Jinfo research highlights changes in the current awareness world
Jinfo Blog

By Robin Neidorf

Abstract

Jinfo's recent "Survey on current awareness" found around half of respondents have completed needs assessments on content, distribution or management of sources for current awareness within the past two years. Robin Neidorf picks out some of the survey highlights.

Item

Results of Jinfo's "Survey on current awareness", part of the Research Focus "Content and technology for current awareness", found:

• Around half of respondents have completed needs assessments on content, distribution or management of sources for current awareness within the past two years

• Just under one-quarter have changed their main supplier of paid-for content

• A quarter have changed their main supplier of technology

• Slightly more than a quarter have reduced their budget for current awareness, while slightly less than a quarter have actually increased their budget for current awareness.

Figure 1: Actions taken around current awareness over the last two years

Satisfaction with current awareness solutions

We asked respondents to rate their satisfaction with different elements of their current awareness approach and solutions, each of which could be rated from 1 (not satisfied) to 4 (very satisfied).

The results were middle of the road and certainly reflect the comments we hear frequently from information managers regarding their concerns about current awareness: they're not terribly happy with what they have in place, but nothing is so dire that they can prioritise solving this problem rather than the dozens of others they face.

Often an external push is required to prioritise research and change on current awareness - a contract ending, a product no longer being supported, a merger or acquisition doubling the size of supported headcount or other significant change.

Premium source preferences

Respondents were also asked to name the premium (paid-for) content providers they use for current awareness, as well as what technology they use for managing and delivering current awareness.

As in past research, the two content sources named most frequently were Factiva from Dow Jones (40% of respondents, see Jinfo review here) and Nexis (33% of respondents, reviewed by Jinfo in February 2015).

Importance of a current awareness needs assessment

Our research findings show the information managers most satisfied with their current solutions were those who could easily articulate the reasons why their stakeholders value current awareness services. However, many information professionals lack the input they need from stakeholders and users to fully understand how provision of current awareness delivers value.

You can find out about Jinfo's approach to needs assessment, including key phases and how to adapt the framework to your own challenges in our article "Carrying out a current awareness needs assessment" (Subscriber content).

Methodology

Jinfo has conducted in-depth research on news content for over 10 years and our 2016 research approach incorporated two components:

• A survey open to any respondents
• A benchmarking exercise offered to customers and other eligible information centres and services.

Our refocusing on the current awareness use-case enabled us to precisely target the research. The survey results are based on responses from 127 respondents.

Next steps

If your organisation has a Subscription then sign in to MyJinfo to read the full report "Jinfo survey on current awareness - 2016". Otherwise find out more about the benefits of subscribing, and then start your Jinfo Subscription.

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