Information needs assessment

Dervin and Nilan (1986) suggest six possible different approaches to ‘information needs assessment’, and these are:

i. The demand or system/resource approach: This approach measures the extent to which different kinds of sources, media, systems, documents, materials or channels are used.

ii. The awareness approach: This approach constitutes the set of measurements that focuses on determining respondent’s awareness of current services. The existence of a need is implied when areas of awareness are deemed lower than they ought to be.

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iii. The likes-dislikes approach: This approach constitutes the set of measurements that focuses on determining the degree to which people are satisfied or dissatisfied with different aspects of a service. Those aspects that satisfy are seen to indicate a need for more service, while those that do not satisfy are usually seen to indicate a need for a system improvement.

iv. The priorities approach: In the approach that constitutes a set of these measurements, respondents are asked to indicate what they would like the information to be like. Activities or characteristics that are highly prioritised point to the need for the development of the service.

v. The community profile approach: In the approach that constitutes a set of these measurements, demographic and environmental profiles of a community are developed. These profiles are then used to suggest programme development needs.

vi. The interests, activities and group membership approach: In these measurements, respondents are asked to state their interests, activities and group membership.

Extrapolations are then made from the data to suggest programme development needs.

Dervin and Nilan (1986:11) argue that most of the approaches mentioned above are inhibited by system definitions of what needs are, and they are limited to examining behaviour primarily within the context of user interactions with systems. Devadason and Lingham (1996) also argue that the effectiveness of an information system depends on the extent to which the system’s characteristics are in accordance with the outlook of the the user’s environment and situation and on the potential of the system to make use of the services provided in the information system. Likewise, the studies of Dervin and Nilan (1986) and Devadason and Lingham (1996) call for the careful identification, analysis and classification of the ‘real’ information needs of users (including all potential users and non-users) as an essential basis for the planning, implementation and operation of information systems. They identify some of the challenges of information needs identification as follows:

 The same information is perceived differently by different users as the answer to their information needs.

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 Researchers require original documents, whereas planners need digests of points of view or opinions.

 Information is put to different uses by different groups of people.

 A need is satisfied by having access to the identified information in a particular package, form, and at a suitable time.

 The flow of information through channels of communication is complex and adds to the complexity of identifying information needs.

 Individual preferences and behavioural aspects add a further dimension to information needs identification.

Chatman (2000:10) opines that individuals will not search for information for their works if there is no need to do so. Belkin, Oddy and Brooks (1982:64) suggest that the need for information to some extent signifies “a statement of what the user does not know”.

Kuhlthau (1993) emphasises that the need for information developed from the consciousness that something is missing, which demands the seeking of information as a method to be adopted in solving problems. For example, Vickery and Vickery (1992:17) discuss a broad view for the need of information as a citizen may have need of on a daily basis and from time to time in the form of having to obtain information on availability, quality and cost of so many things (these include consumer goods and services, health and welfare services, education and training facilities). They further reveal that the individual with these valuable needs would require different types of general information to satisfy his or her intellectual curiosity with the desire for information ranging from information on current affairs, social and political events, legal matters to financial matters. Vickery and Vickery (1992) and Choo et al. (2000) say that for these needs to be met, information sources have to be consulted (such as newspapers, magazines, television, radio etc.) depending on the needs in question.

Ikoja-Odonga and Mostert (2006:146) stress that information needs have varying definitions because different scholars with differing areas of expertise define the concept differently. Derr (1983:273) describes an information need to be a condition in which a

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certain piece of information plays a vital part in the achievement of a genuine or legitimate information purpose. Derr goes further to stress that an information need is a relationship that exists between information and information purposes. In addition, Ikoja-Odongo and Mostert (2006:147) state that “an information need is a requirement that drives people into information seeking”. Consequently, an information need is more often than not considered as a cause of information seeking (Kadli & Kumber 2011:1). An information need may begin as an unclear sort of discontent with a particular thing which is characterised by confusion and a perplexing reaction to an indistinct new idea (Kuhlthau 2004:26). The need to get clarity and be knowledgeable about the fuzzy ideal leads to the process of identifying information needs (Zawawi & Majid 2001:25). From the standpoint of information retrievals, Chowdhury (2004:194) pinpoints the characteristics of information need(s) as follows:

 An information need is a relative concept that depends on numerous factors and does not remain constant but changes over a period of time.

 Information needs vary from person to person, job to job, subject to subject, organisation to organisation etc.

 Information needs largely depend on the environment, for instance the information needs of those in the academic environment may differ from those in business or industry.

