In those gray or controversial areas in which legal precedents have not yet been set, common sense and a willingness to blaze new and ethical trails may be your best guides. In fact, there exists the opportunity for educators knowledgeable in copyright law to stake out reasonable uses that will help ensure an enlightened legal digital age for teachers in the new millennium. Understanding Fair Use

Those of you using technology for instruction may be pleasantly surprised at what is legal and ethical. This is because of fair use–the great legislative hall pass given by government to educators (and others involved in education or criticism) in section 107 of Title 17 of the 1976 Copyright Act. Under certain circumstances, this pass allows teachers to navigate safely through the corridors of copyright protection. The pass is powerful but valid only in places dedicated to instruction.

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act signed into law in October of 1998 updated aspects of copyright law. It did not, however, change the basic concept of fair use. Courts judge fair use cases based on the so-called four factors. These are: the purpose of the use, the nature of the work, the portion used, and the effect on the market. The intent of section 107 is clear, but the details–how much is too much to use, for example–were never defined in the law. Over the years, however, a number of groups have convened to draw up guidelines for users. Perhaps the best known are the guidelines set into the congressional record in 1981 by the House subcommittee headed by Robert Kastenmeier, and the multimedia guidelines adopted in 1998 by the Conference on Fair Use. The latter are not legally binding rules and they do have their critics who believe they limit fair use too severely. There’s little doubt, however, that sticking to these conservative guidelines will keep you out of trouble.

To test your knowledge of the basic underlying principles of fair use and the most widely accepted guidelines, we have prepared the True/False quiz on page 60. We suggest that you take the test, check your answers, and then return here.

Welcome back.
I hope you scored 100 percent. If not, here are some general misconceptions that might have led you to the “wrong” answers:

You thought it was about money. Copyright is about control. It doesn’t matter whether or not what you did involved money. What matters more is whether or not it had to do with instruction. Instructional use gives you an exemption; nonprofit use does not.
You thought it was about giving credit. Avoiding plagiarism doesn’t mean you’re complying with copyright laws. Even if you give credit, using copyrighted materials without permission is forbidden for all but a narrow range of purposes.
You thought copyright law was criminal law. Copyright issues for the most part fall under civil, not criminal, law. No one can give or get exemption from criminal law (as President Clinton and Dr. Kevorkian found out), but copyright holders can offer whatever latitude they want with their own copyrights. Cable channels, PBS, certain artists, and others have authorized extended rights for schools.
You thought copyright protection was created to protect people or enrich them. Copyright in America was born to “promote science and the useful arts,” not to protect commercial interests. It was to benefit society at large. Public education benefits the same society.
The No FAT Guide
So what is the bottom line? What can teachers and students do in the digital age? As new media take hold, it is often possible to apply older guidelines to newer scenarios. But how do you proceed when the old rules don’t apply? I would like to propose a rule of thumb I think will help.

Before I provide this advice, I should warn you that I’m not an attorney. Ken Starr and F. Lee Bailey, just for reference points, are attorneys. True, I have done presentations with attorneys and have given copyright workshops for educators across the country, but why should you take copyright advice from somebody who is not a lawyer?

Well, as you probably know, intellectual property attorneys are terrific to have around when you’re in trouble or want the clear-cut rules of case law laid out as they apply to you. In gray, misty areas without clear precedent, however, they tend to err on the conservative side. It’s what they get paid for. If you’re looking to do the right thing as an educator in the new millennium, there are times when you’ll need to be guided by common sense rules such as the one I call “The No FAT (Fear And Trembling) Educators’ Gray Area Guide to Fair Use.”

Here’s how it goes. If you’re considering using copyrighted materials for instructional purposes, do it!…provided that:

you are in a place dedicated to instruction and the material will stay there (rather than being distributed to a wider audience);
you are using a legitimate copy as your source;
the service or resource you are using is not available for sale for educational use.
In other words, don’t use technology for entertainment or reward; don’t pretend the cafeteria or auditorium is a classroom when it’s not; and don’t use bootleg copies of videos, CDs, or software. The creation of a video yearbook may be an educational project, but giving or selling it to the world at large is not. Don’t do multiple simultaneous boots of software when a school site license is for sale. Buy or don’t buy educational products, but don’t steal them.

Abstract
Content management and knowledge management are colliding. The lines between the two are becoming more and more blurry. We are seeing it in the field. The analysts are seeing it. The beleaguered strategic IT executives are seeing it. Should you try to put on the brakes and brace for impact, or should you leverage the momentum to harness the power of the impact?
A blend of content management and knowledge management may provide just the combination your company needs to further its success. But what components are most important? The purpose of this article is to examine the key points of overlap between content management and knowledge management – the points of overlap that can be leveraged to boost your bottom line ROI.

