Information needs
The market in its nature is characterized by the fact that situations occurring on it are often ambiguous, even indefinite, and the behavior of entities is often unpredictable. This is what causes companies to collect information by striving to identify uncertainty.
Through information needs, we express our desire to have a specific type of information resources to solve a decision problem or to interpret specific events.
In the information society, access to information and the ability to process it is treated as a commodity for which a high price is often paid. Market entities that are constantly forced to make decisions regarding their functioning, express the need to have specific information necessary to make these decisions. In order to be able to make effective decisions, enterprises need a huge amount of knowledge, numerous information, which are then subjected to thorough analysis.
Information needs are information required by a given user. We include, among others, opinions, forecasts, diagnoses, factual data, etc. which are necessary for the user in relation to his specific purpose of action and also due to the predictions about the circumstances surrounding this knitting.
Information needs can be both individual, that is regarding a given unit and group. They should be subjected to the objective procedure, taking into account the actual maturity of the users.
Description of information needs
We can describe the information need by means of the following two schemes:
- needs identifier (subject, object, type, etc.),
- postulated features,
- relationships, including:
- place of need in the overall structure of the needs of a given system,
- the source of meeting needs,
- content, i.e. data to satisfy a given need.
or:
- entity submitting the need,
- subject, or the definition of a management problem presented in terms of objects, features, relationships and time,
- a set of possible ways to solve the problem,
- the desired date of meeting the need,
- postulated features of the information sought.
| Information needs — recommended articles |
| Descriptive model — Quality of information — Information theory — Information gap — Impact of information on decision-making — Market information — Descriptive study — Functions of research — Depth interview |
References
- Wilson, T. D. (1981). On user studies and information needs. Journal of documentation, 37(1), 3-15.
- Leydon, G. M., Boulton, M., Moynihan, C., Jones, A., Mossman, J., Boudioni, M., & McPherson, K. (2000). Cancer patients' information needs and information seeking behaviour: in depth interview study. Bmj, 320(7239), 909-913.
- Rutten, L. J. F., Arora, N. K., Bakos, A. D., Aziz, N., & Rowland, J. (2005). [Information needs and sources of information among cancer patients: a systematic review of research (1980–2003)]. Patient education and counseling, 57(3), 250-261.
