The Electronic Library Manager's guide to systems similarity
| Pages | 331-334 |
| Published date | 01 June 1994 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb045317 |
| Date | 01 June 1994 |
| Author | David Raitt |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
Editorial
The Electronic Library
Manager's guide to systems
similarity
David Raitt
1.
Preamble
Some two and a half years ago I was transferred internally
within my organisation. One day I was a librarian and infor-
mation scientist, the next I was a system and programmatics
engineer. Just like that, as Tommy Cooper would say! My
work changed — no longer
did
I run (virtually single-handed)
a library and information service for a large technology-ori-
ented establishment; instead
I
attended
meetings on
conceptu-
ally designing future spacecraft and space-borne services. I
had to get involved with system engineering tools and other
subjects I didn't know so much about. But because of my
education and training
and
interests,
I
managed
to provide the
other staff in my division with much needed information
which had previously remained latent to them. As I was not
really an engineer, despite my title, my colleagues knew I
could not effectively design a satellite — but equally well,
they knew that
I
could come up with ideas for uses and serv-
ices,
and
I
could synthesise and analyse any kind of informa-
tion
they
might
require.
I was
also
more
free
to
start
studies of
my own on topics like mapping the knowledge and informa-
tion
resources of
the
organisation.
My title
may have
changed
(I was no longer the Head of the Library and Information
Services) but my experience and knowledge and ideas were
still required — welcomed, even — in a different
kind
of in-
formation context. It is this that I want to talk about in this
Editorial, because it
shows
that
the same problems
and issues
which
we
face
in
librarianship
and
information science
are the
same
as those
faced
by others who
do not consider themselves
as
having anything
to do
with our brand of information.
2.
Just another brick in the wail
I think
that
often librarians
and
information
specialists,
work-
ing within a library environment and dealing with books and
periodicals and library automation systems and online
searches, and possibly archiving the organisation's publica-
tions,
lose sight of
the
fact
that there
is a myriad other facets
of
'information' and that they are just one cog in the huge
data/information/knowledge wheel. This journal covers in-
formation technology, amongst other things, I have lectured
on the topic and the term is often used in conjunction with
libraries by others in the profession. But the way we tend to
use it is
much
more
restrictive than
the way others outside the
library and information community use it. IT covers much,
much more than the odd scanner, handheld computer, voice
system or network
that we
think of
as being
information tech-
nology.
Similarly, information
systems and
databases.
In my organisation, and in plenty of
others,
people use a
variety of systems engineering tools — what
are those?
Well,
who
knows!
Everyone has a different idea of what they are
and what they should
be.
They
are
used for detailed analysis
and design, they can be called CAD/CAM or
CAE
or CASE
tools,
they are
used
for feasibility
studies.
And
like
we used to
have with librarianship and
online
searching,
there
is
a
kind of
mystique which has grown up around
them.
But,
do you know
— they can be broken down very easily into their two basic
components: the software for searching, retrieving, manipu-
lating and displaying data; and a database which contains all
the necessary data, values, parameters, text etc. One cannot
exist without the other. And what do they then become?
Merely an information (retrieval) system under a more eso-
teric
name!
What
organisations
are trying to do now is
to
create
corpo-
rate memories and
value-added
systems
engineering environ-
ments which will enable users to access a common pool of
data, information and knowledge and, by incorporating the
system's data into their own planning, analysis and design
activities — not
to
repeat work and
errors made
before.
Such
systems should yield more effective and efficient organisa-
tions.
Sound familiar? Isn't this what a library information
system
is
supposed to be and
do?
But often, it
is not
the library
and information department
which is
asked
to do the
work or
even
advise:
it
is
engineers,
often systems engineers,
who
do
not realise that they are carrying out tasks that hitherto were
the
domain of
the
librarian
or
information scientist.
In my department, tools
are
needed which call for few in-
put parameters at
the
outset
and
which
provide rapid
answers
on
missions
(e.g.
orbits),
conceptual design of spacecraft and
payload, verification concepts, and cost/schedules.
The answers would come from 'reference' databases, for
example, on equipment already flown on other satellites.
Such a tool should be user-friendly, menu-based and
use
hy-
permedia
links.
Sounds
like we are
talking about information
systems
here!
And it is engineers, not information scientists
who will create and use such a system or
tool.
And
the
prob-
lems we have in trying
to
interface information
systems,
link
networks, exchange data
and
files,
and provide new interac-
tive integrated services are the same problems which other
industries (e.g. aerospace, car, shipbuilding) face. Some of
these are
discussed below
— not
necessarily from
our library
The Electronic Library, Vol. 12, No. 6, December 1994 331
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