Data and Extended Functions of a Reading Room

• Main Authors: Dasheng Wang, Lei Liu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ubiquity Press 2007-12-01
• Series: Data Science Journal
• Subjects: Reading room; Cybercafé; Digital reading room; Digital library
• Online Access: http://datascience.codata.org/articles/517

Reading is the main way in which people acquire information; the function of a paper information reading room is to understand public habits, create an environment, and make a "readers' space" to link users with information. In English, the word "information" is used to indicate the Chinese word " ." This word has several meanings in English: news, intelligence, knowledge, report, speech, lecture, notice, service platform, inform, tell, [computer] information. It is clear that "information" is a word with a wide range of connotations. According to Wang (1986), "information is a signal from the universe that is combined with a media substance. Information is from a substance, but it is not the substance where it is from. It is a new substance, a combination of medium and signal. Such change occurred in the twinkling of an eye" (Wang, 2005). In this paper, we discuss the meaning of information and present ideas about how paper-oriented reading rooms have become digital and how digital reading rooms can be extended to cybercafés, TV, radios, and telephones.