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First, I wish to express my appreciation to The State Science and Technology Commission, and The Institute of Scientific and Technical Information for the opportunity to contribute to this very worthwhile endeavour.

In this paper I shall try to define the ‘world information industry’, and to outline its present situation.

The client and the Problem The Information Services Division of the British Tourist Authority is responsible for dealing with over 1.5 million inquiries a year, through about 80 information staff in the offices which it maintains in 25 countries. Some of the staff are British, others are nationals of the countries where the offices are situated. While some are on the permanent staff of the BTA, others are recruited for short periods and work for BTA for times ranging from a season to a few years. Methods of recruitment of local staff vary from country to country, according to local legislation; in some countries it is possible to advertise, interview and recruit in the same way as would be done in the United Kingdom, but in others this is not possible, and BTA's recruitment depends on those who take the initiative of offering themselves for employment.

Information handling systems of all kinds are created by people, operated by people, and dedicated to serving people. Some systems make it hard to believe this proposition, and indeed, the use of human abilities has generally not received the same attention as either system analysis and design, or the development of information technologies. The term “liveware” which has recently appeared as a companion to “hardware” and “software” is a symptom of the poverty and naivete of thinking that too often prevails. Paradoxically, the more sophisticated the information technology used, the more important it becomes to use human abilities properly. Technology, no matter how advanced, cannot of itself improve poor information; and the “data capture” of high‐grade information is usually the activity in a computerised system which costs most because it demands the thinking power of highly qualified staff.

This article came about because of an attempt to plan a seminar on user education in special libraries. While there are any number of user‐education studies in educational institutions, there is a singular lack of them in special libraries and industrial information services. Aslib very properly wanted to do something to fill the gap on the practical side, to complement the survey it was sponsoring.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce this dedicated research issue of the Records Management Journal

This paper provides a brief viewpoint on records management research.

This issue should clearly demonstrate why research is so critical.

This paper provides a brief viewpoint on records management research.

Adopting IT would usually imply implementing and applying some form of equipment for staff to use in order to achieve the objectives of the organization. Equipment would usually imply some form of computer hardware in possibly a local area network configuration, or perhaps a wide area network. In the past this may have been the cabling of dumb terminals located at the workplace to a central mainframe or minicomputer. In the future this may involve the networking of the new, exciting 486 processor with microcomputers in a more decentralized configuration. The 486 processor may well have quite a far‐reaching impact not only on what staff can do and how they do it, but also on the DP/MIS/IT departments, as well as on the organization's budget.