Where does information come from? Watch this video, which thoughtfully illustrates what is commonly called
the Information Cycle.
University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 2016
Information is not static. It's constantly changing, evolving, and growing as it moves in a cycle from one person to another. Information tends to expand and become more detailed as it shifts from being shared person-to-person, to being shared in news outlets, to being shared in magazines, to being shared in academic journals, to being shared in books.
Knowing how information gets produced in all these different formats--for what purposes, over what periods of time--will help you find what you need more quickly and more efficiently.