City Research Online

Abstract

This research looks at how organisations manage that area of their activities whose function is to give essential information to their inner and outside worlds, in the form o f information products’ - print on paper or electronic - through which information is presented for use. It sets information products in a context in which they have not commonly been considered: the organisations which create them; and it seeks to illuminate them with relevant research and practice from the disciplines of information science and information design.

The research was conducted by means of case studies over a five-year period in ten organisations - three for whom information products constituted the main ‘offering’ and seven where they supported other products. In the early stages it appeared that little had changed since the 1970s, when the author worked in this field. At that time, few organisations had an overall policy for their whole range of information products, related to their key strategic objectives; few made any serious attempt to assess the costs to themselves and their customers, clients or public of badly presented information products, or sought to assess the value of the products in relation to their objectives; and few employed appropriately trained staff to manage this aspect of their activities.

Over the period of the study, however, the practice of all the organisations in these respects advanced in various ways. The experience of developing web sites and intranets brought about a particularly noticeable change in the approach of some organisations to their information products and their place in a strategy for information.

A pilot extension of one case study into a second stage involved the application of a methodology for assessing the value of intangibles. It provided some useful indications of the value of information products in supporting a main product with which they were associated, and of the value contributed by information and knowledge to the main product.

The account of the research concludes with a theory of information products modified in the light of findings from practice, and with proposals for helping organisations deal with the issues of managing information products as part of their overall management of information.

Publication Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Subjects:	Z Bibliography. Library Science. Information Resources > Z665 Library Science. Information Science
Departments:	School of Communication & Creativity > Media, Culture & Creative Industries > Library & Information Science School of Communication & Creativity > School of Communication & Creativity Doctoral Theses Doctoral Theses

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