The problem of reproduction, tracing and retrieval of scholarly knowledge has been identified half a century ago, according to Brian R. Gaines, a critic from the University of Calgary:



“The problems of information overload from the growth of scholarly literature, and the need to use information technology to manage them, were identified by major writers and scientists over 50 years ago. Yet, the main form of scholarly communication, the journal, is still circulated in paper form as it has been for over 300 years.”

“The economic arguments for using computer and communication technology to overcome these problems through a new form of scientific communication, the electronic or digital journal, were vigorously presented in the 1970s.”

The gains of the journal-form, which had been the traditional mode of reproduction for human knowledge since the birth of the modern university, is palpable.

Research through the information superhighway

The information superhighway, which is an overarching general term for the networks of computers operating nearly completely year round is necessary for the survival of human knowledge.

The increased proliferation of digital journals today signals the end of the proverbial domination of the paper journal. However, even if the form has changed, the content has not.

If anything, the presence of the Internet and the vast databases of stored knowledge has revitalized scholarly work.

Scholars from around the vast globe can now commune in a singular yet heterogeneous medium where transnational frontiers are broken. With this in mind, the role of the mediating academe is lessened, and the scholarly and critical works themselves are exposed to increased scrutiny.

A look into history:

“Some 325 years ago, the first two scholarly journals came into being: the Journal des Sçavans in January 1665 in France, and the philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society in March 1665 in England. Now, as we prepare to enter the next millennium, the two have grown to some 50,000, and what was the blessing of improved scholarly communication has become the curse of information overload.” (Gaines, 136)

The veritable information overload is the result of concessionaries into the networking of databases. Large corporations have taken to including scholarly research as part of their efforts to increase profit.

The market is sizeable, which is why there is a move to target multiple cultural markets with one blow. The homogenization of cultural knowledge is part of this market targeting.

How databases are coping

There are certain coping mechanisms, but on the grander scale of things, the coping does not completely address the problem of information overload.

Competition among the commercial knowledge databases is tight, as is manifested by Gaines' analysis:

“Some journal publishers have established text databases as a byproduct of computer typesetting but this is still rare, and trends in this direction are offset by other trends towards authors supplying "camera ready" copy that can be photographed directly to printing plate with no intervening setting.”