Strategic planning information flows within a metropolitan local authority

Abstract

An examination of the information seeking and information valuing behaviour of Local Authority Councillors and officers is presented to help library managers define the types of information required for prudent and appropriate funding decisions to be made. Local Authority Councillors tended to rely on informal sources for their strategic information gathering, while Local Authority officers tended to rely on formal sources. Intuition was relied upon for information valuing. Educating Local Authority Councillors and officers about the products and services provided by public libraries is needed to overcome the potential economic bias of strategic information gathering.