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81 Law Libr. J. 191 (1989)
The Economic Value of Information

handle is hein.journals/llj81 and id is 209 raw text is: The Economic Value of Information* Gary D. Byrd** A review of recent literature on information economics shows information to be a commodity with rather unique and sometimes troubling qualities of cost and value. Libraries need to demonstrate more effectively the economic as well as the intrinsic value of their resources and services. Introduction Information has become a commodity to be bought and sold on the wholesale level and repackaged for sale at the retail level.' This rather bald statement encapsulates the essence of an economic transformation reshaping the way our profession thinks about, manages, and provides access to the resource that defines our very existence. The concept that information is a commodity with rather unique and sometimes troubling qualities of cost and value is relatively new to librarianship and, more generally, to economics. This article examines some of the recent literature on the changing economic value of information and attempts to assess the particular impact this transformation is having and will have on libraries. The first section looks generally at the extent and nature of recent writings on the subject of information economics. The second section examines the particular characteristics that distinguish information from other products or resources. The third and fourth sections examine the concepts of cost and value as they apply to information and other economic goods. The hope is that this review will help to place the economic challenges facing libraries within the broader context of our information society. * © Gary D. Byrd, 1989. This is an edited version of a paper presented at the 1988 AALL Institute on Law Library Management, University of Alabama Law Center, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, June 22, 1988. ** Associate Director, Health Sciences Library, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina. 1. N. MATHESON & J. COOPER, ACADEMIC INFORmATON iN THE ACADEmC HEALTH SCMNCES CETEr 12 (published as a supplement to J. MED. EDUC., Oct. 1982, pt. 2).