Information Please

In a so-called "Age of Information" we are not doing a very good job of it. We have a glut and we are expanding upon that as fast as we can. Is this a version of a world in which expansion for its' own sake is considered the key to well being and prosperity? What about improving on what we have with the maximum humaness we can apply? While teaching library education in N.Y many years ago, a genius named Richard Saul Wurman came out with what was known as the "Smart Yellow Pages." I acquired an example of this from one of the cities nor far away (I think Bell Telephone was involved); paradoxically it was not employed in Buffalo, N.Y. where the University was, and thus I could not just send the students to the local phone booth or the phone books at the library reference desk.

We examined this book for the differences (between the stupid yellow pages which was and still is available from coast to coast), and I was reminded of how many times I had been utterly frustrated as a librarian, but also in my home use of phone books. What was the difference? Mr. Wurman had applied not only his considerable intelligence and imagination to the project, but his deeper human inclinations as well. So that what might be considered an obvious cross reference to find something was given, not assumed. Instructions on the use of the smarter Yellow Pages were given, not assumed. In other words, the Yellow Pages became a legitimate reference book to find valuable resources. How amazing, how simple in a sense.

I challenge you to go to you local Yellow Pages and see if it is smart or dumb (or somewhere in between). Does it make the kind of connexions you need to find resources there? Or is it just one more avenue to sell advertising? Does it display human concern in its' design and execution? Does it ask for user feedback for improvement? In other words, is it an interactive resource in your community/region?