Information resources and their role in modern society

Information resources ... It seems to me that now it is difficult to meet a person who never in life would have come across this concept.

Having pondered logically, we will inevitably come to the conclusion that the development of any society is impossible without the availability of various types of resources: energy, instrumental, material and, finally, information.

We live in a time that can be described as a stage of an unprecedented increase in the flow of information. This growth is carried out immediately in several industries, the most popular among which are economic and social.

Information was, is and remains one of the decisive factors that determines both the development of technology and resources in general.

Under the information, in turn, we should understand a set of information about objects or phenomena that surround us in the everyday world, their properties and states.

Section 1. Information resources. Definition of concept

Information resources are both ordinary documents and document collections. The latter are placed in public or private archives, libraries, funds, museums, depositories, banks and databases.

We, of course, remember that until the end of the last century all kinds of information resources were only tangible, quite tangible objects. For example, books and the press were among them the most common. Now times have changed, and most prefer to store information on so-called electronic or digital media.

In general, it should be noted that a kind of scientific paradox is associated with the term, which is in this article in question. What does it consist of?

The thing is that although it is one of the most important in solving issues related to informatization of society, at the moment no one will give this concept a precise definition. And if we turn to scientists for explanations, then, most likely, we will get an answer that this actually happens sometimes, and this definition has not yet been completely formed.

Then it becomes unclear in what form it is customary for specialists to represent knowledge and data. After wandering in the vastness of cyberspace, I found the answer - through understanding the very essence of the information resource, as well as the role it performs in various social processes, directly through the laws of their transformation, formation and further distribution.

Section 2. Electronic information resources. Their consumers

To date, it is common to distinguish between active and passive information resources. Under active understand the part that is available for both automated search, and for storage and processing. It is stored on computers in the form of specially created programs and is mainly text and graphic documents. By the way, many information resources can be available to users only on a commercial basis.

If we talk about the main participants of this market, then, of course, they are:

- Users (we are with you);

- Sellers of information (publishers, bookstores, owners of Internet resources, etc.);

- Data producers (authors, editors, journalists, artists and musicians, they also manage and manage information resources).

In the modern world, the most common means of access to information are, of course, computer networks, and most users receive information exactly on-line.

In addition, this market can be divided into the following segments:

• Computerized systems designed for redundancy;
• Information services dealing with financial matters;
• Databases, targeted at both professionals and the mass consumer.

The databases, which are a kind of virtual books, can in turn be divided into five types:

- bulletin boards;

- Multimedia;

- specialized software;

- tabular and numerical;

- Text.

Finally, I would like to note that both national and global information resources are important economic categories, as well as one of the most important indicators of the public information culture.