ABSTRACT
Throughout the ages, man has recorded events, ideas, research and knowledge for the benefit of future generations. This information has been historically housed and preserved by various entities such as libraries, universities, government agencies and archives. In addition to preservation, one of the primary objectives of these various custodial entities was to provide easy access to the information. The amount of printed material during the explosion of the Information Age alone exceeded mankind’s complete history of documents. Due to the increased volume of data, the difficulty of accessing it and the growing demand for instant information, man’s ingenuity transformed the concept of extracting information. A need for assisting the present generation in finding specific information was evident; information became a commodity rather than a benefactor; and the information broker was spawned.
