ABSTRACT
The concept of ‘information need’ is hardly unequivocal, although people talk about it as if it were, without ever bothering to define what they mean when they use the phrase. All the same, as Shenton and Dixon (2004) point out, citing a host of articles in ample proof of their assertion, there is a lack of a common understanding of the term ‘information need’; indeed, the absence of universal agreement on the topic is a recurrent theme in library and information science (LIS) writing. True, there are very good reasons for refraining from the attempt to clarify the expression, for, when definitions are provided, they are often vague or highly complex in nature. Actually, they tend to cloud further some already muddy water and really serve very little practical use. Unfortunately, despite years of academic debate and much intellectual borrowing from other disciplines, like management and psychology, not too much has emerged that would aid information practitioners in their information needs deliberations. Furthermore, people often talk about information needs when, in fact, they
are referring to wants or use. Indeed, as Elayyan (1988), Green (1990) or Hewins (1990) contend, many studies that claim to be studies of information need are really studies of information use. However, while it is true enough that wants or use are both manifestations of need – and, as such, undoubtedly should be considered, they are neither identical to need, nor fully or accurately describe it. Thus, in order to attain a correct and comprehensive picture, we should be evaluating the need people have for information, the wants and demands they express for it and the use they make of it. Needs analysis may very well be fraught with difficulties and complexities, but still, we cannot always employ use indicators, such as website ‘hits’, as proxies. Therefore, as part and parcel of any definition, information needs have to be distinguished from some closely associated, but distinct information concepts, like want, demand and use, which are frequently (and sometimes deliberately) confused with information needs – to the general detriment of information provision and system design. We will attempt to do so in this section, which follows much of Maurice Line’s original thinking, as set out in his 1974 article ‘Draft Definitions: Information and Library Needs, Wants, Demands and Uses’.
