The use of information and communication technologies in commercial libraries in the UK

Abstract

A survey undertaken between January and March 1998 investigated the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in a sample of 120 industrial and commercial libraries. Ninety-six per cent of the organisations which responded to the questionnaire use computers for some aspect of their library and information services. ICT was used for a range of office and other applications including, in rank order, e-mail, word processing, spreadsheets, presentation packages and database management systems. Ninety-one per cent of the sample used various Internet facilities including e-mail, World Wide Web, file transfer protocol (ftp) and telnet. This paper describes the results of the survey, reporting on the current state of the art of ICT use and future plans for automation in the sample.

Application of information and communication technologies in special libraries in Kerala (India)

“…Furness and Graham (1996) reported that 95 per cent of the special libraries in the UK used computers for some aspects of library and information services and used a wealth of different software packages depending upon particular applications. Barlow and Graham (1999) found that the majority of the commercial libraries in UK used commercial online databases.…”

“…Furness and Graham (1996) found that the library catalogue was the most popular aspect of automation in special libraries in the UK. Barlow and Graham (1999) reported that the use of purchased software packages for typical library housekeeping operations, such as cataloguing and circulation was more prevalent than in‐house developed systems in commercial libraries in the UK. They also found that the library catalogue was the most popular area for automation.…”