Books are being scanned to make them searchable

on the Internet. Television broadcasts are being recorded

and archived for online posterity. Radio shows, too, are

getting their digital conversion — to podcasts. With a

few keystrokes, we’ll soon be able to make good use of

much of the world’s knowledge. And we’ll do it from nearly

anywhere — already, newer iPods can carry all your

music, digital photos and TV classics along with more

contemporary prime-time fare.

Will all this instantly accessible information make

us much smarter, or simply more stressed? When can

we stop to think, absorb and evaluate all this data?

“People are already struggling and feeling like they need

to keep up with the variety of information sources they

already have,” said David Greenfield, a psychologist who

wrote Virtual Addiction. “There are upper limits to how

much we can manage.”

It may take better technology to cope with the

problems better technology creates. Of course, if used

properly, the new resources have vast potential to shape

how we live, study and think. Consider books. Nicole

Quaranta, 22, is a typical youth. The New York University

grad student in education does most of her research

online. She’ll check databases for academic journals

and newspaper articles — but rarely books, even though

she admits that an author who spent years on a 300-

page book might have a unique perspective. “The library

is intimidating because I have to go there and everything

is organized by academic area,” Quaranta said. “I don’t

even know where to begin.” Were books as easily

searchable as Web pages, she would reconsider.

Otherwise, they might as well not exist.

With a generation growing up expecting everything

on the Internet, libraries, non-profit organizations and

leading search companies like Yahoo and Microsoft are

committing hundreds of millions of dollars collectively

to scan books and other printed materials so they can

be indexed and retrieved online. […]

Meanwhile, television shows formerly locked up in

network or studio vaults are starting to emerge online.

“Before, once it has been broadcast, it’s gone, and it doesn’t

really contribute to our knowledge space,” said Jakob

Nielsen, a Web design expert with Nielsen Norman Group.

For the past year, Google has been digitally recording

news and other programs from several TV stations in

the San Francisco area. Early next year, America Online

and Warner Bros. will offer free access to dozens of old

television shows, and Apple Computer recently started

selling episodes of shows old and new from ABC and

NBC Universal for .99 each — viewable on computers

and its newer iPods.

In audio, National Public Radio has been producing

free podcasts featuring clips or entire programs. Anyone

with a music player can listen anytime, anywhere.

And then there are materials born digital: Photos

from digital cameras can now be easily shared, even

among strangers, at sites like Yahoo’s Flickr.

Steve Jones, a professor of communications at the

University of Illinois at Chicago, says centralization and

easy access could make people smarter: Instead of

wasting time finding information, they can focus more

on assessing its worth. But there’s the danger, he says,

that people will simply take information for granted:

Assuming that whatever pops up first is the best. Worse,

people may simply tune out.

The key may lie in technologies that push to the

top items you seek. Search analyst Danny Sullivan

describes such a tool as “some sort of metal detector

or magnet to pull all the good stuff out of the haystack.”

Virtual communities may contribute to that end. […]

“Social networks, search engines and things yet

invented are critical as we bring millions of movies, books

and musical recordings online,” said Brewster Kahle, a

search pioneer who created the Internet Archive, a non-

profit preservation group.

Even more important will be good research skills

— infoliteracy, if you will. That means knowing where

and how to look, and evaluating what you get back. […]

By Anick Jesdanun, Associated Press. Dec. 25, 20