fntemational Journal of information Management (1988), 8 (61-62)

News from Information House

Information ~anage~ant: the way ahead

It seems strange to be writing about the ‘way ahead’ for information man- agement (TM) in the UK, when we have no ciear idea of where it is we’ve already been or, indeed where we’re at. 1M (and its near-relative, informa- tion resource(s) man~~gement) is very new in the UK, but, apart from attempts by Aslib to determine the position little effort has been made to establish clearly the role of IM in the UK information scene.’ Some five years ago I suggested that Aslib should change its name, in prepara- tion for a significant shift in emphasis. This has been achieved, but so far as I can see, little else - apart from some nlanagement moves in very large orga- nizations like the NHS, and in the financial services sector.

The concept of information as a resource is of very recent origin, and the need to manage the resource effectively must be seen to be on a par with the management of other primary business resources, i.e., people, money, machines, materials. It is probably of no great use to the present time to derive a tight definition of IM, but I see no harm, and every benefit, in establishing what is meant by IM. To this end, I have derived what I term the ‘Meaning of TM’ which I believe is more useful than counting the bytes on the head of a pin. Thus IM is concerned with the integrative utilization of three basic resources in the pursuit of higher productivity. increased profits, improved services, etc: (1) peop!e; (2) information; (3) systems (and the last is not necessarily electronic!).

In a short paper I can do no more than indicate some of my basic think- ing, which 1 would like to present as nine propositions, viz:

Proposition 1. Information is a basic social, economic and industrial re- source, which requires effective man- agement.

Pr~po.~~i~on 2. Information systems exist only for the satisfaction of user need. Proposition 3. Information has a cost, a price and a value. Proposition 4. ‘Information’ includes all the forms by which knowledge is transferred. Pyopos~tj~n 5. Technology is only a tooi. Propositim 6. New developments lead to increl~ental advance rather than replacement. P~~f~~.~it~o~z 7. Appropriate standard- ization is essential to continuing de- velopment. Proposition 8. Effective IM leads to significant changes in the power struc- ture in the organization. Pr~p~sjt~~~ 9. The inf~~rrn~ltion in- termediary has a finite life-span. (NE? This may be as long as 100 years!)

But above all, there are two basic requirements -” these are to do with: (I) strategic thinking; (2) integration.

The first reflects the need to look across the organization as a whole. The second emphasizes the need for an holistic approach to the totality of IM in the organization. The emerg- ence of the *Chief information Offic- er’ (CIO) in the USA. who is a manager on a par with the correspond- ing finance, planning and other func- tions, and responding to the Chief Executive, indicates to me the way ahead.* There is a need for one individual within each organization to have the breadth, both of vision and of responsibility, to be able to make the necessary strategic decisions relating to IM. Such a person. not unnaturally, would be the subject of deep suspicion by some of his/her colleagues, since the old adage ‘Information is power’ still holds true. But can anyone think of a better idea?

‘CRONIN, B. (1985). ~~I~~rrn~~iiorl maaqe- ment: From strateyies IO action. London: Astib. 57th A& Annual Conference (19%). information rnana~emcnf: Poten- tial and practice, Aslib Proceedings, 37, (No. 1). pp I-51. 57-133. 127-170.

%ORTON , .IR., F. w. (I’.@~). i~zf~~rl~ulj~~f~ Resources ~i~i~a~e~ne}zt. Prcnticc-Hall. MARCtlANI~, LXA. and HORTON. JR., F.U.

(1986). lnfufrends. New York: John Wiley. Leaders. November 1987, pp. 139-1.50. Business Week. Landmark survey. A por- trait of the new information executive. January 1988.

‘Export Network’ director wins 1987 Aslib/lSI award The first prize in the 1987 AslibiISI Award for Innovation Information Management has been given to Mr Roy Assersohn, Managing Director for Export Network Ltd for his com- pany’s online databases service for exporters. ‘Export Network’ is the world’s first comprehensive informa- tion service for exporters on new business opportunities, and includes up-to-date facts on regulations, econo- mic and financial profiles, technical standards, transport and travel. The second prize was awarded to Mr Nigel Hay and the development team at MAR1 Advanced Microelectronics Ltd for ADMIS II, a portable system which counts the number of people making use of library buildings or other facilities.

In reaching their decision the panel of judges, consisting of Lord Dainton, Miss Angela Ha~~garth-Jackson and Dr Sandra Ward, commended the variety, high standard and record number of products and services nominated. They felt that the nomina- tions indicated a growing vitality in the subject of inf~~rmation management in the UK. They selected Mr Assersohn, who wins E400, because of the way ‘Export Network’ drew together dis- parate and often hard-to-find informa- tion in a unified service which was of real practical help to British exporters. They felt that it was a true information management product, which exempli- fied the concept of information as a managerial resource. ADMIS II was an original device for providing data on usage trends with potential applica- tions not only in libraries but, for instance, in measuring the flow of people in airports.

