ABSTRACT
Though it is only within the last decade or so that information auditing has started to become popular with organizations, and to be the subject of articles and courses, it is far from being a new invention. I first made an ‘information audit’ – though it was not called that – more than 20 years ago, and reference to the term dates back to at least 1982. A paper of that date by Taylor describes ‘an audit of the formal information activities and their effect on the organisation’ looking at how well they help people to do their jobs. Taylor also says that it is essential to understand what the organization does, its history, the place it occupies in its industry, and its market share; to know about its customers, its clients, and its ‘public’; and to be aware of organizational ‘dynamics’ and ‘culture’ and how they influence the flow of information. And he says that eventually the audit should ‘become an ongoing analysis of the benefits and costs of each major activity’. In short, he presents a very far-sighted view of information auditing, which is well ahead of some current rather simplistic approaches to the topic.
