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State government archivists confront special problems in selecting and making available machine‐readable records with enduring research value. Today no more than half a dozen state archives have addressed the issue of electronic records and only two or three states have even rudimentary programs for selecting and preserving electronic records. The National Archives of the United States and Canada provide models for some aspects of program development, but archival programs in states and smaller government entities also face unique problems.

The office as we know it is gradually being changed as more electronic applications are introduced. To a large extent, information technology based on micro‐electronics is used today to carry out specific tasks in more efficient ways while largely disregarding or failing to cope with the overall effectivenes of an organization. Short‐term tactical productivity gains take priority over long‐term strategic development. Rationalistic and reductionistic procedures take priority over emotional, creative, judgement‐centered activities. Quantitative evaluation takes precedence over qualitative. Employee initiative is expropriated by the technology, leaving the operator little discretion in his or her task and a limited need for training and education to operate the devices.

The ‘Office of the Future’, ‘Office Technology’, ‘Word Processing’, ‘Electronic Mail’, ‘Electronic Communications’, ‘Convergence’, ‘Information Management’. These are all terms included in the current list of buzz words used to describe current activities in the office technology area. Open the pages of almost any journal or periodical today and you will probably find an article or some reference to one or more of the above subjects. Long, detailed and highly technical theses are appearing on new techniques to automate and revolutionize the office environment. Facts and figures are quoted ad nauseam on the high current cost of writing a letter, filing letters, memos, reports and documents, trying to communicate with someone by telephone or other telecommunication means and, most significant of all, the high cost of people undertaking these never‐ending tasks. The high level of investment in factories and plants and the ever‐increasing fight to improve productivity by automating the dull, routine jobs are usually quoted and compared with the extremely low investment in improving and automating the equally tedious routine jobs in the office environment; the investment in the factory is quoted as being ten times greater per employee than in the office. This, however, is changing rapidly and investment on a large scale is already taking place in many areas as present‐day inflation bites hard, forcing many companies and organizations to take a much closer look at their office operations.

A RECENT ‘Dixon of Dock Green’ television episode portrayed a Time and Motion consultant in a very unfavourable light. The script writers did not attempt to explain his work, being too intent on creating credible circumstances for an attempted murder. All they needed was to build up a situation which made the workers' hostility to his activities obvious. It is to be hoped that homicide is not now an added occupational risk of consultants or Work Study men!

The evolution of electronic information technologies in a Midwest state in the USA are discussed and this evolution is compared to national trends for processing information. Information management technologies are now in the third stage of evolution. Over the next five years, the technology for handling information will fully integrate voice, data, and video technologies. This integration has profound implications for how organizations manage its enactment and how organizations will adapt to their internal and external environments. In order to manage these enactments and adaptations, a new way of planning is required. Traditional “bottom up” and “top down” planning methodologies must be integrated into a planning method that defines the knit between information system architectures and resources with corporate policies and business plans. The article presents a model of this integrated planning approach for practitioners and policy makers who are responsible for designing organizational systems.

Develops an original 12‐step management of technology protocol and applies it to 51 applications which range from Du Pont’s failure in Nylon to the Single Online Trade Exchange for Auto Parts procurement by GM, Ford, Daimler‐Chrysler and Renault‐Nissan. Provides many case studies with regards to the adoption of technology and describes seven chief technology officer characteristics. Discusses common errors when companies invest in technology and considers the probabilities of success. Provides 175 questions and answers to reinforce the concepts introduced. States that this substantial journal is aimed primarily at the present and potential chief technology officer to assist their survival and success in national and international markets.

As businesses increasingly use electronic data processing (EDP) techniques to process their accounting systems, auditors must gather critical information more efficiently. Such tools and techniques as electronic data interchange, the Internet and other modern technological subjects signal the end of the traditional audit. Technology has made inputting information for transactions and events more simple ‐ and evaluating the related controls and results more critical. Accumulating sufficient evidence needed to construct an informed decision means understanding where to look for that evidence, what control procedures to consider and how to evaluate those procedures. The purpose of this article is to draw attention to these issues and the recently issued SAS No. 80, which offers auditors guidance to accumulate sufficient evidence to audit their computerized clients. We also address some issues auditors may face in evaluating the security control in their clients’ businesses.

After five years' experience with electronic data processing at the University of Bochum Library it is now possible to derive some conclusions as to its practicability. The automation stage reached so far includes automation facilities with regard to circulation and alphabetic cataloguing operations, whereas other processes such as binding control, union catalogue of serials, acquisition, and classified cataloguing are only partially automated. As soon as the university library began its work in 1963 plans concerning the eventual automation of all operations were at once submitted, with the result that two departments never existed in traditional form, i.e. the cataloguing and circulation departments. The planners of the electronic data processing system in Bochum pursue the aim of building up an integrated system which includes all departments of the library. At the outset it was hoped to reach this end within a period of five to six years. But five years of practical programming have shown that it is impossible to develop an integrated system in such a short time. The automation of a department is effected in several steps. After finishing the basic plans the programming of a department takes from twelve to eighteen months. On this basis it was expected to complete a fully integrated system in five or six years' time. But in the course of operations it turned out that a lot of alterations and corrections are necessary, and this for two reasons:

The Commercial Invoice is the first EDI message to gain worldwide acceptance, and it has been registered as a standard by the United Nations. The action was hailed by the Commission of European Communities (CEC) as a significant step towards the international agreement on technical standards needed in order for electronic communications to gradually replace paperwork in world trade.

Electronic data processing in retailing is not new. It's been used for years for stock control, sales analysis, payroll. But now for the first time it's becoming commonplace for retailers to think in terms of the electronic cash register, treating it as an integral part of an information reporting system, and using it to collect data at the point of sale. This feature looks at progress to date in the field, both in this country and America, and summarises applications installed by some of the major manufacturers.