Studying the public's information needs

Abstract

The study of the public's information needs can be brokerr down into three main areas: the availability of information to the public, the public's awareness of their rights to it, and provision to the public of information that is available. This article concentrates on ways of looking at the effectiveness of provision and of trying to assess information needs in a com munity. It describes research done in Sheffield and elsewhere which has attempted to quantify problems and needs, it questions the usefulness of this, and then discusses possible ways of studying them in greater depth.