The Production of Knowledge
Lesson 1


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Before you can successfully search for information you must understand how information is created and organized in society. 

Knowledge production is a complex and time consuming process. For knowledge to be produced someone must think of an idea and then decide to pursue it further. Sometimes the idea takes years to germinate in a person's mind. The idea will take time to research and develop--regardless of whether it leads to scientific experimentation or research in a library.

In addition to finding the time needed to do the research and produce new knowledge, a person must find the appropriate funding to pursue the research. Scientific research costs a considerable amount of money, and while social scientific and humanities research may cost less, they do require investments of money and time. Researchers must often locate funding sources outside their place of employment. Usually researchers will spend many hours writing grants and waiting for a reply.

Research is usually done by persons associated with large institutions because of the time and money needed to produce new knowledge. Most of the research is done by persons who work for government agencies, universities, large non-profit organizations, or large corporations.
 

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