New book analyses the characteristics of information seeking behaviour
Facet launches Digital Consumers: Reshaping the information professions
Facet Publishing held an invitation-only launch party at CILIP’s London offices on Wednesday 10 September to celebrate the publication of Digital Consumers, edited by Professor David Nicholas and Dr Ian Rowlands.
Digital Consumers comes to the radical conclusion that the information professions including librarianship, archives, publishing and journalism are facing the danger of becoming increasingly disconnected from their users.
Based on intensive research by the UCL’s CIBER Group, Digital Consumers states that core information professions, have been rocked by the digital transition that has led to disintermediation, easy access and massive information choice. Professional skills are increasingly being performed without the necessary context, rationale and understanding.
Information now forms a consumer commodity with many diverse information producers engaged in the market. It is generally the lack of recognition of this fact amongst the information professions that explains the difficulties in which they find themselves.
The book states there is a need for a new belief system to help information professionals survive and engage in a ubiquitous information environment, where they are no longer the dominant players, nor, indeed, suppliers of first choice. The purpose of this thought-provoking book is to provide that overarching vision, built on hard evidence rather than PowerPoint ‘puff’.
The authors of the acclaimed CIBER Google Generation study, and an international, cross-sectoral team of contributors has assembled together for this purpose. Key strategic areas covered include:
• the digital consumer: an introduction and philosophy
• the digital information marketplace and its economics: the end of exclusivity
• the e-shopper: the growth of the informed purchaser
• the library in the digital age
• the psychology of the digital information consumer
• the information-seeking behaviour of the digital consumer: case study – the virtual scholar
• the Google generation: myths and realities about young people’s digital information behaviour
• trends in digital information consumption and the future
• where do we go from here?
No information professional or student can afford not to read this far-reaching and important book.
Visit the Digital Consumers page on our website for more information including a sample chapter of the book and photos from the launch.
New Digital Consumers Executive Briefing
Complementing the book is a new Executive Briefing organised by CILIP, also titled Digital Consumers, which will be presented in London on 27 November. At it, the book’s editors Professor David Nicholas and Dr Ian Rowlands, will present its key findings and discuss them with delegates. In addition, expert speakers from across the academic community will make presentations and engage Open Forum discussions, adding extra value to the book’s findings and conclusions.
Together the book and the Briefing offer a unique insight into the many challenges presented by the digital revolution. Their aim is to fill significant gap in professional knowledge and to demonstrate how an insularity, which is plainly an obstacle to professional development, can be overcome.
Both the book and Briefing explore strategic issues well beyond discipline boundaries and functions as a professional wake up call. Copies of Digital Consumers can be purchased online via Facet Publishing’s website at http://www.facetpublishing.co.uk/ while details of the Executive Briefing, including the programme, speakers, and online booking are available at www.cilip.org.uk/digitalconsumer. Early booking is strongly advised as places are booking fast and are strictly limited.
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Press contact:
Lena Stuart, Marketing Manager, Facet Publishing
Tel: 020 7255 0597
Email: lena.stuart@facetpublishing.co.uk
Notes to editors:
1. Professor David Nicholas MPhil PhD is Director of the School of Library, Archive and Information Studies, University College London, where he is also Director of the UCL Centre for Publishing and a director of the CIBER research group. He is a member of the British Library Research Board and Editor of Aslib Proceedings.
2. Dr Ian Rowlands BSc MSc PhD is Reader in Publishing at the School of Library, Archive and Information Studies, University College London, where he is also an active member of the UCL Centre for Publishing and of the CIBER research group. He recently led the Google Generation project for The British Library and JISC.
3. Book Contributors
Tom Dobrowolski, Maggie Fieldhouse, Barrie Gunter, Paul Huntington, Hamid R. Jamali, Michael Moss, Chris Russell, Peter Williams, Richard Withey.
4. All titles are available at 20% discount to Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals members. Remember to quote your Membership Number if claiming the discount.
5. Available from Bookpoint Ltd, Mail Order Dept, 39 Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4TD | Tel: +44 (0)1235 827702 | Fax: +44 (0)1235 827703 | Email: facet@bookpoint.co.uk
Further information - email: david.nicholas@ucl.ac.uk
6. CILIP: the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals is the leading professional body for librarians, information specialists and knowledge managers. It forms a community of around 36,000 people engaged in library and information work, of whom around 21,000 are CILIP members and around 15,000 are regular customers of CILIP Enterprises. Visit www.cilip.org.uk for more information about CILIP.
Updated: 19 December 2008