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Some librarians and information workers would suggest that although the name information broker is new, the services provided by the broker are no different from those they provide themselves. However, it has also been suggested that since the broker is a full‐time member of the user group she serves, taking part in its normal assignments and playing an important role in promoting the communication of information, her role has more in common with that of the technological gatekeeper. The relationship between the broker's role and other information‐handling roles is one of the issues Aslib R & D Department has considered during its 2‐year assessment of the post, and some findings of general interest are discussed in this paper. Since the broker's post was established by the users themselves, their reactions to the broker are of particular interest and are considered. Brief attention is also given to the problems the broker faces in balancing her information activities against her other duties.

This research examines how knowledge and information are managed within two care networks. We develop a conceptual framework drawing on the notion of brokering and the 3T framework, which is used to describe the relative complexity of boundaries (referred to in the framework as syntactic, semantic and pragmatic) as well as capabilities and processes required to exchange information within the network. Previous research on brokering has focused on healthcare managers and professionals, but this research extends to patients and caregivers. Understanding knowledge exchange and brokering practices in healthcare is critical to the delivery of effective services.

For this case research, non-participant observation and experienced-based interviews were undertaken with healthcare professionals, patients and caregivers within two care networks.

The findings reveal brokering roles occupied by healthcare professionals, patients and caregivers support the transfer, translation and transformation of knowledge and information across functional and organisational boundaries. Enablers and disablers to brokering and the exchange of knowledge and information are also identified.

The study is limited to two care networks for long-term conditions within the UK. Further research opportunities exist to examine similar care networks that extend across professional and organisational boundaries.

This research informs healthcare professionals of the brokering capabilities that occur within networks and the enabling and disabling factors to managing knowledge across boundaries.

This paper provides a conceptual framework that categorises how increased levels of knowledge and information exchange and brokering practices are managed within care networks.

The article explores the role of information brokers and information consultants, their development, reasons for their emergence, their main characteristics and activities and their relations with libraries. Finally, the future of information brokers/consultants is examined.

Nations such as the USA are investing in technologies such as electronic health records in order to collect, store and transfer information across boundaries of health care, public health and research. Health information brokers such as health care providers, public health departments and university researchers function as “access points” to manage relationships between the public and the health system. The relationship between the public and health information brokers is influenced by trust; and this relationship may predict the trust that the public has in the health system as a whole, which has implications for public trust in the system, and consequently, legitimacy of involved institutions, under circumstances of health information data sharing in the future. This paper aims to discuss these issues.

In this study, the authors aimed to examine characteristics of trustors (i.e. the public) that predict trust in health information brokers; and further, to identify the factors that influence trust in brokers that also predict system trust. The authors developed a survey that was administered to US respondents in 2014 using GfK’s nationally representative sample, with a final sample of 1,011 participants and conducted ordinary least squares regression for data analyses.

Results suggest that health care providers are the most trusted information brokers of those examined. Beliefs about medical deceptive behavior were negatively associated with trust in each of the information brokers examined; however, psychosocial factors were significantly associated with trust in brokers, suggesting that individual attitudes and beliefs are influential on trust in brokers. Positive views of information sharing and the expectation of benefits of information sharing for health outcomes and health care quality are associated with system trust.

This study suggests that demonstrating the benefits and value of information sharing could be beneficial for building public trust in the health system; however, trust in brokers of information are variable across the public; that is, knowledge, attitudes and beliefs are associated with the level of trust different individuals have in various health information brokers – suggesting that the need for a personalized approach to building trust.

The aim is to provide details of selected Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Regulatory Notices and Disciplinary Actions issued in March, April and May 2012.

The paper provides Regulatory Notice 12‐17, April 2012, “Telemarketing: SEC Approves Consolidated Telemarketing Rule,” and Regulatory Notice 12‐25, May 2012, “Suitability: Additional Guidance on FINRA's New Suitability Rule”.

