21 Role of various specialists in Design and Development of Information Products

Renu Arora

I. Objectives

The Objective of this module is:

• To understand the role of information specialists in design and development of information products and to identify the various specialist groups involved in preparation of these products

II. Learning Outcome

After reading this Module, you will be able to:

• Know the essential features of information analysis and consolidation;

• Understand that information consolidation is a process of higher complexity than indexing and abstracting;

• Get acquainted with the role of information specialists in design and development of information consolidation products;

• Identify the various specialist groups involved in preparation of information products; and

• Categorise the users of information products.

III. Module Structure

1. Introduction

2. Information Consolidation

2.1 Purpose of Information Consolidation

2.2 Objectives of Information Consolidation

2.3 Need for Information Consolidation

2.4 Process of Information Consolidation

3. Information Consolidation Products

4. Specialist Groups in Preparation of Information Consolidation Products

4.1 End Users

4.1.1 Researchers and Scientists

4.1.2 Policy makers and Planners

4.1.3 Communicators and Intermediaries

4.1.4 Community Groups

4.2 Intermediaries

4.3 Communication and Information Presentation Specialists

4.4 Subject Specialists and Peer Groups

4.5 Library and Information Science Personnel

4.6 IT Experts

4.7 Authors

4.8 Production and Publishing Group

5. Summary

6. References

1. Introduction

An information specialist works in almost every department in an information organization. His/her role is to determine or research the need for new information products required by users. The specialist may also work to enhance the existing products of the information organization or develop new ones. For this, the information specialist has to know the information requirements of the users of the information organisation in order to provide support for the development of the new product.

Information, especially scientific, technical, economic, medical and other related information is a vital resource required by users for various activities. This is in addition to the other resources of the organisation. Information has great potential value indecision making, problem solving and in the conduct of work and life. The importance of information for development has always been stressed by international organizations, various surveys and studies, and by national bodies and plans throughout the world. Although lack of information and lack of resources for building and upkeep of information infrastructure are still a major challenge. However, in a great many instances, even when these two minimum conditions are met, the utilization of information has by no means reached its potential. The problem is lack of appropriate information. By appropriate information, it means, the right information in right amounts in right format at a right time and at a right comprehension level for a given group of users. In other words, available and accessible information is often unused as it is not presented in a content and form that are appropriate for a given group or level of users. Consolidation of information is thus suggested as a solution for problems caused by lack of appropriate information. Therefore, consolidated information is particularly geared towards increasing utilization of information by various user groups in developing countries.

In this Module, you willlearn the importance of consolidated information, need for information analysis and consolidation products and the specialist groups involved in preparation of these products. The various specialist groups include end users, intermediaries, communication and information presentation specialists, subject specialists and peer groups, library and information science personnel, authors and production and publishing group.

2. Information Consolidation

Information is a driving force in contemporary society. Modern libraries and information organisations exist to serve as many users as possible by disseminating information, preserving culture and contributing to their social and intellectual life. Technological advancement has posed challenges which call for changes in library services and products. The modern information professionals are shifting their focus from information providers to information consumers. The consumers’ needs are satisfied by information products that are prepared after selecting appropriate materials, analysis, processing, reprocessing and packaging the information contained in the materials. This procedure is referred as information analysis and consolidation.

Providing consolidated information is a task which in itself requires considerable skills, efforts and resources. These efforts and resources are needed to establish and maintain information units, to ensure the essential cooperation between subject specialists and information specialists and to educate and train professionals to be skilful in creating information consolidation products and in provision of associated services. Information consolidation is not in competition with traditional forms of intellectual organization of information which involves classifying, cataloguing, indexing, abstracting, coding, etc. On the contrary, it can only be achieved by using the standard secondary information services and in cooperation with traditional library services.

Consolidated information is public knowledge specifically selected, analysed, evaluated, and possibly restructured and repackaged for the purpose of serving some of the immediate decisions, problems and information needs of a defined user or social group, who otherwise may not be able to effectively and efficiently access and use this knowledge as available in the great amounts of documents or in its original form. The criteria for selection, evaluation, restructuring, and repackaging of this knowledge are derived from the potential users. Essential features of information consolidation are – user orientation and cooperation between subject specialists and information specialists. Information consolidation is thus the process of evaluating and modifying information from relevant sources in order to provide defined user groups with new information products and services that meet their information needs.

