MAGISTERUPPSATS I BIBLIOTEKS- OCH INFORMATIONSVETENSKAPVID BIBLIOTEKS- OCH INFORMATIONSVETENSKAP/BIBLIOTEKSHÖGSKOLAN

2003:112

Information overload and its implications fora corporate library:

As perceived by eight researchers at AstraZeneca

MAUD SALIM

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Engelsk titel: Information overload and its implications for a corporate library:as perceived by eight researchers at AstraZeneca.

Svensk titel: Informationsbelastning och dess konsekvenser för ettföretagsbibliotek: ur upplevelsen av åtta forskare på Astra Zeneca.

Författare: Maud Salim

Kollegium: Koll 4

Färdigställt: 2003

Handledare: Elena Maceviciute

Abstract: The aim of the present study is to develop an understanding ofhow researchers perceive the role of the library in helping them tocope with information overload related to maintaining currency.AstraZeneca was chosen to conduct this study because thepharmaceutical industry is a very intensive information industry.

Eight willing researchers were chosen via a contact person toparticipate in the qualitative interviews. Researchers work indifferent departments and their time of employments differs

The results revealed that the problem of information overload is anindividual approach and it is related to maintaining currency. Toovercome the problem researchers have adopted individual copingstrategies; specialization was the most useful strategy adopted bymost of the researchers. Personal information management, assorting and filing, seemed to play an important role in handling thecurrent information. At the organizational level, the InformationScience & Library was perceived as updated, professional andnecessary. The library staff helps researchers to stay up-dated andto cope with information overload, by acting as informationproviders and as research assistants and by offering end-users’-education.

Nyckelord: Informationsbelastning, läkemedelsindustri, Astra Zeneca,företagsbibliotek, Forskning och Utveckling,informationshantering.

Content

1. Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 12. Background.......................................................................................................................... 13. Problem, goal and objectives............................................................................................... 34. Definitions and limitations .................................................................................................. 3

4.1. Discussion of core concepts ....................................................................................... 4Information management..................................................................................................... 4Personal information management ...................................................................................... 4Information overload ........................................................................................................... 4Currency in Research and Development ............................................................................. 5

4.2. Limitations ................................................................................................................. 64.3. Literature search ......................................................................................................... 6

5. Inforrmation overload: Earlier researches and theory ......................................................... 65.1. Historical background ................................................................................................ 75.2. Information overload as a research problem .............................................................. 75.3. Causes of Information overload ................................................................................. 85.4. Approaches to coping with information overload.................................................... 10

5.4.1. Individual- approaches ......................................................................................... 105.4.2 Organisational approaches ................................................................................... 12

5.5. The library role......................................................................................................... 135.5.1. Current Awareness Services................................................................................. 145.5.2. Implications of information overload for the library............................................ 15

6. The pharmaceutical industry.............................................................................................. 176.1. AstraZeneca.............................................................................................................. 186.2. The library at AstraZeneca ....................................................................................... 19

7. Metod................................................................................................................................. 227.1. Interview................................................................................................................... 237.2. Analysis .................................................................................................................... 247.3. Problem with the application of the method ............................................................ 25

8. Results the empirical study................................................................................................ 268.1. Information overload at AstraZeneca....................................................................... 26

8.1.1. The researchers information tasks........................................................................ 268.1.2. Information sources and databases....................................................................... 268.1.3. Sources of information overload .......................................................................... 288.1.4. Information overload and currency...................................................................... 308.1.5. Other kinds of overload........................................................................................ 30

8.2. The researchers’ coping strategies ........................................................................... 328.2.1. Strategies to cope with information overload....................................................... 328.2.2. Personal information management....................................................................... 338.2.3. The researchers’ information literacy................................................................... 34

8.3. The library as perceived by researchers ................................................................... 358.3.1. The library services and currency ........................................................................ 358.3.2. The library role in countering information overload............................................ 368.3.3. General approaches to information overload ....................................................... 37

9. Analysis and discussion..................................................................................................... 399.1. The researchers’ experience of overload.................................................................. 39

9.1.1. Overload and maintaining currency ..................................................................... 399.1.2. Other kinds of overload........................................................................................ 40

9.2. The researchers’ coping strategies ........................................................................... 419.2.1. Strategies to cope with information overload....................................................... 419.2.2. Personal information management....................................................................... 43

9.3. The perceived role of the library.............................................................................. 449.3.1. The library role and currency............................................................................... 449.3.2. The library role in coping with information overload.......................................... 45

10. Conclusion.................................................................................................................... 4811. Summary ...................................................................................................................... 50References ................................................................................................................................ 52

Unpublished references......................................................................................................... 52Printed references, Unpublished .......................................................................................... 52Printed references, published ................................................................................................ 52Electronic references............................................................................................................. 55

Annex 1 .................................................................................................................................... 56Annex 2 .................................................................................................................................... 57

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1. Introduction

Information has become the driving force of most people’s lives and the world that once,during the age of industry, was ruled by natural sources, is now run by information that seemsinfinite. To survive in the workplace or simply to function in the society we are obliged toassimilate a huge amount of information. This is very true in research where information isthe life-blood of industrial research and development (further referred as R&D) and thescientist may feel overwhelmed by current literature while s/he strives to keep abreast of hisfield. Wilson stated that:

Everyone engaged in research is aware of the problem of information overload. It is always athreat if not a reality. It is perhaps most familiar as a problem of maintaining currency.(Wilson 1996b, p. 192)

Relevant information, known to be available, may go unused in R&D because of informationoverload (Wilson 1995, p. 45).

The problem of information overload has been identified in many contexts, including businessorganizations, managers’ decision making and research companies. Various factors have beenidentified and a wide range of coping strategies both individual and organizational has beenadopted. Considering the special library as a part of a larger organization, its principalfunction is research support and informational. It shares and supports the objectives andmission of that organisation (Taylor 1985, p. 91). That means while providing researcherswith the current literature, the library may have some role in helping them to cope withoverload.

The subject of information overload in relation to published literature is revealed interestingbecause I was always fascinated by the researchers who can stay current- i.e. keeping up withwhat other research workers are doing and which is relevant to one’s own work. I wonderedall the time how do they succeed to keep up with the flow of literature.

I just try to read the literature that is of close relevance to the subject of my thesis and I findthis difficult. I feel overwhelmed by old and new literature that seems relevant to my subjectand, because of shortage of time I cannot read it all.

I connected the problem of information overload to Multinational Pharmaceutical Companies’research area because the pharmaceutical industry, especially its research activity, is well-known as the archetypal information intensive industry (Spilker 1994, p. 461).

This work will discuss the role of the library in countering the problem of informationoverload, seen by a small group of researchers at AstraZeneca, further refer as AZ.

2. Background

Over the last 35 years the international pharmaceutical industry has been developing indifferent areas. One of some major developments was in the area of data management andprojects that manifests in the appearance of computer searchable databases, global planning

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and management, integrated systems to manage information and national and internationalproject teams (Spilker 1994, p. 33). Clearly information is the central basis for operations of apharmaceutical company. It is needed to discover new medicine, to assess one’s competitorsaccurately and to make correct decisions. A large quantity of information is obtained fromexternal sources and is generated internally. Information that is systematically recorded foreasy retrieval falls into different categories as raw data, published literature, in-housecompany documents, information on chemicals synthesized, media reference to thecompany’s products, competitive intelligence and institutional memory (ibid. p. 461, 465).

By published literature Spilker means the scientific or technical books and journals that arehoused in company library and meet most basic information needs of employees. Articlesfrom the worldwide biomedical literature are gathered, analyzed, indexed, and entered into in-house, on-line bibliographic databases to make information rapidly available (Spilker 1994, p.462).

In offering information to in-house professionals, Spilker suggested that one of the essentialprinciples for many information services to follow is to provide a few valuable and usefulreferences or documents to assist users in reaching a decision or solving a problem. Thisapproach may be considered as “value-added service”. According to Spilker, large quantitiesof information dishearten the recipient and may be counterproductive to the goals of the datasearch (1994, p. 464).

The inability to respond to the abundance of information available is called informationoverload (Marcusohn 1995, p.26-27). Garfield E. stated that all working scholars live in aworld of information overload that attends frustration (see Wilson 1996a, p. 22). Wilsonargued that:

There can never be enough time to read all the things one should read or enough time todiscuss with others all the things about which discussion would be beneficial...informationoverload is a gap between what one can do and what one wants to do, a gap between whatone can do and what one thinks one should do with existing information. (Wilson 1996a, p.22)

In this sense information overload is seen as a great problem in research and developmentbecause it is a world of conceptual change and the overwhelming magnitude of thebiomedical literature is a threat for the physicians who want to keep up with advances in theknowledge in their discipline (Wilson 1996a, p. 22). Butcher had also mentioned this pointand he believes that one of seven causes behind information overload is that people like tocollect current information because they don’t accept to be left behind or shown up as beingless well informed than others (Butcher 1999, p. 54).

Wilson distinguished between two kinds of information overload: task overload and upkeepoverload. Task overload appears in the context of research projects or particular inquiry and itis explained by the overabundance of available date relevant to the particular inquiry. Upkeepoverload is related to maintaining currency (1996b, p.192-193). Keeping up with the literatureis necessary to keep up with the competitive edge. Although there is a fact to be admitted thatpeople cannot know everything about everything and it is impossible to keep up-to-date withthe literature (Laskin 1994, p. 661). If researchers admit this reality can we say that they arenot supposed to experience overload that is related to maintaining currency? It is unlikely thatone perfect answer reduces or eradicates the problem of information overload.

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Scholars and scientists set up their own information systems to receive what they believerelevant to their work. They subscribe to journals, ejournals, exchange preprints withcolleagues, and visit the library to look at new issues of journals or to browse. Whilesearching they come across more interesting references. This huge flow of information mustbe managed (Wilson 1996a, p. 25). Individual strategies must then be adapted to adjust to theimmense amount of information and to prevent overload. But there is still a question whetherif the individual coping strategies are the best solution to overload or there is still some rolefor the library to play in helping researchers to cope with information overload?

Since the world of medicine discovery and development is rapidly changing, thepharmaceutical industry was thought an ideal sector to conduct this study because of its veryinformation intensive nature. The research area is thought to be the significant primaryactivity in the pharmaceutical industry that is why this study emphasis on the researchers’perspectives on information overload and the perceived role of the library to counter thisproblem. AZ has been chosen to conduct the present study due to the study: “How does theorganisation of Library and Documentation fulfil the needs of information at Astra Hässle”made by Christian Karlsson and Elisabeth Letmark in the 1998. The study reported that thescientists at Astra Hässle (which is known at the present time as AstraZeneca), complainedthat they suffer from information overload.

3. Problem, goal and objectives

The proliferation of publication, printed and electronic, is the main cause of informationoverload (Bawden, Holtman & Courtney 1999, p. 252). Since a main part of the literatureused by researchers goes through the library, it may be logical to think that the library has arole to play in helping researchers to manage information overload.

According to this, the goal of the present study is to develop an understanding of howresearchers perceive the role of the library in helping them to cope with information overloadrelated to maintaining currency.

This goal will be reached through these questions:1. Do the researchers at AZ suffer of information overload?

- How much information overload is related to staying current?- What else causes overload?

2. What Kind of strategies (if any) do the researchers at AZ adopt to cope with overload?

3. How do the researchers at AZ perceive the role of the library in helping them tocounter information overload?

4. Definitions and limitations

Here below follow the discussion of the core concepts as well as the limitations of the presentstudy. The literature search will also take place in this chapter.

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4.1. Discussion of core concepts

Information management, personal information management, information overload andcurrency in Research and Development are revealed important to the present study. Thereader of this work will come across some other concepts as work overload, process overloadand communication overload, but they will not be discussed here because they were notrevealed essential to understand the present work.

Information management

Wilson defined information management as:

The application of management principles to the acquisition, organization, control,dissemination and use of information relevant to the effective operation of organizations ofall kinds. (Wilson 1997, p. 189)

With information Wilson means all types of information derived from various sources,produced internally or externally and that have value for the organisation. According toWilson, information management deals with the value, quality, ownership, use and security ofinformation in the context of organizational performance. Choo defined informationmanagement as:

A set of processes that support and are symmetrical with the organization’s learningactivities. (Choo 1998, p. 199)

Wilson’s definition is seen as more suitable for this work because it is wider in defining whatinformation management deals with and because it considers the organizational performancewhile Choo’s definition is related to the organization’s learning activities.

Personal information management

To define personal information management, referred as PIM, Etzel (1995) started bydefining each term. By personal Etzel means information that belongs to the person doing thejob and by information anything that a person uses to do her or his job. Although anythingmay include many things, according to Etzel it may be a department wall chart to look at tosee what co-workers are doing. It may be paper files, journals, faxes, e-mails or voice mail,computer word processing documents and spreadsheets. Management refers to the strategyone uses for coping with all of this information-i.e. where to put the journals? Where to storeall the e-mail? How long to keep information? Etc. Etzel meant that PIM helps the user tocope with information overload by helping her or him to define what information is importantand to select the most appropriate tools to manage information (Etzel 1995, p. 2/1-2/2).In this thesis PIM is included in the individual coping strategies that also include the strategiesthat the scientists use to deal with information overload.

Information overload

The problem of information overload is widely recognised today. The fact that we are livingin an information society puts us in the presence of a huge amount of information that reachesus from different sources. From a management point of view “information overload” impliesan inability to respond to the abundance of information available (Marcusohn 1995, p. 26).

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According to Wilson (1996a) information overload is a challenge to the rationality ofscholarship and science. Overload means that one cannot use information efficiently. Wilsondefined efficiency as the full and correct use of all relevant information. If rationality requiresthe use of all available relevant information then overload means irrationality. Theconsequences of overload result in inability to use all relevant information. This impliesinefficiency and irrationality of research and development (Wilson 1996a, p. 22-23).

To understand the problem of information overload it is necessary to define two termsinformation load and information overload. Information load is:

The amount of information acquired by a processing system, e.g., a library user. (Rudd &Rudd 1986a, p. 315)

Rudd and Rudd stated that an increase in the amount of information in the library does notnecessarily produce an increase in the information load carried by library users. When anincrease in information supply results in an increased information load, users may feel theoverload effects (1986a, p. 316). Information overload is then information load that cannoteffectively be absorbed by the user.

Wilson (1995) stated that information overload may mean many things as:

Being presented with more information than one could absorb. It might mean beingburdened by a large supply of relevant information, that is, forced to spend more time andenergy on assimilating new information than one would like to do...The serious kind ofoverload is the possession, or the knowledge of the existence, of information one thinks to beprobably relevant but does not use because of lack of time (Wilson 1995, p. 45-46).

Wilson by this definition does not make a difference between information load andinformation overload, when he admits that overload is the possession or the knowledge of theexistence of relevant information that cannot be absorbed. In this sense information overloadis used in the present study. Information overload in the present study is also related tomaintaining currency that why, information overload and upkeep overload are used in thiswork to describe the same state.

