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organizations, whether we’re in pensions or pharmaceuticals, when we
know our users and meet (and anticipate) their needs in the most
appropriate way.” By relying on information professionals to do the jobs
they were trained to do – research, information processing, cataloging and

materials acquisition – this consulting firm continues to be successful even
after 125 years of operation. This organization has the information
professionals compile a daily news brief containing any items of interest to

the company. In many ways, this report mirrors the President’s Daily
Brief, which until 2005 was created by the analysts at the CIA and is now
prepared by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. It would be
interesting to see if by transferring this job to the information professionals

two things would happen: the brief increases in usefulness and the analysts
themselves have more time to devote to their area of specialty – creating
intelligence. If this project’s recommendation were to be implemented,

then information professionals imbedded in each analytic division could
work together to create the Daily Brief. It is, at least, an interesting thought
to consider.

A study by the Special Libraries Association determined that almost
60% of information professionals working in organizations other than
libraries felt that they were being underutilized in the areas of research and

almost half felt they could be useful in the areas of analysis and
interpretation of information. Despite this, it is also clear from the SLA
that the number of information professionals working in the area of
“competitive intelligence” is growing, and the companies utilizing their

services appear to be prospering, which is evident in the SLA statistics
quoted earlier – 85% of the top Fortune 500 companies employ
information professionals.

ASSIGNMENTS
1. Why do corporate organizations engage professionals in information
gathering practices?

2. What functions does knowledge manager perform? Extend the figure
2.15.
3. What does the term ‘information specialist’ mean?

4. Is there a difference between librarians and information specialists?
5. What does the term ‘competitive intelligence’ mean?
6. Do you agree that information professionals are very important in the

corporate world? Explain.