Information Needs
Information need is an individual or group's desire to locate and obtain information to satisfy a conscious or unconscious need. The ‘information’ and ‘need’ in ‘information need’ are an inseparable interconnection. Needs and interests call forth information. The objectives of studying information needs are:
- The explanation of observed phenomena of information use or expressed need;
- The prediction of instances of information uses;
- The control and thereby improvement of the utilization of information manipulation of essentials conditions.
Information needs are related to, but distinct from information requirements. An example is that a need is hunger; the requirement is food.
Read more about Information Needs: Background
Famous quotes containing the word information:
“So while it is true that children are exposed to more information and a greater variety of experiences than were children of the past, it does not follow that they automatically become more sophisticated. We always know much more than we understand, and with the torrent of information to which young people are exposed, the gap between knowing and understanding, between experience and learning, has become even greater than it was in the past.”
—David Elkind (20th century)