The FUTURE OF INFORMATION WORK Available to Purchase

It has tightly been said that scientific research is of no use whatsoever—unless the results are published or otherwise communicated to others. This may be a cliche, but it is one worth repeating, because it is one of the bases of science, and the foundation of information work. Since the beginnings of modern science, after the Renaissance, when the secretiveness of the Middle Ages and the alchemists was swept away, the need for free discussion and intercommunication has been ever more clearly recognized. When, with the advent of the industrial revolution, science, previously an intellectual hobby, became a necessity, the pace of research and invention, and with it the volume of publication, increased and has continued to increase steadily. At the beginning of the nineteenth century we find journals beginning to include short accounts, mostly critical reviews, of papers published elsewhere, but it was not long before the first journals appeared containing only such reviews or abstracts, from which the critical element largely disappeared, and an objective standard was set. This was the first step in information work, and it is important to note that it originated within the scientific field itself, that is, it was performed by scientists on behalf of their fellow researchers.