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Part 2: How Do THEY Use Information? Investigating the user information process [ABSTRACT]
Monday, 5th July 2010

By Scott Brown

Abstract:

Using two corporate users as case studies, Scott Brown sheds light on the black hole into which the hard work of information professionals often seems to fall, and answers the external, and perplexing, question: ‘what do users DO with the information we give them?

Article:

Using two corporate users as case studies, Scott Brown sheds light on the black hole into which the hard work of information professionals often seems to fall, and answers the external, and perplexing, question: ‘what do users DO with the information we give them?

What's inside

Customers, clients and users seem mysterious. They come to us for research, they use our resources but then, what do they DO with the research or the information? Many times, we complete the research request, our users search our databases, and we never have any visibility on how the information was used, or even if it was useful. It goes into a black hole.

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By Scott Brown

Scott Brown is the content development editor for FreePint, responsible for working with the customer advisory board, authors and staff to identify areas of interest for articles, reports and webinars and develop those resources. He is also the owner of Social Information Group (http://www.socialinformationgroup.com), an independent information practice that focuses on the effective use of social networking tools for sharing and finding information. His forthcoming book, "Social Information: Gaining Competitive and Business Information Using Social Media Tools" will be published in late 2012. He has worked with libraries, Fortune 500 companies, startups, government organisations and individuals to help them understand and effectively use these tools for their clients, and to drive increased visibility and return on information resources. He has over 20 years of experience in library and information organisations, in public, academic and corporate settings. Scott is a regular speaker nationally on many areas of information work. He is also a professional coach.

You can reach him at scott.brown@freepint.com, connect with him on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/in/scottrbrown, or follow him on Twitter at @socialinfo.

More articles by Scott Brown »