Content User Profile: Update on Corporate Information Users’ Habits, Preferences and Needs

This Briefing analyzes the latest data from Outsell's Normative Database, our unique database of the information habits, preferences, and needs of over 30,000 knowledge workers. The database is kept current through ongoing needs assessment studies. This latest update shows that users have a new independence with regard to information tasks as they have more and more available to them. That independence includes changing expectations about what kind of support they will receive in gathering and analyzing information. Two prominent trends are greater recognition by users of the importance of a central function to provide desktop information sources, and an increase in users' expected need for training and advice on locating, evaluating, and using sources. The Briefing analyzes several information needs and practices over time, including time spent on information tasks, top information types used by industry, format preferences, independent spending levels, and perceptions about the Internet. It includes analysis of trends in the use of the corporate library function. For content deployment professionals, this Briefing reinforces the need to understand groups of users through needs analysis and market research. For commercial content vendors, it outlines strategies for picking up revenue from independent purchases and providing training to support users and build loyalty.