BibSonomy publications for /user/avivagabriel/accessTue Nov 20 18:17:02 CET 2007Library ReviewAugust8369--372Information-Saturated, Yet Ignorant: Information Mediation as Social Empowerment in the Knowledge Economy 522003Information access advantage capital careers cognition cognitive disadvantage disadvantaged earnings economics economy educate education educators employees employment empower empowerment entrepreneurial entrepreneurs excessive freelance freelancers ignorance ignorant illiteracy illiterate information-based intelligence jobs knowledge knowledge-based knowledge-economy literacy mediate opportunities opportunity overload overwhelm overwhelming role roles saturate saturated saturation social-capital socialcapital societal society socioeconomic socioeconomics sociological sociology status synthesizing teachers thinking train trainers training undereducated underemployed uneducated uninformed In our information society, the information citizen must face a variety of challenges in order to make the most of their role in the knowledge economy. The role of information as knowledge capital means that there is a danger of inappropriate commercialisation of information, which can militate against the optimal social use of this resource. Similarly, low levels of information literacy can exclude the individual from full membership of the information society. Information professionals are in a prime position to address these problems, since the information mediator can both act against inappropriate commercialisation of information and offset the social disadvantages of information illiteracy. If the information professional does not rise to the challenge of leadership within the new information order, society becomes {"}information-saturated and simultaneously ignorant{"}.