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Information sources in pharmaceuticals
Book reviews
formation systems development, and the management of information technology. The titles for the first two parts of the book adequately reflect the material covered; however, the third part is really about application areas. It is only the final chapter which covers the management of technology. Part I is concerned with introducing systems concepts and models as a framework for understanding information, information systems and their role within organizations. These first few chapters are well conceived and bring together material from a variety of sources. The importance of recognizing information as a corporate strategic resource is rightly stressed. However, it is not until the reader has reached Chapter 9 in Part II that he or she is introduced to frameworks which can help link the corporate strategy to the IT strategy. Much recent work. by authors such as Earl and Galliers, is not referred to. This is a serious omission in a book which claims to focus on the effectiveness of IT within the organization. The final chapter in Part I, dealing with information technology, sits rather uneasily in the book. Getting down into the details of computer storage and magnetic discs seems to be out of place in the scheme of the book as a whole. The second part addresses the issues of information systems development. These issues are addressed within the theme of the strategic planning of information systems. Indeed one feels that some of the material presented here would have fit more readably in Part 1. There is a chapter on implementation, a very important topic indeed. However, the opportunity is missed to discuss the organizational factors of implementation - for example, pilot studies versus a ‘big bang’ approach. Part III covers applications of relevance to managers rather than, as the title suggests, the management of information technology. The first chapter here again returns to the theme of the book as a whole and one wonders whether this material would be better presented much earlier. Later chapters cover decision support, expert systems and office systems. A rather
172
small chapter of two pages pays lip service to the importance of small business systems. The final chapter covers the area that the title of the book might lead us to suppose the whole book is about, namely the management of the information resource. Overall this is a useful contribution to the literature on information technology within organizations. Its weak point is that the structure and organization of the book could be better. Nevertheless, this is a book to be recommended for Masters and first degree students on business information systems courses.
Warwick
Business
D. Grimshaw School. UK
W.R. Pickering (Editor). Information sources in pharmaceuticals. London: Bowker-Saur, 19Y0. 565 pp. ISBN 0 408 20.518 2. f55. This is a significant addition to the series of guides previously known as the Butterworths guides to information sources. Like others of the series, it consists of a collection of chapters each written by a different author or authors under a general edition. This has, in some of the previous volumes of the series, led to considerable variation in the quality of the chapters, but in this volume the quality, like that of authors themselves, is consistently high. However, it is inevitable, with such a broad multidisciplinary area to cover, that this volume exhibits other weaknesses of previous volumes, gaps in coverage and lack of linkage between chapters. Sensibly, the editor has left basic discussion of the sources for the underlying disciplines to other guides in the series (some of which now are somewhat out of date), but more cross-references to these would have been useful. The book is divided into three parts; the first of which covers both scientific, legal and commercial information sources relating to pharmaceuticals; the second deals with information sources for marketed pharmaceuticals, the pharmaceutical industry as information provider and the role of the World Health Organiza-
tion; the third part is a worthwhile examination of information in pharmaceuticals in seven geographical areas. The main lack that I feel is for a chapter on searching for information on a pharmaceutical product using the sources mentioned. In particular, I should like to know more about searching using the names and numbers associated with a particular pharmaceutical at various stages of its development as well as other aspects of nomenclature in this context. Incidentally, MIMS (the Monthly Index of Medical Specialities) is only mentioned in the chapter on Central Africa. F. Wood Department of Information Studies University of Sheffield, UK
R. Lester and J. Waters. Environmental scanning and business strategy. London: British Library, 1989. (Library and Information Research Report 75). 156 pp. ISBN 0 7123 3203 0. f25. This is a somewhat delayed report of work undertaken by the authors in 1986 - but not the less useful for the delay. It presents the environmental scanning activities of corporate planning departments in ‘seven large UKbased companies’, with particular reference to the use of publicly-available information for long-term strategic planning purposes. Only one company had a very sophisticated method for environmental scanning and, unfortunately, only the briefest description is given - ‘Partly for confidentiality reasons’. The company had established a separate environmental-scanning unit, separate from corporate planning, but making use of its information service and developing its own computer-based files of information. In the case of the other six, the authors note that it was difficult to separate scanning in general from scanning for strategic purThe inability to report the poses. methods of the seventh company is unfortunate, since the authors report that:
