Search results

Online use of external databases by Australian manufacturing companies has been growing rapidly since 1979. A survey of online users in some chemical and food companies found that in one‐third of the companies scientists and technologists performed searches. They did not search as many databases as the librarians in the other companies. They are, however, obtaining more information than before. All companies considered online searching cost effective, citing the rapid retrieval of information and the fact that searches need only be conducted when information is wanted, as evidence of cost‐effectiveness. Implications for manufacturing industry in Australia of current trends in the online industry are discussed and the potential of the new technology for equalising access to information among companies of all sizes is noted.

First I should make clear that what I mean by ‘business information’ for the purpose of this paper excludes the technical and scientific information requirements of business and industry. Without attempting a full definition of the term, it is as well that I declare my concern to be with information which assists in the means of buying and selling of goods and services and the means—through the application of economics and management techniques—of their production, but not the technical processes involved therein. There is an area of overlap which has been called the techno‐commercial field, where for example the marketing men and the production men need to come together to establish what is technically feasible and permissible in respect of the sale of their goods in domestic and overseas markets. This is well recognized in the Science Reference Library which, for this reason, cannot be overlooked as a source of business information. But, except in smaller units in the company sector, and in some local authority libraries, the provision of business information is generally distinct from the scientific/technical, and separate staffs are involved.

THIS month there will be assembling at Margate the Conference on Automation organised by the Institution of Production Engineers.