Selection and Packaging:

Added value is often claimed for information services on the grounds that they bring together, in a convenient form, items of information which would otherwise be impossible to find in one place, and, therefore, difficult to access. The value addition stems from the convenience, thus, offered to the user. If some attempt is made by the information provider to collate, relate or link information from different sources, then greater value addition is likely to be claimed. The expression 'value-added' is likely to be used especially when the information put together is of different kinds, for example, bibliographic and numeric/factual or formal and informal, or information coming from different sources such as, internal and external.

This process of integration is known as repackaging. The integration and repackaging concept can be applied to numeric data sources also as much as to the text. The advent of CD-ROM as a delivery medium for different types of information products and services has given a boost to the concept of added value as it can deliver repackaged information of different forms combined together. Datex Business Inform Service is cited as an example of such service. Datex allows the merging of bibliographic, textual and numeric information from a number of sources, with facilities for data manipulation and presentation.