Currency in Research and Development

To understand the relation between information overload and maintaining currency, it isimportant to review the importance of currency, especially in R&D. Wilson considered thatalmost everyone tries to keep up with some part of life but everyone differs in pattern ofinterest of pursuing currency. Staying current is a requirement of the social world imposed onpersons of occupational positions. The social requirement is not the only motivation formaintaining currency the preservation of self or capital is a strong private motivation. Thisimplies that anyone working in a competitive field is unlikely to be successful unless she orhe maintains current knowledge of the state of play in her or his own field (Wilson 1993, p.634-637).

In R&D maintaining currency means keeping up with what other research workers are doingthat is relevant to one’s own work. One wants to be able to claim intellectual command of afield and this requires deep and wide knowledge of what has been done and is being done byothers in the same field. It is very clear that differences in the scope of current knowledge willbe found among individuals working in the same discipline and there could never be some

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precise rules on how deep and wide one’s knowledge must be. There is a requirement and itordinarily means that one must devote time and effort to reading what others have publishedor are going to publish or have otherwise communicated. The time devoted will vary with thesize and level of activity of the field (Wilson 1996b, p. 192-193). Time is the principal priceof currency and different people will pay very different prices for the currency they attain(Wilson 1993, p. 637-638).

4.2. Limitations

This study emphasis on the relation between information overload and the current, researchpublished literature and not the current information get when researchers intend theconferences or through the oral communication. Information overload is admitted in thepresent study as upkeep overload.

4.3. Literature search

First I started looking for theories and researches about information overload in general. ThenI concentrated on information overload in research and development, especially while keepingcurrent. I specified my searches to overload in pharmaceutical research in particular. Therewas not too much literature in this area. While looking for the literature I faced also a problemin finding literature about the library role, as perceived by its users, in countering informationoverload. It is important to point out that there is no earlier research that directly studies therole of the library as perceived by researchers. For all these reasons, a part of the literatureused in the present study covers the problem of information overload in general.

Some of the articles and books used were found at the library of the Högskolan of Borås.Most of the articles were obtained through interlibrary loan from other universities in Swedenand sometimes from other European countries.

I looked too for information about AstraZeneca. Initial information about AZ was gainedfrom unpublished material about AZ and from AZ’s website. Information about theInformation Science and Library at AZ was gained from interviews with the library managerand with three librarians.

5. Inforrmation overload: Earlier researches and theory

This chapter discusses the historical background of the problem of information overload andearlier researches in this problem. It also presents the causes of information overload and theindividuals’ strategies to counter information overload. The provision of current literature inspecial library and the perceived role of the library to cope with information overload,according to the literature will take place in this chapter too.

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5.1. Historical background

There is a discussion around the problem of information overload, whether is it an old or arecent phenomena? Though Wilson stated that information overload is not a new phenomenonand that the potential for overload has existed since information became an important input toany human activity (2001, p. 3), Klapp claimed that the problem of information overload wasnoticed by a social scientist who described in the 1950 the problem of overload of thesensations in the urban world that makes habitants incapable to react to new situations withthe appropriate energy. Klapp writes about communication overload as a disease of cities(Klapp 1986, p. 6-7). Noyes and Thomas stated that it is impossible to know when theproblem of information overload started to be noticed, but it started to become a seriousproblem towards the end of the last century (1995, p. 2).

Bawden, Holtham and Courtney affirmed that information overload started to be wellrecognized as a problem by the late 1950s and early 1960s with the expansion of publication,especially in science and technology. They indicate that innovations in informationtechnology in terms of printed books, periodical magazines, abstracting journals and thecomputer make it impossible to keep up with the information available (Bawden, Holtham &Courtney 1999, p. 249).

Garvey W. D. stated that researchers moved from a period (1947) where the typical scientistwas just able to keep up with the literature of direct relevance to the topic at hand, and not toother literature in the same discipline, to a period (1977) where the scientist could keep upwith the fifth to tenth of the literature that is directly relevant to his work (see Wilson 1996a,p. 22). The time of the scientist was considered very precious to face rivers of currentliterature. This led to express the need for techniques of controlled selectiveness in supplyingher or his information needs (Badwen, Holtham & Courtney 1999, p. 249).

By 1973, Selective Dissemination of Information (SDI) was considered as specificinformation services used to overcome information overload. By the 1990s the problem ofinformation overload began to be seen as a major problem with the emergence of the Internetand e-mail, and the emergence of new techniques became an urgent request (Ibid, p. 249). Thedevelopment in communication systems increases the amount of information in theworkplace. The rise in paper documentation created the need for the development of theinformation retrieval systems (Edmunds & Moris 2000, p. 19).

5.2. Information overload as a research problem

Information overload is not considered all the time as a problem. The argument used is thatpeople are overloaded to the extent that one wishes to be overloaded. This was seen in themore pragmatic comments of some scientists in a pharmaceutical research organization(Bawden, Holtman & Courtney 1999, p. 251). Rudd and Rudd considered that library usersrarely experienced information overload. The belief that they do is due to the confusionbetween information explosion and information overload. True overload is likely to appearunder very specific circumstances (Rudd & Rudd 1986b, p. 304). Tidline looked at thequestion of information overload as a problem in popular culture that had not beendocumented through rigorous investigations. Tidline affirmed that information overload is amyth of modern culture. Tidline represented the findings of a pilot project to studyinformation overload of future library and information professionals. The project confirmed

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the presence of information overload and revealed people coping with overload. Tidlineconcluded that the results of the project confirm that a human is able to adapt to alteredcircumstances (Tidline 1999, p. 501-505).

The problem of information overload was seen elsewhere as a real and continuing issue. Itwas revealed in the literature of many disciplines such as medicine, business study, and thesocial sciences as well as in computing and information science. The term is well defined tooand there cannot be many who have not experienced the feeling of having too muchinformation (Edmunds & Moris 2000, p. 18). The problem of information overload does existand Butcher mentions that management research into this problem falls into three categories,researches into information overload among individuals, organizations and customers(Butcher 1995, p. 1). Wilson stated that in R&D, the problem of information overload is aswidespread as the constant testimony of scientists and scholars claims it is (1995, p. 46).Reuters’ researches into information overload in the Western World, in two different periods1996 and 1998, reported that information overload does exist as a major problem and that itdoes seriously affect the people at work. Edmunds and Morris presented the results ofReuter’s researches which showed an increase in the majority that experience overload, 65%in the 1996 to 42% in the 1998. If the problem of information overload is beginning to be seenas less of a problem that may be because people learned how to live with it and they complainless, because overload has become an acceptable state (Edmunds & Morris 2000, p. 21, 28).

5.3. Causes of Information overload

The major contributing factor, if not the most significant one, in information overload is thetoo much information (TMI) effect (Bawden, Holtman & Courtney 1999, p. 251). Statisticsgiven by Schuman P.G. indicated the problem of TMI:

§ A weekly edition of the New York Times contains more information than the averageperson was likely to come across in a lifetime in seventeenth –century England.

§ The collections of the large US research libraries doubled between 1876 and 1990.§ Over one thousand books were published each day across the world during 1990 (see

Bawden, Holtham & Courtney 1999, p. 251).

The problem of information overload is the same then and now- too much information and toomany sources (Edmunds & Moris 2000, p. 20). Wilson suggested that information overload isa terrible problem for professionals who are obliged to keep up with advances in theknowledge and techniques of their profession. It is also a great problem for physician as wellfor those involved in research because of the overwhelming of magnitude of literature facingthem (1996a, p. 22). In R&D information overload is affected by the size and level of activityof the field. In a small field with slow producers, researchers will not face a problem inkeeping up but in a large and very active field of fast producers researchers may feeloverwhelmed (Wilson 1996b, p.193). It is enough to look at the growth of abstracts andindexes to understand the explosion of the literature. For example the 13th collective index ofchemicals abstracts is about 150 volumes (Edmunds & Moris 2000, p. 20).

Laskin estimated that to understand the fact that we are facing information overload, it wouldbe enough to know that each year, the average person reads 3000 notices and memos, 100newspapers and 36 magazines, listens to 730 hours of radio and watches more than 2400hours of television. The clinician adds to that the reading of professional journals and books,

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listening to audiotapes and viewing videotapes. The proliferation of professional journals hasincreased overload. One might feel frustrated thinking of all the information that exist in thesejournals and need to be digested. It can be that the time spent on reading them is a wastedtime because of the duplication of information or because they contain deficient data. Laskinwondered whether information users are really dealing with information overload orpublication overload. If this is true it would be better to control the quality of articles beforethe publication (Laskin 1994, p. 661).

Klassen, Jadad and Moher affirmed that proliferation of books and journals make itimpossible to keep up with the medical literature and it is easy to be overwhelmed by currentliterature. There are 17 000 new biomedical books published every year, along with 30 000biomedical journals, resulting with an annual increase of 7%. The physician who attempts tokeep abreast of his field need to read on average 19 original articles each day (Klassen, Jadad& Moher 1998, p. 700).

The problem of information overload, in pharmaceutical research organisation, was relatedboth to the great amount of available information and e-mail. A recent survey of the use ofinformation services and systems in pharmaceutical research organisation looks in a part atinformation overload. The majority (17) of the interviewees (30 scientists) agreed that theyare affected by information overload. Those who are not affected answer that there was toomuch information available but they could cope with it (Bawden, Devon & Sinclair 2000,p.154).

Most of the scientists in the same study conducted in pharmaceutical research organizationpointed out IT as a cause of information overload, but they added that they had provided thetools to solve it. They mentioned two factors that promote to information overload: The firstone is the great amount of information available, both internally and externally, so that evenmore selection and discrimination is needed to deal with it, when it is actively sought. Thesecond is the amount of information sent directly by e-mail to the participants. The majoritycould easily find the information they need, but there was some difficulty in finding someexternal documents, e.g. conference abstracts, some aspect of patents and some supplier data.A less use of the library and the printed sources was mentioned (ibid, p. 155-156).

The diversity of relevant information is pointed out by Bawden, Holtham and Courtney to bea major cause to information overload. Bawden, Holtham and Courtney mentioned that newinformation and communication technology aimed of providing rapid and convenient accessto information are themselves also responsible of the overload. Internet, Intranet andelectronic mail are considered to be major contributor to information overload (1999, p. 249-252).Countervailing views concerning the Internet and electronic mail were elaborated byEdmunds and Moris (2000), who argued that the problem of information overload existedbefore the arrival of the Internet. A research carried out for Reuter in the 1996 revealed that48% of managers believe that the internet would be a prime cause of overload in the next twoyears. Two years later a research carried out for Reuters report that only 19% of respondents(managers) believed that the Internet has made things worse (Edmunds & Moris 2000, p. 19).

Wilson (2001) stated that the causes of information overload is not simply that, today there ismore information than people can assimilate, and if it is so, people have adapted ways to copewith overload. Neither is it just a technological cause because the technology is not to blamefor causing information overload. Instead there is a miss-use of the technology. Wilson addedthe human factors as a cause to information overload. By human factors Wilson meant the

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propensity of people to seek information and disseminate it to others- information pull andpush, in the computer jargon. Information pull is related to the desire of some people to seekinformation to understand their life-world. This desire can become pathologic if the personseeks information whether it is relevant to her or his work or not. Push technology exist asWilson stated to facilitate the distribution of information, but it can be miss-used too. Theappearance of these pathological states is the results of the organization’s management style(Wilson 2001, p. 6-8). Wilson considered that the root cause of information overload is thestress created by modern management practices which put people’s job under threat, or whichincrease general workload, or create defensive behaviour (Wilson 2001, P. 11).

Another cause of information overload is mentioned to be the nature of the work being carriedout by the user that affects the nature and amount of information required. This is veryfamiliar in interdisciplinary work (Bawden, Holtham & Courtney 1999, p. 252).

Taylor looked at the problem of information overload not as an explosive growth of potentialrelevant information but as a problem in the information systems that filter, transmit anddistribute information. He argues that these systems are not developed in an adequate way todeal with this explosive growth (Taylor 1986, p. 24).

To conclude, information overload is thought in terms of keeping up with new ideas and newpublications and it is very clear that the proliferation of publication has contributed to increasethe problem. The technological development in part causes information overload but is not theonly to blame. The problem may arise from the organization culture and managementpractices as Wilson (2001) declares it. Whatever is the cause of information overload, theproblem exists and it is seen to be a personal experience and it is affected by the individuals’way of dealing with information generally and by the complexity of most participants’ job.The solution then will have to be individual and will involve personality as much as subjectspecialism and work role (Bawden, Devon & Sinclair 2000, p. 154-155).

5.4. Approaches to coping with information overload

Solutions to information overload, like its causes, are multi-faceted, and there is no single toolthat will correct the problem. The solutions proposed fall into two categories: Managerial,includes both individual and organizational approaches, and technological (Bawden, Holtham& Courtney 1999, p. 253). Some of the technological approaches and which are related to thelibrary will be discussed under § 5.5. The managerial approaches will be discussed herebelow and these include the individual approaches and the organizational approaches.

5.4.1. Individual- approaches

Wilson gave two solutions to the problem of information overload in R&D. The first isspecialization and the second is satisfaction. Satisfaction is normative and evaluative. Thismeans that the best response to overload is specialization. Scientists solve their informationproblem by narrowing the scope of their interests. It is a way by which scientists and scholarsadjust the size of the field in which they want to maintain expertise so that the burden ofkeeping up is manageable. Every scientist who has been in research for a long period knowsthat to remain an expert in some area she or he needs to narrow the width of her or hisinterest. Specialization is a solution to the problem of overload but one cannot think thatresearch and development cope successfully with overload (Wilson 1996a, p. 23-25).

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Bawden, Holtham and Courtney summed that the individual skills required to cope withinformation overload may be placed under the general heading “time management”. The firstone is a prioritisation of information seeking related to work goals and objectives. A secondone is to deal with a piece of paper as soon as it is touched. A third one is to join mailing listsand newsgroups very selectively, to delete many messages unread and only keep material thatwould be very difficult to find again (Bawden, Holtham & Courtney 1999, p. 253).

In a survey conducted in pharmaceutical research organisation the solutions were largely seento be self-discipline in focusing on important things, and self-education in managinginformation. Several participants saw scope for formal training and support for personalinformation management as file handling, what to store and how, best practice in using e-mail(Bawden, Devon & Sinclair 2000, p. 156-157).

Wilson mentioned some other personal strategies to manage the flow of information thatcome to a person from different sources and may cause overload. One of these strategies isprioritizing. People tend to assign incoming material to different categories. Many categorieswere identified:

- Mandatory to be dealt with as soon as possible;- Documents of potential interest;- Documents which are good to know about but not necessary to read now;- Documents that are categorise as of no interest (Wilson 1996a, p. 25-26).

