Why We Need Information Centres: Meeting Modern Information Demands

Every day, an enormous quantity of new research papers, reports, patents, statistics, and digital records is produced across the world. For a researcher, manager, or policymaker, finding the exact piece of information needed from this vast ocean is a real challenge. This is precisely the gap that information centres were created to fill. They are specialised institutions designed not just to store documents, but to process, analyse, and deliver the right information to the right person at the right time. Understanding why we need them helps explain how the modern knowledge ecosystem actually functions.

The growing complexity of information needs 🔗

The single biggest reason behind the rise of information centres is the phenomenon known as the information explosion. This term describes the rapid and continuous surge in the volume of published information, along with the difficulties that come with managing such abundance. The phrase itself has been in use since at least the mid-1960s, when it appeared in a New Statesman article, and the problem has only intensified since.

The scale of this growth is striking. In scientific fields, literature has historically tended to double roughly every five to six years. Research and development activities in science, technology, and other fields have produced a phenomenal growth in research themes, leading directly to information explosion and increasingly interdisciplinary approaches to study. When knowledge keeps branching into new subfields and new formats, no single person can hope to track it all unaided.

Why traditional access is no longer enough 🔗

A few decades ago, a scholar could reasonably keep up with the key journals in their narrow area. That is no longer realistic. Information now arrives in many forms: peer-reviewed journals, conference proceedings, technical reports, theses, patents, datasets, and a constantly expanding body of online resources. Each format has its own access points and its own challenges. The difficulty is not a shortage of information but an overwhelming excess of it, a situation often called information overload.

Information centres emerged as a structured response to this overload. Rather than leaving users to sift through mountains of material on their own, these centres employ subject specialists and information professionals who organise, filter, and condense the available knowledge. They act as a bridge between the raw flood of documents and the specific question a user is trying to answer.

From document collection to information delivery 🔗

This is where information centres differ sharply from traditional libraries. A library focuses largely on collecting, storing, and lending physical and digital documents so that users can access them for general study and research. An information centre, by contrast, concentrates on the collection, processing, and dissemination of relevant information tailored to a particular community of users. The library hands you the book; the information centre hands you the specific answer you were looking for.

The cost and accessibility of documents 🔗

The second major reason we need information centres is economic. Acquiring and maintaining a comprehensive collection of documents is extremely expensive. Subscriptions to specialised journals, technical databases, patent records, and standards can run into very large sums, and prices tend to rise year after year. No individual researcher and very few single institutions can afford to subscribe to everything relevant to their work.

Information centres solve this problem through a model of shared and processed access. Instead of every user purchasing every document, the centre acquires a focused collection on behalf of an entire user community and then provides services that extract and supply only the required information. In many cases the user does not need the full document at all; they need a fact, a figure, a method, or a summary. The centre delivers exactly that.

Value-added services that save money and time 🔗

These centres offer a range of services built around this idea of giving users the information rather than the whole document. Common examples include abstracting and indexing services, current awareness services that alert users to newly published material in their field, selective dissemination of information tailored to a person’s stated interests, and document delivery services that supply copies of specific articles on demand.

Indian institutions illustrate this well. The Defence Scientific Information and Documentation Centre (DESIDOC), a division of the Defence Research and Development Organisation, provides scientific and technical information to defence scientists across the country. It maintains the Defence Science Library and provides document delivery and reference services, so that scientists at scattered laboratories can obtain the precise material they need without each lab building its own complete collection.

Pooling resources for wider reach 🔗

Beyond cost savings for a single organisation, information centres also enable resource sharing across many institutions. Cooperative networks allow member libraries and centres to share collections, reducing duplication and stretching limited budgets further. This cooperative model means a small research group can effectively tap into a much larger pool of resources than it could ever own outright. The accessibility problem, which once limited research to well-funded institutions, is significantly eased when information is pooled and shared through these centres.

Supporting decision-makers and innovation 🔗

The third and perhaps most important reason information centres exist is the need to support people who make decisions. Scientists, engineers, managers, policymakers, and research and development personnel all depend on accurate, processed, and timely information to do their work. For these users, information is not a luxury; it is the raw material of sound decisions and successful innovation.

Consider how this works in practice. A scientist beginning a new project must first know what has already been done, to avoid duplicating existing work and to build on prior findings. A manager weighing a strategic choice needs market data, competitor analysis, and industry trends. A policymaker drafting regulation needs reliable statistics, government publications, and legal precedents. In each case, the quality of the decision depends heavily on the quality and relevance of the information behind it.

Processed information for precise needs 🔗

Decision-makers rarely have time to read through dozens of full reports. What they need is precise, distilled information delivered quickly. Information centres are built to meet exactly this requirement. They employ specialists who understand both the subject domain and the information landscape, allowing them to locate, evaluate, and condense material into a usable form.

This is closely tied to the concept of an information need, which is fundamental to library and information science. An information need is essentially a gap in knowledge that prompts an individual or organisation to seek out relevant material to complete a task, make a decision, or solve a problem. These needs are shaped by the user’s background, goals, and the nature of the task at hand. A researcher writing a thesis and a manager preparing a quarterly plan have very different needs, and information centres are designed to recognise and respond to such differences.

Specialised centres for specialised communities 🔗

Because needs vary so widely, different information centres serve different communities. Some focus on a particular subject or sector, ensuring that their services and collections are finely matched to the people who use them. The National Institute of Science Communication and Information Resources (NISCAIR), formed in 2002 through the merger of NISCOM and INSDOC under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, has long been devoted to documenting and disseminating science and technology information.

For social science researchers, the National Social Science Documentation Centre (NASSDOC), established by the Indian Council of Social Science Research, provides library and information support services, maintaining a large collection of doctoral theses and research reports. Each of these centres exists because a specific community of decision-makers and researchers required focused, processed information that general libraries were not designed to provide.

Driving research and development forward 🔗

The connection between information centres and national progress is direct. The rapid growth India has achieved across many fields since independence, and the effort needed to sustain it, has added new dimensions to the services rendered by libraries and information centres. Research and development thrives on a steady flow of reliable information. When scientists can quickly find what is already known, when managers can access trustworthy data, and when policymakers can rely on solid evidence, the entire cycle of innovation accelerates. Information centres are the quiet infrastructure that makes this possible.

Bringing it together 🔗

The need for information centres rests on three interlocking foundations. First, the sheer growth and complexity of information has made expert filtering and organisation essential. Second, the high cost of documents and the difficulty of access make shared, service-based information delivery both economical and practical. Third, the people who drive research, management, and policy depend on precise, processed information to make sound decisions and to innovate. Together these factors explain why information centres are not a convenience but a necessity in a knowledge-driven society.

As information continues to grow in both volume and variety, the role of these centres is likely to expand rather than shrink. The challenge of managing knowledge effectively is permanent, and institutions dedicated to meeting that challenge will remain central to how we learn, work, and govern.

What do you think? Given how much information is now freely available online, do you think the role of information centres will fade away, or become even more important as filters of quality and relevance? And if you were setting up an information centre for your own field of study, which service would you consider the single most valuable to offer?

References

1. https://testbook.com/question-answer/the-high-growth-of-information-is-known-as–650c0dd99f3227edeb55b441
2. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1057231711000075
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defence_Scientific_Information_and_Documentation_Centre
4. https://www.indiascienceandtechnology.gov.in/organisations/ministry-and-departments/defence-research-and-development-organisation-drdo-govt-india/defence-scientific-information-documentation-centre-desidoc
5. https://www.lisedunetwork.com/information-needs/
6. https://libraryscience4ugcnet.wordpress.com/documentation-centres-in-india/insdoc-niscair/