Some Definitions
The Yankee Group defines content management in a standard three-stage content delivery cycle. To effectively manage content, you have to have some means of creating new content, some means of managing your existing content, and some means of presenting your content.
To take on the burden of standardized creation, management and presentation, the content has to be meaningful. Overall, distributing that content must have an impact on revenue. For most organizations, this means that the content must be fit for customer consumption.
Many of the analysts use the Yankee Group’s standard definition of content management. This “content” may include published marketing information, customer training, published white papers and product specification sheets. Herein lie the problems:
What about the vast amount of content within the organization that can affect the bottom line, but is not necessarily intended for customers?
Does the content you provide to internal employees have less of an effect on your bottom line?
Are you avoiding this content because you are afraid of the sheer volume?

Knowledge management is defined in opposite terms. Gartner Group, a Stamford, Conn.-based IT analyst firm has the following clear, concise definition:
“Knowledge management promotes an integrated approach to identifying, capturing, retrieving, sharing, and evaluating an enterprise’s information assets. These information assets may include databases, documents, policies, and procedures, as well as the uncaptured tacit expertise and experience stored in individual workers’ heads.”

Clearly, the industry looks at content management as the content that’s good enough for outside folks and knowledge management as the sharing of knowledge primarily by inside folks. We think the time is ripe for a collision
10 Overlap Points Between Content Management and Knowledge Management
We have constructed a list of points of overlap that should be considered whether you are working on a content management initiative or a knowledge management initiative. These are areas that can affect the bottom line, but are not necessarily information that will be available to customers.
#1 – Content is for Both Internal and External People
Stop thinking that content is for external people only. Your internal people count, too. Stop thinking about content as only that perfectly honed, highly processed information that has managed to make it through your technical publications department. There is other content in your organization that can be just as valuable to your bottom line. What about quick reference cards for entering expenses? If they were easy to find and use, you could save workers time that they could then apply to bringing in that next big client. As another example, what about the internal memo that describes the reasons for each of the steps in your proprietary manufacturing process? If workers are able to better understand the reasons, won’t they be more equipped to suggest improvements to the process? There are hundreds of examples of similar “key” documents in each company. It is time to begin thinking about content as those items that can immediately affect the bottom line, rather than material destined to one-day affect the customer.
The shift towards collaborative engineering, for example, is blurring the lines between customer, employee and vendor. Each group gets involved in creating a product for manufacture, and each needs access to information. One of the reasons that content and knowledge management systems are colliding is because different groups of people are converging and working collaboratively.
Some of our readers may be thinking about the security and control issues of co-mingling internal and external content. We will save that discussion for another article. For now, it is important to know that the technology to support security and control is available and is getting stronger each day.
#2 – Content Conversion
One commonly overlooked piece in a knowledge or content management project is the huge task of converting existing material. You do not really have to make all the styles match in each document in order to have a good system, but you do need to examine each content item and properly fit it into your corporate content structure. It must be easy to find – whether a user is browsing for content in a structure tree or searching for keywords.
Think about a grocery store. You know where to find the canned goods because there is a structure to how the aisles and shelves are organized. Your corporation needs a similar structure – sometimes called a taxonomy – to organize and hold your data. In some cases, you may need to reformat or break down content to make it fit nicely into your corporate structure, but most often, you simply need to classify where each piece of content belongs. If your structure is well defined, the task for each piece of content is simple. It is the volume of content that often causes the most problems: typically, there are thousands of pieces of content to organize.
#3 – Content Capture and Structure
The process for creating content destined for corporate web sites is typically well documented, usually involving edit, review and approval cycles at many levels. However, the process for creating other corporate content – content intended for internal users – is usually undefined.
Generally, an employee creating the content may not even think of it as content. Instead, they may see it as a reminder list of tasks to complete on the first of each month, or a set of instructions for the person who will be doing their job while they are on vacation, or a written report for their boss. One worker may create a “cheat sheet” for a set of procedural steps that they perform on a sporadic basis and may not think that there is any value to sharing the content on a corporate basis. Often, each employee will apply whatever communication method works for them and their co-workers to share the information. They may hold an informal meeting with notes jotted on a slip of paper, or some simply type up a list and tack it to the bulletin board, where other employees can grab it and photocopy it. Sometimes employees use e-mail or PowerPoint to get their message across.
Finding ways to capture key content in the organization and convert it to a format useful to others is a key part of our expanded concept of content management. This does not mean imposing a draining process on the creators of the content. Instead, it means finding a way to efficiently gather the content, converting it to a maximally useful format, and making the content available to others in the organization.
In addition, your corporation needs to use a similar structure – called an enterprise content structure – to organize and hold your data. An enterprise content structure provides a framework for organizing the content objects in an organization in much the same way as the earlier grocery store analogy highlights a common framework for organizing grocery items. The structure should serve to organize content in ways that are familiar to those in the organization. Corporate or industry terminology can then be applied as appropriate.
#4 – eLearning
There is some content in your organization that is already well structured and honed, but usually destined only for employees, not customers. This can be found in your training department. Content there is usually well organized around learning objectives and has been thoroughly reviewed by instructional designers, subject matter experts and students in the field. Many companies are harnessing the power of their intranet by offering eLearning objects. The next step is offering these eLearning objects seamlessly as part of the “knowledge portal.”
For example, if an employee does a search for help on entering credit memos, not only can they find the procedure documents and policies related to credit memos, but they also gain access to a 20-minute eLearning object that demonstrates and explains credit memos and gives them a chance to practice creating one. This information now becomes a powerful tool.
#5 – Graphic Portrayal of Key Performance Indicators
