University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Have Information Services Been Successful? A Critique

Lancaster, F.W.

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/921

Description

Title
Have Information Services Been Successful? A Critique
Author(s)
Lancaster, F.W.
Issue Date
1975
Keyword(s)
  • Reference services (Libraries) --Automation
  • Database searching
  • Online bibliographic searching
  • Information retrieval
  • Mooers's Law
  • Information Services
Abstract
"This paper is somewhat different from those presented earlier. The others have dealt with experiences in the provision of information services through the use of machine-readable data bases. By and large, they reported successes. The present paper is more a series of observations and impressions on the achievements of the field of information service in the past twenty years. In particular, it is my intention: (1) to point out certain failures, or at least limitations, of existing information services, (2) to mention some findings on use and users of information services that seem to be of special signifi- cance, and (3) to suggest some directions for future work. I intend here to raise questions rather than to answer them. In parts, at least, the paper is deliberately provocative and should be viewed in this light. ""An information retrieval system will tend not to be used whenever it is more painful and troublesome for a customer to have information than for him not to have it."" This statement was made in 1960 by Calvin Mooers 1 and is frequently referred to as ""Mooers's Law."" It is perhaps the single most important quotation in the entire literature on the provision of information service. 1. Mooers, Calvin N. ""Mooers' Law, or Why Some Retrieval Systems Are Used and Others Are Not,"" American Documentation 1 l:ii, July 1960."
Publisher
Graduate School of Library Science. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Series/Report Name or Number
Clinic on Library Applications of Data Processing (12th : 1975)
ISSN
0069-4789
Type of Resource
text
Language
en
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/921
Copyright and License Information
Copyright owned by Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Owning Collections

1975: The use of computers in literature searching and related reference activities in libraries PRIMARY
12th Clinic on Library Applications of Data Processing (1975). Edited by F. Wilfrid Lancaster