1. Introduction:
Information
needs is an individual or group's desire to locate and obtain information to
satisfy a conscious or unconscious need. The concept of information needs was
coined by an American information gernalist Robert S. Taylor in his article
“The Process of Asking Questions” published in American Documentation (Now is
Journal of the American Society of Information Science and Technology).
People
in different situations require information on a subject in different forms and
with different emphasis and different depth of explanation. Even the same
person seeks information in different ways and forms on various occasions
depending on his/her knowledge of the subject and the reasons for wanting the
information.
2. Definition: Information need
is seen as a subjective, relative concept existing only in the mind of the
experiencing individual.
The
Librarian’s Thesaurus defined information need as “that need which library
science and material are intended to satisfy”.
Maurice
B. Line has defined information need as “what an individual ought to have for
his works, his research, his education, his recreation, etc”.
According
to Brenda Dervin, “an information need is an impediment preventing an
individual from moving forward in cognitive time and space. The person is faced
with a gap that must be brought by “asking question, creating ideas and for
obtaining resources. Such gaps do not occur in the abstract but arise out of a
particular critical event and situation”.
Faibisoff
and Ely (1976) viewed information need as either shaped by activity such as
problem solving or decision making or manifest through a passive reception of information
which is stored as knowledge.
Krikelas
(1983) has defined it as the “recognition of the existence of uncertainty”.
While, N. Ford in 1983 defined it as “recognition of the existence of
uncertainty and described it as something which prevents an individual from
making progress in a difficult situation”.
3. Factors
Effecting Information Need: Information needs are effected by a
varity of facts, which are as under
i) The
background, motivation and professional’s orientation and other individual characteristics
of the user.
ii)
The social, political & economic systems surrounding the user.
iii) The uses to
which information will be put to use.
iv) The range of
information service available.
4. Types of
Information Needs: Information
is a power and so it is needed in virtually every field of human thought and
action and by everyone for some purpose or the other. According to Carol C.
Kuhlthou (1991) in the process of information searching, initially a person
first becomes aware of knowledge or understanding, feeling of uncertainty and
apprehension. This is the stage showing the need for information. Information
need generally varies from individual to individual, according to their working
condition, the discipline in which they are working, the time, etc.
Tague
has presented the following types of information needs
i) Social or
Pragmative Information Need: Required to cope with day to day life;
ii) Recreational
information need;
iii)
Professional information need;
iv) Educational
information need.
Krikelas
on the basis of information seeking behaviour, categorized information need as
i) Immediate
Need;
ii) Deferred
Need.
David
Bawden (1986) identifies four kinds of information in particular for aiding the
creative process. They are
i)
Interdisciplinary information;
ii) Peripheral
information;
iii) Exceptions
and inconsistencies.
Melvin
J. Voigt’s (1961) study revealed that the same person could interact with the
information system in different ways at different times depending upon his
purpose in relation to his works, stage of his works, general interest, amount
of information already available to him and so on. According to him, a
scientist’s use of information arises from three different needs. These are -
i) Current Approach: The need to know
what other scientists have recently done or are doing. It keeps up to date with
the current progress of a scientist’s field.
ii) Everyday Approach: The needs that
come to the scientist in course of his work for some specific piece of
information. This need is directly connected with the research work or the
problem at hand.
iii) Exhaustive Approach: The need to find
and check through all the relevant information existing on a given subject.
Later
a fourth type of information need was added to the Voigt’s types of information
need by other workers in the same field.
iv) Catching up or Brushing up Approach: A worker may at
times need to have a brief but a complete picture of the recent development of
a related subject in which he was not very much interested or which did not
come within the area of his main interest. In such cases he needs a catching up
approach.
The
need of the scientist at different levels makes him adopt different approaches
to gather the requited information.
Information
needs also can be categorised as follows:
i) Information for its Own Sake: Information for
its own sake is to live in this world in order to know the world and our
surrounding environment. Therefore, no action is necessarily taken on this type
of information.
ii) Professional Need: Information is
needed to meet the professional need, to cope up and compete with other
professionals in the subject. Professionals such as doctors, lawyers,
librarians and others need information to pursue their vocations. They cannot
afford to ignore new development in their respective fields. Their ignorance
about the latest development in the field would affect their performance.
Engineers, technologists, business executives need information for solving the
problems related to their respective profession.
5. Conclusion: The information and need in
information need are an inseparable interconnection. Needs and interests call
forth information. The information needs; demands and wants have been used
interchangeably, although they may not be identical. Information need involves
a cognitive process which may operate on different levels of consciousness and,
hence, may not be clear even to the inquirer himself / herself.
How to Cite this
Article?
APA Citation, 7th Ed.: Barman, B. (2020). A comprehensive book on Library and Information Science. New
Publications.
Chicago 16th Ed.: Barman, Badan. A Comprehensive Book on Library and Information Science. Guwahati:
New Publications, 2020.
MLA Citation 8th Ed: Barman, Badan. A Comprehensive Book on Library and Information Science. New
Publications, 2020.

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