This categorisation explains that under condition of overload people tend to postpone whatthey feel can be postponed. People accumulate a backlog of things to be read. Dealing withthe most urgent items may take up all the time allocated for reading. The backlog may growbigger and bigger and it comes a time when people start to discard things unread from thebacklog. There is nothing wrong with backlog and the viewpoint of a rational informationmanagement is for it. Wilson tries to explain that by contrasting two strategies used ininformation management: keeping up and catching up. The first one is to read the literature asit is published. In this case the filter of time may thin out the stream of current literature.Catching up in that case may be better. Under the pressure of overload older publications maybe abandoned. One can think that everything useful in the older literature is incorporate in thecurrent one. Wilson estimated that this is an appropriate thing to do in condition ofunavoidable overload (Wilson 1996a, p. 26-29). Although prioritization may be a solution forinformation overload it may also appear that priorities used may be wrong and the problem ofinformation overload may become a sign of strategic error. For this reason Wilson suggestedthat the most important kind of response to overload is team work (Wilson 1995, p. 49).

A general solution proposed by Laskin has some implications on the individual level. Thesolution is to control the quality of publication but this does not mean that the problem ofinformation overload will be solved in the future years. One needs to find best ways tomanage the situation. Laskin stated that one solution is to focus on concepts and principles,rather than details and data. Laskin affirmed that information users must learn to be discerningreaders, to scan the abstract and focus on what looks to be significant (Laskin 1994, p. 661).

Skimming or scanning in place of careful reading was seen by Klapp as a strategy to copewith information overload. Klapp suggested reading reviews and abstracts instead of booksand passing up long for short conversation. One cost of this rapid scanning is distraction and

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the information user may have the feeling of being disconnected or disengaged from theinformation (Klapp 1986, p. 106).

Information literacy is an approach to the problem of information overload that can beapplicable both at the individual as well as the organisational level. Generally there is noaccepted definition of information literacy, Bawden, Holtham and Courtney stated that:

It refers to a set of information-handling skills going considerably beyond the simple abilityto retrieve information, and usually including elements of evaluation, organisation and use.(Bawden, Holtham & Courtney 1999, p. 253)

According to Abell (2000) the essential components of information literacy are the ability tofind, create, organize and use information from a variety of sources (Abell 2000, p. 1).

The importance of information literacy in countering information overload, at the individuallevel, is in the regaining of control lost in the overload situation. This means that people knowwhat information they need, they evaluate it and organise it. They approach information withcritical thinking (Bawden, Holtham & Courtney 1999, p. 253).

In the findings of the survey conducted in pharmaceutical research organization, theresearchers, who experienced the provision of desktop information systems, expressed theneed of enhancement of personal “information literacy” as file handling and storing andpractices in using email (Bawden, Devon & Sinclair 2000, p. 156). Mutch admitted that to beinformation literate goes much deeper than becoming proficient at personal informationmanagement i.e. filing and organising, to the nature of information creation (Mutch 1997, p.378).

5.4.2 Organisational approaches

Wilson (2001) who written about the problem of information overload within organisationfrom a management point of view, affirmed that the appearance of the pathological states ofinformation pull and push are the results of the organization management style. Themanagement ethos and the organization culture cause organizational stress which in its turncauses pathological information behaviour. All these with the mediation of the technology arethe responsibles of creating information overload in organizations (Wilson 2001, p. 7-9). Toovercome organizational pathologies there is a need for organizational therapies and theproblem of information overload needs to be on senior management’s agenda. Organizationsneed to know the existence of the problem of information overload; they need to ensure thatsenior management are aware of the problem. There is also a need to advocate thedevelopment of an information strategy for the organization which is not confused with theinformation technology strategy and which considers the problems of information overload.In disseminating information, information providers must be selective according toestablished needs. To institute some policy on appropriate use of technology and a trainingpolicy for the use of e-mail, voice mail and other technologies is also a part of the solution tothe problem of information overload (Ibid, p. 11-12). To have an e-mail policy that regulatesforwarding, copying material, attachments, etc. Similar policy for meetings and voice mailwere also mentioned by Bawden, Holtham and Courtney (1999, p. 254).

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Information literacy may be another approach to the problem of information overload thatcould be applicable at the organizational level. Promoting information literacy in individuals,by means of appropriate training, seems to be a powerful way of minimising the effects ofinformation overload (Bawden, Holtham & Courtney 1999, p. 253). The fact that end-usershave desktop access to the web does not necessarily mean that they have a high level ofinformation literacy. This implies that librarians still have a continuing role to play withinorganizations because of knowledge about web resources that contain highly relevant, goodquality information, and because they provide in-house training for end-users (Pedley 2001, p.8).

Hopkins affirmed that either the librarian or the information system will ever be able to dealwith all the quality information filtering that users require. Part of the solution is training ofusers to be more selective, to make more quality judgments themselves, about the informationthey retrieve. This is certainly one of the primary objectives of the information literacy(Hopkins 1995, p. 327).

The role of the library by enhancing lifelong learning plays an important role in counteringinformation overload, at the organizational level. Knowing the importance of the role of thelibrary to the present study, it will be discussed as a separate paragraph.

5.5. The library role

Today more and more organizations are involved in research. In order to generate informationand to make more information available, special libraries and issue-based information centrehave come up (Ghosh & Wesley 2002, p. 135). Special librarians function as change agentsand leaders providing the information needed to help the organization achieve its goals. Theyidentify and acquire external sources of information and help to organize internal sources ofinformation. Ghosh and Wesley considered that:

They provide vital information services by preparing abstracts and indexes of currentperiodicals, organizing bibliographies or analyzing background information and preparingreports on areas of particular interest. They are best positioned to monitor the informationproducts and needs of different departments and deserve a central role in the development ofprocesses and policies that harness an organization’s knowledge base. (Ghosh & Wesley2002, P. 136)

The vital role of the library in research environment was highlighted by Ghosh and Wesleywho presented the role of the library in managing information requirements for research at theInstitute of Social Sciences in New Delhi. Ghosh and Wesley affirmed that there is anincreasing recognition by the research community of modern trends in library documentationand information services. Libraries are no longer limited to in-house information; they havebecome facilities that provide electronic access to global information resources (Ghosh &Wesley 2002, p. 144).

Ball found that information overload is a dominating term in discussion on new orientation oflibraries. Faced with competition from other information providers, special libraries must findnew ways of handling their clientele. They need to create 'added value'. They must employ'customer relationship management', using individual profiles and providing extra services

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like content and knowledge management. They must demonstrate good cost management totheir sponsor organization (Ball 2002, p. 39).

While Hopkins stated that some librarians expressed that the problem of information overloadclearly means a new or enhanced role for the librarian (1995, p. 308), Biggs suggested that thechallenges of helping clients in managing information overload caused by the proliferation ofavailable data and publications and ever-more-comprehensive and widespread automatedmeans to access to them is one new direction for service development (Biggs 1989, p. 411).

Recently the efficiency of the information services in face of the increasing flood ofinformation has become a major question. There is a need to move from building collectionsto building services. There is a need to look at the investment of user’s time while providinginformation and to reduce that information to a manageable portion. There is a fact that mustbe faced and it’s that not all end-users have the time and the expertise to find the informationthat best serves their work. The solution may be in part to develop information filteringsystems, another part is the reorganisation and improvement of services and of course a bigpart of the answer lies on the technological innovations. In the world of library there’s a needto look at the institutional goals and to separate policies focused on availability and accessfrom those concerned with information management (Dougherty 1991, p. 339).

According to Wilson the problem of information overload poses new challenge for theinformation science. He stated that maybe it is time to develop new information systems thathelp scientists to select, evaluate, filter and screen an admittedly over-large corpus of relevantinformation (Wilson 1996a, p. 30-31).

The role of the library in both providing current literature and countering overload isdiscussed here below.

5.5.1. Current Awareness Services

The advent of the scientific revolution brought into focus the requirement for being aware ofdevelopments. The creation of scholarly societies and scientific periodicals and the activeconsulting of current literature by scientists and technologists, highlight the term “currentawareness”. During the nineteenth century abstracting journals and cumulative indexes werecreated to assist scientists to staying abreast of the rapidly expanding knowledge base. By theearly 1900s special library met the need for fostering current awareness services. Martin andMetcalfe assumed that:

The Current awareness service can be considered as a nascent knowledge management toolin that it tends to capture and manage easy consumption useful information pertinent to theneeds of library clients. (Martin & Metcalfe 2001, p. 268-269)

The term “current awareness” was coined to describe the state of keeping up with newdevelopment. Current Awareness Services (CAS) were developed to deliver:

• Right information, to the• Right user, at the• Right time, in the• Right format, covering the

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• Right sources, at the• Right cost, and with the right amount of effort to keep users up-to-date. (Fourie 1999, p.

381)

The original definition of CAS was given by Kemp, CAS was seen:

As a system or publication for reviewing newly available documents, selecting itemsrelevant to the needs of an individual or group, and recording them so that notifications maybe sent to those individuals or groups to whose needs they are related. (Kemp 1979, p. 12)

Kemp estimates that some libraries prepare and issue separate current awareness bulletin fordifferent kind of publications, a patent bulletin is a popular example. A typical currentawareness bulletin contains:

• general library publicity and announcements• general new items from news papers, meetings and conferences• details of recently received documents, especially periodical articles• Details of items not available from the library but obtainable through it (Kemp 1979,

p. 25-26).

With the new range of services offered via the Internet the definition of CAS is expanded sothat they present a selection of one or more systems that provide notification of the existenceof new entities added to the system’s database or of which the system took note (Fourie 1999,p. 381). The Internet affords the opportunity for information users to access CAS directly. Amajor facet of CAS is the alerting of journal contents (Martin & Metcalf 2001, p. 269).

Selective dissemination of Information (SDI) or otherwise known as document filtering is anextension of CAS as it is a targeted service in which the individual’s research interest areprofiled, and then matched against the text of incoming documents (Martin & Metcalfe 2001,p. 268). Traditionally they have been performed by a librarian acting as a filterer, scanning theliterature with awareness of its value for the client. Today SDI is used to save database searchthat can be run automatically against future updates of the database. SDI is most useful ininterdisciplinary research and it enhances the productivity of basic research scientists workingin R&D environment (Ibid. p. 269).

In the past, the libraries and information centres have promoted CAS and SDI, either throughprint or electronic means, to furnish the need of information seekers. CAS and SDI asmediated and promoted by librarians are considered to contribute towards reducing theproblem of information overload. They help to filter the ceaseless flow of information so asinformation users receive only the materials that are relevant to their area of interests.Although CAS can be provided via Internet and although the opportunities now exists forinformation users to access such services directly through online systems, from the desktop,there still remain a vital role for the library (Martin & Metcalfe 2002, p. 267,275).

5.5.2. Implications of information overload for the library

Hopkins presented some of the attempts that have been made in library and informationscience to help users to cope with information overload. These were categorized as ideaspresented in the past but have not been widely adopted and some present approaches. Hopkinspresented a speculation about some future ways to deal with information overload (Hopkins

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1995, p. 311). Condensed surrogates are a well established coping strategy. This strategy wasadapted in the past and it still has relevance in the present. With condensed surrogates Berniermeans abstracts in particular, but reviews, extracts, articles in encyclopaedias, textbooks,handbooks and a few publications of terse conclusions (Bernier 1980, p. 313).

The past ideas include also a quality information filtering system which reduces the quantityof journal literature on a specific subject to a few highly relevant and easy accessible items.This information system was used successfully (Hopkins 1995, 315f). Today the qualityfiltering system as one of value-added services to user of library and information systems isone that is already established in information analysis centre like the Congressional ResearchService, and some special libraries. Although Taylor stated that many special librarians dopossess the necessary time and expertise to filter, select, delete or rank output by perceivedimportance for their clients (Taylor 1986, p. 129). Hopkins suggests that many speciallibraries do not have time neither money nor staff to be able to put a great deal of emphasis onthe quality filtering of information. Hopkins concluded that it is unlikely that the qualityfiltering services will offer a radical solution to the problem of information overload (Hopkins1995, p. 317).

Another present approach (1995) to overload is the provision of printed guides, handbooksand state-of-the-art review articles. These types of sources are effective in assisting the user tomake quality judgments about the relevance of documents for a particular information need.What implications does this approach have for the library and for the librarian? First, is thatthe librarian must be aware of each type of guides, and identify and purchase them for thecollection. Second, the librarian must be adept at accessing the various types of guides. Third,librarian may identify some gaps in the present guides and try to fill these gaps by developingnew guides or contribute by informing publishers about desirable new titles. Fourth, make thelibrary users aware of the existence of these guides (Hoppkins 1995, p. 317- 321).

A systematic review was considered by Klassen, Jadad and Moher as strategy to counterinformation overload. Systematic review is a review in which there is a comprehensive searchfor relevant studies on a specific topic, and those identified are then appraised and synthesizedaccording to a predetermined and explicit method. The review may have some limitations asthe difficulty to identify all potentially relevant studies to include and the variable quality ofstudies included (Klassen, Jadad & Moher 1998, p. 700-702).

Though it is a fact that new information and communication technologies are partlyresponsible for the problem of information overload they also provide something in the wayof solution. Many systems and functions were suggested. These systems were regrouped intothree classes: a) intelligent search agent, b) systems for automatically ranking and filtering e-mail and c) systems for customising retrieved information after its arrival (Bawden, Holtham& Courtney 1999, p. 254).

To be really useful, information needs to have value added to it by way of summary oranalysis. Intelligent agents that scan and summarise text and automatically route theinformation for users have been proposed as a tool to help reduce information overload.Intelligent agents are smarter than average search tools for two reasons: The first is that theyact with autonomy while requiring data about the environment and the second is that theyhave the facility to learn about individual preferences so that they predict the items that willbe of interest for the user (Edmunds & Moris 2000, p. 22).

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The request for an intelligent agent to filter incoming material, and/or scan for interestingthings in a variety of sources was the only technical solution, to cope with informationoverload, suggested by several interviewees in pharmaceutical research companies (Bawden,Devon & Sinclair 2000, p. 155). The intelligent agent is designed to act autonomy in theperformance of the tasks of gathering, sifting and organizing information on the Internet andcorporate Intranet. It basically operates as a collaborative adjunct to knowledge workers’information needs (Martin & Metcalfe 1994, p. 270).

What relevance has intelligent agents for the library? Martin and Metcalfe stated that the useof intelligent agents, which interface and collaborate with the end user, represents a desirableenhancement to library services. Agents can be used as collection management tools, throughseeking, analyzing and delivering information for review. A degree of similarity has beenobserved between the actions of software agents and the reference librarians. Each take inaccount the information requirement of a client, discovers and utilizes the best sources andcodifies the information for delivery (Martin & Metcalf 2001, p. 272). According to Martinand Metcalfe:

The library community can be seen as a class of cooperative, distributed, but in this casecognitive, agents; and librarian employ knowledge sharing as a matter of course. (Martin &Metcalf 2001, P. 272)

Since the library client is often best placed to know and act on her or his interests, it remainsfor the librarian to facilitate access by providing the most efficient and ready methods ofdelivery. This might be accomplished through customizing contact points such as the libraryWeb pages. As the librarians know their vital role in smoothing access to the library’s rangeof resources, they have introduced a customizable interface to the library Web site, whichallows links like: citation databases, electronic journals, search engines, discipline-specificInternet resources and importantly CAS linked to the library catalogue (Ibid, p. 269-270).

Hoppkins considered that electronic searching tools are admitted to help users to cope withinformation overload (1995, p. 317- 321).

