Assessing Information Needs in the Age of the Digital Consumer


Book Description

Aiming at ensuring that everyone obtains the rich rewards available in today's information-centred society, this book seeks to provide a systematic method for the understanding, appreciation and evaluation of information needs, which alone can guarantee the value of information to the consumer. Based on the insights gained from research projects involving hundreds of thousands of people, it sets out to provide a framework, firmly grounded in theory but nevertheless highly practical, for information needs analysis. The book is written both for librarians, publishers, archivists, records managers, journalists and other information professionals, to help them in their efforts to design improved systems and monitor the effectiveness of their services on an ongoing basis, and for individual information consumers, to enable them better to meet their own information needs in the expanding sphere of virtual information.




Information Needs Analysis


Book Description

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: - what is information needs analysis? - how is needs analysis conducted? - what are the varieties of needs analysis? - how are analyses evaluated and reported? 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.




Information Users and Usability in the Digital Age


Book Description

Information users and usability constitute the main building blocks of today's electronic information world. This important new text is the first to give a holistic overview of all of the necessary issues relating to information users and the usability of information services in the digital world, including user-centred design, and the characteristics and behaviour of information users. This book helps readers understand why information users and the usability of information services are important and equips them to play a proper role in designing user-centred information systems and services and to properly exploit information services for the maximum benefit of users. It covers all of the major issues, the current situation and what the various research studies from around the world show.




Library and Information Science


Book Description

This unique annotated bibliography is a complete, up-to-date guide to sources of information on library science, covering recent books, monographs, periodicals and websites, and selected works of historical importance.




BIALL Handbook of Legal Information Management


Book Description

The second edition of this popular handbook has been thoroughly updated by the original team of experts and some new contributors, to provide current best practice guidance on the key legal information issues for every type of service. Each of the chapters is updated to reflect general changes in law libraries and their users in the past seven years. In particular, the handbook covers new information technologies, including social networking and communication. New chapters also focus on the key topics of outsourcing, and the impact of the 2007 Legal Services Act. The second edition of this valuable handbook continues to be an important professional reference tool for managers and staff of all types of legal information services, and will help them with the challenges they face in their work every day.







Collection Management Basics


Book Description

If the heart of the library is its collection, this textbook provides the keys to the heart of your library. Alongside standards of basic principles and processes, you'll find practical guidance on everything from acquisitions to preservation. Managing collections in today's libraries is more complicated and challenging than ever. Electronic formats, new options for collaboration and sharing, and the drive to use data for evaluation purposes are just a few of the changes now driving collection management. This updated edition of a classic text addresses changes in the field and provides a thorough overview of what collection development specialists now need to know to effectively and efficiently manage processes that range from selection and assessment to sharing resources, handling challenges, weeding, and preservation. Readers will find increased coverage of technical services, intellectual freedom and censorship, and collection policy development, as well as budget development and tracking, joint purchasing, and negotiating with vendors. Updates on e-resources, user needs assessment (including data visualization), and disaster management, along with suggestions for further reading, are also included. Engagingly written and easy to understand, this is a valuable text for students preparing for careers in public, academic, school, and special libraries. It will additionally serve as a training resource and professional refresher for practitioners.




Information Services and Digital Literacy


Book Description

Despite new technologies, people do not always find information with ease. Do people still need help in finding the information they need, and if so, why? What can be made easier with new tools and techniques?Information Services and Digital Literacy is about the role of information services and digital literacies in the age of the social web. This title provides an alternative perspective for understanding information services and digital literacy, and argues that a central problem in the age of the social web and the culture of participation is that we do not know the premises of how we know, and how ways of interacting with information affect our actions and their outcomes. Information seeking is always a question of crossing and expanding boundaries between our earlier experiences and the unknown. We may not yet be well enough acquainted with the landscape of digital information to understand how we know, where the boundaries to our knowledge lie, how to cross them, and what consequences our actions may have. - Presents a new approach for understanding how information services help and hinder people in becoming informed - Provides an overview of how to conceptualize information services and digital literacy - Provides a model for developing new types of library and information service




Examining Information Literacy in Academic Libraries


Book Description

In the 21st century, information literacy emerges as the cornerstone of educational development. Despite its paramount significance, a stark reality persists — students often traverse the corridors of academia without acquiring essential information literacy skills. This deficiency is exacerbated by a shortage of faculty training, leaving academic libraries to shoulder the responsibility of cultivating information-savvy individuals. Examining Information Literacy in Academic Libraries delves into the core challenges and solutions surrounding this critical educational imperative. This book illuminates the role of academic libraries as bastions of information literacy instruction. The capacity of students and information consumers to seek, evaluate, and utilize information is paramount for informed decision-making ethically and legally. Regardless of whether or not students were brought up in the digital age, many lack the fundamental information literacy skills required for higher education. This deficiency manifests in academic malpractices, such as plagiarism, which compromise the integrity of educational institutions. Moreover, this imperative work contends that the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is not a distant concept but a present reality. The recent global upheaval caused by the Coronavirus pandemic accelerated the adoption of new technologies, necessitating a swift reassessment of our collective ability to navigate this everchanging digital and information landscape. Focusing on media literacy, data literacy, and digital literacy, with information literacy as the overarching domain, this book serves as a beacon for educators, librarians, and policymakers.




Electronic Government


Book Description

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 19th IFIP WG 8.5 International Conference on Electronic Government, EGOV 2020, held in Linköping, Sweden, in August/September 2020, in conjunction with the IFIP WG 8.5 IFIP International Conference on Electronic Participation (ePart 2020) and the International Conference for E-Democracy and Open Government Conference (CeDEM 2020). The conference was held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 30 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 118 submissions. The papers are clustered under the following topical sections: e-government foundations; e-government services and open government; open data: social and technical aspects; AI, data analytics, and automated decision making; and smart cities.