2.1 Purpose of Information Consolidation

The chief purposes of information consolidation are:

• To meet the information needs of a target group based on:

• A knowledge of their needs, and

• Knowledge of the criteria that the target group uses to evaluate information.

• To overcome problems of:

• Information overload,

• Inappropriate levels of information,

• Inappropriate context of information,

• Inappropriate form, and

• Untrustworthy information.

2.2 Objectives of Information Consolidation

The basic objectives of information consolidation are:

• To increase the effectiveness of information transfer to the users,

• To encourage more intensive information use in a wide array of developmental activities, and

• To widen the circle of the population of potential users particularly by fulfilling specific information needs for evaluated and synthesized information.

As mentioned above, information consolidation is a process of higher complexity than indexing and abstracting and is justified for its contribution to the processes of social and economic development. Its benefits are amajor contribution to problem solving and decision making. Consolidated information aims at being more appropriate to the users, their needs, level, the capacities and time allotments given to information absorption and similar user- related factors. The consolidated information has great value in decision making and problem solving as for taking decisions and solving problems, usable information is required.

2.3 Need for Information Consolidation

The reasons why we require consolidated information are:

a. As complexity of decisions or problems increases, the need for information intensifies.

b. As the amount of available information proliferates, it becomes harder to get and use relevant information.

c. As interdisciplinary nature, technical sophistication and complexity of available information increases, only pin-pointed or specific amount of synthesised information can be used by decision makers and problem solvers and not as presented in its original form.

All these points to the need for consolidated information and the value of consolidated information changes with the type and amount of information. Evaluated information further increases the value of information for it effective use. In other words,

a. As the amount of information presented to the decision maker is increasingly consolidated, its value increases.

b. As the information is increasingly expressed in the everyday language and the social/cultural framework of the user, its value increases for that user.

c. As the information is increasingly packaged in a way that will make its user easier, its value increases.

The role of information consolidation thus has to be as appropriate to the users as possible. The value and benefits of consolidated information are visible to the user in the form of various information analysis and consolidation products.

2.4 Process of Information Consolidation

The information consolidation process is carried out in the following eight steps.

• Study of potential users

• Selection of information sources

• Evaluation of information

• Analysis

• Restructuring

• Packaging and/or repackaging

• Diffusion or dissemination

• Feedback

3. Information Consolidation Products

The identification of information needs of users is meaningless unless it is followed by the preparation and production of suitable or appropriate information consolidation products. Information consolidation products are defined as products emanating from information analysis and consolidation process which involves the performance of various activities like selecting, packaging, repackaging, etc. Some of the examples of information consolidation products are state-of-the-art reports, reviews, critical reviews, trend analysis, feasibility/status reports, manuals, handbooks, monographs, product/process profiles, data compilations, etc.

While preparing the information consolidation products, the following aspects should be kept in mind:

i. A suitable information consolidation product is the result of coordinated and integrated efforts of various groups of specialists.

ii. The users of the information consolidation products may not be the end users, that is, beneficiaries of the information contained in the product, but may be intermediaries whose role is to cull out the pertinent information from the product and present it to the beneficiaries in a convenient form.

iii. Information consolidation products may be by-products of the work done or services provided for production or activities performed for producing other information products and services.

iv. Information consolidation products are to be oriented to the different user groups if they have to be familiar and useful.

v. In the preparation of information consolidation products, the user of the product concerned should be kept in mind and not the end user or beneficiary.

vi. Information consolidation products are usually not either totally textual or totally non- textual and, therefore, these are usually a combination of the two. Here presentation of information in a product should be based on an optimal mixture of text, tables, illustrations, etc.

4. Specialist Groups in Preparation of Information Consolidation Products

A powerful way of managing information products is to involve as many personnel as possible in the organization in the gathering of information, effectively creating an organization wide information collection network. People, not printed sources or electronic databases, will always be the most valuable information resources in any organization. Professionals read widely, communicate frequently with users, competitors, work on a variety of projects and accumulate specialized knowledge and experience. Thus the information specialists involved in preparation of information consolidation products should have tremendous knowledge and skills. These involve – establishing the need of the product, passing through several steps and finally presenting the end product to the concerned user or user groups. The various steps involve collection, appraisal, evaluation of information, scope determination, arrangement of ideas and then preparation of the draft text before finalizing the end product. As mentioned above, each process in the preparation of the information products requires tremendous knowledge and skills by those involved in preparing them. This necessitates involvement of a variety of specialist groups who play a vital role in the preparation and production of information consolidation products.

