the system. Information support of the scientific work based on such possibilities represents in the brim of modern information society the only possibility of effective activity in any field. It is also a good way how to precede the possible next information overload.
Spála
M
M
Ustav vĕdeckých informací 1. LF UK, Praha. spala.m@seznam.cz
D048088:Informatics / Q000639:trends; D033181:Information Dissemination; D007255:Information Services