A recent technological development to reduce overload is push technology that works bypushing notices of pre-selected information sources across the computer screen alerting usersto new and updated information. While there is debate about if push technology reduce theproblem of information overload or contribute to it, many users who suffer from informationoverload view push as an annoying nuisance that provides little of value (Edmunds & Moris2000, p. 20).

6. The pharmaceutical industry

The pharmaceutical industry is defined as the collections of companies that discover, developmanufacture and market medicines for human use. Some research-based companies may fulfilall four of these criteria, while others may only meet one, two or three of these criteria(Spilker 1994, p. 7). Spilker stated that for research-based pharmaceutical companies, themost critical issue today is maintaining a flow of new, innovative medicines that ensure thecompany’s growth and survive. To meet this challenge companies are adopting strategies todevelop their medicines and attempting to improve their efficiency of medicine discovery anddevelopment (Ibid, p. 15).

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The research-based pharmaceutical industry is well-known as being one of the mostinformation intensive industries involving many scientific, medical and commercialdisciplines, and generating very large amount of data from its own program. Since theexistence of diverse disciplines in the pharmaceutical industry, many and varied informationsources were required. Information sources may be categorized as formal and informal.Formal sources include both printed and computerized information services and normallycome within the remit of a library and information science service (Desai & Bawden 1993, p.486-487).

6.1. AstraZeneca

AstraZeneca is one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies. Its task is to developand market new and effective medicine. AZ’s goal assumes a constant and strong engagementin innovation in research. This is a part of AZ’s goal; to improve and develop the existingmedicine is another part. More than 80 million crown is invested each working day to developnew products. R&D is carried on at nine major research sites situated in five countries:Sweden, Great Britain, USA, Canada and Indian (AstraZeneca 1, 2003). AZ’s Headquarter isin the UK and the R&D headquarters in Sweden. AZ sells in over 100 countries, manufacturein 20 and have major research centre in five. The number of the employees is 58,000 peopleworldwide (AstraZeneca 2002a, p. 01).

R&D is formed of three unities: Discovery, development and market. It is focused onimproving productivity and efficiency of new drug delivery. In discovery, the aim is toincrease the output of high quality candidate drugs (CDs) with a lower risk of failure indevelopment. In development, the aim is to develop better drugs faster. In R&D work over11,000 people at the nine major sites. The 2002 R&D investment totalled $3,069 million(AstraZeneca 2002b, p.21). Researches at AZ cover seven different disease areas:Gastrointestinal, Cardiovascular, cancer, Respiratory, Central nervous system, pain controland infection. Developing a new medicine is a lengthy and complex process in which animalstudies play a vital role. It starts with the identification of a need for a new medicine andpasses through two long phases: drug discovery and drug development. This process takes 10to 15 years (AstraZeneca 2002c, p. 3-5).

AstraZeneca R&D Mölndal is one of AZ’s larger research centres. Approximately 2,300employees work for research and development of cardiovascular and gastrointestinalmedicines. AstraZeneca R&D Mölndal covers the range of pre clinical, pharmaceutical andclinical trials, and contact with authorities. Over the years, research at Mölndal hascontributed to the production of the most successful and the highest selling medicineOmeprazol that has been marketed under the name Losec. Losec is used to treat a variety ofgastrointestinal diseases and disorders. Nexium is a follow-up to Losec and it has beendeveloped at Mölndal centre now. Nexium is an even more effective proton pump inhibitor.When it come to cardiovascular medicine researchers at Mölndal are also working on severalinteresting projects such as thrombosis inhibitors that will prevent the occurrence of bloodclots (AstraZeneca 2, 2003).

At AstraZeneca, there are many divisions that furnish researchers with information, some ofthese department are:

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§ Knowledge management: they work with publications. They do not make searches.§ Information support in different Bioinformatics; they are looking for how the

information will be delivered. They provide databases, work with internationalmarketing and buy new databases.

§ International market.§ PR (Public Relation) and Communication deliver different kinds of information. Its

mission to present the industry in the mass media, to provide internal journals andinternal information (Librarian 4). The information division handle information aboutthe company at a whole. They are responsible for the Intranet which may sometimecause overload (Librarian 1).

§ The library, further referred as IS&L, serves everyone at AZ. According to theinformation management policy at the library level, IS&L aims to furnish theresearchers with the information they need in all areas (Librarian 4).

At AZ different departments do the same things done by the library though partnership in theinformation policy but they don’t compete with each other. If the library is to do the entire jobdone by other departments it will need more financial support (Librarian 4).

According to a librarian, there is a huge information flow within AZ, at all levels andfunctions, not just the library. The main part of the information is not related to the library atall. The main part of the information and communication is related to research in itself(internal, in-house data). The library does supply information to the scientists and other staff.They visit the library and use its services when they have a need for external, publishedinformation (personal communication 1, 2003).

6.2. The library at AstraZeneca

The library at AstraZeneca R&D Mölndal is known as Information Science andLibrary/Documentation Centre. According to a librarian, the Documentation Centre will notbe a part of the library IS&L from autumn 2003. IS&L is placed in the centre of theAstraZeneca’s building on the third floor and it is divided into two floors. The researcherspass the library to the cafeteria and the restaurant. There are 16 librarians working at IS&L.

At the library and next to the information disk researchers can find printed manuals that helpthem to learn how to use new tools that are provided by the library. The library offers also on-line manuals that can be reached through the library homepage. Opposite to the main libraryentrance researchers can take a break with a cop of coffee at bubblan where they can readnewspapers, current journals and look at new books that are displayed. At bubblan, theresearchers can also read some overviews about new papers that came out and advertisementabout new issues of medical journals.

IS&L’s mission is:

To provide an industry-leading information capability developing value-added andinnovation solutions in support of AZ business goals across all SET in an environment thatfosters partnerships, collaboration and empowerment. (IS&L information policy, 2003)

The library policy is to keep itself informed and to inform its clients (Librarian 3). It works tomake all the researchers get the information they need. The library manager affirmed that it is

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different with a common information policy at AZ because different departments havedifferent information needs. The library cooperates in a very good way with differentdepartments. It works according to their needs. There are people from the library who work insome departments. IS&L works very closely with the projects and accepts each request. Aninformation specialist works within the project and helps to search information. The idea towork with the researchers in projects was an initiative from the library side and it started in1995-1996.

IS&L is a corporate library with traditional library services, although in an “electronicenvironment”. The most important services are:

• Published information in form of journals, ejournals, books etc.• Copies of articles.• External and internal databases (structured information: bibliographic databases,

chemistry, patent, pipeline and news.• Professional database searches on behalf of users.• End user education• Purchasing books (personal communication 1, 2003).

BooksIS&L provides the book catalogue AZlib that contain more than 12 000 titles held at the AZsite in Mölndal. All books, except reference books are available for lending. Books are keptboth in the library and at the research departments (Information Science & Library 2003).According to librarians, books are not used that much nowadays. About 1500 books arebought every year both for the library and the researchers. On AZ’s homepage can researchersread about new books that come in (Librarian 2).

JournalsAt the IS&L there are about 2000 e-journals that are accessible through IS&L’s homepage.IS&L subscribes also to about 600 printed. Only 500 of these journals are used. Researchersask by themselves about the new journals they want. Through AZ’s homepage the researchersannounce their interest about journals and articles. When these arrive they get e-mail throughalert (Librarian 1).

Copies of articlesLibrary customers can make their own copies of printed and electronic journals from IS&L’scollections. Otherwise the copy requests should be ordered through the document ordersystem Bestis (Information Science & Library, 2003).

DatabasesIS&L provides access to a more than 69 databases within the scientific, medical, commercial,patent, safety and technical areas. These databases are available on the Mölndal site (Ibid,2003). Some of the most used databases at AZ, according to a librarian (1):

§ Ovid: some of databases as Medline, Embass, Biosis and others are available throughthe OVID system.

§ Medline is a bibliographic database produced by US National Library of medicine,coverage from 1066 to present.

§ Embase, Excerpta Medica database covers the biomedical and pharmaceuticalliterature, with emphasis on European sources.

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§ PL@net is a database, produced by Global IS&L, containing references to andabstracts of published literature on AZ’s products. It also contains selectedpublications from competitors and background material.

§ Biosis Previews is a comprehensive bibliographic database for life science research.§ IDdb, Investigational Drugs database, to follow the competitors. It provides

monograph of drug candidates, patent reports, company profiles scientific references,etc.

§ Amiracle an intern database. Several sets of information among them ThrombinMölndal is available through the Amiracle system.

§ Current contents are a table of contents database with a broad coverage of scientificjournals, including bibliographic data and abstract.

§ European Pharmacopoeia 2001 covers all medicines in Europe.§ FASS§ PHARMAPROJECTS provide profiles of drug candidate from preclinical to launch.§ U.S. Pharmacopoeia-National Formulation (USP-NF): provides the official FDA

standards, testing guidelines, and specifications that are needed, in one comprehensiveresource. It Keeps on top of current developments in standards and test methods thataffect AstraZeneca products (IS&L homepage, 2003).

The library keeps itself up-to-date, especially when it comes to databases. It gets a lot ofadvertising but there is no time to look at all that. The library buys new databases according towhat the researchers’ need and wish. Some new databases come and other disappears. At thelibrary they work globally and they have people all around the word to look at theses things.The library has access to News databases on the Internet. The library staffs have their ownsystems as New Edge which is a specification of different news (Librarian 3).

ToolsEndNote is a reference manager which is specialised in storing, managing and searching forbibliographic references in the private reference library (Information Science and Library,2003).

Database searchesIS&L provides professional database searches on behalf of its users. Information specialistsplay an important role at AZ in helping researchers to find the relevant literature (Librarian 2).When the researcher come on 800 hit the library come on 200. New researchers think they cansearch by their own but they come back to the library. The “big researchers” are those whouse the most the library searches. The chemists perform their own search and are generallyvery skilled at information seeking (Librarian 4).

With their scientific backgrounds and information science skills, information specialists canprovide services as:

• Retrospective searches: finding the right databases among in-house and on-linedatabases for scientific literature, patents, news and competitor information.

• Current Awareness: which means create project-related or individual profiles keepingthe library users up-to-date within their area and providing the search results in themost appropriate form.

• Pa tent Information: carry out complex and comprehensive searches using the searchlanguage, codes and indexing of each database.

• Competitor Information: providing charts of drugs in development at differentcompanies, in different therapeutic areas and specified indications.

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• Project Teams: participate in project teams to proactively provide relevant informationand give search support.

• Desktop Databases: offering support and end-user training for databases and toolsavailable through IS&L. The library can also provide departments with tailor-madecourses (information science &Library, 2003).

Patent documentsPatents are available on desktop through the Micro patent service. The user of this service cansearch front-page information and download the complete patent documents. Translation ofpatents can be ordered via SI&L (Ibid, 2003).

The researchers have their own subscriptions to databases and other sources, these researchersuse the most the library services. They buy their own databases and they have contacts allover the world (Librarian 3). About 100 researchers have their own subscription to journalsbut they still use the library services. They visit the library if they are new or if they want touse a new thing. Some researchers think the library don’t have too much to do because theyget everything through their desktop (Librarian 1).

It takes long time before the researchers are conscious about the problem of informationoverload. The first sensation for the problem was with the provision of ejournal. Alert helpsthe researchers to reduce the information flow (Librarian 4). Researchers may overestimatetheir own abilities. According to a librarian (1), one of the researchers had announced for 30journals via e-mail alert and didn’t now how to cancel the request or minimize it.

Staff at the international marketing department does not always have the time to read fullarticles instead they prefer to read abstracts. The library provides an in-house database withreferences to articles about AZ’s products and decease areas. In this database the marketingpeople find the abstracts they need so that they do not have to read the full articles. There arealso contact person in the library that inform the marketing department about interestingarticles at the present time the library is working on something that it will look like review orhandbook where relevant articles on a specific area are gathered (Librarian 4).

7. Metod

Qualitative research is a situated activity that located the observer in the world. It involves aninterpretive, naturalistic approach to the world. This means that qualitative researchers studythings in their natural settings, attempting to make sense of, or to interpret, phenomena interms of the meanings people bring to them. Qualitative research involves many practices ascase studies, interviews, observations and others used to get a better understanding of thesubject matter at hand (Denzin & Lincoln 2000, p. 3-4).

Qualitative researches generate a theory grounded in the collected data. It is less driven byvery specific hypotheses and categorical frameworks and more concerned with emergentthemes and idiographic descriptions. One of the cornerstones of the qualitative approaches isits acceptance of the inherent subjectivity of the research endeavour (Cassell & Symon 1994,p. 3-4). A defining characteristic of qualitative research is its focus on the participants’ pointof view (Lee1999, p. 40) and the present study emphasis on the scientists’ way ofexperiencing information overload in term of staying current, within their natural settings andhow do they perceive the role of the library in helping them to cope with information

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overload. Qualitative methods are also known to be flexible in the meaning that they allow toadjust the ongoing data collection and much more quickly to respond to context specificconstraints (ibid, p. 27).

7.1. Interview

The qualitative researches used different ways to generate empirical materials grounded in theeveryday world. Interviewing is one of these ways. It can be used for measurement or itsscope can be the understanding of an individual or a group perspective (Fontana & Frey 2000,p. 645).

The interview is revealed to be the most common qualitative method practiced inorganizational research (Lee 1999, p. 24). This approach is known to be a highly flexiblemethod and it is capable to produce data of great depth. The goal of using this approach is tosee the research topic from the perspective of the interviewee (King 1994, p. 14).

Two kinds of interviews were made: the first was with the library manager and threelibrarians to look learn about the library role at AZ while helping scientists to keep up to dateand to avoid overload. The second was with the scientists to have an understanding about theperceived role of the library in helping them to cope with information overload. To meet thisgoal, the questions of the interviews with the scientists, and as King stated, were open andfocus on the specific situation in the world of the interviewees, in this case AZ (1994, p. 15).The most useful data, come from face-to-face interview with a relatively small group ofresearchers at AZ, using semi structured individual interviews.

The present study aimed to have a representative picture at AZ. It was not that easy becausethe researchers are too busy to participate in a study that is not suggested by the organisationand because of lack of time. They may think that the study has not a direct relevance to theirwork. The choice of the interviewees was not mine and I was obliged to delegate the task to alibrarian, who helped me to contact the scientists and to find some willing participants. Hesent email to about 15 researchers that were thought to be willing and can participate and whohave a major contact with the library, according to the librarian. There was no possibility toselect the participants according to a specific criterion; the most realistic was to find somewilling to participate. To interview some scientists who have a major contact with the libraryand its staff and use the library services was considered a possible good criterion look at howthe scientists perceive the role of the library in helping them to cope with overload. Thiscriterion was considered suitable to the purpose of the present study. Those who answeredwere only 9 researchers. Eight of them were researchers; the ninth one was not. The eightinterviewees were all scientists in various research areas and disciplines and with variousseniority and length of service.

