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University strategic planning for information systems and management was investigated for four Indonesian higher educational institutions. A combination of the case study approach and a survey of a small sample of academic staff who have used the systems, was undertaken. Staff perceptions of the service from information systems are described, and related to their perceptions of planning for these systems. A number of evaluations of specific information sources and delivery are given in detail. Policy document analysis showed little information systems planning as part of the university strategic planning. Some observations are made about the influence of strategic information system planning upon successful use of a university’s information systems.

The Faculty of Information Technology at QUT does not formally carry out distance education for any of its courses. However, it has pursued a number of initiatives that have made it possible for students to carry out an increasing proportion of their coursework off‐site. These initiatives include computer‐managed learning, World Wide Web and CD‐ROM delivery of administrative and educational materials, and most recently the development of an integrated learning environment (ILE) for electronic delivery. These developments have been complemented and supported by the QUT library by means of different avenues of access to CD‐ROMs, a regional electronic document delivery service (REDD), and an electronic reserve (E‐Reserve) service. Issues associated with the operation and evaluation of such facilities are described, and the future library role in educational delivery is discussed.

A survey was undertaken of graduates from various library courses at Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane. The instrument was developed in consultation with schools offering similar courses nationally, so that it could subsequently be used for national comparison. The survey was structured to take account of knowledge, skills, and competencies explicated in Australian documents that provide competency guidance in library and information management areas. It was also designed to enable comparison with a previously published survey analysis. The survey identifies 189 skills grouped into nine categories: collection building and management; communication; facilities and equipment; information organisation; information services; information systems; management; marketing; and research. The response rate to the survey was low, but nevertheless provided a useful comparison between the expectations of graduates working in different sectors, for different time periods. Findings for respondents as a group show that each of the top five ranked skills were in the information services category, as were seven of the top ten ranked skills. There were marked differences between the rankings assigned by this group and those of a similar North American study. Tables showing the ranking of skills expectations are provided. Comments are made about curriculum developments that are influenced by these data.

With food wastage in many hospitals estimated at up to 30% of the costs of the service, most of it plate waste, there has to be every incentive to do better. It is impossible to contemplate the potential role of marketing and the introduction of better choice and quality of meals without first appreciating the totally unnatural environment in which the bulk of hospital meals are chosen and consumed.

The extent of bibliographic database development in Australia is summarised with reference to all of the publicly available machine‐readable files. An analysis is made of the telecommunications network development that has enhanced access to the data. Particular reference is made to the bibliographic services of CSIRONET, AUSINET and the Health Communications Network.

A comparison was made between CDS/ISIS, its Windows version WINISIS, and InMagic’s INMAGIC and DB/TextWorks software. Packages were evaluated for their database creation, information retrieval and report production capabilities. Windows versions were found to provide significant enhancements over DOS versions of software. The evaluation aimed to determine the advantages to a developing country of creating bibliographic databases using commercial software.

It is possible to isolate five points in the hospital system where caterers may plan to make a positive, caring impact upon patients treated as responsive customers. Only one of these five points deals with the preparation and production of food and beverages and their taste and quality.

Normally in a restaurant, or more particularly, in a cafeteria, customers expect to choose a meal from the choice available at a particular time. In hospitals, it is quite usual for patients to be required to choose a meal 24 hours or more in advance, in order to accommodate their wishes to the dominant system.

A brief discussion of discipline formation in information management is used to introduce the way different terminology is employed for describing information professionals as well as what it is that they do. This leads to a comparison of how information professionals and their professions are described in several of the thesauri that are the tools of the trade. These thesauri show marked differences in treatment of similar concepts.