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Information systems development for decentralized organizations
Reviews is likely to become increasingly essential in their professional activities.
Penelope Yates-Mercer Department of Information Science Oty University London, UK
Systems Analysis for Librarians and Information Professionals Larry N Osborne and Margaret Nakamura
Libraries Unlimited Englewood CO 215 pp £45.50 ISBN 1 56308 2756 Systems analysis generally seems to be one of those esoteric blackish arts practised by consenting specialists, but nonetheless having considerable impact on the work of information managers. Even though we may not need to be specialists ourselves, we need to know enough about the topic to converse reasonably intelligently with such people. This book, then, seems to meet a real need; a text in the area geared to the specific needs of information professionals. In some respects, judged in this way, this book disappoints. It is, in effect, a general purpose introduction to systems analysis, with a high proportion, though not all, of the examples taken from relevant examples, which almost exclusively means libraries and library automation systems. The authors suggest that the topics included are those needed by the information professional in learning the rudiments of systems analysis; while this is true, they are essentially the same as those needed by any professional.
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What we have then is a clearly written account of systems analysis basics, with examples and case-studies which will be user-friendly to librarians, though not necessarily to other information managers. Whether this justifies the choice of this book, rather than any other of the introductory guides to this topic, is probably personal choice. At all event, this book provides a well written and clearly expressed introduction to this topic, with a minimum of jargon, and is worth consideration on those grounds alone.
Lyn Robinson British Postgraduate Medical Federation
Information Systems Development for Decentralized Organizations A Solvberg, J Krogstie and A H Seltveit (eds)
Chapman and Hall London (1995) 242 pp £35.00 ISBN 0 412 6400 7 This book forms the proceedings of the IFIP working conference on development of information systems for decentralized organizations. It has published commendably quickly, and shares many of the typical strengths and weaknesses of such published proceedings. The main strengths are rapid promulgation of new ideas, and access to a potentially stimulating mix of contributions. Weaknesses are a rather uneven and heterogeneous feel to the material, an unsettling number of misprints and general infelicities in preparation, and a quite inadequate combination of index and contents
listing, making access to detailed points within the material problematic at best. The editors, bravely, attempted to reflect the theme of the proceedings by handling receipt, refereeing and preparation of material by electronic means: email, ftp and Web. With commendable honesty, they describe the procedures and problems, concluding that it involved them in considerably more work than with the traditional paper process. That said, what about the book itself. It certainly covers a range of topics, from workflow management to communication via the Web, from the modelling of business relationships, with some obligatory nods to process reengineering, to realizing decentralized IT strategies, from devising 'agile' information infrastructures to handling the intricacies of message flow control. The majority of topics are dealt with at quite a detailed technical level, perhaps so much so as to alienate the majority on an information management readership. This would be a shame, as there are useful insights in many of the 12 papers, with discussants' reports on each, included. Those contributions dealing with the use of the WorldWideWeb as an alternative to traditional organizational information systems are perhaps of most immediate relevance. A useful volume, rather than essential, to be dipped into by anyone interested in the technical issues of providing information within the distributed organization.
David Bawden City University London, UK
Penelope Yates-Mercer Department of Information Science Oty University London, UK
Systems Analysis for Librarians and Information Professionals Larry N Osborne and Margaret Nakamura
Libraries Unlimited Englewood CO 215 pp £45.50 ISBN 1 56308 2756 Systems analysis generally seems to be one of those esoteric blackish arts practised by consenting specialists, but nonetheless having considerable impact on the work of information managers. Even though we may not need to be specialists ourselves, we need to know enough about the topic to converse reasonably intelligently with such people. This book, then, seems to meet a real need; a text in the area geared to the specific needs of information professionals. In some respects, judged in this way, this book disappoints. It is, in effect, a general purpose introduction to systems analysis, with a high proportion, though not all, of the examples taken from relevant examples, which almost exclusively means libraries and library automation systems. The authors suggest that the topics included are those needed by the information professional in learning the rudiments of systems analysis; while this is true, they are essentially the same as those needed by any professional.
80
What we have then is a clearly written account of systems analysis basics, with examples and case-studies which will be user-friendly to librarians, though not necessarily to other information managers. Whether this justifies the choice of this book, rather than any other of the introductory guides to this topic, is probably personal choice. At all event, this book provides a well written and clearly expressed introduction to this topic, with a minimum of jargon, and is worth consideration on those grounds alone.
Lyn Robinson British Postgraduate Medical Federation
Information Systems Development for Decentralized Organizations A Solvberg, J Krogstie and A H Seltveit (eds)
Chapman and Hall London (1995) 242 pp £35.00 ISBN 0 412 6400 7 This book forms the proceedings of the IFIP working conference on development of information systems for decentralized organizations. It has published commendably quickly, and shares many of the typical strengths and weaknesses of such published proceedings. The main strengths are rapid promulgation of new ideas, and access to a potentially stimulating mix of contributions. Weaknesses are a rather uneven and heterogeneous feel to the material, an unsettling number of misprints and general infelicities in preparation, and a quite inadequate combination of index and contents
listing, making access to detailed points within the material problematic at best. The editors, bravely, attempted to reflect the theme of the proceedings by handling receipt, refereeing and preparation of material by electronic means: email, ftp and Web. With commendable honesty, they describe the procedures and problems, concluding that it involved them in considerably more work than with the traditional paper process. That said, what about the book itself. It certainly covers a range of topics, from workflow management to communication via the Web, from the modelling of business relationships, with some obligatory nods to process reengineering, to realizing decentralized IT strategies, from devising 'agile' information infrastructures to handling the intricacies of message flow control. The majority of topics are dealt with at quite a detailed technical level, perhaps so much so as to alienate the majority on an information management readership. This would be a shame, as there are useful insights in many of the 12 papers, with discussants' reports on each, included. Those contributions dealing with the use of the WorldWideWeb as an alternative to traditional organizational information systems are perhaps of most immediate relevance. A useful volume, rather than essential, to be dipped into by anyone interested in the technical issues of providing information within the distributed organization.
David Bawden City University London, UK