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Table 1 represents a preliminary summary of the installed electrical load for a building. Such figures could well be found in a building with a reasonably high technology usage and a size of about 100 000 sq ft net usable space. It has been assumed that the occupancy rate would be 1:120 sq ft but the design could be in accordance with such other formulae that the brief indicated. Other loads would have been obtained by discussion with the important players such as the dataprocessing (DP) manager or director of technology. The loads would have been projected over the time‐scale that was the basis of the company's current planning programme.

This is the second part of an article previewing the results of a research programme aimed at studying the effect of recent developments in data capture and data transmission on management information in retailing. The results are to be published in full later this year by the National Computing Centre in a report entitled “Data Capture in the Retail Environment”. In Part I Dr Jones looked at the various technical options open to retail managers for both data capture and data transmission, and the ways in which such data may be used in a management information context. He also touched upon the differing data handling needs of various types of retail organisation. In Part II, he covers the cost and economic aspects of computer aided systems, provides some examples of user experiences, and draws together his main conclusions and recommendations from both parts of the article.

This article summarizes a study that identified and described federal information inventory/locator systems. Such locator systems provide an important means of accessing a range of government information not previously available to the public or other government officials. Overall, the study's goal was to improve access to and use of U.S. government information. The study produced a final report describing study efforts, identifying issues and conclusions, and recommending the design of an networked‐based government‐wide information inventory/locator system (GIILS) (Volume I), the Federal Locator Database (FLD) — a machine‐readable database of descriptive information on some 250 federal databases, of which fifty‐three met the study's criteria as a locator, and a user's guide to that database (Volume II includes a machine‐readable version of the database and the user guide and codebook). The study recommends that the U.S. Office of Management and Budget develop a policy framework requiring agencies to design and maintain machine‐readable locators, meeting certain requirements and standards and that these be accessible over the Internet/NREN.

One of the most important instruments for gathering information and processing data relating to professional and organisational quality in health systems is “healthcare processes classification”. The authors found that a typical problem of many European countries is a lack of reliable information in the field of healthcare, mainly because the development of quality instruments, including healthcare processes classification, is not a priority for medical and other health professions. Additionally, it is difficult to update this instrument coherently with organisational changes and developmental achievements. This article describes the approach used by the University Medical Centre in Ljubjana, Slovenia, to redesign its healthcare processes classification in order to improve the quality of healthcare.

Reports recent work on the impact of the European STAR programme on the process of economic regeneration in Northern Ireland. Seeks to draw lessons from the Northern Ireland experience which may be applied elsewhere. Reports responses among the business community to the STAR programme and in particular the impact of the fibre opticbased transmission and switching facilities it has provided. In considering the overall impact of STAR on the job market, comparisons are drawn with elsewhere in the UK. The main conclusion is that in promoting the virtues of advanced telecommunications services, much greater attention must be paid to the business benefits involved and also, to making facilities such as ISDN more user friendly and competitive.

This paper aims to examine some of the issues associated with managing electronic records, identify some problems, and suggest some solutions, from the perspective of a professional records manager and archivist. Three main issues are considered that need to be addressed by managers of electronic records — management and organisational, technical and legal. The overarching theme of standards is woven into these three main areas of concern. The paper concludes by highlighting the need for attention to be paid, in the UK, to discussing and framing a professional approach to electronic records management.

Neural networks and expert systems are two major branches of artificial intelligence (AI). Their emergence has created the potential for a new generation of computer‐based applications in the area of financial decision making. Both systems are used by financial institutions and corporations for a variety of new applications from credit scoring to bond rating to detection of credit card fraud. While both systems belong to the applied field of artificial intelligence, there are many differences between them which differentiate their potential capabilities in the field of business. Presents an analysis of both neural networks and expert systems applications in terms of their capabilities and weaknesses. Uses examples of financial applications of expert systems and neural networks to provide a unified context for the comparison.

There are many encyclopedias available but finding out how good they are for use by particular sets of people is by no means easy. So there certainly is room for this guide which examines the wide range on offer in the USA and Canada and some elsewhere, describes the form and content of the volumes and attempts to evaluate them in comparison with each other. It is an entirely new work, current to 1 March 1986 and has title and subject indexes. There is even a bibliography of selected other books and articles on the evaluation and use of encyclopedias. Surprisingly it is quite readable and interesting to dip into in spite of the density of bibliographical details contained. Of course it deals mostly with North American publications but sometimes these are “the best” anywhere and librarians should know about more than their own country's publications.

Problems with customized systems in the 1950s led to the development of operating systems for input/output routines. A second generation offered more generalized file management. This provided sophisticated links between data elements. Corporate database management systems appeared in the 1970s. The functions of a DBMS are given as — integration (avoiding data duplication); data independence (separating data from software); data handling; privacy; integrity controls; compatibility; concurrency support and support of complex files. Data definition is achieved through the Data Definition Language (DDL), the Data Manipulation Language (DML) and the Query and Requesting Systems (QRS). Classifying these systems can be based on the way the data is presented to the user. However, the stored data may be structured hierarchically (tree), networked (plex), relational or extended networks like MDBS III. The article ends with a review of use and selection of such software systems. 7 diagrams. No refs.

Asks why business performance measurement has become so topical, so recently. Argues that there are seven main reasons: the changing nature of work; increasing competition; specific improvement initiatives; national and international quality awards; changing organisational roles; changing external demands; and the power of information technology. Evidence to support this assertion is drawn from the academic and practitioner literatures, interviews and discussions with people specialising in the field and a broad review of the current state‐of‐the‐art in business performance measurement. Presents a framework onto which current research in business performance measurement can be mapped and identifies areas which require further work.