formation systems development, and the management of information technology. The titles for the first two parts of the book adequately reflect the material covered; however, the third part is really about application areas. It is only the final chapter which covers the management of technology. Part I is concerned with introducing systems concepts and models as a framework for understanding information, information systems and their role within organizations. These first few chapters are well conceived and bring together material from a variety of sources. The importance of recognizing information as a corporate strategic resource is rightly stressed. However, it is not until the reader has reached Chapter 9 in Part II that he or she is introduced to frameworks which can help link the corporate strategy to the IT strategy. Much recent work. by authors such as Earl and Galliers, is not referred to. This is a serious omission in a book which claims to focus on the effectiveness of IT within the organization. The final chapter in Part I, dealing with information technology, sits rather uneasily in the book. Getting down into the details of computer storage and magnetic discs seems to be out of place in the scheme of the book as a whole. The second part addresses the issues of information systems development. These issues are addressed within the theme of the strategic planning of information systems. Indeed one feels that some of the material presented here would have fit more readably in Part 1. There is a chapter on implementation, a very important topic indeed. However, the opportunity is missed to discuss the organizational factors of implementation - for example, pilot studies versus a ‘big bang’ approach. Part III covers applications of relevance to managers rather than, as the title suggests, the management of information technology. The first chapter here again returns to the theme of the book as a whole and one wonders whether this material would be better presented much earlier. Later chapters cover decision support, expert systems and office systems. A rather
172
small chapter of two pages pays lip service to the importance of small business systems. The final chapter covers the area that the title of the book might lead us to suppose the whole book is about, namely the management of the information resource. Overall this is a useful contribution to the literature on information technology within organizations. Its weak point is that the structure and organization of the book could be better. Nevertheless, this is a book to be recommended for Masters and first degree students on business information systems courses.
Warwick
Business
D. Grimshaw School. UK
W.R. Pickering (Editor). Information sources in pharmaceuticals. London: Bowker-Saur, 19Y0. 565 pp. ISBN 0 408 20.518 2. f55. This is a significant addition to the series of guides previously known as the Butterworths guides to information sources. Like others of the series, it consists of a collection of chapters each written by a different author or authors under a general edition. This has, in some of the previous volumes of the series, led to considerable variation in the quality of the chapters, but in this volume the quality, like that of authors themselves, is consistently high. However, it is inevitable, with such a broad multidisciplinary area to cover, that this volume exhibits other weaknesses of previous volumes, gaps in coverage and lack of linkage between chapters. Sensibly, the editor has left basic discussion of the sources for the underlying disciplines to other guides in the series (some of which now are somewhat out of date), but more cross-references to these would have been useful. The book is divided into three parts; the first of which covers both scientific, legal and commercial information sources relating to pharmaceuticals; the second deals with information sources for marketed pharmaceuticals, the pharmaceutical industry as information provider and the role of the World Health Organiza-
tion; the third part is a worthwhile examination of information in pharmaceuticals in seven geographical areas. The main lack that I feel is for a chapter on searching for information on a pharmaceutical product using the sources mentioned. In particular, I should like to know more about searching using the names and numbers associated with a particular pharmaceutical at various stages of its development as well as other aspects of nomenclature in this context. Incidentally, MIMS (the Monthly Index of Medical Specialities) is only mentioned in the chapter on Central Africa. F. Wood Department of Information Studies University of Sheffield, UK
R. Lester and J. Waters. Environmental scanning and business strategy. London: British Library, 1989. (Library and Information Research Report 75). 156 pp. ISBN 0 7123 3203 0. f25. This is a somewhat delayed report of work undertaken by the authors in 1986 - but not the less useful for the delay. It presents the environmental scanning activities of corporate planning departments in ‘seven large UKbased companies’, with particular reference to the use of publicly-available information for long-term strategic planning purposes. Only one company had a very sophisticated method for environmental scanning and, unfortunately, only the briefest description is given - ‘Partly for confidentiality reasons’. The company had established a separate environmental-scanning unit, separate from corporate planning, but making use of its information service and developing its own computer-based files of information. In the case of the other six, the authors note that it was difficult to separate scanning in general from scanning for strategic purThe inability to report the poses. methods of the seventh company is unfortunate, since the authors report that: