Services for the analysis and evaluation of information. Final report
Skilled services for the analysis and evaluation of information (IAE) go beyond searching and retrieval to provide information that has been critically evaluated for use. This is a study of what IAE is and does, based on field interviews and extensive seminar discussions with information managers, analysts, and major users. IAE is a form of team research that depends on one-to-one interactions between the information customer, the research user, and an experienced professional analyst. Replies from a questionnaire addressed to customers and analysts in training place first importance on keeping communications open directly between them. To earn peer acceptance at the highest level, the analyst must have demonstrated sound judgment in addition to the expected skills in information processing. IAE systematically adds to the facts what different people think about the facts, and it encourages the parallel processing of value judgments. This often goes beyond the limitations inherent in sequential-flow systems that only take commands: such passive systems tend to measure output in terms of quantity, cost, and speed, assuming that a value-judgment must be logical to be valid, and suppressing personal opinion except insofar as it can be reduced to data. In contrast to these conventional axioms, IAE is constantly probing for bias as to facts or procedures, to discover what is wrong now with whatever was the best answer before. Recommendations for a flexible information policy note the need for a type of recoverable feedback exchange, more like human analysis, with internal warning loops for nondata inputs to help process the processing of information. Case histories and conclusions for success in IAE are summarized in parallel statements of what is required, and associated hazards to avoid.
- Research Organization:
- Rutgers-the State Univ., New Brunswick, NJ (USA)
- OSTI ID:
- 6120386
- Report Number(s):
- NP-3902113; ON: DE83902113
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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