Business Information Needs and Strategies

The primary objective of this book is to provide an understanding of business information in the context of those who seek business information. Information-seeking behavior includes the underlying information needs that drive one to seek information, the types of information used to resolve information needs, the types of resources that contain the needed information, the channels used to secure that information, and effective strategies to locate the needed information.The reason for this approach is that effective business research depends upon the ability to identify the type of information that can be used to resolve a specific business problem rather than by depending on specific resources. Every organization will have access to different collections of resources and information services based on such factors as type of work and budget, among other things. Although there may be some resources that are considered 'better' than others, it is usually possible to find similar, if not identical, information in a variety of resources.Another reason for this approach is that the particular resources are constantly changing. In recent years, there have been numerous mergers among information producers, publishers, and vendors. We have seen a migration from print to electronic, specifically to web access. The tension between free and fee has heightened. Specific sources available today may not be available tomorrow and many will be altered or adapted with different limits placed upon their accessibility. But knowing the type of information needed to resolve a given problem and the strategies that lead quickly to the information enables both information seekers and information professional to find appropriate information even under such prospective changes in the range of source options open in the future.