There are some pieces of data that are essential to the organization. These key performance indicators (KPIs) vary by industry and division. For a manufacturer, items produced or inventory levels may be most important. For a distributor of goods, inventory levels and sales volumes may be key. In the services industry, labor costs may be most important. Whatever the key data for the corporation, graphic portrayal of up-to-date versions of the data can give all employees the insight they need to improve the company’s bottom line. Even if the company decides to only let managers have access to this information, providing the data in a way that can be easily understood means that the organization always has a window into the current state of its business.
Data is different than documents. If an employee has access to a large amount of content, there will also come a time when they will need access to data, probably from the corporate ERP system or other business system. If you can apply interfaces to other business systems and allow users to get read-only access to key corporate data along with the unstructured content, there are many positive implications. For example, posting rejection rates by assembly line or unit can create a positive type of competitive energy among line managers. Posting performance against sales quotas or customer service rates can be also be used as a tactic to enhance performance in those areas. Recently, a large equipment manufacturer started publishing metrics around warranty work, such as the number of warranty jobs performed correctly and the number performed within time constraints. This has helped to identify and correct problems at the manufacturer’s dealerships as well as with internal support procedures and the information used to support the dealers.
#6 – Personalized Searching (Content or Expertise)
Clearly, if the definition of content management is expanded to include internal data, the amount of content will increase. There must be an easy-to-use, efficient, search engine to allow users to directly access the information that will help them. But why stop at allowing users to get the right content? Let’s face it, as humans, most of us prefer to get our information directly from another human. Why not allow the search mechanism to find both content as well as other humans who might be able to supply the desired content? A single search can then yield not only existing documents that deal with the topic, but also a list of people who can provide more information and insight about it. Going beyond a list of people, the content can also be filtered to suit the needs of the user, based on job role, department or personal preferences.
#7 – Expertise Profiling
The point builds on personalized searching. Think about the last problem you solved at work. How did you do it? Did you look something up in a search engine? Or did you go ask a colleague? Most likely, you asked a colleague. Expertise profiling allows the entire corporation to gain access to the skills and expertise of others in the organization – even if that person is in another state or country. Possibly the best way to gather expertise profiles is to let them grow organically as users interact with the knowledge or content management system. This is much more efficient than trying to manually maintain a profile of the expertise of each employee. These expertise profiles are essential to supporting the ability to search for experts, as described in the point above.
#8 – Capturing Expertise Interactions
Once you have profiled the expertise of people in the organization and provided a means for one person to ask a question of another, think of the corporate benefit that can be gained if you can then capture the content traded in the exchange. The next time a similar question is asked, instead of consulting the expert directly, the employee can review a log of the interaction. Essentially, the interaction between someone with a question and an expert is captured to become a content nugget, which can, in turn, be managed by the system.
#9 – Change Management and Training
Another commonly overlooked aspect of content management is the impact of the change on the organization. If you want to effectively leverage your investment in content management, a clear transformation and communication plan is needed. This is one area that is typically very weak when a new system is introduced. Many people have the “build it and they will come” attitude toward internal content management systems. Unlike in the movies, this seldom happens. Employees have jobs to do and will gravitate toward using tools they understand and know will help them get the job done. When rolling out a new system, employees must understand the process and how their actions fit into the process. Part of an effective change management effort is the internal marketing used to get employees excited about the benefits of using such a system.
#10 – Monitoring Intranet Usage and Refining the System
With any system, the work does not end with system installation. Content management is no different. By monitoring system usage and tweaking the system in response to that usage, you can achieve maximum payback from it. You need to know what types of content users are accessing the system most frequently and what content is proving less than useful. Only then can you continually hone the system to make it maximally useful to the company and the company’s bottom line ROI.
Summary
The traditional definition of content management focusing only on data meant for external people is narrow-minded, while the traditional definition of knowledge management is too all encompassing to be truly useful. By expanding your thinking to include internal content, a corporate content structure, access to key enterprise data and expertise information, you are leveraging your technology to maximum benefit.
Consider the following example: As a sales manager for high tech manufacturing company, you arrive at work in the morning and log on to your “knowledge portal.”. Your interest areas are determined by your department, your job roles, as well as the types of searches you have done recently and the types of content you have posted recently. You are alerted to a 30-minute eLearning module on a new product, and, while you make a mental note about the new eLearning module, you don’t take it right away. After reviewing performance indicators for the previous day for your area and for the company as a whole, you review the sales indicators by product line and by sales region.
Next, you check your e-mail and notice that one of the topics for discussion at a morning meeting is that new product. You go back and take the 30-minute eLearning module about the new product so you will be prepared for the discussion. Completing the exam for the eLearning module updates your expertise profile. Then you are off to a few morning meetings.
As you arrive back at your office, one of your employees walks in and lets you know that she will need surgery and wants to go on short-term disability for a few weeks. You do a quick search on the “knowledge portal” for the procedures associated with this scenario, print the findings, and go through them with the employee. After the discussion, she still has a few questions, so you use the speakerphone to conference the expert on short-term disability while the employee is there. It was easy to find the expert; he came up on the search along with the procedure documents.
After lunch, you meet with a customer who would like an electronic copy of the marketing material for a particular part you offer. You do a quick search on the “knowledge portal” and pull down the appropriate brochure and e-mail it directly to the customer. The message will be waiting for him when he returns to his company.
While you were meeting with the customer, you are automatically alerted that your web site had seven hits from other potential customers who were reading the content from your Internet site. The examples above have one thing in common: their content is always seamless to you. There are not 12 different systems, even though you know that’s how many there are behind the scenes. To you, it is one system, always ready to supply the content you need – whether it be performance data, policies and procedures, marketing collateral, or quick access to an expert.
Based on scenarios such as the one described above, we predict a continued blending of content management and knowledge management, and even eLearning. Already, we are seeing a proliferation of offerings from software companies as well as business services companies that help address this new trend. Ultimately, how you respond to the collision is up to you. Right now, it is most important to understand the options that are currently available.