The eight respondents were told by e-mail, sent in advance (Annex 1), about the purpose ofthe study, what it hopes to achieve and when they may receive a copy of the study. Thesepoints were repeated at the start of every interview and I took the permission to tape-recordthe interview. The length of the interviews varied between 20 minutes and 45 minutes. I haveused an interview guide (Annex 2) that was quite detailed but the questions were not asked,all the time, in a specific order, because the interviewees had sometimes answered thequestion before I asked it. There were also some probes to remind me to explore certain areain more dept. My primary concern with the interview guide was to estimate the individual

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experience. With the six first questions I wanted to investigate how each of the respondentsexperiences the problem of information overload in term of keeping up-to-date with currentliterature, at AZ. The other three questions are related to the coping strategies used byresearchers. With the last three questions I intend to discuss how do the researchers perceivethe role of the library in relation to the problem of information overload and maintainingcurrency.

When it comes to the interviews with the library staff, the interviews were all informalconversations where I didn’t follow any interview manual. The first one was my first step atAZ. Two librarians were met, at the same time. During this interview the library and itsservices were presented to me. The other three interviews were conducted to look at thelibrary role in the organization while providing information to the researchers, to find itspolicy and how do (if they do) help the researchers to cope with information overload. Theresults of the interviews with the librarians are not directly used, in the present study, to buildan understanding about the library role; they are sometimes used in the discussion chapterwhen it is revealed to be needed.

7.2. Analysis

The main techniques for analyzing qualitative data involve various applications of storing,organizing and indexing data (Lee 1999, p. 96). The data gathered through the interviews withboth the researchers and the librarians were written down entirely. The data from theinterviews with the researchers was organized first under three headings related to the threemain parts of the questions. Then under each heading there were some others headings wherethe data was organized according to different areas threaten in the questions of the interviews.

• Information overload at AstrZeneca:- The researchers’ information tasks.- Information sources and databases.- Sources of information overload.- Information overload and currency.- Other kinds of overload.

• The researchers’ coping strategies:- Strategies to cope with information overload.- Personal information management.- The researchers’ information literacy.

• The library as perceived by the researchers:- The library services and currency.- The library role in countering information overload.- General approaches to information overload.

The data from the interviews with the librarian were connected both to the observations I havemade while visiting the library and to the unpublished documents about the library. The datawas assumed to be suitable in the sixth chapter, under the role of the library at AZ.

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7.3. Problem with the application of the method

The major problem I faced was in finding some scientists who were willing to participate.They were only eight researchers, which mean that the present study is not representative forthe whole organisation.

While presenting and analysing the results of the empirical study, it was sometimes toodifficult to regroup the data under only one of the three headings, because the answers givenby the researchers could be used in the three headings at the same time. For example some ofthe researchers started at the very beginning talking about the library role while answering thesecond and third questions. Then they talked about it again while answering the last threequestions. This made it difficult to decide where the data was more suitable and I thought ofreorganizing the results differently, each interview for itself. But this was not revealed to havemajor affects on the final results of the study. That is why the analysis of the data was as it isrepresented in the chapter 8.

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8. Results the empirical study

This chapter includes the results of the interviews with the researchers. The length of serviceof the researchers at AZ varies between five years and twenty nine years. Some of them havebeen in the field, R&D, even longer.

8.1. Information overload at AstraZeneca

The work of the researchers at AZ involves many information tasks. The information sourcesused by researchers as well as the sources for information overload will be presented here.

8.1.1. The researchers information tasks

Five of the respondents agreed that they need much information in their work. The work ofone of them is 100% based on information. Three of the researchers stated that keeping up-to-date with the current state of the art of the field is important. According to the half of therespondents, to know what the competitors are doing and to check out what is going on isimportant. Two respondents affirmed that they need to know what to expect and about newstudies coming out. One of them added that the interpretation of these new studies and thefuture ideas, are important.

Almost all the respondent stated or strongly stated that they went about seeking and usinginformation in their work. Information use was perceived by two respondents as a main partof the daily work. Five of the respondents do information seeking by them. According to twoof them information seeking constitutes 50% of their work that includes also analysing andpresenting information. One of the researchers stated that s/he is information provider andhelps people to find information. The researcher added that:

Sometimes my role is intelligent scientist. I gather the information and write it so thatpeople can find it; I transform the information to knowledge. (Respondent 8)

Another respondent stated that it can happen that s/he searches information. The respondentshad different attitudes to information seeking; two of them search the information they knowexists, another researcher seeks new information. Someone else searches scientific databasethat is related to the work that the researcher performs. Another interviewee stated that s/heknows where to find information when it is needed. Another said that s/he has knowledge andthat s/he can chose the results that exist.

8.1.2. Information sources and databases

Six of the participants get the information about the literature they need to stay current in thefield through self searching in the Internet and databases such as CA Select, IDdb, thepharmaceutical chemistry that covers all the journals in the pharmaceutical science and the

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Chem web which is free. Ovid which is a database host, offer access to Medline and Embass,was mentioned by most of the researchers as an information source. These databases are useddifferently by different researchers. While two respondents mentioned Ovid in general as themain source, another respondent suggested Medline as a major source where the researchergets daily up-to-date information using set of key words that runs every night against Medlineand by that it will pull up what has happen, in the areas that interested the researcher, so everymorning s/he has a long list with e-mail, telling which articles have been published in theinterval of a day or a week, and in which journal and get the abstract.

Two researchers stated that today it is much easier to find information about the currentliterature and that in the past they could not make searches. All the searches were done bylibrary staff. Today the researchers have Ovid. One researcher stated that is easier to searchthrough Ovid than the Internet. Another one affirmed that the only disadvantage with Ovid isthat it covers journals only from the 1996 and it is difficult to find a book that cover the periodbetween 1920 and 1996, which does not exist in Ovid. That leads to the repetition of earlierresearches.

The Internet was the most commonly cited source to get hold of current literature and articles.Four interviewees agreed with that. One of them stated that 75% of what is needed exists inelectronic forms. According to the respondent, everything goes through the library; it hasaccess to these, the company pays for that, it is just to follow the links from Ovid into thepapers. The respondent added that the library organizes all this and the researchers haveaccess to index of all the electronic journals that exist at AZ, if the researchers need a specificjournal they just go to that journal. It goes through the library portal. The respondents statedthat only 25% is through ordering through the library, in case the researchers do not have alicence or the reference does not exist in electronic form. Another respondent affirmed thatthe literature may be requested from the library if the researchers do not have access to it.

Besides using the Internet, another interviewee order copies from the library. Three of therespondents used to order the articles if they do not exist on the Internet. One of them whouses this service quite a lot and mentioned that to order the articles directly from desktop is agood system and it works extremely well at AZ. The library offers interlibrary loan; one of theinterviewees specify that the library has good systems to obtain articles from British lendingservices and s/he is very pleased with that, and it takes a week or something like that. It is agood time. The respondent used to order books and some old literature, to check out the oldliterature which is needed in preparing articles and not to find new things; retrospective is themost important for the researcher. Two participants cited that asking the library staff to get theinformation they need is practically an alternative. One respondent stated that s/he knows theservices offered through the library homepage and that s/he directly goes to current contents ifit is necessary.

When it comes to the current literature, the books were not seen for today. Today there is nottoo much books, it is much articles.

Two of the interviewees referred to the circulation list that AZ used to have few years ago as agood way to get the current information in one condition that the journals reach the researcherin short time other way it will be for no help. One of the participants used to have 20 journalsthrough the circulation list of journals but the journals are today electronic.

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Almost half of the respondents cited e-mail alert as an alternative used to get informationabout current literature. One of them specified that e-mail alert is a good service but it needs acontinual work to keep it updated. Another mentioned an alert from a site which collects allinformation in specific areas that the researcher decides to have information about. It comesonce a day, once a week or a month. Some other respondents get a long list with e-mail alert.Although one of the researchers stated that s/he does not try alert, another researcher claimsthat because of lack of time, s/he does not have alert any more.

An interviewee suggested, as a source for current information, a channel for cardiovascularwithin AZ. It is a function that researchers can subscribe to, to get information every weekabout most important new publications within that area and within some other areas related tomost important fields that AZ works in within cardiovascular deceases areas. In early phase inthe project it doesn’t give much value information but the researcher scan it very quickly.

Four of the respondents mentioned that they keep some current knowledge in the field bytalking to people that are working in something that is interested for the researcher. For one ofthem this is the most useful alternative. According to another researcher through oralcommunication the researcher gets current information about the related fields. Anotherresearcher that likes to be better up-to-date in the related areas of cardiovascular deceasesstated that reading some overview articles in a related field is what s/he is keeping doing nowand then. Another researcher suggested that information does exist but because of timeproblems, the researcher does not scan journals to find what is going on. That is very little anyway.

One of the respondents that is working in projects stated that s/he needs very much currentinformation and s/he gets information via professional contacts both internal and external, andboth for the clinical studies and the preclinical work. Internally the respondent getsinformation through professional contacts and externally through physicians, investigatorsand consultancies who reported about new things they think are important, about new studiescoming out and how they do interpret them. The researcher added that:

at the market organisation, they do not test and collect marketing data but also they detectand follow up clinical studies to the other compounds being done all over the world, newresults reporting in conferences and in papers, so that we get current things. (Respondent 4)

While one respondent mentioned the Intranet as an alternative through it the researcherreaches many links, another respondent stated that the Intranet is not worth looking at. Therespondent uses it once a year.

Contact network, literature references, patent references, surfing for customers and newcolleagues via Internet were cited as additional sources to get information about the currentliterature. One of the participants referred to personal contacts, some types from conferencesand e-mail, adverse and news papers as ways to get hold of the current literature.

8.1.3. Sources of information overload

To answer the question whether the researchers think that they are dealing with too muchcurrent literature more than they can handle, three of the researchers who have respectively,17, 25 and 29 years of working experience in R&D, strongly agreed with that. One of them

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wished to have more time to read all the gathered literature and a part of what is gathered, therespondent just skims it.

The information send via Alert was perceived by the second respondent as much. Therespondent added that:

I would like to read much more, I would like to read the relevant paper. The dream is to havefive papers covering exactly what I want. That is the dream. You have to perform severalsearches to get these five articles. If I got a lot of irrelevance I throw them away. When I dosearch, in general I get information and it is too much, that such, that is why I keep doingover and doing... If we set up a search, it is important we scientists to know ourselves how tomake adequate searches. And also training and doing that give us the means of getting thosefive papers that we need, I mean the limited number of relevant articles. (Respondent 4)

The third interviewees stated that s/he is dealing with too much information more than s/hecan handle. The respondent added that s/he tend to make broader search and follow differentlinks.

One of the participants, while answering this question, associated directly the too muchcurrent literature with information overload when s/he stated that in some area there isinformation overload, mainly when it comes to the two areas: gastrointestinal deceases andcardiovascular deceases. The participant, who is working in obesity research, affirmed if s/hemight to know everything about the field, the researcher may find hundred new papers perday, new papers that are available, in this case it is too much. In some cases where theresearcher works in specific protein family or something like that, there is one paper everyweek or month, is not that much happening. According to the respondent, it depends on whatthe researchers are looking at, and in some areas there is definitively information overload.

Four of the respondents, whose length of service varies between 6 years and 27 years,affirmed that they are not dealing with too much current literature. While one of them statedthat the literature s/he gets is necessary and s/he can deal with it, the respondent mentionedthat the big problem is to have enough time to read and reflect on the information in thearticles. Another respondent experienced that wrong information is the problem. Anotherrespondent stated that it is not always overload, it is sometimes lack of information. When theresearcher does not find s/he tries again.

Though one of the four and who works in Discovery department, stated that s/he generallydoes not need too much information, affirmed in another question that s/he suffer fromoverload. Another respondent stated that things have changed. The circulation list hasdisappeared and today the researcher chooses the journals s/he wants to subscribe to. Two ofthe four mentioned that there is a risk not to read everything and to miss some information.According to one of the respondents, her/his colleagues said often that they have too much toread, some of them have subscribed to journals on the Internet.

One of the respondents claimed that mostly they obtained too much information; lot ofinformation in the organization, administrative information and tremendous information fromthe projects, which they are working with and participating to.

According to a respondent, it is too much information circling on the Internet and whichmakes the researcher overloaded.

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8.1.4. Information overload and currency

Five respondents, whose length of service varies between 6 and 29 years, agreed or stronglyagreed that the problem of information overload in research is related to maintainingcurrency. One of the interviewees who has a long experience in R&D, more than 25 years,came in saying: “I have information overload” (respondent 5). Another who works for AZsince 1986, laughed and affirmed to have a big backlog of unread papers beside her/his bed.According to the respondent, what is needed is to accept this.

Three of the respondents who agreed with that gave some comments. The first respondentadded that a lot of people will concentrate on a little part and leave the rest. To cover a wholefield it will be totally impossible, but to narrow to the very specific field that the researcherworks with will makes it possible to handle the information. That is why the researcherfocuses on a small sector that is needed in her/his work.

The second respondent suggested that the relation between overload and currency depends onthe level that the researcher aims at it, if s/he thinks it is absolutely necessary to be ware ofeverything then s/he is likely to be overloaded.

The third respondent explained that it is not a general problem. The researcher agreed if thearea of interest is too broad and then one need to narrow her/his view because the problem isnot the information itself but it is that the researcher’s broad view.

Another participant looked at the problem of information overload as a personal approach,where the researchers want to know what is done before and what they are doing to stay onthe front line. According to the respondent, the researchers want to analyse it, read more aboutit, it has to do with professionalism. The researchers want to be well informed; it is their duty,their purpose and their task to stay up-to-date.

For two of the researchers who work 6 respective 17 years at AZ, the relation betweeninformation overload and maintaining currency does not exist. While one of them whoaffirmed strongly that s/he does not experience that there is relation between overload andmaintaining currency. The other one suggested that the researcher must know what otherresearchers are doing but this can be uncomfortable. The researcher may spend as much timeon searching information but the question is how much time do the researcher has? Accordingto the respondent, in this society, where there is too much information, there is too much todo, that is why “casting” is a right thing, and s/he does it. According to the respondent, theresearcher solves the problem by her/himself.

8.1.5. Other kinds of overload

While one of the respondents did not experience any other kinds of overload, anotherrespondent affirmed that:

When I feel information overload it is when it comes to be up-to-date, that is the only areawhere I feel there is a problem. (Respondent 7)

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At AZ, work overload manifested to be a serious kind of overload, where two researchersstated that there is too much to do. According to one of the respondents, the researchers at AZtook advantage of the information and are using it too much.

Information overload in some areas, according to a respondent, is more process relatedinformation. Process related overload, according to the respondent is the whole process thatresearchers need to go through, how to handle various things within the company how to dealwith clinical studies, for example, to plan for the project that takes into account everythinglike finance, patents, and check points and so on. It is in the way the researchers work. Thebig problem is this kind of information overload.

While talking about e-mail and Intranet, one of the interviewees said that they are sometimesseen as a burden. Another respondent stated that information is not user-related and theinformation pushed to a researcher together with many other people is another kind ofinformation overload. The researcher did not request the information but someone else in theorganization thinks that the researcher may need it. According to the respondent, producerswant to show that they have the full knowledge. The information pushed is an advance butused by unskilled can causes tremendous information overload. Generally e-mails are good, itmakes easy to reach people, to contact them and to send recently information, but theresearcher should always keep it as short as possible. The respondent added that the situationcan be improved.

