INEQUALITY IN INFORMATION PROVISION - THE CASE OF SCHOOL GOVERNORS

Explores the proposition that inequality in information provision exis ts at the level of the individual user, in the context of state school governance in England and Wales, and examines the nature of the inequ ality and methods for investigating it. Constructs a model of the ineq uality, with scenarios, using data provided by 2 research projects und ertaken at the Department of Information and Library Management, Unive rsity of Northumbria at Newcastle: a British Library funded project (' School governors' access to information' (BLRD Report 6179)) and a Sou th Tyneside Education project ('Identifying the training and informati on needs of school governors in South Tyneside'); involving questionna ire surveys of school governors in the South Tyneside area, UK. Result s of the data analysis are used to generate a picture of the user need s of school governors as seen from the individual user's point of view . Concludes that strategies for overcoming inequality in information p rovision at the level of the individual school governor can be success fully developed and implemented and will result in a more flexible res ponse from the designers and providers of services to individuals. A B ritish Library Research and Development Department (BLRDD) contract ha s recently been awarded for a follow up study to 'School governors' ac cess to information' (BLRD Report 6179) to investigate ways of overcom ing the inequalities described here.