While everyone has heard about Z39.50, there is still a lot of uncertainty about its relevance to the library community. “It’s still under development,.” you may have read on lists or heard people say. “It’s too complex to implement.” “It doesn’t work.” “It’s not needed now we have the Web.” In fact, Z39.50 is a mature standard, widely implemented in the library community. It is beginning to solve real problems, not just for libraries, but also for other collecting agencies such as art galleries, museums and archives. Implementors Implementors are no longer focusing on adding new functionality but on ensuring interoperability within and across these communities. Not only is it still relevant in a Web environment, the Web provides opportunities for universal access to Z39.50-enabled databases.

The strategic importance of Z39.50 to the library community lies in its potential to accommodate a wide range of information exchange applications between libraries and consortia. The paper addresses the effect of Z39.50 on an activity the National Library considers important: to support the provision and maintenance of a centralised union catalogue. Following a short overview of the protocol, the distributed method of providing the functionality of a union catalogue by exploiting Z39.50 is compared with centralised models.

2. The Protocol
2.1 History
The development of Z39.50 can be traced back to the OSI (Open Systems Interconnection) model, where Z39.50 is an application layer protocol.1 The current version of the protocol was published in 1995 and is titled Information Retrieval (Z39.50): Application Service Definition and Protocol Specification. In this form it is an ANSI/NISO standard (American National Standards Institute, National Information Standards Organization). Previous versions were published in 1992 (version 2) and 1988 (version 1, now considered obsolete). It has become an international standard with ISO number 23950, and the texts of the ISO and ANSI versions are identical. The standard is maintained by the Z39.50 Maintenance Agency at the Library of Congress. The Agency can be accessed at: http://lcweb.loc.gov/z3950/agency/. At this site, information on current developments of the standard and instructions on how to join the Z39.50 Implementors’ Group (ZIG) discussion list can be found.

2.2 Basics

The core functions of Z39.50 relate to searching and retrieving information from databases stored on multiple host sites. The protocol “specifies data structures and interchange rules that allow a client machine (called an ‘origin’ in the standard) to search databases on a server machine (called a ‘target’ in the standard) and retrieve records that are identified as a result of such a search.”2

The protocol confines itself to interactions between the client and server machines, and does not address interaction between a human user and the client machine or between the target machine and its databases. The standard is designed to facilitate interoperability between computer systems. The communication described in the standard is connection-oriented and stateful: that is, the origin initiates a session with the target and the connection is maintained until the association is terminated.

