Information Management

NB do not confuse this with ICT (not that I would, when I read Information Manager I think Librarian¹⁾).

• Data: Discrete, objective facts about events. Data are transformed into information by adding value through context, categorisation, calculations, corrections and condensation. (pg.27 Hinton,2009)
• Information: Organised data, meaningful and contextually relevant. Used for decision making. (pg.27 Hinton,2009)
• Knowledge: The combination of data and information to which is added expert opinion, skills and experience to result in a valuable asset which can be used to make decisions. (pg.27 Hinton,2009)

Given the definition of information above, ‘information management’ can be defined: ‘The conscious process by which information is gathered and used to assist in decision making at all levels of an organisation’ (Kerslake and Moultrie, 1998, p.58).

• Proper information management is not automatic it comes as a result of conscious thought. This implies that it has to be planned, systematic and structured.
• Information management is for informing decision making. Information is collected only so that it can be used. The process should start by considering what decisions are required, and then collect information to inform them. However, professional expertise, intuition and discretion also feed into decisions, which need to cover more than just the information available.
• Information management should support decisions at all levels of an organisation, not just for the senior management and central planners. It should help everyone.
• Information management is independent of the medium that the information is created or stored on.

Information Management suggests that information is a resource, and it is but not in the same way as other resources (e.g. money). Information is multi-dimensional (e.g. formal or informal, structured, quantity v quality etc)

Information is harder to quantify as a resource, information has specific values for specific purposes, and not all of these can be divined in advance.

detailed revision notes b203_revision_notes_-_information_management.docx