Although five respondents stated that it is most e-mail, misuse of the e-mail. One of themaffirmed that there is a lot which is not needed but while getting rid of e-mails there is risk toget rid of important things. Another respondent affirmed that the rapid communication is acause to information overload and the researcher has to answer all the e-mails, so s/he doesnot have time to think what to do. The respondent added that the researcher does have to startthe day by getting rid of e-mails, and while getting rid of e-mail there are other things to bedone and those can not always be done in a proper way because the researcher spends the timeon reading email rather than on working.

While two participants agreed that information from the Intranet causes overload, there weretwo others who considered the Intranet as more structured and as a good aid. There the usersmay find what they need if they know where to go and where to find the information. One ofthe two respondents added that many communities now are using shared information, whichis a trend. According to the respondent, at AZ they are also working in project, they can putthe information on one screen, a community thinking on sharing and reusing information.

Another kind of information overload mentioned by one participant is that the researchersoverestimate their abilities in the meaning that they work with a problem and they findinteresting information about another and they want to work with this too. The respondentthought that this is the overload, to be interested in many areas.

Nor the e-mail neither the Intranet are causes for overload, stated one of the respondent andadded that s/he is selective and this is due to the university studies.

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8.2. The researchers’ coping strategies

The individual coping strategies suggested by the researchers were regrouped into two kinds:strategies to cope with information overload and personal information management.

8.2.1. Strategies to cope with information overload

To be selective was perceived by five participants as a strategy to cope with informationoverload. One mentioned that the researcher can not know everything about everything butneeds to be selective and to filter. Using this strategy the respondent reads just what isnecessary. Another one added that to be selective is to narrow the area of interest and to selectthe information that is needed to the most essential pieces that the researcher thinks areimportant for the work. In this case the researcher can handle that information; it is a matter ofselecting and prioritizing.

To deal with the problem of information overload, one respondent affirmed that s/he has along experience in R&D and can choose strategies. The researcher added that her/his strategyis very practice "att anpassa rätt munnen efter matsäcken”. According to the respondent, thismeans if it is lunch time so the researcher must finish, if it is time to go home than s/he mustquit and when there is not more time it means there is not more time. The respondent addedthat at AZ there are meetings and many other fixed things that must be done. According to thesame researcher this strategy is also available to work overload where the situation is moredifficult. The respondent stated that s/he controls the information that s/he searches but cannot control work overload.

To deal with information overload, three interviewees stated that speed reading is anapplicable strategy. One of them added if s/he finds 200 articles on the Internet s/he scansthem and chooses five abstracts and read them. The researcher who works at AZ for 18 yearsago, added that this strategy had developed through the years so that the researcher can knowfrom the title decide which article to choose. According to the respondent, the risk is thatmany things will be missed. According to a respondent, to reduce the time spent on readingthe literature is a possibility that is working. Another researcher who works at AZ for sexyears affirmed that s/he sometimes reads summary and abstracts and marks the importantthings, this strategy, according to the respondent is due to the university studies which made itpossible for her or him to read 50 papers per day if necessary.

One of the researchers affirmed that’s/he selects high quality journals, for example, s/he doesnot look at The National Academic of Sciences. No one had looked if it is correct or not.Another one stated that the number of journals mentioned to be read is reduced at the momentonly one journal. Another respondent that used to have “little bit too high ambition” and reads“little bit too much” had reduced that only to what is less required to the job.

One of the respondents affirmed that the strategy used to cope with overload is to cast awaythe literature but it is not that easy to cast away. The respondent reads if there is somethinginteresting or if s/he is curious about something. In general, it is difficult to cope withinformation. To work with the library people, is a strategy mentioned by another respondent.

Some strategies to deal with information overload were cited by a participant and theseinclude: To reduce the amount of alerts, to finish the task more efficiently and not go aside

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and not follow up different information, to decide more efficiently what to do with theinformation that is coming. Another mentioned strategy is to share information and to not think that no one has done thesame question before. According to a respondent, the researcher must think that someone elsehas the answer. At AZ’s side there are good possibilities to search and the problem is not inthe databases but is to learn and to teach others to search efficiently; the quality of answerdepends on how the researcher formulates the question. To limit the searching was anotherstrategy mentioned by another respondent. Another respondent affirmed that researchers havegroup meetings and usually one of them has to present new paper, they take turn to presentsomething that they find interesting, and they discuss it at a separate meeting.

One mentioned strategy related to e-mail alert is to look immediately at the alert, prints outthe abstracts and puts everything into the databases that the respondent has for collectedinformation. Another strategy is to reduce alert and to describe in which areas the researcherwants to be updated.

One of the respondents suggested that to be interviewed to discuss the problem of informationoverload may highlight some ideas to handle the problem.

For the other kind of information overload, the one related to the process, the suggestedstrategy was not to follow the supposed mandatory, read it and reflect on it, but to ask othersabout the important things in it. For the process related information overload, the researcherdoes not need to feel under informed when it comes to read the whole process, it proves it isnot necessary to read everything.

To deal with that kind of information overload that manifests by lack of information, onerespondent stated that trying again to find information is a strategy.

To deal with overload caused by the e-mail, what was suggested is generally to deal withevery e-mail as soon as the researcher marks it, to decide whether to answer it, forward it, putit where it must be or delete it and to remove directly the unwanted mail. One respondentaffirmed not having good solution and needs to be better.

8.2.2. Personal information management

To deal with the literature and the articles that the researchers need to keep up-to-date, variousstrategies were adopted. Sorting and storing them for further reading, were considered byalmost the half of the respondent as a main strategy. Two researchers suggested that they printthem, sort them in different categories. One of them prints only those that are related to thearea of interest. The other confirmed that s/he likes copies but in time of overload s/he doesnot have time to sort them in different categories. At the present time, the respondent has ahuge amount of things that need to be sorted. It is time consuming and it could be a kind ofoverload. Another respondent affirmed that the researchers must think where to put the thingsthey hear or read, to act immediately in the meaning that to send the information away or tothrow it or to put somewhere until the researcher has time to deal with it and to decide what isimportant for the researcher.

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One of the participant affirmed that s/he has personal management in dealing with theliterature s/he needs to stay current in the field. This includes: organizing the literature indifferent categories so that the researcher knows where they exist, storing them and neverthrow any paper away. The researcher collects things and keeps all the paper, at least the firstpages. To organize is a good thing.

Another respondent affirmed that organizing the overflow is a good strategy and theresearcher may feel overload if s/he does not organize. Organize on fields, on themes, onquality of paper, quality of what is known about the journal, kind of journals. Organize in themeaning: what the paper is about, where they come from, are they from some journals theresearcher does not care about? Two other researchers organise by putting the literature thatis needed in Endnote and the references in different libraries using classification words anddefinition.

8.2.3. The researchers’ information literacy

Six of the respondents who have various length of working experience at AZ, between 6 and29 years, agreed strongly with the definition of information literacy and stated that they areinformation literate and gave different comments. One of them laughed and confirmed thats/he is skilled and knows how to handle all that. Another interviewee explained that s/he triesto decide what to find and select. Two other affirmed that they use selection and judgement indealing with the literature. A fifth respondent stated somewhere else during the interview thats/he needs to be more efficient and decides if the information is for her/him or for someoneelse, is it right information and what content that make her/him interested of it.

Although one of the researchers answered that s/he needs improvement to be better, anotherrespondent stated that s/he is not information literate but needs to be.

How do the researchers evaluate their own coping strategies? Five answered that theirstrategies were effective and they give various comments. One respondent specified that theused strategies as specialization, prioritizing and selecting were effective but has not findgood strategies for e-mail. A second respondent thinks that it depends on the age, the onebecome more experienced with the years. One becomes less “hungry” and it is “strength tonot be hungry”.

One of the interviewees claimed that s/he needs to be even more efficient. In certain task s/heis satisfied but it could be more improved but s/he copes with quite a lot. The respondentadded that s/he is satisfied with the possibilities but not satisfied with the ways to get rid of it.Satisfied with the information s/he searches for her/himself but not satisfied with how theinformation is available for others. According to the respondent many needs have not beenfull field, between them possibilities, chances and available information and how to publish itso that every body that needs it can reads it. That is what they are working with, sharingknowledge.

While one of the respondent affirmed that it is difficult to say if the used strategies areeffective or not because s/he always gets the information s/he likes and this depends on whatinformation literate the researcher is. Another participant affirmed not having effective copingstrategies and that information is growing so fast that it is not possible to follow with.

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8.3. The library as perceived by researchers

The library role was divided into two parts: its role in helping researchers to stay current andits role in helping them to cope with information overload.

8.3.1. The library services and currency

Answers to question 10, about the use of the library services, were very varied. Tworespondents stated that they do not use the library services at the present time becauseeverything exists on the Internet. According to one of them, earlier the researchers have usedthe library when they will search via abstracts and via the library. At the present time theresearchers make these things by themselves. Four respondents affirmed that they most usethe databases. One cited the reference library and the library’s homepage as main services.Six of the respondent stated that they use the library to order reprints from journals that theydo not find, do not have access to or that are not available electronically. One of them usesthis service quietly extensive. Another researcher added that the articles reach her/his workplace via post and if the researcher is in hurry, s/he will pass by the library and bring them.According to the respondent, it is very seldom that s/he visits the library and that now a daythe researcher works a lot through the computer. Two respondents stated that they order booksand new books, other visits the library to check some journals or to check articles in thearchives.

The library staffs are considered as efficient, trained, and professional in different topics andexperts in performing searches. Four of the respondents mentioned that they ask the librarystaff to help them to perform some searches. Two of them may ask the library staffs whenthey could not reach any results by themselves, the other two respondents stated that they usethe library most often to retrieve current information that the researchers may not have accessto through the Internet, for example Science Citation Index. One of them adds that if s/heneeds additional information in a specific scientific area, where s/he is not currently updatedor it may extend backwards in time that s/he does not know, then s/he asks the library to helpto do search of that type of information.

Two interviewees mentioned that the library staffs organize all electronic journals and it isone way where the researchers make use of their services.

One participant stated that there is a good cooperation with the library. The respondent addedthat s/he helps people to communicate with the library staff through translation of thequestions so that the library staff can understand it. According to the respondent, at thepresent time the services used are information portals, the databases, links, tools, and news onthe Internet about what is available and updated and how to use it.

As a respondent stated, their manual help is not that often, once in month or less actually.

Almost all the participants stated that the library helps the researchers to stay up-to-date. Theanswers were all the time followed by comments. One of the respondents affirmed that thelibrary staff help them implicitly in the sense that they provide all the tools, Ovid, all theelectronic journals, e-mail, alert and so on. They do also, help in looking for patent and patentinformation. According to one respondent, the library makes announcement about available

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portals. A second interviewee stated that the library also helps through announcements aboutthe coming references as new journals on the Internet and the arrival of some books.Another one specified his answer by saying that everything the user should know is that, he orshe has to go to the library pages and there they can find different access to different account.They have information on how to use it. Many Alerts are made of library people andconnected to the researcher’s area of interest.

While one of the participants affirmed that the library has good possibilities if one wants tostay current, another respondent stated that the library’s work becomes less and less and that ithelps with copies and announcements, but some big help?

Another respondent affirmed that the library staff advertised a kind of short informationoverviews of different areas that could be of interest so that people at AZ know whensomething appears that they could need. The respondent added that these overviews need tobe short and easily read information due to the time factor and if other things are coming aseditorial and articles where important information is summarised into pages, it could bevalued if it was advertised.

8.3.2. The library role in countering information overload

When it comes to the library role in helping researchers to cope with information overload, atthe present time and in the future, there was diversity in the opinions. Though tworespondents affirmed that the library does not help them to cope with information overload,another respondent stated that the library can help them to cope with overload but s/he doesnot know how. The respondent added that “this study maybe can help us in someway”.

Another interviewee specified the answer by saying that the library is a very well maintainedlibrary that is why it helps them both to stay up-to-date and to cope with overload. Accordingto the same researcher, the library helps researchers to cope with information overload byproviding the CA (Chemical Abstract) select series where the researcher can find articlesquickly and check other publications and, according to the respondent as long as s/he keepsdo that it resolves her/his problems and s/he can trust them. Two other respondents affirmedthat the library helps researchers by training them, giving them tips and instruction andeducation on how to perform a search in adequate way. The library helps researchers bygiving assistance to go to the right direction, by communicating and working together inprojects. Another respondent affirmed that the library plays a role, with the training courses,with transferring knowledge, how to use different databases and tools. The respondentreferred to the change in the journals from printed to databases (ejournals) to affirm that thelibrary is necessary. Another respondent with a long experience in R&D (more than 20 years)stated that “the younger” think they cover the literature of the last ten years; it is a risk tothink so. To educate “the younger” and to give them some courses in literature searching andin use of reference systems is very important.

According to one of the respondents, the library can help the researchers to organizeinformation and to establish a relation between different pieces of information and toexemplify the respondent added that the researchers work on projects in the company and ifthey have a keyword it is easy, in some cases, to start the search but in many cases it is notthat simple where there is a lot of keywords and there are a lot of synonyms used orsubstances, they have different names and different countries, the library staff in this case can

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help to have bate to fish out everything that is of interest and show how it is related to eachother.

One of the participants affirmed that the library could always help the researchers to copewith information overload but the researchers need to have the literacy, to understand whetherit is relevant information or not. The respondent added that:

Within the very narrow specific area it takes a lot of specialist knowledge to be able tounderstand that and, I don’t think that is something that you can ever expect from the librarythat kind of specialist information or knowledge. In that respect I don’t think the library canhelp but together with the library you can build strategies to exclude irrelevant information,the final evaluation always has to follow up the users. (Respondent 4)

One of the participants suggested that without the library it will be a problem. The library hassome role to play in helping to cope with overload and they do today, they provide portal forall the journals, they do provide Ovid. They provide means for selective behaviour, in thatway. Ovid is a way, by searching the researchers can be selective and do not have to gothrough all the journals. Similar thing with science citation index, for six, seven years ago itwas a book formal, today library provides tools and different services, the researchers can beelective and get the interesting information through their own computer, that to overcomeoverload.

According to one respondent, the library has good services and it can help but it is up to theresearchers to contact the library. While the respondents added that to have good and up-to-date alerts can be a solution to overload. Another one affirmed that:

The library will continue to behave professionally and keep up-to-date library. It isconstantly changing and I trust it will change in the future as well. (Respondent 7)

One of the participants affirmed that the library can present the information so that it is clearand make it more available.

One of the respondents stated that the library can not help researcher to cope with that kind ofoverload due to process related overload neither with that kind related to misuse of e-mail.

8.3.3. General approaches to information overload

The researchers had some suggestions when they were asked to imagine an ideal situationwhere the problem of information overload will be solved.

Three of the respondents looked at the problem of information overload as an individualmatter. Two of them explained that today there are more and more journals, more and morepublications and there will always be more books than people can read and the researcherneeds to be more restrictive when dealing with information. According to one of them, thereis not a problem of information overload in the sense that it is something that has to be solvedbecause no one has ever said that there is a problem when they visit the library and find thatthere are too many books, so they prefer library with few books. The respondent added thathuman been prefers to have access to all the information and it is not really matter with toomuch, is not really matter with methodology, it is just a general thing. The respondentexplained that:

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I never suffer from information overload and there is something like information overload, itis just a matter that you need to know that you can’t know everything about everything,hence you need to narrow, to be selective. (Respondent 7)

The third respondent suggested that the solution needs to be individual as to reduce and todecide the limits and it is difficult to do. The respondent admitted that to be together as acollective can help to spread the burden little bit. To work as a collective was perceived byanother respondent as an ideal situation to cope with information overload. The respondentaffirmed that people are gathering information and are dealing with different topics, so toshare the work to collect and to have access to one knowledge base to put it into, and the uservisits one page, one knowledge base and gets all the updated information. According to therespondent, knowledge sharing and the community thinking are good; one site, one portal andone desktop, the researcher can publish, can share, can retrieve even can ask questions. Therespondent added that they have many information sources; they have people that are readingit and collecting it, and rewriting it sometimes and making common sense.

Another suggestion to counter the problem of information overload was to go back to thattime where information was not too much and it was much easier to find what is needed.

One of the researchers who do not experience the problem of information overload stated thatthere are two alternatives; yes or no, “the no strategy” is good.

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9. Analysis and discussion

In this part of the study, the analysis and the discussion of the answers will follow thequestions asked in the chapter of problem formulation. The results will be sometime related tothe literature and when needed to what the librarians had mentioned about IS&L. The resultsfall into three main parts:

1. The researchers’ experience of overload2. The researchers’ coping strategies3. The perceived role of the library

9.1. The researchers’ experience of overload

Two major questions will be answered in this part:1. How much information overload is related to maintaining currency?2. What are the other kinds of information overload?

9.1.1. Overload and maintaining currency

The value of currency in R&D was affirmed by the majority of the interviewed scientists atAstraZeneca when they affirmed that it is necessary to know about what is happening in aspecific area and about new publications and the future ideas. They need also to know whatthe competitors are doing. To stay up-to-date was considered as the researchers’ task, dutyand purpose. From the rich data of the study, it is clear that the researchers devote a lot oftime to keep up-to-date with the state of the art of the field and sometimes of some relatedfield. The time devoted to currency varied with the size and level of activity of the field asWilson stated (1996b, p. 192-193) and as was revealed in the present study.

According to Wilson, different people will pay very different prices for the currency theyattain (Wilson 1993, p. 637-638). While a researcher stated that 50% of her or his work isinformation seeking, another one mentioned that because of lack of time does not scan thejournals. Although Wilson mentioned that anyone working in a competitive field is unlikelyto be successful unless she or he maintains current knowledge of the state of the art in her orhis own field (Wilson, 1996b, p.129), One of the researchers affirmed that it is up to theresearchers to decide when there is not more time to spend on searching the literature. Othersresearchers stated that the researcher has other responsibilities and cannot keep up-to-date allthe time. Laskin (1994, p. 661) stated that keeping up with literature is necessary to keep upwith the competitive edge but there is a fact to be admitted that people cannot knoweverything about everything and it is impossible to keep up-to-date with the literature.

The interviews showed that there is a relation between maintaining currency and the need fortoo much information in the daily work. Almost the half of the researchers, who at the sametime considered that keeping up-to-date is necessary, affirmed that they are dealing with morecurrent literature than they can handle. The other four researchers did not agree directly withthe relation but some of them complained somewhere not having enough time to read and

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reflect on the information in the gathered articles. Another researcher expressed the risk to notreading everything. According to a librarian it takes long time before the researchers becomeconscious about the problem of information overload. The first sensation for the problem waswith the provision of ejournal.

At AZ, there was an agreement by more then the half of the researchers of the existence ofupkeep overload but it was not considered all the time as a general problem. According toresearchers, the relation between information overload and currency depends on the level theresearcher aims at and if the researcher thinks that it is absolutely necessary to be aware ofeverything so s/he is likely to be overloaded. It also depends on the area of interest; and theresearcher with a broad view will be then the problem and not the information itself.

As Wilson stated, in R&D information overload is affected by the size and level of activity ofthe field. In a small field with slow producers, researchers will not face a problem in keepingup, but in a large and very active field of fast producers researchers may feel overwhelmed(Wilson 1996b, p.193). One of the participants presented that by comparing the obesity fieldwhere there is a lot new papers each day with the research into the protein family, forexample, where there are not that many new publications. According to the respondent, theoverload feeling depends on what the researcher aimed at.

Besides the size and the level of activity, Bawden, Holtham and Courtney (1999, p. 252)suggested that the nature of the work carried out by someone and which affect the nature andamount of information required, is another cause of information overload. This was notdirectly cited by one of the interviewed researchers but s/he mentioned that as medicalresponsible s/he needs too much information about the current situation of the field.

9.1.2. Other kinds of overload

In R&D, at AZ, information overload is not just related to maintaining currency. Some of theinterviewed researchers claimed that they had experienced other kind of information overloadat AZ. Underload or lack of information instead of overload was a kind mentioned by oneresearcher. To get the wrong information was perceived by another researcher as another kindof information overload.

Two other kinds that were not mentioned in the literature appeared to have some importanceat AZ: Work overload and process related overload. At AZ there is a lot of work to be doneand work overload was considered as more difficult to deal with than information overload.Another big problem that appears in some areas is that information overload can manifest as aprocess related information where the researchers are ought to deal with a huge amount ofinformation about the projects they are working with.

Whether the e-mail, the Internet and the Intranet can cause information overload; Bawden,Holtham and Courtney affirmed that the new information and communication technology arethemselves responsible of the problem of overload. They cited the Internet, Intranet and e-mail as major contributors to information overload (1999, p. 249-252). Some of theresearchers agreed with that by considering the Intranet and the e-mail as a burden where theinformation from the Intranet was seen as a cause to overload. The information circling on theInternet was considered by a researcher as too much.

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According to Wilson (2001, p. 6), the technology is not to blame for causing informationoverload but the miss-use of technology. E-mail used by unskilled can causes tremendousinformation overload, affirmed some of the respondents. Wilson (2001, p. 11) mentioned alsothe human factors as a cause to information overload. According to Wilson, human factors arethe propensity of people to seek information and disseminate it to others, information pull andpush. The pathological states of pull and push are a result of management style. Two of theresearchers affirmed that the information is not user-related and it is pushed to manyresearchers at the same time, and that the information reached the researcher withoutrequesting it. In this case the technology is not to blame but the management practices at theorganizational level are the responsible of this pathological pull and push.

Besides the overload feeling, the pushed e-mail may causes another problem for theresearcher, while getting rid of e-mails there is risk to delete important information and thereare many other important things to be done instead of removing the unwanted mail. Theresearcher then spends time on reading mail rather than working. The rapid communication isto blame for causing information overload, according to a respondent.

The present study revealed some advantages with the Internet and the e-mail. E-mail wasconsidered generally as good that makes easy to reach people, to contact them and to sendrecently information, but it should always be kept as short as possible. The Intranet wasconsidered as more structured and as a good aid where the users may find what they need ifthey know how to search the information.

An interesting kind of information overload appeared in the present study and it is tooverestimate the own abilities. The respondent affirmed that this kind is the overload wherethe researcher is interested in many areas.

9.2. The researchers’ coping strategies

The interviewed researchers at AZ mentioned two kinds of strategies to cope withinformation: strategies used to cope with the problem of information overload and personalinformation strategies to deal with the current literature.

9.2.1. Strategies to cope with information overload

To cope with information overload, Wilson mentioned that specialisation is the response.Scientists solve the problem of information overload by narrowing the scope of their interestand by that they adjust the size of the field in which they want to maintain expertise to a levelwhere they can keep up-to-date (1996a, p. 24-25). From the results of the interviews it is clearthat researchers at AZ believed that to select the information that is needed to the mostessential pieces that the researcher thinks are important for the work and to narrow the area ofinterest was are the good strategies to cope with upkeep overload. In this case the researchercan handle that information; it is a matter of selecting and prioritizing. Though most of theresearchers affirmed that specialisation is an effective strategy to cope with overload, theyagreed elsewhere that information overload is related to maintaining currency. According toWilson, though specialisation is a solution to the problem of information overload, one cannotthink that R&D copes successfully with overload.

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To reduce the e-mail alert and to describe in which areas the researcher wants to be updatedand to reduce the number of journals were also parts of the “selective strategy”. When itcomes to journals some researchers had reduced that to what is less required to the job or toonly one journal.

Skimming and scanning were other strategies cited by some researchers at AZ. According toHopkins (1995, p. 307) skimming and scanning instead for careful reading, is a strategy todeal with information overload. Three interviewees at AZ, stated that speed reading is anapplicable strategy. One of them stated that this strategy had developed through the years (18years working at AZ) so that the researcher can know from the title which article to choose,but there is risk to miss many things. Another researcher mentioned while using this strategys/he reads just what is necessary; summary and abstracts. The researcher (6 years working atAZ), affirmed that acquisition of this strategy is due to the university studies. Thedisadvantage with this strategy and as Hopkins stated, was mentioned by the researchers andmanifested in the risk to miss important information. To focus on concepts and principlesrather than details was revealed by Laskin (1994, p. 661) also as a one solution to deal withinformation overload. According to Laskin the information user must learn to be discerningreader and to scan the abstract and focus on significant things.

The NO strategy was mentioned and used by one researcher and it means just to accept thatthere is not more time for searching and reading new information. This strategy was alsorevealed as available to work overload that was seen as more difficult to control.

To control the quality of publication is a solution to the problem of information overload asLaskin (1994, p. 661) stated. While the accomplishment of this solution on the individuallevel is difficult, one of the researchers suggested that the researcher must be selective whiledealing with information. The researcher did not approach The National Academic ofSciences because no one had controlled if it is correct or not.

A strategy mentioned by Bawden, Holtham and Courtney (1999, p. 253) is to deal with apiece if paper as soon the researcher touches it. This strategy was used by some interviewedresearchers at AZ, whether to deal with the information from e-mail alert or from the e-mail ingeneral. One respondent affirmed not having good solution to deal with information overloadcaused by the e-mail and needs to be better. Though the researcher explained that they sufferfrom overload caused by e-mail and the miss-use of the e-mail, no one suggested a solution tobe taken on the organisational level. According to Wilson (2001, p. 6), organizations need toinstitute some policy on appropriate use of the technology and policy for the use of e-mail.

Sharing information was also mentioned by researchers at AZ. One of them stated that newpapers are presented in turn in a group meeting and discussed later in another meeting.Though the researcher used this strategy to stay up-to-date and to cope with informationoverload, the importance of the time factor in R&D, may transform this strategy to anothercause of overload. According to another respondent, knowledge sharing and the communitythinking are good; one site, one portal and one desktop, the researcher can publish, can share,can retrieve even can ask question. Though the idea of sharing knowledge and to work as acollective was perceived as an ideal situation where the problem of information overload canbe solved, the question is how much can that be true in an organization as AZ, with 2000researchers with different information needs, working in different departments and indifferent phases of developing a medicine?

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Some other cited strategies include: to finish the task more efficiently and not go aside andnot follow up different information, to limit the searching, to reduce the time spent on readingand to cast away the literature. To be interviewed to discuss the problem of informationoverload was mentioned by a researcher as a strategy to handle information overload. Anotherresearcher looked at the present study as something that can help to cope with overload.

9.2.2. Personal information management

When it comes to personal information management, most of the researchers agreed that toorganise is a good strategy to deal with the current literature. Four of the researchers statedthat they sort and organize the literature in different categories to further reading. The articlesthat are related to the area of interest of the researchers may be printed. Copies are hold but intime of overload the researcher does not have time to sort them in different categories becauseit is time consuming and then it could be a kind of overload. According to researchers, to notorganize may lead to overload. The literature that is needed may be put in Endnote, and thereferences in different libraries according to some classification words and definitions.

Wilson (1996a, p. 25-26) mentioned prioritization as a strategy to deal with the literature.At AZ maybe it is better to call this strategy categorisation or just organizing. Someresearchers had mentioned that they prioritize in dealing with information overload but whenthey discussed their personal information management they just affirmed that they sort theliterature in different categories without emphasis on the term prioritization in sorting theinformation.

According to the definition of information literacy given to the researchers during theinterviews, the majority of the researchers interviewed at AZ strongly affirmed that they areinformation literate. It is clear that these researchers possess the skills cited by Bawden,Holtham and Courtney (1999, p. 253) that an information literate should have as evaluating,organizing and using information.

Though that the researchers affirmed that they are information literate, some of them hadclaimed elsewhere during the interviews that they are dealing with too much information.Despite the length of services at AZ, there was a claim to improve the skills while dealingwith information and e-mail and to learn how to be information literate. According to Pedley(2001, p. 8) the fact that end-users have access to the web does not necessarily mean that theyhave a high level of information literacy.

The strategies used by researchers to counter the problem of information overload wereevaluated by more than the half of the researchers as effective. One of the respondents relatedthe effectiveness of the coping strategies to the long experience in R&D. Another researcherrelated that to what kind of information literate the researcher is. A third one affirmed that tobe selective in dealing and handling information has developed during the university studies.

Even if one of the researchers at AZ, affirmed that the coping strategy had developed throughthe years, there were not a direct relation between the length of experience in R&D at AZ andthe coping strategies admitted by the researchers. The analysis of the interviews does notneither show that the feeling of upkeep overload is related to length of the experience ofresearchers in R&D, at least in this study. Most of the researchers who expressed having along experience in R&D affirmed that they are dealing with too much information. Some of

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the five researchers who agreed with the relation between information overload andmaintaining currency, explained somewhere in the interviews that they have been in R&D fora long time. Of the interviewed researchers, there was a researcher who has been working atAZ only since 1998 and don’t experience overload and have some effective coping strategiesthat are related to the university studies, while another researcher who has been working inR&D at AZ for more than 29 years, claimed having too much information to deal with andexpressed the need to be more efficient while dealing with information. Only one of theresearchers who has a long experience in R&D, at AZ strongly affirmed that s/he does notexperience information overload.

9.3. The perceived role of the library

The library at AZ was seen to play an important role both in providing researchers with thecurrent literature and in helping them to cope with information overload.

9.3.1. The library role and currency

Looking at the answers of the researchers, it is clear that the library fulfil its goal as a speciallibrary; to generate information and make it more available and to provide the informationneeded to help the organisation to achieve its goal. Also IS&L achieves its goal by identifyingand acquiring external sources of information and helping to organize internal sources, asGhosh and Wesley stated (2002, p. 135). According to some researchers the library isconsidered as well maintained, updater and professional.

