Circulation Department Research Articles

Selected Abstracts

Periodicals published by the Association are not available for loan, but may be purchased from the Circulation Department. Reprints of articles abstracted in JAMA may be obtained from the authors whose addresses are supplied with the abstracts.

Selected Abstracts

Periodicals published by the Association are not available for loan, but may be purchased from the Circulation Department. Reprints of articles abstracted in JAMA may be obtained from the authors whose addresses are supplied with the abstracts.

Selected Abstracts

Periodicals published by the Association are not available for loan, but may be purchased from the Circulation Department. Reprints of articles abstracted in JAMA may be obtained from the authors whose addresses are supplied with the abstracts.

Selected Abstracts

Periodicals published by the Association are not available for loan, but may be purchased from the Circulation Department. Reprints of articles abstracted in JAMA may be obtained from the authors whose addresses are supplied with the abstracts.

Selected Abstracts

Periodicals published by the Association are not available for loan, but may be purchased from the Circulation Department. Reprints of articles abstracted in JAMA may be obtained from the authors whose addresses are supplied with the abstracts.

Selected Abstracts

Periodicals published by the Association are not available for loan, but may be purchased from the Circulation Department. Reprints of articles abstracted in JAMA may be obtained from the authors whose addresses are supplied with the abstracts.

Selected Abstracts

Periodicals published by the Association are not available for loan, but may be purchased from the Circulation Department. Reprints of articles abstracted in JAMA may be obtained from the authors whose addresses are supplied with the abstracts.

MIS Problems and Failures: A Socio-Technical Perspective, Part II: The Application of Socio-Technical Theory

This article provides, by means of a hypothetical example, the procedures to be followed in applying the Socio- Technical-Systems Approach to information systems design. The need for this approach was presented in the first part of this article which appeared in the September Issue of the MIS Quarterly. Here the authors provide an overview of the Socio- Technical-Systems procedure and show how it could be used in redesigning an information system used by the circulation department of a large newspaper. The step by step approach is intended to Illustrate the process to those practitioners feeling that more needs to be done in the area of using computer-based systems to improve the quality of working life of the system users.

Editorial Policy-Making

‘WHEN WE HAVE SAID THAT THE EDITOR IS IN FULL CONTROL OF editorial policy, we have really said everything, and all the answers are only slight variations on that theme. Naturally, he has his assistant editors; naturally there is full discussion; naturally the circulation departments are usually informed in advance of big editorial developments; but the Editor is in charge of policy.’

EXPERIENCES AND PROBLEMS OF ELECTRONIC DATA PROCESSING ENCOUNTERED BY The UNIVERSITY OF BOCHUM LIBRARY

After five years' experience with electronic data processing at the University of Bochum Library it is now possible to derive some conclusions as to its practicability. The automation stage reached so far includes automation facilities with regard to circulation and alphabetic cataloguing operations, whereas other processes such as binding control, union catalogue of serials, acquisition, and classified cataloguing are only partially automated. As soon as the university library began its work in 1963 plans concerning the eventual automation of all operations were at once submitted, with the result that two departments never existed in traditional form, i.e. the cataloguing and circulation departments. The planners of the electronic data processing system in Bochum pursue the aim of building up an integrated system which includes all departments of the library. At the outset it was hoped to reach this end within a period of five to six years. But five years of practical programming have shown that it is impossible to develop an integrated system in such a short time. The automation of a department is effected in several steps. After finishing the basic plans the programming of a department takes from twelve to eighteen months. On this basis it was expected to complete a fully integrated system in five or six years' time. But in the course of operations it turned out that a lot of alterations and corrections are necessary, and this for two reasons:

Library Service in Perspective

A FRIEND of librarians once suggested that a librarian is an unusual kind of traf­ fie engineer, because he tries to arrange collisions, collisions between ideas and people. 1 It is these collisions which give librarians a sense of excitement and some­ times turmoil. A primary cause of turmoil for librar­ ians is the fact that we are public servants. We serve not merely one boss but all the readers who make up our public. Our sit­ uation as everybody's servant is drama­ tized by the crowds and the ringing tele­ phones at peak hours at the different ser­ vice desks. Because the reference and circulation departments are on the firing line, they are most aware of their calling to be servants, but so are the other departments. The technical services are the indispensable man-behind-the-man­ behind-the-gun. They are the so-called hidden services. If they have not done their part, the public librarians may be powerless to get the right book to the right person at the right time. So we see that all of us are either directly or indirectly serving the public. It is interesting to note that as librari­ ans we have stressed the aspects of our work. This is evident in our lan­ guage, where the word service recurs in many phrases: technical services, refer­ ence service, reader's advisory service, the Library Services Act, the Columbia University school of library service, etc. Librarians sometimes use the word ser­ vice as a synonym for such impersonal words as process or operation, 2 but they also use the word in the very personal

The Circulation Department of the Victoria and Albert Museum

The Circulation Department of the Victoria and Albert Museum

The Circulation Department Organization and Personnel

The Circulation Department Organization and Personnel