Adrian Smith wrote:
> Data gathered intelligently may become information.
> Information processed intelligently may become knowledge.
>
Or we might say that in our interactions with the world we experience data
through our senses, when we understand that data through our intelligence we
have information, and when we judge whether that information is true or
false we have knowledge.
However, this becomes more complicated when we are speaking of records or
documents. At the most fundamental level, what is presented in all documents
is simply data, e.g. black marks on paper/pixels on a computer screen/sound
waves in an audio recording. But no matter how raw that data (stats, tables,
graphs), it has a context, it has been mediated by someone's intelligence
and is a particular view of some part of the world from a particular
perspective, presented in a particular way. Likewise, no matter how profound
a writer's knowledge, it is still up to the reader to experience that data,
to understand the information presented, and to judge the writer's
knowledge. Obviously, the more intelligible the writer is, the easier it is
for the reader to experience, understand and judge the writer's insights.
We may say that a document that explicitly puts the emphasis on insights or
interpretation or connections between data contains information, and perhaps
even knowledge. But even the most profound document, for someone uninitiated
in that particular subject, contains only unintelligible data. And
statistics, tables, graphs, which Sarah suggests we call data, may represent
profound insight and information for the appropriate reader. It seems
whether a document contains data or information depends more on the reader
than the document.
This doesn't make the distinction of much use, from a practical point of
view, in how we handle our collections - except in the most obvious way:
that we select stock appropriate to our readers!
Derry Delaney
"Where is the understanding we have lost in knowledge? Where is the
knowledge we have lost in information."
(T. S. Elliot, The
Rock)