The common functions of information specialists are:

• identification of information needs of users

• information search design

• retrieval of information

• evaluation of information

• synthesis of information

• packaging of information

• repackaging of existing information products

• dissemination of information

• design and provision of information services and products Some of the specialized groups which have been identified are:

a. Beneficiaries (End Users) – Planners, managers, policy makers, researchers, etc.

b. Intermediaries – extension workers, teachers, mass media personnel, etc.

c. Communication and Information Presentation Specialists – editorial specialists, graphical arts specialists, communication personnel, specialists in providing audio- visual aids, translators, etc.

d. Peer Groups – Consultants for appropriate data, consultants from related subject areas, consultants on special points

e. Library and Information Science Personnel

f. IT Experts

g. Authors –generators of the product

h. Production and Publishing Group –Technical editors, Printing specialists, reprographic specialists, presentation production/preparation specialists, desk top publishing personnel and publishers, etc.

Let us study some details of the specialist groups involved in preparation of the information products.

4.1 End Users

In preparation of information consolidation products, users play the most crucial role as the information consolidation is an attempt to make available and accessible to users the information that is appropriate for the tasks at hand and structured and packaged to coincide with the level of the user, language and available time. Actually information consolidation is an intellectual post processing of the available primary and secondary information to make it accessible to users, who otherwise would not be able to access this information. The users of information consolidation products may be classified into the following four groups:

• Researchers and scientists

• Policy makers and planners

• Communicators and intermediaries

• Community groups

4.1.1 Researchers and Scientists

Scientists, researchers, engineers, etc. are some of the users of scientific and technological information and they are usually engaged in teaching and research activities in an academic setting or in an industrial establishment. They require consolidated information to stimulate thought, action and interaction with other people’s ideas, knowledge, experience and achievements. They also have to promote continuous awareness of what others are doing so that individual may know of developments in their own field and wider fields in a subject/disciple or a technology. This category of users is also provided consolidated information in the form of specific information and data for meeting specific work requirements.

4.1.2 Policy Makers and Planners

In the non- R & D contexts, the user groups include planners, policy makers, decision-makers, managers, executives, industrialists, workers, small entrepreneurs, etc. For this category of user groups, problem-solving and decision-making are two major aspects where information is needed. Problem solving involves seeking answers to questions related to various areas, and on the other hand, decision making is the cutting off of further consideration of the problem the elimination of all alternatives but one and is essentially a commitment to action. Information thus has to be gathered and consolidated to meet the user requirements.

4.1.3 Communicators and Intermediaries

Those communicating information or the intermediaries act as the functionaries for establishing the liaison between the generator and the actual end users of information and this group usually includes teachers, mass media personnel, etc. The chief objective of this user group is to help other people to be capable of being independent by changing their knowledge, skills and attitudes. Therefore, this group needs detailed information concerning a technology, practical approach to problem solving and spreading the knowledge among actual beneficiaries. The analytical information thus helps them to acquire the appropriate information so as to enable them to disseminate to concerned persons at a proper time.

4.1.4 Community Groups

In developing nations, very little attention is paid to the information needs of rural folks who are usually semi-literate or illiterate. For them information consolidation in a very unusually format is required as they usually cannot decipher printed matter. Therefore, specialists have to pay special attention to prepare and deliver information, especially the scientific and technical information, to this category of users in a form easily understood.

4.2 Intermediaries

Information intermediaries are information experts who work between the information users/ seekers and the information resources or information providers. This is for helping the user to access the required information. In other words, their activities are concerned with bringing a match between the information seekers and the information itself. Thus, we can say that intermediaries are actually middlemen who try to bring the producers and consumers of information together. Intermediary as a middleman in the information world encompasses not only search intermediaries but also information officers, reference librarians and information managers. The intermediaries neither create any information nor produce any information. They usually have effective communication skills, sharp mental capabilities and capability of quick online searching. Their main aim is to satisfy the requirements of both producers and consumers of information and knowledge through their knowledge of the different information products or consolidation products available and the knowledge of the specific requirements of the users requiring that knowledge.

Intermediaries are an important specialist group involved in production and distribution of information consolidation products as they are knowledgeable about sources of information, know how to use these sources for extracting information, knowledgeable about the technical aspects of information transfer, subject under consideration, and lastly they have awareness of the users’ characteristics and the environment under which the users operate. The functions of intermediaries in this context include:

• searching of data and information

• analysis of data and information

• dissemination of information in required format

• conducting research of user needs and to find solutions to the problems of the users

• spreading the information through a variety of media.

