The duality of information overload and underload is a defining issue of our age. Scholarly information is abundant but not universally accessible to all scholars and learners, thereby hindering or prohibiting equitable engagement in ongoing scholarly conversations. Access is a core aspect of the issue of overload and underload-both access to research materials and access to venues where one can contribute to the scholarly corpus-but it is not the only aspect. Our group agreed that the problem of overload is preferable to that of underload; however, the dual nature of the issue makes that conclusion more nuanced, dynamic, and situational. In this report we explore the many factors and causes of information overload and underload and also develop ideas for solutions. A summary of the issues is provided.
OSI2016 Workgroup QuestionInformation underload occurs when we don't have access to the information we need (for a variety of reasons, including cost)-researchers based at smaller institutions and in the global periphery, policymakers, and the general public, particularly with regard to medical research. Overload occurs when we can access everything but are simply overwhelmed by the torrent of information available (not all of which is equally valuable). Are these issues two sides of the same coin? In both cases, how can we work together to figure out how to get people the information they need? Can we? How widespread are these issues? What are the economic and research consequences of information underload and overload?
A dynamic dialecticInformation underload and overload are connected. The information-overloaded world ironically suffers from under-loading: its inhabitants are incompletely informed, being given too many irrelevant pieces of data that obscure the ones they need. In contrast, information underload is rooted in settings where information either does not exist or is not being supplied; at its core underload is caused by a lack of access and/or an inability to discover information resources even if they are available. As we remedy problems of underload, we create more problems of overload; and as more information is created, supplied, and accessed, the more people without that information are at an underload disadvantage.Information overload and underload both lead to underutilization of knowledge and anxiety. The paradox of choice suggests
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