Introduction Personalization of Information Services.pdf

Personalization of Information Services Ya?ar Tonta Department of Information Management Hacettepe University 06532 Beytepe, Ankara Turkey tonta@.tr Introduction The Internet removes the temporal and spatial barriers and enables information professionals to offer information services to remote users 24 hours a day and seven days a week. Users experience “instant satisfaction” when they get “instant access” to networked information sources such as bibliographic databases, full-text electronic journals and electronic document delivery services. The access paradox of “single source-single user” for printed information sources can be overcome by providing remote access by multiple users to the networked copy of the same single source. Libraries are increasingly opting for collection management practices that are based on “just-in-time” approach rather than the “just-in-case” approach that has been prevalent over the years. Members of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) in the United States spend as much as 25% of their total material acquisition budgets for networked information sources and services in recent years. This paper reviews some of the current trends in information management (ownership vs. access, disintermediation, and personalization) and emphasizes the importance of providing personalized information services along with a discussion of some of the issues involved. Ownership vs. access Currently, collection management practices of library and information centers are increasingly slanted towards access rather than ownership. Ownership usually dictates the use of centralized information management models whereas instant access to networked information sources and services requires decentralized/distributed ones. Information managers are no longer responsible solely from their locally held physical collections. They have to assume further responsibilities in order to provide access to a wide variety o