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News from Information House

60 years of Aslib conferences The Aslib Conference, due to be held on 19-22 April 198X at the East Midlands Conference Centre, is .&lib’s 60th.

These conferences have played an important part in the development of special libraries and information cen- tres. Ashb itself came into being at the very first conference, held at Hoddles- ton in September 1924. Appropriately enough, the aim of this two-day event was to ‘consider, promote and orga- nize the systematic utilizations of infor- mational and library services‘. It was attended by some eighty delegates representing in the main research organizations and industrial concerns. The meeting proved the existence of large numbers of small specialized services which, if they would cooper- ate, could not only ‘provide a max- imum service to their parent bodies’, but also ‘lend to each other and to the State and the public generally a mea- sure of useful time and labour-saving assistance’. A standing committee was set up to explore the possibility of setting up an organization which would act as a link between special libraries and information units which, despite the diversity of their subject interests, had many problems in com- mon. The resulting association was the forerunner of the present-day Aslib.

Many of the issues discussed at some of the earlier conferences are still ‘news’ in 1988. In 1938, the selected topic for discussion was the preparation and production of in- formation bulletins, house journals and reports’. In 1946, copyright was the issue in the forefront of many delegates minds whilst in the 1950s the major themes were ‘The costing and value of informati(~n services’ and ‘Productivity’. Thus proving that whilst answers may change, the ques- tions often remain the same.

Some things, however. will never be the same again. In 1943 and 1944, delegates paid three and a half guineas

to hear about the latest in ‘post-war library rehabilitation’ and ‘empire publications’. Neither have Aslib con- ferences been immune to the effects of great historical events. Miss E.M.R.

Ditmas recalls the fifteenth annual conference held in conjunction with the Fourteenth Conference of the Internation~ll Federation of Docu- mentation:

the weekend of the confer- ence, September 23rd to 26th 1938, came at the height of the Munich crisis, and the presence of dele- gates representing the governments of the Netherlands, France, the USA, Denmark, Germany, Nor- way, Bulgaria, Belgium, Sweden, Hungary. Spain, Greece, Finland, Czechoslavakia and Latvia, not to mention those from Central Amer- ica and the Far East, produced tension that was unnerving to the organisers. However, by the use of tact and by lodging incompatible groups as far apart as possible, we avoided any overt explosion.

The conferences have always fea- tured papers and discussions 011 those practical matters of technique, eyuip- ment or organization with which in- form~~tion managers are faced in their daily professional lives. This year that tradition continues. It is also enhanced through the introduction of some inno- vations. Exhibitors have been invited to present delegates with a review of their latest products and develop- ments. Furthermore, a conference ‘Question Time’ has been introduced. Robert Weller, the management guru, will chair a panel of eminent spokes- people who will address issues raised by delegates in the conference hall. To echo the words of the organizers in the 1948 conference brochure, ‘The Coun- cil hopes that as many members as is possible will endeavour to attend for the whole period, and so reap the maximum advantages from the arrangements’. We look forward to seeing you there.

Thesauri: the solution to. text retrieval problems? In recent years there has been a huge growth in the numbers and sizes of public and in-house online databases, accompanied by much talk of the virtues of free, even full, text systems. However, to judge from the con-

tinuing popularity of courses run by Aslib (and others) on thesaurus con- struction, the problems of text retriev- al are as real as ever. Some people are convinced of the efficiency of control- led indexing; some have watched their database become virtually unsearch- able because of inadequate thesaurus maintenance; many are now realizing that free text searching is far more effective when supported by search thesauri.

A well-known local government database has been through all the traumas of random selection of fashionable terms of the day and experimentation of truncation and non-indexing. Eventually it had to accept the necessity of creating an authoritative structured thesaurus to guide the user from the known to the unknown relevant terminology. They had the information m~~nagement skills to be able to solve their problem. There are others, not privy to these skills, who are floundering in a sea of new technology. They may have an expensive system, they may have a database crammed with essential in- formation, but they do not have the ability to extract that information on demand. Thesaurus construction is an essential tool in developing informa- tion centres.

According to Conrputer weekly, the next four to five years will see a surge in the available range of text systems, largely because of the market poten- tial seen in the area of office automa- tion. It is likely that the problems of text retrieval will become apparent and whatever tools may be available in the future, the handling of text and language in computers will be a key issue and the techniques of thesaurus construction will remain as relevant. Jean Aitchison and Alan Gilchrist’s recent book, Thesaurus construction: A practical manual, provides a com- plete guide to the design. construction and maintenance of a thesaurus. It follows the new international stan- dards on thesaurus construction which promote compatibility between diffe- rent thesauri, making it easier for the user to search a range of databases.

Thesaurus construction: A practical manual is available from Aslib Pub- lications, price f19.50 (members).

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