Information products - whether printed or electronic - are the essential vehicles of knowledge without which communication and commerce cannot take place. Organizations depend on them for successful internal and external interaction, but their potential for increasing business value has been largely ignored.
This book is the first to define and explain information products and their management as the missing link between knowledge and information strategy on the one hand and design and presentation on the other. It sets out what information products are and how they can add value if part of overall strategy; shows how to audit what they should be doing and what they actually are doing for the company; and presents a change programme for a better management approach which enables the company to get full value from them.
The book is written for senior managers responsible for information and knowledge management, corporate communications and IT, and for information professionals, web developers and information designers. Like Elizabeth Orna's book Practical Information Polices, it is destined to become the passport to clearer thinking on a usually woolly and neglected area of management. It is also an important text for information management, business, IT and web design students.
Contents: Foreword. Part 1 Basic Ideas: Before we begin; No business without information products. Part 2 Information Products in the Organisational Context: Introduction - The context of information products; The business of the organisation; The value that IPs add (and subtract); The stakeholders and their interests. Part 3 In Support of IPs; Introduction; Knowledge and information management in support of IPs; Infrastructure for IPs: information systems, technology tools; Information design, reconciler of conflicting constraints. Part 4 Action for IP Value - a Practical Process: Introduction; An information auditing approach; Making a start; Auditing information products; Into action for value from IPs; Index.
About the Author: Elizabeth Orna is the author of Practical Information Polices, Second Edition and Information Management in Museums, both published by Gower. Described in a Library Association Record review as 'too good to be a guru', she is a an information consultant and writer well known for her extraordinary insight and lucidity. She lectures internationally on information management and information presentation.
Reviews: 'This book is aimed at information and systems analysts and managers, web designers, communication specialists, plus teachers and students of business management. I think librarians, project managers, and business consultants would also have a lot to learn from what she has to say.' Mantex, August 2005
'I would recommend this book. Indeed, i'm looking forward to exploring in greater depth some of the points raised within its pages with my IT colleagues...it would also be of great use to information workers in small companies, whose practices aren't quite in line with how things should be. Buy it!' Free Pint, March 2006
'I always like books authored by Elizabeth Orna...I have no doubt that this book has already attracted and will attract the attention of a wide public interested in information and knowledge organizations'.'Information Research
'This is such a "neat" book in many ways that i found myself picking it up again and again just to flip through and read paragraphs almost randomly. There was always somethig worth reading whatever the page...I recommend it to anyone involved with KM, with document production in an organization, web content managers, and IS and LIM academics.' Online Information Review
'It is good value for money - an excellent addition to anyone's library.' Library Management
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Full contents list
Chapter 2 - No business without information products
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