ABSTRACT
R. Yin discusses traditional prejudices against the research method, and he points out that the “biased views of the investigator may influence the direction of findings and conclusions”. According to Yin, “In general, case studies are the preferred strategy when ‘how’ or ‘why’ questions are being posed, when the investigator has little control over events, and when the focus is on a contemporary phenomenon within some real-life context”. Each information broker was sent a questionnaire to collect the desired data to determine the list of brokers to approach for the interview which would be used to write the case studies. T. Galvin advocates the use of case studies in education for librarianship. He notes that “the descriptive case study is employed in many disciplines as a tool of inductive investigation”. The percentage of returns was surprisingly high considering the general perception of information brokers is that they are often reluctant to share information about themselves.
