A Methodology for the Identification of Information Needs of Users  

Information needs are of various types. Apart from expressed or articulated needs, there are unexpressed needs which the client is aware of, but does not like to express. Another category of needs is the dormant variety, which the client is unaware of. Though identification of information needs is essential for designing information systems in general and for providing effective information services in particular, it has been found to be a difficult task as it is almost an investigative or detective work. In order to identify information needs one should adopt various methods to gather information on the various factors that influence the information needs. No single method or tool will serve entirely. A careful selection and blending of several techniques depending on the client whose need is being studied is necessary. In fact, the "information needs identifier" should study, prepare and equip him/her-self thoroughly to perform the task of identifying information needs. A formal step by step procedure which can be adopted to study the information needs of a majority of clients is proposed in our paper. The major steps are as follows:

  • 1) Study of subject(s) of interest to the organisation/ Client(s)
  • 2) Study of the organisation and its environment
  • 3) Study of the immediate environment of the Client(s)
  • 4) Study of the Client(s)
  • 5) Formal interview
  • 6) Identification and recording of information needs
  • 7) Analysis and refinement of the identified information needs.
Besides gathering and recording the information needs, a careful analysis is to be made to distill actual needs from the data gathered. It is hoped that the methodology, would be easy to perceive and be translatable into practice. It is to be noted that the methodology would become clearer and clearer as each step is put into practice enhancing the understanding of the scenario and help in fine-tuning the procedure to suit particular situations. Moreover it has been found that the proposed methodology is not only useful in identifying the information needs, but also has a profound impact on finding ways and means of satisfying such needs. In other words, the information needs identifier (INI) would discover, as a bye-product, several ideas, tools, methods and techniques of satisfying the clients in meeting their needs as well as design new and novel information services and products to meet those needs.

You can access the full text of the paper : DEVADASON, F.J. and PANDALA, PratapLingam. A methodology for the identification of information needs of users. IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations) Journal. Vol 23 (1997); No. 1; pp 41 - 51.

From Here   

For a slightly different version of the paper as presented at the Tenth Congress of Southeast Asian Librarians (CONSAL X), May 21-25, 1996 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia,

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For a set of slides used for a presentation at the Kansas Library Conference 2008 (KLC 2008), April 9-11, 2008 Wichita, Kansas,

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For an  "Information Needs Discovery Exercise" citing this paper

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