Information as Resource

International

Journal

of hformation

Management

(1991),

17 (156-l

65)

What Kind of Resource is Information?

J.J. EATON AND D. BAWDEN

The idea of ‘information as resource’, and the related ‘information as commodity’ is reviewed. Attributes of information which make it appear similar to, and different from, other resources are evaluated. The term is used in two rather different ways: to indicate the importance of information within an organization, and to imply the appropriateness of a resource management model to handle information. We find the first to be valid, and the second unjustified. The resource view of information is a useful analogy, but it should not be pushed too far.

Jonathan J. Eaton is with the Department of Information Studies, Sheffield University, Western Bank, Sheffield SlO 2TN, UK. His present address is Library, London Business School, Sussex Place, London NW1 4SA, UK. David Bawden is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Information Science, The City University, Northampton Square, London EClV OHB, UK.

Introduction

The information resource is different in kind from other resources. So it has to be a mistake to carry over uncritically to the management of information those concepts which have proven so useful during the centuries when things were the dominant resources (Cleveland).’

'CLEVELAND, H. (1985). The twilight of hierarchy: Speculations on the global information hierarchy. Information and Referral, 7 (No. l), pp. l-31. ‘MOORE, N. (1989). Developing the use of a neglected resource: The growth of information management. Journal of Information Science, 15, pp. 67-70.

The idea that information is a ‘resource’, to be managed on behalf of the organization to which it belongs, is now well entrenched in the literature of information management, and information resource management (IRM) has become a widely accepted term. An acceptance of the idea that information is a resource, to be managed like other...