Not nice to know

Discusses the difference between what is useful and what is merely interesting, in the sense of information that may be deemed relevant but is in fact inessential for some purposes, in the context of the transactions that take place between the information professional and the information user. It is noted that the tendency to give irrelevant responses to enquiries is one that is more likely to be the fault of information users than of information professionals. The usual reason for such responses is that enquirers have failed to ask the right questions or to specify the purpose of their enquiries properly. In order to avoid this situation, information providers should see themselves as producers or specialist distributors of their product, not general retailers. They need to understand the nature of information, not just where to get it from. Users are not necessarily competent to handle the information they are supplied with and they should be helped to do so. Someone has to make sure that a proper contract exists between enquirers and providers and assigns responsibilities to both parties. Some examples are given to illustrate the competence of the information professional viewed in terms of: the relative nature of information; drawing inferences from information; educating the users; and deciding what kind of information is suitable for the decision at hand and its background circumstances.