From the above, we can conclude that information intermediaries are basically the professionals who are dependent upon producers and consumers and their activities are merely centred around bringing them together.

4.3 Communication and Information Presentation Specialists

Information repackaging is an effort to effectively communicate information to target users. This usually involves a series of complex and complicated activities such as selecting, analysing, restructuring and presenting the information in a convenient form. Basically, information must be interpreted and converted into a form that the user can understand and assimilate and repackaging supports this activity. It is essentially a multidisciplinary team effort involving subject experts, information professionals and specialists in reformatting and synthesizing raw information. The present technology of integrated text, graphics, and media facilitates this kind of repackaging. Thus the information communication and information presentation specialists contribute substantially to the effectiveness of information repackaging.

The communication and information presentation experts provide consultancy in the choice of appropriate methods and procedures to be adopted in the presentation of information for securing the maximum impact of the product on the user groups. They also help in the development of supplemental aids – the audio-visual components, tables, figures, illustrations, etc. Also provided is the editorial help by this category of professionals.

Translating the information contained in a text into a visual representation is a professional job to be done by a visual communication professional. This professional is also directly responsible for the entire design of the information which has been repackaged and its effectiveness. Here the library and information professional of the project team assigned with the responsibility for preparing the information product provides the communication professional the draft of the product under preparation and also help in analysis. Coordination of both categories of professionals usually is required for preparing a well presented information analysis and consolidation product.

4.4 Subject Specialists and Peer Groups

The common functions not usually performed by the information specialists are:

• evaluating the worth of information from a subject perspective, and

• restructuring and repackaging information from a subject perspective

To overcome this drawback, assistance of subject specialists and peer groups is taken in the process of preparation of information product. They provide consultancy with regard to accuracy and relevance of information for a product. They also help in draft text preparation as well as in clarifying technical writer’s doubts with regard to concepts belonging to fields in which he is not familiar. They also provide expertise and material for preparation of supplemental aids to the information product.

Role of subject specialists is very important in preparation of some of information products like the state-of-the-art reports, reviews, trend reports, etc. as these require information about the specific subject being covered. Besides this, while analysing the subject content, the role of the subject specialist is vital as it helps in retaining the required and relevant concepts under consideration.

4.5 Library and Information Science Personnel

Library personnel are those personnel who are involved in the process of acquisition, processing, organizing and maintaining documents in a library and providing various types of information services based on these documents. On the other hand, information personnel are those personnel who gather record, process, organize, preserve, disseminate and generate information, and provide various services based on, or related to information. Library and information professionals play various roles that include that of information generators, information gatherers, information processors, information recorders, information disseminators, information retrievers and information preservers.

Library and information professionals provide assistance with regard to bibliographic and other standards for presentation of information. They bring to notice of the technical writer, the various principles developed for the arrangement of ideas, principle of unity of ideas, principles for sequence of ideas, guiding principles for verbal plane, etc. in the particular subject field. They also help in the preparation of the supplemental aids to the information products.

Library and information science personnel through directories and other documents help to identify representations of other specialist groups in addition to performing their own roles. In some case, they also prepare information consolidation products in consultation with subject specialists.

4.6 IT Experts

IT experts are the most prominent group in today’s technology-dominated environment. All the areas like academics, businesses, consultants, etc. continue to benefit from the applications of information technology. IT experts have indeed become proficient at enabling computer-based information systems that increase operational efficiency and task productivity. Also these systems are so remarkable for their speed and throughput that these are equally well known for their ability to satisfy the information needs of the decision makers. By representing and manipulating information at the elementary level, many systems do provide more holistic information about processes, subject areas, or even documents. Thus, an information system that processes vast numbers of transactions per minute may be able to answer key questions like how long does the company take to develop new products, what are the current user requirements, and what is the turnaround time for a user request for information. Computer-based information systems concentrate on formal, structured, internal data, leaving out the informal, unstructured, external information that most decision makers require. Their operating criterion is efficiency over flexibility, and they are designed to optimize resource utilization rather than to simplify knowledge discovery or problem solving.

IT experts need to move the user to the center of their focus — develop a behaviour-based, process-oriented understanding of the information user in terms of their needs and information use dispositions. Professionals in organizations are not content with structured information/data; they also want information technology to simplify the use of the informal, unstructured information that forms the bulk of the organization’s information resources. They also want information products that have external data, information to help them understand how the external environment is changing, what other organizations are doing, and how the organization is doing vis-a-vis its peers. In other words, users want products that have a seamless web of formal and informal data, internal and external data, represented in structures and models that are meaningful to them for cultivating insight and developing choices.