In an implementation, the origin and target convert their local forms of messages and responses to and from Z39.50 ‘language’. This means an origin can maintain a consistent user interface for searching targets which support Z39.50, because the client machine’s searching syntax can be mapped into Z39.50 queries. In this way, the origin extends the local interface to search external targets. On the target or server side, this requires considerable conversion because the incoming Z39.50 query must be mapped to retrieval mechanisms and vice versa.

The standard does not directly support the broadcasting of searches to multiple servers, but a client can open Z39.50 sessions with multiple servers either sequentially or simultaneously. Manipulating multiple result sets to remove duplicates and ensure a uniform presentation to the user also falls outside the scope of the protocol.

Web-based search and retrieval applications need Z39.50 for the same reason as proprietary applications – to avoid the proliferation of interfaces to the target databases. The Web is a static collection of html documents stored on http servers. Special programs using scripting languages and compiled modules are needed to deliver search and retrieval functionality. In server-based implementations, the http/ Z39.50 gateway resides on an http server as in the diagram below. Browser-based implementations also exist which require Java or Active X applets to be downloaded to the user’s machine.

As databases differ considerably in structure and indexing methods, the protocol employs a common, abstract model for describing databases. The model requires a “schema” or abstract record structure to be defined for each database, composed of “elements” such as author, title, date last modified. Access points are also defined for each searchable element or group of elements.

However, Z39.50 should not be interpreted as a database indexing standard. In each implementation, the targeta databases must be mapped to the Z39.50 database model to enable communication between origin and target. However, Z39.50 profiles and implementor agreements developed for specific communities do impose a de facto database indexing standard in that they define the minimum set of access points needing to be supported by the database indexes to ensure interoperability between target systems.

2.3 Search and Retrieval Facilities

The Search and Retrieval facilities are the core functions of the standard.

A Search request can be made to one or more databases at a target system and must contain a query. The group of records retrieved as the result of a query is called a result set. Several query-types are defined, including Type-1 for Reverse Polish Notation (RPN) and Type 101, which extends Type-1 for proximity searching and restricting result sets by other attributes. The protocol gives full support and mandates use of the type-1 query which consists of a single access point clause, or several clauses linked by logical operators. For example,
In the database named “Library” find all records for which the access point ‘title word’ contains the value ‘glass’ AND the access point ‘author’ contains the value ‘white’

The attributes used in searching belong to a particular attribute set, “whose definition is registered, that is, assigned a unique and globally recognised attribute-set-ID, an Object Identifier, which is included within the query.”3 The attribute set used by the bibliographic community is called bib-1

Retrieval consists of two Z39.50 services: Present and Segment. In a Present response, the origin requests response records in the result set. The origin may specify a preferred syntax, schema and element specification (e.g., brief, full, brief with holdings, title and subject only, etc.). The syntax is the envelope in which the elements are packaged for transfer between systems. Z39.50 supports a number of such syntaxes, ranging from the familiar MARC syntax to the general, but very complex GRS (General Record Structure) syntax. GRS is becoming increasingly important in library applications because it enables elements from multiple schemas (e.g., bibliographic, holdings and circulation data) to be combined in one package for transfer.

If the target cannot support the number of response records requested by the origin, the target segments the response, delivering the result set in portions.

2.4 Other Facilities

There are a number of services which complement the basic Search and Present functions by providing other types of messages between origin and target. These include session establishment and termination, access control, and operations on result sets, such as sorting, browsing or deleting. The Scan service, important to library implementations because it enables browsing of ordered term lists, was introduced in version 3 of the standard and is not yet widely implemented.

One particularly promising service is Explain which allows an origin to query a target about implementation details, e.g., which databases are available, the particular attribute sets and record syntaxes used. The facility is “intended to permit the development of clients that to at least some extent are dynamically self-configuring as they encounter various servers.”4 The Explain facility has not been widely implemented. However, a number of implementors have formed a group recently to test its functionality.

2.5 Extended Services

Version 3 introduced a new service called Extended Services, which permits tasks to be performed outside a Z39.50 session. These tasks are more complex than a search and retrieve operation, and may usually be carried out after the session initiating the task has been completed. If the task is not completed before the target responds to the Extended Services request, the target creates a task package in a special Extended Services database which can be searched by the origin using standard Z39.50 facilities.“The Extended-Services (ES) service allows an origin to create, modify, or delete a task package at the target. The target maintains task packages in a special database.”5

The Extended Services are described in Appendix 8 of the published standard. They include:

· Persistent Result Set. This enables the origin to request the target to save a search result.

· Persistent Query. In this service, the target saves a Z39.50 Query in response to a request from the origin.

