DSM0220 - INFORMATION NEEDS ANALYSIS (HEALTH)

Module Identifier	DSM0220
Module Title	INFORMATION NEEDS ANALYSIS (HEALTH)
Academic Year	2002/2003
Co-ordinator	Mrs Christine J Urquhart
Semester	Available all semesters
Assessment	Semester Assessment	Report 2,000-2,500 words	50%
	Semester Assessment	Report 2,000-2,500 words	50%

Learning outcomes

At the end of this module you will be able to:

define and explain information needs and information behaviour;
identify the information needs of health service managers, clinical professions, and patients;
describe examples of information user studies;
consider how the organisation or situation affects information behaviour and describe a systems approach to management;
identify techniques for analyzing user needs and changing information systems.

Brief description

There is now a clearer realisation that analysis of information needs is the only route to improved information delivery and use. Despite this improved approach there are still many occasions when information handling is amended, adapted, uprated or otherwise changed without a prior study of who needs the information, why they need it, when and in what form. Even less common is a study of the information behaviour of the users of information. Information behaviour will encompass discovering how individuals express (or don't express) possible information needs, their use of information, what their preferred sources are, how they go about identifying and then locating those sources and the use to which they put the information they acquire. The situation in which information is used, and the roles of the information user may also be important to an understanding of their views of the importance of information and how information is valued.
In the module you will first study some examples of user groups before considering in more detail research on information seeking behaviour and the systems perspective on information requirements analysis. By the time you reach the later Units you should be ready to critically appraise studies of user groups.

Reading Lists

Books
** Essential Reading
Avgerou, C and Cornford, T. (1998) Developing information systems: concepts, issues and practice. 2nd. Basingstoke: Macmillan
Avison and Shah. (1997) The information systems development life cycle. Maidenhead, Berks: McGraw Hill