They consider such challenges as determining the extent to which information systems can be made easy to understand and use, devising ways in which information systems can help solve problems, and furthering understanding of human thought processes in order to develop intellectual networks to serve and advance both the individual and society. They rely on various sites for information storage and service, including libraries , information banks, archives, switching centers, and organizations such as schools, businesses, universities, and medical centers. Information science grew from the field of documentation, which emerged when digital computers were developed during the 1940s and early 1950s. Automated searching of files, coordinate indexing, and controlled vocabularies were introduced in response to the urgent need to create easy access to the contents of scientific journals. In the 1960s massive collections of documents were transferred to databases , enabling various searches to be done by computer.
Artificial intelligence refers to the machine's capacity to mimic intelligent human behavior.
One important product of AI is the front-end system mind, a program that allows nonexperts to use their own natural language to retrieve information from databases. Information Superhighway Information Superhighway, term popularly used to refer to the availability and use of advanced information services by means of a variety of high-capacity data transport facilities, especially computers and computer networks. The term was coined to convey an image of a national infrastructure that would provide abundant information at high capacities to the general public. It was made popular by United States Vice President Albert Gore to emphasize the importance of such an infrastructure. The concept of an information superhighway remains abstract and has been superseded somewhat by the concept of a national, or global, information infrastructure, which is less focused on the notion of just a single, publicly owned means of information transport.