FOLIO: Facilitatated Online Learning as an Interactive Opportunity

Planning and Conducting Information Needs Analysis (PACINA)

Please note... 

The PACINA course ended on February 25th 2005. However, this website retains highly useful information and resources that may be of interest to you.

PACINA was the fifth of a series of 12 courses commissioned by the National electronic Library for Health (NeLH) as part of the FOLIO Programme.  

About PACINA... 

Welcome to the Planning and Conducting Information Needs Analysis (PACINA) web pages. The PACINA course began on the 17th of January 2005 and will end on the 25th of February 2005. To keep track of the course so far, see the PACINA archive. To see an outline of upcoming course materials and exercises, see the PACINA course timetable.

PACINA Course Materials...

Key materials:

• Portfolio forms for the course are available to download.
• Assessment criteria for the portfolio: http://www.nelh.nhs.uk/folio/criteria.doc
• PACINA Evaluation forms can be accessed at :http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/surveys.cgi?A=hp&LMGT1=FOLIO [Please do not complete this evaluation form until you are instructed to do so at the end of the module]

Course materials:

• An Introduction to Information Needs PACINA briefing
• Introducing the Information Audit PACINA briefing
• Concepts and Applications PACINA briefing
• Reading and Interpreting a Published Information Needs Analysis PACINA Interactive PowerPoint presentation
• Choosing Methodology PACINA briefing
• Conducting an Information Needs Analysis
• Analysing and Applying the Results of the Audit PACINA Briefing
• Course Summary

Guest Lecture

• The guest lecture took place on Friday the 11th of February at 10am and 3pm. You can download Liz Orna's guest lecture presentation, "Beyond needs analysis : using information audit findings to initiate change". To listen to a recording of this presentation, click here.

Course aim... 

This course aims to provide an introduction to designing an information needs analysis. After completing it, you should be able to embark on such a survey in your own work-place.

Course objectives... 

By the end of this course participants will be able to:

• Discuss the main theories and models pertinent to information needs analyses
• Anticipate some of the objections to running such a survey
• Employ suitable methods to overcome such objections
• Be able to choose and justify a suitable methodology for data collection for an information needs analysis
• Understand the principles of analysis and application of the results of an information needs analysis.

For more about the course see the introduction.

Information needs analysis references 

For more information about information needs analysis, see the following resources:

• Calvert, P Dorner D, Gorman G (2004)  Analysing What Your Users Need: A guide for librarians and information managers. 1-85604-484-X

• Fowler F (1995) Improving  Survey Questions: design and evaluation Thousand Oaks, California: Sage

• Hafner A (1998) Descriptive statistical Techniques for Librarians Chicago: American Library Association 2^nd ed

• Henczel S (2001)  The Information Audit : a practical guide München: K.G.Saur

• Howard  S, Presser S (1996) Questions and Answers in Attitude Surveys: experiments on question form, wording and context Thousand Oaks, California: Sage

• Powell R (1997) Basic Research Methods for Librarians  Greenwich, Connecticut: Ablex

• Westbrook L (2001) Identifying and analyzing user needs: a complete handbook and ready-to-use assessment workbook with disk New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers.