The use of information technology by information services: the Aslib information technology survey 1987
| Pages | 354-357 |
| Date | 01 June 1987 |
| Published date | 01 June 1987 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb044779 |
| Author | Gwenda Sippings |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
ARTICLES
The use of information
technology by information
services: the Aslib
information technology
survey 1987.
GWENDA
SIPPINGS
The Association for
Information
Management,
Information House.
26-27 Boswell Street,
London WCIN 3JZ
England
Abstract: The Information Resources Centre at Aslib, The Association for In-
formation Management, recently carried out a survey of the use of information
technology within the library and information community, as represented by its
British membership. This survey encompassed the use of library automation,
online searching and access to videotex, information retrieval/database sys-
tems, the use of software packages and the use of technologies such as fac-
simile, electronic mail and CD-ROMs. The results, which are summarised in
this paper, reflect the current and future trends relating to the use of informa-
tion technology throughout the information profession in the
England.
1.
Introduction and background
T
he use of information technology (IT) for bet-
ter management of information within
libraries and information centres has grown in
recent years, together with the growth of
availability of hardware and software for informa-
tion handling activities. A survey of the British
membership of Aslib, The Association of Infor-
mation Management, was undertaken in order to
identify the uses being made of information tech-
nology in information conscious libraries and in-
formation centres [1]. The information specialists
at Aslib's Information Resources Centre were
aware, from the nature of the demands for enquiry
and advice work, that a large number of the 1500
or so organisations forming the membership of
Aslib were embarking on, or considering, automa-
tion projects and many were known to be well-es-
tablished centres making heavy use of technology
in their information work. It was apparent that a
large number of information workers were being
called upon to manage information-seeking ac-
tivities which increasingly involved skills in the
use of various new technologies. The information
specialists dealing with the enquiries and offering
advice found that people in the process of select-
ing information services incorporating the use of
technology often wished to talk to existing users
and so an informal list of Aslib members willing
to share their experiences of automation and other
methods of information storage had been built up.
The survey not only revealed the extensive use
of IT in libraries and information centres, but has
also become the basis for a database of users of
different types of hardware, software and storage
systems, which can be used as a network of exper-
tise and advice for British Aslib members. There
are few recent detailed surveys of the state of the
art of information technology in libraries and in-
formation centres in Britain available at present.
The Online Information Centre carried out sur-
veys of the use of online in 1979 and 1982 and
useful comparisons were able to be made with the
latest survey's section on online. This new and en-
larged survey provides a valuable indication of the
potential market for information providers and
reveals that Britain is at the leading edge of the in-
dustry in its use of IT for information handling ac-
tivities.
2.
The questionnaire
The survey was carried out by postal question-
naire and all responses were received by the
beginning of 1987. The organisational details and
major subject areas covered by Aslib British
members were analysed and the main section of
the questionnaire then consisted of questions
about the major areas of information work which
could involve the use of technology, as indentified
from the types of enquiries and advice work en-
countered by the information specialists. Ques-
tions covered the availability of hardware,
including computers, vdu and print and videotex
terminals, printers, modems, acoustic couplers,
CD-ROM drives and microform equipment. The
section on software covered information retrieval,
library housekeeping, communications, business
and networking software, and also asked for
details of any expert system software and other
packages.
A
section on online searching requested
information about the hosts accessed, the reasons
for which organisations were using online
databases, the means by which online searching
was carried out and monitored within organisa-
tions,
and details of any databases used on CD-
ROM. A section on what was described for
convenience as new technologies, asked for
details about such things as the use of fax trans-
mission, the use of teletext and videotex informa-
tion services. An increasing number of libraries
and information centres are finding it useful to
belong to some kind of co-operative or network
and some interesting results were obtained from a
question about these. Finally, comments were in-
vited on aspects of the use of information technol-
354 The Electronic Library, December
1987.
Vol.
5, No. 6.
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