· Periodic Query. The origin requests the target to save a query and run it periodically, according to a schedule specified by the origin.

· Item Order. The origin can submit a document delivery request to the target

· Database Update. The origin requests that the target update a database by insert new records, replacing or deleting existing records, or by modifying elements within records.

· Export Specification. The origin specifies the format, delivery mechanism and destination of records from result sets.

· Export Invocation. This service allows the origin to request delivery of records, according to an Export Specification.

3. Business Applications

There are a number of potential and existing applications of this standard to libraries. Local access to external data sources. The basic search and retrieve functions can be used to extend the number of data sources available for searching at a user workstation. Local and remote databases can be searched using the syntax provided in the local system. This has been the most common implementation of Z39.50 in libraries.  Creation of virtual or distributed union catalogues. A group of libraries can use the Search and Present services to enable access from a local origin to many targets. In this way, a user on one library can use the syntax and interface of their local system to search catalogues of other systems in the group. With the ILL Protocol, a group of libraries could provide a virtual union catalogue and mechanisms for resource sharing between them. Issues related to this will be discussed later in the paper.  Copy cataloguing using Z39.50. A local Z39.50 origin can search an external database, specify that the records be presented in MARC syntax, and copy them into their local system for inclusion in a local catalogue. This practice is becoming more widespread.

Orders for bibliographic outputs. The Extended Services allow a variety of methods to retrieve result sets on a regular basis and have them sent in specified formats. There are a number of possibilities for use of these facilities: SDI services; new and changed records for catalogue purposes; reports for collection development purposes.
Updating databases. The Update service of the Extended Services can enable simultaneous updating of more than one target by an origin. This will be taken up further in the discussion of the Union Catalogue Profile.

4. Union Catalogues
4.1 Introduction

The business applications outlined in Section 3 have implications for centralised bibliographic services. The availability of copy cataloguing through Z39.50 can be expected to have some impact on enterprises based on supply of MARC records. In Australia, the use of ABN for catalogue record creation and supply has made a significant contribution to the development of a national union catalogue, which supports resource sharing and collection development activities in libraries across the nation. In planning for the replacement of ABN, the Library has had to take account of new and possible ways for libraries to build their catalogues: vendors supply MARC records; catalogue records can be obtained from other utilities such as OCLC and RLG; catalogue records can be copied from other servers, e.g., the Library of Congress.

While considering the future of the national union catalogue, the National Library has observed the development of sectoral consortia and regional or state-based networks. Z39.50 has the potential to change the operations of these networks through increasing implementations of distributed or virtual union catalogues. During planning for the Networked Services Project, the Library had to make a key strategic decision about continuing to provide and maintain a centralised national union catalogue. The decision was positive, because the Library believes the union catalogue will continue to play a role in resource sharing and collection development for at least another five years. Union catalogues may also have a strong role to play in access to digital collections, through collection level and item level records linked to the digital files at a remote host site. However, the Library did recognise that while the services delivered by a centralised national union catalogue were required, Z39.50 raised possibilities for new methods of creating this catalogue

4.2 The Virtual Union Catalogue

In the past, union catalogues have been implemented as centralised systems, with a single database on a single system. This model includes: commercial services such as OCLC, RLG and WLN which developed as large scale shared cataloguing systems; pure union catalogues, such as the University of California’s MELVYL system, developed specifically as public access union catalogues; and, shared union catalogues which are part of an integrated library system shared by a group of libraries.

Z39.50 based searching, on the other hand, allows users to search multiple catalogues on multiple distributed systems with a single search. These multiple databases then constitute a ‘virtual’ union catalogue from the user’s point of view. Key research in this area is being carried out by the National Library of Canada. The goal of their virtual Canadian union catalogue (vCuc) project5 is to determine the long term feasibility of using Z39.50 for searching distributed individual library catalogues and consortial union catalogues which together would emulate the services provided by a centralised union catalogue.

One particular problem with the distributed search model is the retrieval of locations, holdings and circulation information. Recent discussion within the Z39.50 Implementors’ Group on how to provide this information in response to a Z39.50 query has not yet achieved consensus. The problem is compounded by the lack of consistency in the storage of holdings data in local and union catalogues. The USMARC format for holdings and locations seems an obvious candidate to ensure predictability and reliability in standardising these types of data. However, in Australia there has not been widespread implementation of this particular USMARC format. USMARC also allows summary information for holdings to be embedded in bibliographic records in tags 850 and 852, but there is little evidence of this practice in Australia. Generally holdings data is held in locally defined MARC fields, usually in the 9XX block.

