Design principles for public access

Shaw, Ward

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/1114 Copy

Description

Title

Design principles for public access

Author(s)

Shaw, Ward

Issue Date

1980

Keyword(s)

• Libraries --Automation
• Library science --Data processing
• Public services (Libraries)

Abstract

Basically, the problem of designing an information system for public access is the same as the problem of designing any kind of system, and perhaps can be stated as a question: How do we construct or plan that interaction of hardware, software, people, and data that will be most likely to lead to a predetermined good or goal? Ideally, we should have a fairly good idea of what the goal is, an understanding of the mechanism of the change required to meet the goal, and a comprehension of the characteristics of the interactions of hardware, software, people, and data, so that we may apply those characteristics to the design and control of the events necessary to cause the change desired. Traditionally stated, this means: define the output, define the input, and then invent a process that will transform the input into the output. The trouble is that when it comes to the design of information systems, and particularly public access information systems, it is extraordinarily difficult to reach clear definitions of output or input; and, moreover, nearly impossible to define a process that will transform one into the other.

Publisher

Graduate School of Library Science. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Series/Report Name or Number

Clinic on Library Applications of Data Processing (17th : 1980)

ISSN

0069-4789

Type of Resource

text

Language

en

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/1114

Copyright and License Information

Copyright owned by Copyright 1980 Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

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