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Information Overload: When Information Becomes Hazardous to Your Health

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 March 2012

Abstract

Beverley Woolfson analyses the concept of information overload: how it has evolved, and its relevance to the information professional in the commercial law firm. Using data gathered during her MSc dissertation research and combining it with current theories on the topic, the writer concludes that while the information intermediary is often vulnerable to the dangers of overload, a number of strategies can be implemented to ensure that its effects are minimised.

Type
Current Topics
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2012. Published by British and Irish Association of Law Librarians

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References

Footnotes

1 Simmel, G. (1903) Die Großstadt und das Geistesleben (The Metropolis and Mental Life)Google Scholar

2 Klapp, O.E. (1986) Overload and Boredom: Essays on the Quality of Life in the Information Society. Connecticut: Greenwood Press, Inc., p. 6Google Scholar

3 Bawden, D.; Holtham, C.; & Courtney, N. (1999) Perspectives on information overload, Aslib Proceedings, Vol. 51 No. 8, p. 249CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 Spira, Jonathan B. (2011) Information OverloadGoogle Scholarhttp://know.dowjones.com/2011/07/07/information-overload/ [accessed November 2011]

6 Ingham, J. (2003) E-mail overload in the UK workplace. Aslib Proceedings, 55(3), pp. 166180., p. 178CrossRefGoogle Scholar

7 Savolainen, R. (2007) Filtering and withdrawing: strategies for coping with information overload in everyday contexts. Journal of Information Science, 33(5), pp. 611621, p. 619CrossRefGoogle Scholar