Another limitation of the distributed model is its inability to deal satisfactorily with duplicate records in a search result. Ideally, the separate result sets retrieved from each target should be merged and duplicate records removed. In centralised union catalogues, duplicate resolution is chiefly achieved through software. The residue of duplicates which cannot be resolved by software is sent to human review. However, duplicate resolution in the distributed environment is primarily a human task. When search results are retrieved from a Z39.50 broadcast search sent to multiple targets, a human being reviews the results to identify duplicates. With records being presented sequentially as the search results from each target arrives, and screen displays that are not designed to make record comparison easy, the searcher can have a difficult task.

The task of de-duplication will become critical if the shift to distributed union catalogues gathers pace. The University of Bradford is conducting some useful research in this area, using client software to merge records and deliver including record merging and user-friendly displays.6 However, the National Library of Canada is uncertain of the scalability of a client-based architecture for duplicate removal if complex algorithms such as those now common in large central databases are involved.7 At the National Library of Australia, we are beginning to think that “middle-ware” solutions may deliver better performance, with the client referring Z39.50 searches and the responsibility for resolving duplicates to a server-based broker. Such an architecture might also address concerns with the intellectual property invested in MARC records by managing user authentication and logging transactions. There is an increasing trend for OPACs to present search results in a syntax other than MARC to avoid copyright issues related to the re-use of records purchased from bibliographic utilities and other copy cataloguing services.

Lynch has examined the advantages and limitations of the centralised and distributed approaches, and concluded that with current technology, centralised union catalogues have major advantages both in function (searching and indexing consistency, database quality and removal of duplicates) and in performance (particularly from the user’s point of view, availability and response time)8. One argument against virtual union catalogues is that, to work effectively, they appear at present to be successful with a limited number of targets – up to around eight. The technical problems such as merging and de-duplication of result sets and performance may be solved sooner rather than later. However, on balance, there are technical advantages in delivering services through centralised union catalogues.

4.3 Centralised Union Catalogues

Technical factors were not the sole criteria for a decision about maintaining a centralised union catalogue. The National Library of Australia considered the value of the existing asset within the National Bibliographic Database, the cooperative environment in Australian libraries built up over many years, the high quality of service it can offer and the viability of the present service. For these reasons the National Library of Australia stated in its RFT for the Networked Services Project which will replace the ABN system, that “for the location information on the NBD, it is the Library’s present view that the most practical solution is probably a centralised national database”9. The National Library is committed to the national union catalogue as a means of supporting resource sharing among Australian libraries and believes that a centralised system is the best way of achieving this at the present time. However, the Library is aware that there may be significant changes to this system in the next few years.

Weighed against the advantages of a centralised system is the high cost of building and maintaining a large centralised database and the consequent charges which are passed on to searchers to meet desired levels of cost recovery. In the case of the ABN database, there are six million records without holdings in addition to the seven million with location information. The records without holdings are included to meet the needs of cataloguers searching for copy: before the Internet, it was an efficient way of providing a wide range of cataloguing data for libraries. The Library has been looking for other ways to deliver these services, and suggested in the Networked Services RFT that “for the data which does not have attached location information, the Library wishes to offer ‘apparent one-stop shopping’ but has no prior preference for whether this is implemented through a distributed or centralised model”10. Lynch argues that the centralised and distributed approaches should be complementary rather than competitive11.

While the national union catalogue, that is all bibliographic records with holdings, will probably be implemented in the replacement system in a centralised form, the provision of source data for copy cataloguing may be considered differently. The National Library is considering, for example, not migrating some older data without holdings to the new system. Access to lesser used data can be provided by Z39.50 searching of external databases through the same search interface as is provided for the proposed National Bibliographic Utility, and therefore the amount of data which the National Library has to maintain can be reduced. However the main benefit of Z39.50 searching of external databases for users lies in the wider range of bibliographic source data which can be made available.

4.4 Strategies for delivering a centralised union catalogue

The shared cataloguing service goes hand in hand with, and is a vital means of building and maintaining the national union catalogue. In replacing the ABN system, one of the National Library’s objectives is to make it as easy as possible for users to contribute to the national union catalogue.

Several years ago, it looked as though the best strategy for achieving this was to integrate file transfer mechanisms seamlessly into the workflows of information providers. The current ABN system has a downline loading service based on ftp which delivers records to the local system in real time. However, this service requires users to use one interface to catalogue the item and another to add detailed holdings information. In addition, keeping the national union catalogue up-to-date as holdings change depends on duplicating workflows or using a batch update process which has not been widely taken up by libraries. While the National Library recognises the need to accommodate libraries preferring to catalogue locally, the current ABN system is not equipped with duplicate removal software sufficiently sophisticated to support upline loading. Upline loading of records from local systems has been a key requirement from early stages in plans to replace ABN.

