Costs and Benefits of Library Information : The User Point of View
Yale M. Braunstein · Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) · 1979
ITIS IMPORTANT to recognize the conceptual difference between the value of information itself and the value of the medium by which the information is obtained.This distinction is useful for two reasons: first, the value of information is often nebulous or difficult to ascertain, or both; and, second, by making it explicit that one is comparing information channels one can often avoid these more difficult problems.This is not to say that it is unimportant to understand why information has value; however, once the decision has been made to seek or acquire information, it is possible to determine independently which channel or channels to use in the process.For the decision-maker, information has value because it may enable a better decision to be made.lThis is true both for the manager seeking information about potential markets, competitors, etc., and for the consumer planning a major purchase.On the other hand, some information is valued as a final product, a commodity to be consumed.Examples here might include best sellers, biographies, and so on.Certain types of information fall in both categories; for example, art history might be valued for consumption by some and others might use the information to increase their understanding of the market in the paintings of old masters.