4.7 Authors

Authorship is usually restricted to those who contributed substantially not only to the investigation, providing original data and interpretation of that data, but also to the content of the information product. Authorship is also normally assigned to the person who was responsible for the most substantive interpretations of the information product and had the principal role in preparing the information product. Authors are mostly listed in a sequence reflecting their role in the preparation of the information product. Some information products require involvement of several authors. In such instances, group members may well change the order of co-authorship from one information product to another, thereby reflecting the relative importance of each member’s contribution to the specific aspect of the product being reported in each individual information product. In the case of lengthy reports, authorship of individual sections may be separately designated to recognize the specialized contributions of one or more investigators. Usually, individuals with only administrative or supervisory responsibilities for the preparation of the information products or those who, as members of the group carrying out the investigation, perform valuable but relatively routine technical assistance should not be included as authors.

The output of an author’s mind can be seen in a variety of forms like books, journal articles, drawings, etc. An author gathers information from various sources, knits them together, adds something from his/her own thinking, experimentation or may be from experience and brings out a book, article or a piece of writing or a document. The new information content of the document may vary widely. The information analysis and consolidation products are usually based on documents already prepared and published by various authors. Some authors are also involved in preparing information analysis and consolidation products by gathering information from several documents collected from various information sources.

Author plays a vital role in finishing the final product as the author helps in finalizing the text of the information consolidation product by incorporating the changes suggested during the feedback. These changes may be addition or omission of information, changes in the sequence of ideas presented, change in the form of presentation, etc. In addition, the author in cooperation with the library and information science personnel helps in providing supplementary aids to the information analysis and consolidation product for the benefit of the user groups.

4.8 Production and Publishing Group

On the basis of received feedback, the information professionals may finalize the text of the information product by incorporating the changes suggested by various professionals, intermediaries and user groups. These changes may be additions or omissions of information, changes in the sequence of ideas presented, change in the form of presentation that is use of tables, diagrams, graphs to replace the text, etc. Once the text is finalized by the author, it is a good practice to subject the text to editorial scrutiny; editing proper consists of the function of elimination of errors art from maintaining consistency and uniformity in style and presentation.

While preparing the information products, technical communication jobs include role of the following professionals:

• Technical Communicators

• Technical writers

• Technical editors

• User interface designer

• Technical Illustrators

• Technical trainers

After the editorial work is completed, the manuscript should be handed over to production specialists consisting of the printing specialists, reprographic specialists, specialists in the preparation of audio-visual components, etc. for production of the printed copies. By the joint and integrated effort of the different groups of production specialists, the information product is printed and published and thus reaches the market place. In this process, the production groups plays a role in that the information product is finalised by passing through the manuscript stage through to the printing and publishing process.

5. Summary

Information consolidation activities are complex and need efficient and effective information personnel. In developing countries, information consolidation centres with necessary and sufficient infrastructural facilities can prepare and produce information consolidation products oriented to the needs of the users in a most economical way. Information consolidation products are to oriented to the different user groups if they have to be familiar and useful. In the preparation of information consolidation products, the user of the product concerned should be kept in mind and not the end user or beneficiary. Proper communication and format has a direct application in information repackaging as it leads to the effectiveness of information consolidation product being prepared.

Depending on the requirements, consultation with the appropriate specialist groups is necessary at the different stages while the information consolidation product is being prepared. Clear distinction of the specialist groups tends to become obscure in some situations as one and the same individual may belong to more than one group. In other words, identification of personnel as belonging to distinct group becomes difficult, if not impossible.

6. References

Dongardive, Prakash. “Information Repackaging in Library Services.” International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR) 2, no. 11(2013): 204-209.
Kawatra, P S. Textbook of Information Science. New Delhi: APH Publishing Corp, 2000.
Saracevic, Tefko. “Processes and Problems in Information Consolidation.” Information Processing & Management 22, no. 1(1986): 45-60.
Saracevic, T. and Woods, J. B. Consolidation of Information: A Handbook on Evaluation, Restructuring, and Repackaging of Scientific and Technical Information. Paris: UNESCO. 1981.
Seetharama, S. Information Consolidation and Repackaging. New Delhi: Ess Ess Publications, 1996.