Word processer applications at the USDA's Technical Information Systems

Hoyt, David R.

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/1118 Copy

Description

Title

Word processer applications at the USDA's Technical Information Systems

Author(s)

Hoyt, David R.

Issue Date

1981

Keyword(s)

• Libraries --Automation
• Library science --Data processing
• Information technology

Abstract

Since this is a clinic on library applications of data processing, we ought to be able to answer a few very basic questions before proceeding with the topic of word processer applications at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. First, why do we want to automate our libraries and their numerous operations? Is it self-evidently necessary that we do so? Is automation in all its many, varied forms, in and of itself, always a good thing? When is it not? Second, given the widespread availability of inexpensive and easy-to-use hardware and flexible software, what, within our libraries, do we want to bring under automation's electronic control? Should our long-range goal be to automate everything from the reference interview (now possible with voice-activated and voice-responding machines) to the traditional functions of cataloging and indexing? What about management? Can the management of a large library be automated? In short, is our goal to automate everything the librarian now does? And if not everything, then what should not be automated? And what is the principle by which we determine what can and cannot be accomplished automatically? I suggest that we must be able to answer these questions before we can proceed with an intelligent discussion of our topic.

Publisher

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

Series/Report Name or Number

Clinic on Library Applications of Data Processing (18th : 1981)

ISSN

0069-4789

Type of Resource

text

Language

en

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/1118

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