Defining Information Resources and Discussing the Fundamental Role They Play

Pearlson defines information resources as, 'the available data, technology, people and processes within an organization to be used by the manger to perform business processes and tasks, (40). This being the case, I believe the following are some specific examples of resources that are found in institutions and Higher Education (HE) systems:

Example One: The relationship between a firm or HE system's business managers and its IS managers. In the college I worked for, a great example of this was seen between the area of Student Services and IS as they formed a cooperative relationship where each learned from the other about different ways they could cooperate and combine information and other resources to improve the graduation rate (which in turn increases funding). As the two areas teamed up and worked together, a domino affect of sorts occurred wherein one great idea led to another and all sorts of information gaining technology was coming to light. The end result was that a lot of phishing (not the illegal or immoral sort) was done by the teams and the data was then analyzed to determine which students were in the HE data base who were close to graduating, or should have graduated but had not yet apply for graduation. Those students were contacted and many returned to school or put in their graduation application. The cooperation between the two different sets of managers was a very valuable Information Resource for the college as a whole. This relationship worked because the Business Managers were able to effectively translate the needs of SS and the IS managers were able to effectively translate that information and create applicable programs to meet those needs.

Example Two: IS Infrastructure. This is the hardware, software, network, and data components (40) that are in place within an institution. In an institution or HE system, this is the bones of the organization in so far as IS goes. It is everything that supports how IT is transmitted and received. It is critical that IS infrastructure be set up in a manner that will complement and support the organizational business strategy and not hinder it. A specific resource example that immediately comes to mind is computers. In a business that I sometimes volunteer for, there are charity events that take place every so often and they are critical to the success of the institution. The business, however, is very small and only has one stationary computer hooked up (you know the look, huge monitor and an even larger CPU tower). The software is antiquated, but that is not so much of a challenge yet (although it very well could and inevitably will be in the not so distant future) as the hardware itself can be. The computer shuts off for no apparent reason at will and the size and immobility of it minimizes and very much hinders the ability of the company to move forward as well as it could with better information resources in place.

Example Three: Technical skills of the IT staff. Two specific examples come to mind for me here. One: In a HE institution, we switched data bases. This was a huge process that required a lot of testing to get the bugs out and also required that the technical skills of the IT staff be more than honed and finely tuned because, of course with the database being new the people using it were full of inquiries. Had the IT staff not been knowledgeable, important functions such as registration, running grades, and transcript evaluation (among many others) could have been shut down until the quirks were figured out. This was not the case because the information resource of technical skills amongst the IT staff was right on the money. Quite the contrary, I have also seen in a K-12 setting where the data base was changed, staff was not trained and the sole IT staff (who went from school to school) had only a brief understanding of the new system (although to his credit he did thoroughly learn the new system very expediently). Until the IT 'staff' was up to speed on the changes, his lack of technical skills in that specific area combined with the overall mismanagement of the entire situation led to quite a bit of chaos and unrest. Have you ever seen fifteen teachers come to the office at the same time with the same IS issue that negatively affects a task they are required to do in a timely fashion, and no one has a valid solution for them? It just isn't pretty. The proficient technical skills of the IT staff in a business simply cannot be underrated; ever.

Example Four: In the last example I will give, Information and Knowledge is an information resource that can behoove or be a detriment to how a business or place of HE is perceived. In an article written by the Online Computer Library Center, 2005, a survey was given to information users that found while students do of course know that they can access hard copy books and even borrow many of them from their local school or public library, a great deal of them do not know that they can also use their library access to gain resources electronically. This lack of information and knowledge on the part of the student is such a shame considering how wonderful, not to mention plentiful, the electronic world of academic information is. So many great things could stem from this knowledge becoming more of a given among the student body; academic interest, involvement, and school reputability being among them.

These are a scant few of the many examples any one of us could come up with to help define Information Resources and the fundamental role they play in the overall organization and success of an institution.

Pearlson, K. E. & Saunders, C. S. (2006) Managing & Using Information Systems.

Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources (2005) http://www.oclc.org/reports/2005perceptions.htm