Users should be able to add to the library themselves … With this new suite of capabilities, the Internet would become something else altogether – a space of connected information instead of a collection of machines. Schatz calls it the “Interspace.” Others may offer other names, but certainly no one will call it a used book store.
Predictor: Schatz, Bruce R.
Prediction, in context:In a 1994 article in Science, the publication of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Bruce Schatz projects the future of libraries. The article says:”Besides the sheer power of having access to so much information, digital libraries offer another, potentially greater capability, says Bruce Schatz of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications and the University of Illinois. In the past, libraries have provided for only a one-way flow of information – from the authors and other creators of information to the users … Digital libraries offer a way for the users to play an active role … Schatz and his colleagues are planning to equip their test library – a collection of thousands of articles on science and engineering – with [a] powerful interactive tool derived from Mosaic. A user who discovers an interesting relation between items will be able to set up links between them so that later users who called up one article would be referred to the others. Ultimately, Schatz says, users should be able to add to the library themselves. A scientist might, for instance, take an equation from a journal article, use it to analyze data from another place on the Internet, use a visualization program from a third source to view the results, and then leave a record of the work for others to see and work with. With this new suite of capabilities, the Internet would become something else altogether – a space of connected information instead of a collection of machines. Schatz calls it the ‘Interspace.’ Others may offer other names, but certainly no one will call it a used book store.”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1994
Topic of prediction: Getting, Sharing Information
Subtopic: Libraries/Databases
Name of publication: Science
Title, headline, chapter name: Turning an Info-Glut Into a Library
Quote Type: Paraphrase
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Vol. 266, Issue 5182, Page 20ISSN: 00368075
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Strickland, Amanda M.