Dec 2014 | 256pp
Paperback
9781856044844
Price: £59.95
CILIP members price: £47.95
If you want to provide an information service that truly fulfils your users' needs, this book is essential reading.
Analysing and assessing the information needs of clients is key to the provision of effective service and appropriate collections in both face-to-face and virtual library services. The importance of information needs analysis is widely recognized by information professionals, but currently there is little substantive, detailed work in the professional literature devoted to this important topic.
This new book is designed to fill that gap, by supporting practitioners in developing an information needs analysis strategy, and offering the necessary professional skills and techniques to do so. It will offer guidance to team leaders and senior managers in all areas of library work, especially those involved in collection management, service provision and web development, and is equally applicable to the needs of academic, public, government, commercial and other more specialized library and information services. The text adopts a hands-on, jargon-free approach, and includes relevant examples, case studies, reader activities and sources of further reading. Key areas covered include:
Readership: The book will be essential reading for library and information practitioners, team leaders and senior managers. It will also be a core text on course reading lists in departments of library and information studies.
1. Background to needs analysis for information managers
2. The importance of context in information needs analysis
3. Models and types of information needs analysis
4. The stages of information needs analysis
5. Gathering data for information needs analyses
6. Gathering data from existing sources
7. Gathering data through surveys
8. Gathering data through interviews
9. Analysing and integrating information needs analysis data
10. Reporting on an information needs analysis
"This very informative book provides an in-depth introduction to the theory and practice of information needs analysis (INA) in library and information organizations...I would recommend this book to all information professionals who conduct information needs analysis."
- Library and Information Research
"The style of the book is easy to follow, it is transparent and practical. The application of the presented methods and instruments should not be a complicated matter. For information managers in organizations this book will be very useful. It is also of the kind that most students appreciate very much: it provides unambiguous answers to potential questions and solutions to the problems that are commonly met at everyday work."
- Information Research
"The ten chapters are sensibly split into three parts. Chapters 1-4 discuss the theory behind INA. Chapters 5-8 relate to the research methods commonly used to gather data for analyses. Chapters 9-10 outline data analysis methods, and provide suggestions about how to report your INA findings. I liked the logic behind the structure of the book, which meant that I could race through the theory, and linger over the practical advice, thinking about how we can apply it to our library users...Each chapter is summarised by a Review, and further reading is provided, along with extensive references from a diverse array of recent sources."
- CILIP Health Libraries Group Newsletter
1. Background to needs analysis for information managers
Needs analysis, or information needs analysis (INA), is a practice-based activity conducted mostly, but not exclusively, by an information manager, usually in relation to user and community needs. Typically, such a person, or team of people, simply roll up their sleeves and get ‘stuck in’. Perhaps there has been a flurry of e-mail exchanges with others who have done a needs analysis, and some anecdotal evidence has been gathered about how to approach this activity. Unfortunately, needs analysis is, like any research, an activity that requires careful planning, including an understanding of precisely what needs analysis is.
In this opening chapter we address a number of preliminary questions which must be understood in order to have a good grasp of INA and the INA process. Specifically,
2. The importance of context in information needs analysis
In this chapter, what we seek to do is extend the discussion of INA into the real-world context of culture, society and other key variables by addressing these questions:
3. Models and types of information needs analysis
In this chapter we identify different levels, models and types of needs analysis generally (as distinct from INA specifically) that are discussed in the literature across a variety of disciplines. The purpose of this is to distinguish key features and themes related to needs analysis models. We also examine the application of some of these models to information management (IM) contexts, and ultimately we draw upon the key elements of these models to develop our own models of INA.
The purpose of this chapter, in brief, is to address three questions:
4. The stages of information needs analysis
In an information setting the needs analysis process should be seen as contributing to two essential activities in the proactive management of services, facilities and staff. First, the process should help determine what needs exist and how they might best be met. Second, the process should provide benchmark criteria for evaluating the merits of whatever is being investigated (systems, buildings, staff, services, collections) to determine the extent to which the specified needs are being met.
It is against the background of these activities that we set out to address three main questions in this chapter:
5. Gathering data for information needs analyses
This chapter provides an overview of the main methods for gathering the data necessary to identify and understand information needs in different information management contexts. As is the case in any research project, the method(s) selected in an INA project will depend on a wide range of contextual variables. Accordingly, in this chapter we seek answers to a number of data-gathering questions, specifically:
6. Gathering data from existing sources
This chapter provides guidance on using existing data in information needs analyses and addresses three key questions:
7. Gathering data through surveys
Chapter 5 introduced several methods for gathering data for information needs analyses (INAs). Following that introductory chapter, Chapter 6 then began the in-depth discussion of methods by addressing the use of existing, or historical, data. Chapter 7 now continues the in-depth discussion by focusing on the survey, a quantitative data-gathering tool frequently used in INAs and addresses three principal questions:
8. Gathering data through interviews
In Chapter 5 we provided an overview of the main methods for gathering the data required for an INA in different information management contexts. In this chapter we look specifically at the use of individuals and groups as a source of data in INAs.
The main questions driving this chapter are:
9. Analysing and integrating information needs analysis data
In this chapter we focus on the analysis and integration of data that have been gathered to identify and make decisions about the information needs being investigated. In an INA project the analysis and integration of data occur not only towards the end of the project but also must be done to varying degrees throughout the project and for different purposes at different times.
In Chapter 4 we identified the four stages of INA projects: (1) preparation, (2) information gathering, (3) information analysis and (4) reporting results. As explained below, the INA process is not strictly a linear one. It is iterative, and so the information analysis stage may occur several times during a larger INA project, requiring the INA project team to integrate several types of data.
In this chapter we examine when and how to analyse the information collected to determine the needs of the target group, bearing in mind that the project might involve several iterations of the various stages. We look at both qualitative and quantitative types of data, and the processes used to analyse them. The extent of an analysis will depend on why the information was gathered, with analyses conducted during Stage 2 usually requiring more detail than those conducted during Stage 1 of an INA. Regardless of the stage at which data analysis is being undertaken, any issues that might affect the validity and reliability of the results must be considered.
10. Reporting on an information needs analysis
We are now at the end of the process, both figuratively and literally. In this final chapter of the book we examine the last stage of an information needs analysis (INA) process – reporting the results.
To help focus our thinking in the somewhat complex and varied matter of reporting on an INA, this chapter addresses five questions: