RESOURCE CENTRE MANUAL
HEALTHLINK WORLDWIDE
1.1 Assessing information needs
It is important to find out about the people who will use the resource centre.
This includes finding out what information they need, what information is
provided by other organisations, and how far their needs for information are
being met. This is known as carrying out a needs assessment.
After the resource centre has been established, a needs assessment should be
carried out every one or two years, to ensure that the resource centre continues
to meet the information needs of its users.
A needs assessment looks at:
1. Who the users will be
Their age, sex, educational level, literacy level and type of work they do
2. What their information needs are
What main subjects they need information about
What other subjects they need information about
What they will use the materials in the resource centre for (in order of
priority)
Which activities the materials will be most useful for
How important local/national/regional/international information is
What formats of materials will be useful:
• articles (for writing reports and getting new ideas for activities)
• books and other documents (for getting a comprehensive picture of a
topic)
• personal advice (to help plan activities)
• training manuals (to assist with a training activity)
• videos (for training and health education)
• abstracts of published articles (to keep up-to-date on new developments
and know what to follow up)
• newsletters (to find out what new developments are taking place in the
subject area, and what other organisations are doing).
3. What materials are available
What other sources of published and unpublished materials exist
How much materials cost, and whether health workers can afford to buy
them
What gaps there are (in terms of subject, type of material, such as training
manual, reference material), language, format (such as book, audiovisual), and
educational level
What other sources of information exist:
• government services and departments
• non-governmental organisations (NGOs)
• mass media (newspapers, radio, television)
• e-mail and Internet services.
2 SECTION 1: PLANNING A RESOURCE CENTRE