PARENTS AND THEIR INFORMATION NEEDS - A CASE-STUDY - PARENTS OF CHILDREN UNDER THE AGE OF 5

Reports results of a British Library, Research and Innovation Centre ( BLRIC) supported project, conducted by City University, Department of Information Science, to study the information needs of parents, with c hildren under the age of five, residing in the London Borough of Harin gey, UK. The parents' needs were studied using group and individual in terviews, involving 53 parents and five representatives of parents' or ganizations. Most parents needed information about child development, school, children's behaviour and careers, training and education. The commonest need was for information on health and child care. Significa nt differences were found between the needs of single mothers, older w omen, fathers and ethnic minority parents. Information currency and au thority was found to matter, parents turned to a wide variety of sourc es but oral information sources (professionals, friends and family) we re the most important. Despite the fact that a large proportion of the parents used public libraries for other reasons, they were not looked upon as a key, or even a minor, source of parental information. Concl udes that parents' needs for information on schools, finance and child behaviour are largely unmet, (These results were also reported in Bri tish Library Research and Innovation Centre (BLRIC) report No. 56, 199 6 with an introduction to the study in Aslib Pvoceedings, 49 (1) Jan 1 997, 5-7).