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InfoMapping is a methodology developed by the author and a Canadian colleague, Cornelius F. Burk, and first put forward in their 1988 Prentice‐Hall book, InfoMap: The Complete Guide to Discovering Corporate Information Resources. In that book the authors set forth a five‐step process that any organization can follow if and when they ‘get serious’ about managing information as a valued but costly organizational resource. The first step is to develop a baseline inventory of all critical information resources. InfoMapping is the trademarked term they give to developing a metainformation system wherein each major information resource in the organization, whether manual or automated, whether created internally or acquired externally, is profiled and an online record (‘Information Resource Entity’ or IRE) created. Over 100 data elements are involved in profiling each IRE. A software DBMS product called InfoMapper, programmed as a runtime application using dBASE IV, is also discussed.

A decade ago, on 27 December 1974, the Congress of the United States passed a Law creating a commission to study why the paperwork and red‐tape burdens being imposed on citizens, businesses and institutions by the US Federal Government, had become so excessive and burdensome — both in real economic terms and in terms of what we call in our country the psychological or government ‘hassle factor’.

I'm delighted to have been invited once again to an Aslib conference to share with you some views on the subject of information management. The Association's selection of the theme ‘The Adaptive Information Manager’ this year is particularly timely because it seems to me that we are at a juncture in the introduction of information management into organisations where there is neither so much a problem of philosophical acceptance of the idea, nor of methodological implementation alternatives (not that those concerns are unimportant), as there is the question of the impact of such a major management reform on the ability of enterprises to adapt and assimilate. In short the crucial issue is how resilient the company, or other kind of organisation is to the kaleidoscopic variety of impacts and changes.

Most approaches being put forward today for constructing an information architecture for a large organisation, such as a Fortune 1000 company, are essentially top‐down approaches. That is, organisations are first admonished to come up with a list of critical success factors. Then they're told that every business or enterprise, no matter what kind, has certain standard ‘classes of information’, into which all of the organisation's information systems, data, records and files can be shoehorned. ‘Prepare a matrix,’ we are told, ‘and then correlate your information classes with the critical success factor list.’

Perhaps my most serious misgiving about Charles Oppenheim's article in the February '94 issue of Aslib Proceedings is that he has approached the Info Mapper software with certain prejudicial and stereotyped concepts of: 1) what Info Mapper really is, and is supposed to accomplish; 2) what data base management systems are; 3) the difference between a computer programming language, such as ‘C’ or ‘C+’ (in which Info Mapper was programmed), a generalized DBMS software package that is sold ‘off the shelf’, and in applications software package like Info Mapper; and 4) his failure to follow clear instructions in the documentation accompanying Info Mapper (especially the Project Managers Guide) — which, in turn, led to all manner of problems that could have been entirely precluded, or at least ameliorated, and for which he blames the software instead of adequate preparation, planning, and giving the client enough time to work through problems.

The strategic value of information and information technology to an enterprise has received increased attention both in management practice and in the business and information literatures. This paper explores issues related to the alignment of business and information strategies and some organisational characteristics which appear to contribute to such an alignment, drawing on recent and current research in progress. Implications are drawn for organisational processes and structures and for the education and training of managers and of information specialists.

THE European campaign to catch up with the United States and Japan in the provision of information technology took a major step forward at the end of February when the Council of Ministers of the European Communities adopted the ESPRIT programme. ESPRIT equates to the ‘European Strategic Programme of Information Technology’ and the main areas of research cover micro electronics, software technology, advanced information processing, office systems, and computer integrated manufacturing. The programme will span the years 1984–88 and will cost 1,500,000,000 European Units of Account (£900,000,000), half of which will be contributed by the European Communities Commission, and half by industry. Although the European Community represents over thirty per cent of the world IT market, European industry provides only ten per cent of this market. For further details of the programme, contact Mr W Colin, IT Task Force, 200 Rue de la Loi, B 1049 Brussels, Belgium, tel 235 4477 or 235 2348, telecopier 230 1203, tx 25946.

I am very happy to be back in Poland again after a 3 year absence. I see a great many changes and I am happy to tell you that I see them all as constructive things that are happening. Speaking from my side of the ocean my country wishes you very well in your effort to move forward to becoming a part of the full EEC. I am sure you will reach that goal eventually and hopefully sooner than later. One of your speakers yesterday mentioned tourism and he put it in a “maybe” kind of context. From my standpoint there are hundreds of thousands of Americans who would like to be over here in your beautiful country spending money.

The purpose of this article is to: review the current methods and results of measuring the macrofungal biodiversity of both saprophytes and mycorrhiza; to show root tip analysis to be less accurate for mycorrhiza than expected when the latest research reports are considered; and to provide a simple methodology for measuring macrofungal biodiversity of forests.

Current macrofungal biodiversity methods are reviewed. A diagram representing the relationship between the mycorrhizal fungus and the root with three axes of variation is presented. A new methodology based on fruit body recording and analysis to provide a set of biodiversity quality indices is also presented.

The results of the use of the new methodology on two adjacent sites are presented as examples. The comparison of a set of sites for the full range of indices is also presented. Suggestions of how forest management may be influenced to include macrofungal biodiversity are made.

This new approach is considered to be an improvement on current practice since it relates both mycorrhizal biodiversity and saprophytic biodiversity to the ecosystem function.

Discusses the current business enthusiasm for intellectual capital and knowledge management and how the librarian should, in principle, take center stage in the intellectual capital and knowledge management process. Proposes a general prescriptive for the process and the librarian′s potential role therein. Specifically, recommends initiating this process with an annual report of the “state of the union” of intellectual capital, from a “value added to the learning organization” viewpoint. Identifies specific items that could be treated in such a report and concludes with an annotated bibliography of key articles in both the business and library literature.