Loose Leaves
| Pages | 21-22 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb027059 |
| Published date | 01 January 1991 |
| Date | 01 January 1991 |
| Author | Veronica Davies |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management |
Loose Leaves
Veronica Davies
A recent survey of 30 large companies in the UK, France and Germany
concerning news services provided by the information departments showed
some startling results.
Twenty-five out of the thirty companies surveyed still use the 'cut and paste'
method of news collection and stated a preference for using paper (newspapers
and journals) rather than electronic database sources.
Surprise results indeed considering that a common complaint from In-
formation departments is that they are buried under a bombardment of
marketing brochures launching yet another electronic information database or
CD-rom that promised to contain all the information ever needed to answer
business needs. Yet in spite of all this, these large national and international
companies are bringing people into the office early each morning, having sets of
newspapers cut according to general subject profiles, the cuttings mounted on
between 2 and 30 sides of A4 paper, and sent out daily to between ten and five
hundred recipients. Distribution of this information being of course through
the traditional non-mechanised messenger or internal post system.
The survey should make disturbing reading for the information technology
planners. All these companies had local area networks, electronic mail facilities,
fax machines and extensive use of electronic databases and news wire services.
Even so, the information departments still use traditional scissors and paste for
abstracting newspaper cuttings.
The world of electronic information provision is one full of pitfalls, the
deepest being that of copyright. But this should not be such a deterrent to the
Information Manager. It is usually a matter for the lawyers to construct a
contract with the suppliers under which specific clauses specify the extent to
which the data may be downloaded or retransmitted.
Why should the information departments be still burdened and choose such
an intensive operation such as this? It is acknowledged that specialist news
bureaus exist that will undertake the chore of cutting and mounting the
information, furthermore some will abstract and provide a precis of key items
on a daily basis. Yet the principal does not change: the labour intensive process
of scanning these journals and recognition of items of potential interest still
occupies a not insignificant proportion of the day.
So far, there has been little response from the newspaper and journal
publishers. The launching of CD-roms which contain back issues, has been
regarded as development enough. No attempt to move forward and consider
the supply of the latest issue electronically into an organisation's network
where it could either reside on an electronic bulletin board or be filtered
through a program which would sort articles for specific user requirements.
The demand for such an electronic source of information must be great from
all the organisations who spend vast sums of cash each year on paper journals
and newspapers. Newspaper proprietors take heed!
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