 Information needs often remain unexpressed or are poorly expressed.

 Information needs often change upon the receipt of some information.

Hjorland (1997:159) and Kaniki (2003:6) point out that certain factors influence the information needs of a user. They include economic status, geographical location, education, recreation, research, availability of information systems and services, awareness of the availability of information systems and services, personal role in social life and culture, among others. They also argue that users’ information needs may be professionally oriented or it may be more or less acknowledged. This study investigates factors that influence the information needs of FIIRO’s’ researchers such as research, finding solution to personal needs, consultation (attending to clients), education, general awareness and so on. This was achieved considering their hierarchy in terms of the way

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researchers rank their need for information as provoked by these factors. These factors compel them to require information to solve their problems.

Taylor (1968:182) explains a cognitive approach to information needs which states that an information need develops in a relatively independent manner inside the head of the information user and evolves continuously going through four levels or phases of question formation namely:

 Visceral need: This is the actual but unexpressed need for information. This may be a simple, vague sort of dissatisfaction, which changes in quality and distinctiveness as information is added.

 Conscious need or conscious awareness of an ill-defined area or indecision: It has to do with the mental depiction of the need.

 Formulated need: It is the formal statement of the need. With this, an individual can develop a logical and suitable statement of his question.

 Compromised need: This is a description of the inquirer’s need within the limitations of a system and its files.

Case (2012:81-86) discusses information needs on the basis of Taylor’s four typologies that were derived from the four levels or phases that were put as seeking answers, reducing uncertainty and making sense, as well as the spectrum of motivations. The first typology of information needs relate to seeking answers as it brings awareness to the origins of information needs (Taylor 1968:182). From the point that a problem evolves, it is insufficient to seek an answer or a solution without taking into account the ways in which and the reason people look for information (Thani & Hashim 2011:137). On this subject, Case (2012:82) uses Taylor’s typology of information needs in order to clarify why people seeking help from information professionals, especially from librarians, tend to be more general in expressing their information needs rather than doing so in a specific way. Case (2012:82) takes note that Taylor’s typology includes the visceral need which denotes the unexpressed need for information, the conscious need which imitates conscious mental description, the formally used need which refers to the rational statement of need, and the compromised need which points toward an in-depth understanding between information service provider and a requester. The second

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typology of the information needs has to do with reducing uncertainty. Information is described as the recognition of the existence of uncertainty in the personal or work-related life of an individual (Ikoja-Odongo & Mostert 2006:149). Consequently, individuals may try to deal with their uncertainties by way of requesting for information (Idiegbeyan-Ose & Akpoghome 2009:22). Ingwersen (1992:27) observes that an action that is essential for gaining knowledge guides the information seeker to the cognition of a stage of uncertainty in the requester’s mind.

The third typology of information needs involves sense-making. Sense-making was successfully employed for the first time in the early 1980s through Dervin’s work-related communication research and it has also played a fundamental role in the development of relevant studies across different disciplines including information needs, seeking and users’ studies (Dervin 1983:3). Savolainen (2010a:1783) reveals that the sense-making theory has inspired some important empirical studies, which include Julien (1999) study that focuses on adolescents’ information seeking for career decision making and the study Pettigrew, Durrance and Unruh (2002) that focuses on the ways people use public, library-community network system. Savolainen (1993:16) further shows that the basic activities involved throughout the sense-making approach entail information-seeking, processing, creating and efficient use of information. Dervin (1999:739) observes that sense-making involves the use of information that is available for the purpose of bridging the existing knowledge gap. Likewise, Schamber (2000:734) maintains that the sense-making approach comprises of the ways in which people perceive and bridge cognitive knowledge gaps with the goal of making sense of the world they find themselves in.

From these perspectives, Case (2012:85) declares that the approaches engaged in sense-making are shaped by the theory that the searcher forms (both the gap and the bridge), and by the answers, ideas, and resources obtained along the way. Consequently, for the intent of this study, it is observed that the information needs of industrial researchers could be affected by the characteristics of their different research disciplines that are fused within the wider fields of science and technology. The fourth typology of information needs has to do with spectrum of motivations. Case (2012:86) limited this typology to two important viewpoints which he refers to as the objective pole and subjective pole. The objective pole considers information needs to be understood as

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relatively fixed which reflects the traditional information pattern where information must be objective in order to be considered valuable (Morris 1994:21). In contrast, the subjective pole is based on the fact that information needs are often dynamic and human needs are influenced by this concept of dynamism (Bates 2006:1033).