ABSTRACT
Introduction As its title suggests, this chapter aims to be a bridge between the business person or the intermediary, and all the information introduced in the previous chapters. In fact it concerns the bridge, the interface between the user and the potentially available information; an interface which includes barriers of different kinds, including the sheer number and variety of sources, and the lack of obvious congruence between a typical business problem and the sources, but an interface which also includes aids to overcome the problems, to ensure the right information gets to the right person at the right time. Direct use of sources involves knowledge of and decisions about delivery formats, costs and alternative providers including hosts. It also involves the identification of the appropriate source or sources for a particular purpose. Indirect use, that is using intermediary services, involves decisions on when it is appropriate to use library and information services, and which offers what. The chapter breaks down these information interface factors under the following headings, and provides guidance on each. Although current issues in in-house information management are briefly discussed, this is the aspect of the interface covered in the least detail here, but very well documented elsewhere.
