Information Resources And The Online Environment In The 21st Century

The online environment as a trademark of the 21st century has changed every facet of life as we know it, in communications, trade and investment, politics, fashion, banking, education, etc., this is even more apparent in the profession that deals with information gathering, packaging and disseminating —Information Science. Prior to the advent of the ICT, the library was viewed to be a storehouse of knowledge and information. Information on its own is intangible but for it to be utilised at all, it can only be communicated through a medium which in this instance is the resource. Therefore, information resources of heterogeneous formats are what researchers, leaders, students and other infonnation consumers actively seek. Information resources are inevitable in library operations as they enable the library to fulfill its objectives of meeting the information need of users. It is the source from which people receive ideas, meaningful messages, enlightemrient and directions that will help them to accomplish tasks, take infonned decisions and solve problems. These resources are ever present in the online environment all though mostly in a different format from the commonly known. Greenstein (2012), in her book stated that this is actually one of the core skills needed in the 2lst century, which is applying and integrating information and communication technologies in education. Supported by Geisinger (2016), who enumerated four types of 21st Century Skills which include collaborative problem solving, complex problem solving, creativity, digital and information literacy. It is clear that digital and information literacy is one of the fundamental aspects that users really need to master. These 21st century skills will help to create Malaysian students who are balanced, resilient, inquisitive, principled, informed, caring, patriotic, as well as effective thinkers, communicators, and team players (Khairil & Mokshein, 2018). The above postulation applies to citizens from other countries. The 2lst century is the millennium of information. It is also seen as the era of the explosion of information output and information sources. It is known as the beginning of the knowledge age. New patterns of work and new business practices have developed as a result; new kinds of work with new and different skills are required (Emezie and Nwaohiri, nd).