Notice 12‐17: FINRA Rule 3230 (Telemarketing) updates exiting NASD and NYSE rules that require member firms to maintain and consult do‐not‐call lists, limit the hours of telephone solicitations and prohibit members from using deceptive and abusive acts and practices in connection with telemarketing, and adopts provisions that are substantially similar to Federal Trade Commission (FTC) rules that prohibit deceptive and other abusive telemarketing acts or practices. Notice 12‐25: The new FINRA Rule 2111 requires, in part, that a broker‐dealer or associated person “have a reasonable basis to believe that a recommended transaction or investment strategy involving a security or securities is suitable for the customer, based on the information obtained through the reasonable diligence of the [firm] or associated person to ascertain the customer's investment profile.” In general, the new rule retains the core features of the previous NASD suitability rule, codifies several important interpretations of the predecessor rule and imposes a few new or modified obligations.

These are direct excerpts designed to provide a useful digest for the reader and an indication of regulatory trends.

Information brokers are a growing segment of the information environment. They present both a promise and a threat to the professional tenets of librarianship. They provide a promising alternative avenue for information professionals who wish to either be independent entrepreneurs or to work for one. On the other hand, they challenge a number of basic philosophical tenets governing the practice of traditional librarianship. Barbara Felicetti, President of Info/motion, explains the role of the information broker. She discusses the many relationships of information and business needs, and the role of an information broker in defining and filling those needs.

A health service strategic planning division had difficulty obtaining information needed to support health care improvement projects, despite the availability of library and data systems. The post of ‘information broker’ was devised and set up as a two‐year experimental project under a special grant; the broker working as a member of the planning team and charged with relating to existing information services and promoting information flows. The workload fell into two main categories: information support to specific planning projects, and information support in general to the planning team, the latter category comprising a current awareness service and the development of structures to provide communication. The broker's services were less effective in the area originally defined by the planners as of their greatest need and more effective in areas where information gaps had not been specially noted. The original concept is now being reshaped.

Under given environmental uncertainties, the purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of brokers on the networking behaviour of small- and medium-sized enterprise (SMEs) and the subsequent impact on the performance of SMEs. The following five different types of brokers were tested, namely, coordinator, representative, cosmopolitan, liaison and gatekeeper brokers.

Data were collected through an online survey and analyzed by using the hierarchical regression method.

The results from the hierarchical regression analysis of 198 Czech firms showed that coordinator and representative brokers moderate the relationship between environmental uncertainty and networking behaviour. However, under high environmental uncertainty, the coordinator broker worked best, whereas in the host country, under low environmental uncertainty, the representative broker worked best.

The findings of this study have useful implications for SMEs in selecting an appropriate broker for strengthening their networking behaviour in the international market. This study aimed to explore the effectiveness of various types of brokers on networking behaviour during their internationalization of SMEs. More specifically, this study examined if and how, given the uncertainties in the international market, multiple brokers help SME executives develop networking behaviour.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a model that allows analyzing exchange and use of fiscal information by the roles of actors involved in the budget process and to apply the proposed model to the 2018 Czech state budget debate. The aim is to identify approaches used by the members of the Chamber of Deputies (members of the parliament (MPs)) when gathering information to be used in their decision making on the state budget, and to evaluate usefulness of the information provided through the executive’s budget proposal.

This paper is the observatory study of the Czech 2018 state budget debate based on a set of unstructured interviews with newly elected MPs.

When it comes to the MPs deciding about the state budget the executive’s budget proposal seems to be an insufficient source of information as the MPs relied heavily on various information brokers during the budget debate. The use of information and communication technologies in the process of information provision lags behind its potential.

The authors suggest two possible ways to improve the effective transparency of the Czech state budget debate: standardization of the chapter books and making them available to every MP as well as to the general public, and adding the budget proposal to the Monitor budget explorer – a publicly available budget explorer provided by the Ministry of Finance.

The originality of this paper lies in the proposal of the Fiscal Information Ecosystem Model and its application to the 2018 Czech state budget debate which shows how the members of the Czech Chamber of Deputies gathered information they needed in their decision making.

An exhaustive analysis of the current state of play of both the old and new law and the regulations promulgated thereunder. A one‐stop analysis of the state of the requirements under the USA Patriot Act and particularly how it affects broker‐dealers.