In David Weinberger’s book titled “Too Big to Know,” he discusses the infrastructure of knowledge; or in other words, the process of reducing/filtering information into something more manageable to prevent information overload (having too much information). For example, libraries usually throw away old books in favor of those that are more new and informative to their users.
We generally reduce information by using resources such as online databases, libraries, and Google. However, a deep understanding of these resources’ taxonomy is required in order to become a great researcher. Knowing what category, keyword, or year of what we want to locate will help reduce the amount of information given drastically. Otherwise, reading every result google displays would take months or years.
To conclude, finding the right data in the limitless pool of information would be impossible (information overload). Only an understanding of the infrastructure of knowledge, or the process of filtering information, would make it possible. Mastering this process ultimately makes us better researchers and learners.
