Automation, appropriate technology and appropriate information systems
Program: electronic library and information systems
ISSN: 0033-0337
Article publication date: 1 January 1982
Abstract
This paper takes up a question raised by Edward Lim in an article on the MALMARC Project in the issue of July 1980 regarding the place of advanced technology in the libraries of developing countries where labour is cheap and plentiful. Advances in Malaysia show that some developing countries are more developed than others and that the achievements of the Project confirm that it is appropriate to introduce computers into library work there. The main question remains however, the appropriateness of advanced information systems in developing countries and what standing libraries might have in contributing to the development process where ‘information’ about information could be considered even more important than some of the fields where great effort has long been directed to ‘development’. The paper suggest some areas where library staff ‘displaced’ by automation might best serve in a developing country while libraries themselves attempt to make best use of technological developments available; these should be ‘internalised’ to give the country the best benefit of new advances.
Citation
Massil, S.W. (1982), "Automation, appropriate technology and appropriate information systems", Program: electronic library and information systems, Vol. 16 No. 1, pp. 27-34. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb046839
Publisher
:MCB UP Ltd
Copyright © 1982, MCB UP Limited