According to some researchers, the library at AZ has good possibilities to help researchers tostay up-to-date. Besides offering access to some databases, the information portals, the tools,the ejournals, e-mail alert and announcements on the Internet about what is available, updatedand how to use it, the library at AZ, IS&L, according to the researchers, offered differentservices. All of them have used the library service to get hold of some current literature. IS&Lwas contacted by most of the researchers to order the articles that were not found on theInternet or that the researchers do not have access to (for example Science Citation Index), toask the library staff when the researchers could not reach any results by themselves, to ordercopies, to order books and new books, to order old literature and to perform some searches onthe behalf of the researchers. The researchers can find different access to different accountand information how to use them on the library pages. The library provides many alerts thatare connected to the researcher’s area of interest. IS&L helps also the researchers throughannouncements about the coming references and it helps them by looking for patent andpatent information. Most of these services were mentioned by a librarian while asking aboutthe IS&L’s role.

The data of the interviews showed that some of the databases mentioned to be importantinformation sources for the researchers were offered by the library as Ovid (Medline andEmbass) and CA Select. Beside that the library has access to some other databases and helpresearchers to get current literature. Though researchers may reach all the information theyneed through their desktop, there still some role to the library to play. Two of the researchersjustified the use of the library service by saying that the library staffs organize all electronicjournals and it is where the researchers make use of their services. Some researchers statedthat the library help is not that big and that they do not use the library services at the present

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time because everything exists on the Internet, but they affirmed elsewhere that they use Ovidbesides that they order articles and copies if they do not find them. Knowing that the libraryprovides access to Ovid and other databases, the researchers must be aware of the fact thatthey are using the library services more often.

The IS&L staffs are considered by the half of the researchers, as efficient, trained, andprofessional in different topics and experts in performing searches. One participant stated thatthere is a good cooperation with the library. Another researcher affirmed that the library staffadvertised some short information overviews of different areas that are interesting for theresearchers at AZ, so that they know when something appears, but the researcher claimed thatthese overviews need to be short and easily read information due to the time factor. Theresearcher suggested also to advertise editorial and articles which will be valued.

Few researchers visited the library nowadays. One of the researchers stated that s/he visits thelibrary to check some journals or to check articles in the archives. Another researcheraffirmed that s/he will pass by the library to bring some ordered articles, if s/he is in hurry.

9.3.2. The library role in coping with information overload

Without the library there will be problem and the library will remain necessary at AZ that iswhat some researchers affirmed; it is enough to look at the change in the journals from printedto databases (ejournals) to understand that. Through the opinions of the researchers, thelibrary proved good cost management to AZ, which according to Ball (2002, p. 39) isnecessary to libraries that are facing competitors from other information providers.Researchers highlighted some services offered by the library and which help them to copewith information overload. The library provides training courses, portals for all journals,transfers the knowledge and teaches how to use different databases and tools. The libraryhelps researchers by giving them assistance to go to the right direction, by communicatingwith them and by working together in projects. The library helps also by providing Ovid,Science Citation Index and CA Select series, which help researchers to find the articles veryquickly, to be selective and to look at other publications. Hopkins (1995, p. 321) stated thatthe electronic searching tools are admitted to help users to cope with overload.

Besides that the library helps researchers to organize information and to establish a relationbetween different pieces of information, the library staffs help researchers to find the adequatekeyword to start a search. This task was revealed very difficult by one researcher because ofthe diversity of keywords and the used synonyms in different countries. This showed that thelibrary staffs are well trained and professional in performing searches. The library is alsoworking at the present time on something like a review or handbook where some relevantstudies on a specific topic are gathered. According to Klassen, Jadad and Moher (1998, p.700) this review is considered as a strategy adopted to counter information overload.

A recent technological development to cope with information overload, was mentioned byEdmunds and Moris (2000, p. 20) and it is push technology. According to Edmunds andMoris, it works by pushing notice of pre-selected information sources alerting users to newand updated information. In the present study, e-mail alert was classified by the half of theresearchers as good to stay up-to-date in a field. Some researchers claimed that having goodand up-to-date alerts can be a solution to overload. Here it is important to notify that a

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librarian considered that the e-mail alert helps the researchers to reduce the flow ofinformation.

The pathological state of push technology, concerning the e-mail alert, was mentioned by oneresearcher who complained that the information obtained via e-mail Alert is too much.Knowing that researchers create e-mail alert by their own selves and in the areas in whichthey want to stay up-to-date; the library seems not to contributing to this pathological state.

The library role in helping researchers to cope with information overload was completelydenied by two researchers. Another respondent stated that the library can help them to copewith overload but s/he does not know how.

The future role of the library will change because the library is constantly changing andbecause it behaves professionally and keep up-to-date library. A researcher who has a longexperience in R&D considered the education of “the younger” in literature searching and inuse of reference systems as a part of the ideal situation where the problem of informationoverload is solved. According to one respondent, the library has good services and it can helpbut it is up to the researchers to contact the library. This point of view was affirmed by alibrarian who stated that IS&L offers end-user education if the researchers or a departmentrequest that.

Though the library was perceived to have an important role to play in countering the problemof information overload, the problem was considered as an individual matter and not as ageneral problem to be solved. There will always be more books and journals than one canread, the solution is to be more selective and restrictive when approaching the literature.

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10. Conclusion

In face of the challenge caused by the problem of information overload, the role of the speciallibrary is well recognized today by the research community, even if some researchers stillignore the behind-the-scenes work of the librarianship. The library at AstraZeneca or IS&L,was perceived by the researchers as professional, updated and necessary. It fulfilled its policyby being informed and by informing the researchers. IS&L provides customized informationservices as the computerized loan system, access to internal and external databases, e-mailalerts that are related to different areas of interest, interlibrary loan, photocopying anddocument delivery services. The library staffs offer also value-added services as helpingresearchers to find the most suitable information sources. They make use of their skills andthe current technology to organise the information and to establish a relation betweendifferent pieces of information. The library staffs at IS&L posses both skills in locatinginformation and technological skills that help them to find highly relevant and good qualityinformation, there for they work parallels in projects with the researchers.

IS&L’ staff helps the researchers to counter information overload by training them to use thenew technology and to perform a search in an adequate way. But the library was notconsidered as the main solution because the major contributor factor to overload was not onlythe TMI (too much information); the broad view of the researcher may sometimes interfere tomake the problem worse. Information overload was seen as an individual approach and that iswhy the solution at AZ was considered as individual where the researchers play an importantrole, in case the researcher is information literate.

Information literacy relies on the researchers’ abilities to access, evaluate and use theinformation from different sources. It involves also the personal information management asfiling and sorting information. At AZ, it seems that information literacy proved to be a goodstrategy to the problem of information overload used by most of the researchers but there stilla need for enhancement of information literacy in general and of personal information literacyas dealing with the e-mail. The need to be information literate was also expressed at AZ.Information literacy was sometimes related to the long experience in R&D and other time itwas gained through the university studies. Whatever is the cause of information literacy, itcan be considered as the results of training and the long experience in dealing withinformation. Taking this in account, the role of the library will remain an importantcomponent in the coping strategies due to the training courses that the library offers andwhich help researchers to acquire the information literacy, but it is up to the researchers tocontact the library.

It is very clear that the problem of information overload is related to maintaining currency inR&D. Currency which involves many things as new studies coming out, future ideas and thework of the competitors, was revealed to occupy an important space in the daily work of theresearchers at AZ. But upkeep overload was not the only kind of overload that manifested atAZ. Researchers may suffer from work overload, the process related information overloadand the overload caused by the e-mail in general, the miss-use of the e-mail and the Intranet.This implies that the solution to the problem of information overload is not all the timeindividual, some coping strategies must be taken at the organisational level, in this case notfrom the library side but maybe from the side of the other departments that are providing

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information to the researchers. Maybe it is the time for information managers to recognizethat a management problem exists.

Information and communication technology were seen to participate both to the problem ofoverload in R&D at AZ, and to its solution. E-mail alert and the databases were the most citedinformation technologies that help to counter information overload. Knowing that the libraryprovides these services, it becomes clear that the library role in countering informationoverload can not be denied.

It is important to notice that the library helps the old researchers as well as the youngresearchers, which means that the library follow the change in the information world and itremains all the time well maintained, updated and behaves professionally.

Some of the researchers mentioned that the present study may help them to handle theproblem of information overload. Yes it may do that because it emphasis on the role of thelibrary and elucidates the effectiveness of its services, which was not perceived by all theinterviewed researchers at AstraZeneca.

To conclude it is worthy to indicate that the solution of the problem of information overload isnot the responsibility of the library; neither is it the responsibility of the researchers only.They both provide something to the solution. A third and an important part is the informationmanagement policy at the organizational level. Knowing that researcher at AZ face thechallenge caused by information overload and that the library is one part of many otherdivisions that furnish the researchers with the information they need, it will be interesting, forfurther study, to investigate how these divisions cooperate to solve the problem of informationoverload.

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11. Summary

The goal of the present study was to develop an understanding of how researchers perceivethe role of the library in helping them to cope with information overload related tomaintaining currency. Information overload is the possession, or the knowledge of theexistence, of information one thinks to be probably relevant but does not use because of lackof time.

To reach the goal of the study, eight qualitative interviews were conducted with researchers atAZ. The selection of the researchers was based on two criteria to choose those who arewilling and have time to participle and who has contact with the library. The researchers havedifferent length of service at AZ and were judged by the librarian, the contact person at AZ, tohave a major contact with the library.

To start the study it was important to review what was written about information overload, itscauses and the strategies used to cope with the problem. Information overload in R&D isknown to be related to maintaining currency. The proliferation of the literature was revealedto be a main cause for information overload especially for the researchers who strive to stayup-to-date with the state of the art of the field. Information and communication technologywas in part a cause of the problem of information overload.

To overcome the problem of information overload many approaches were taken, themanagerial approaches include individual approaches and organisational approaches, and thetechnological which hold some relevance for the library. As individual approaches, Wilsonmentioned specialisation, where the researcher that scientists narrow their area of interest tothe level where they can keep up-to-date. Skimming and scanning was another approach tooverload. Categorisation which is to assign incoming material to different categories was alsoconsidered as an effective solution. At the individual level information literacy was seen togenerate an increasing importance and offering a partial solution to information overload. Atthe organisational level, a policy to control the use of e-mail was the most suggested solution.

Special libraries were placed in research organisation to help the organization to accomplishits goal. It provides the Current Awareness Services and Selective Dissemination ofInformation to furnish the need of information users. The emergence of the problem ofinformation overload poses new challenges for the information science. To counter theproblem many attempts have been made in the library and information profession. Theprovision of review articles, electronic searching tools and the push technology wereconsidered to have a role in helping users to cope with overload.

The results of the present study showed that that the problem of information overload dependsin a part on the value that scientists associate to currency. Scientists need to devote more timefor keeping up but they may feel overwhelmed by the current literature. At the other handthere are many other things in R&D that the researcher cannot offer for just keeping up. Thesolution was offered by many researchers as to narrow the area of interest to the level wherethe scientist is able to keep up-to-date with the state of the art of the field. According to aresearcher, at AZ the researcher is able to do that because no one expects that the researcherknows everything about everything.

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Other kinds of information overload were; work overload and process related informationoverload. The solution for the second one was easy; not to read every thing. The miss-use ofthe e-mail was revealed as a main cause of overload.

The library at AZ or IS&L was perceived to play an important role whether to provide theresearchers with the current literature through databases and other services or to help theresearchers to cope with information overload. The library can help researchers to counter theproblem of information overload by training the researchers to perform searches, by givingthem some start key words in the search, by helping in the projects and by preparing shortoverview about new publications. The library staffs were considered as well trained, efficientand professional in all the topics.

A requirement form the researcher side was if the library can advertise the review of somearticles and editorial at bubblan which will be very appreciate from the researchers side.Another request was to have updated alert to help the researchers to cope with overload.

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References

Unpublished references

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Mölndal, AstraZeneca, the interviewed researchers:

Respondent Time of employment DateRespondent 1 Started at AZ 1986 03-06-16Respondent 2 5 years 03-06-16Respondent 3 Started at AZ 1988 03-06-16Respondent 4 Sat AZ 1976 03-06-19Respondent 5 25 years 03-06-19Respondent 6 15 years 03-06-19Respondent 7 6 years 03-06-26Respondent 8 Started at AZ 1974 03-07-17

Mölndal, AstraZeneca, the interviewed librarians:

Librarian DateLibrarian 1 03-03-11Librarian 1 03-06-06Librarian2 03-06-06Librarian 3 03-06-16Librarian 4 03-06-26

Mölndal, AstraZenecaPersonal communication 1: e-mail from the acquisition librarian 1, 2003-03-26.

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Annex 1

Hello,

This study deals with individual’s strategies to cope with information overload and theimplications for the library. In research and development, information overload is related tomaintaining currency (keeping up with what others are doing and is relevant for one’s work).Through this questionnaire I intend to reach the goal of the present study which is:

To develop an understanding on how the researchers at AstraZeneca perceive the role of thelibrary in helping them to cope with information overload related to maintaining currency.

This study is my master thesis and I choose AstraZeneca first because the pharmaceuticalindustry is extremely information-intensive expertise and researchers need to keep up with theliterature. Second because I had read that researchers at AstraZeneca suffer of informationoverload because of lack of time. This complaint was reported in the 1998. I do really hopethat you do not suffer any more from overload. But this seems somehow unrealistic and I willexpress myself in other way. I hope my subject will be interesting for many and I hope therewill be some willing to participate to the interview. I hope to get an answer, lately on the 30 ofJune.

The interview will take for the most a half hour, even though I know it is a long time to put iton other things than reading new articles and making experiments.

The results will be gathered and a copy will be sent to AZ lately at the end of December.

I will thank you for you help

Maud Salim

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Annex 2

1. Do you need much information in your work? What kind of information tasks thatworks includes? Does it include information seeking? How long have you beenworking at AZ?

2. Where do you get the information about the literature you need to stay current in yourfield?Extra explanation:- Email alerts for electronic journals? To what extent?- Bibliographical databases such as Medline or Embase.- Other

3. What are your ways to get hold of current articles and literature?Extra Explanation: full-text databases, interlibrary loan, document delivery, exchangepreprints with colleagues,Etc.

4. In general, do you think you are dealing with too much current literature more than youcan handle?Extra Explanation: So, you mean that there is more current literature than you can handle?

5. The problem of information overload in research is related to the problemof maintaining currency. Do you agree with that? If we consider this relation would yousay how it manifests itself?

6. Name two most important causes of other types of information overload.

7. What are your strategies of dealing with the problem of information overload? What areyour strategies in dealing with the literature you need to keep up in your field?

8. Information literacy is the most effective counter to problems of overload. One of theobjectives of information literacy is the training of users to be more selective and to makemore judgment themselves, about the information they retrieve.According to this definition do you consider yourself information literate?

9. How do you evaluate your own coping strategies?

10. When and for what reasons do you use the library or contact the library staff, or use itsservices? What services do you use most often?

11. Do you think the library can help you to cope with information overload? Does thelibrary help you to solve the problem of staying current?

12. Would you imagine an ideal but real situation where the problem of informationoverload would be solved? Does the library have a role to play in that situation?

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