Since then, library systems have evolved from proprietary character-based applications to Z39.50-enabled client/server technologies. This new architecture provides both a threat to the existing strategies for maintaining the union catalogue and a significant opportunity to achieve seamless integration of union catalogue maintenance into user workflows.

Part of the solution is already provided by the Z39.50 Search and Present services. These enable libraries to obtain bibliographic records in MARC syntax from Z39.50-enabled servers. Many library system vendors now offer Z39.50 cataloguing client software to their users. The next generation of products will be integrated technical workstations which fully acknowledge the interrelationship between selection, acquisition, accessioning and cataloguing processes in building library catalogues.

4.5 Union Catalogue Profile

In 1996, IT/19, the joint Standards Australia and Standards New Zealand Committee dealing with library-related standards, endorsed a proposal from Jan Gatenby of Stowe Computing and the National Library of Australia to develop a cataloguing protocol that would enable all cataloguing to be done from a single client.12

Benefits of using a single client are:
Potential for a superior work flow
Only one interface to master
A simple efficient configuration
Simplified support
A wider choice for users
Opportunities for independent evolution of client and server products.

The cataloguing protocol needed to support all catalogue maintenance functions, including bibliographic, holdings and authority data. It needed to recognise that the update function is dependent on searching and that database searches are frequently done at several stages in the update process. Another requirement was to transfer information between systems about transactions as well as data. The protocol also needed appropriate security mechanisms and effective client-based, interactive error resolution methods where possible.

A Union Catalogue Profile over Z39.50 was considered to be the most appropriate mechanism for delivering these requirements. A profile specifies how a particular standard, or group of standards will be used to support a given application, function, community or environment. It is used both for procurement purposes and to ensure interoperability between systems. Developing a Z39.50 profile rather than a separate cataloguing protocol avoided the proliferation of protocols. Z39.50 already has all the services in place to support user authentication and search and retrieval, together with a Database Update Extended Service defined within it. These services have been widely accepted and implemented by the library community. The profile has now been reviewed by the ZIG in several versions and is about to be submitted to the International Standards Organisation as a Draft Internationally Registered Profile (DIRP).

The Union Catalogue Profile presents a strategy for enabling all cataloguing to be done through a single client. The National Library is interested in supporting and developing the Profile. The Networked Services Project RFT sought products which supported the Union Catalogue Profile. At the time of writing, it is not possible to disclose any more information about the tender process and solutions being considered. However, before any major implementation of the Profile, some testing will be required.

The Library encourages libraries and integrated library management system vendors to read the Profile and register interest in pilot projects. Comments on the Profile are also encouraged. It is recognised that implementors may wish to move towards conformance in stages. A set of priorities for staged implementation is included in Appendix 3 of the Profile. It may take several years before the Union Catalogue Profile is widely implemented. In the meantime, services such as the replacement ABN will have to support a range of migration strategies involving a combination of proprietary and standards-based solutions

5. Conclusion

The National Library recognises that the resource sharing environment is becoming more open and distributed. This trend has been assisted by libraries implementing key standards: MARC, Z39.50, the ILL Protocol are prominent now. There are many predictions about this future environment and many research projects underway. For the next five years at least, the National Library believes the national union catalogue still has an important role to play. As distributed approaches grow, the national union catalogue may end up covering gaps in the recording of collections and locations. Whatever the outcome, the national Library is committed to maintaining a centralised union catalogue, but offering a wide range of options for libraries to contribute to it. We believe it still a very important part of the nation’s information infrastructure.

References
Clifford Lynch, “The Z39.50 Information Retrieval Standard. Part 1, A Strategic View of Its Past, Present and Future”. In D-Lib Magazine [online]. April, 1997 [cited 4 August 1997].
Lynch.
Z39.50 Maintenance Agency, Information Retrieval (Z39.50): Application Service Definition and Retrieval Specification (Washington, 1995), p. iii.
Lynch.
National Library of Canada, Virtual Canadian Union Catalogue Project [online] Ottawa, 1997 [cited 20 November 1997].
University of Bradford, Dept. of Computing. Bradford OPAC 2 (BOPAC2) [online] Bradford, 1997 [cited 20 November 1997].
Carrol Lunau, Fay Turner, Issues Related to the Use of Z39.50 to Emulate a Centralized Union Catalogue [online]. Ottawa: National Library of Canada, 1997 [cited 4 August 1997].
Lynch.
National Library of Australia, Request for Tender for National Library of Australia Networked Services (Canberra, 1997), p. 49.
National Library of Australia, p. 49.
Lynch.
National Library of Australia, Union Catalogue Profile [online] Version 3, August 1997. Canberra, The Library. 1997 [cited 4 August 1997].

The general definition of “gray market” is the sale of authentic products through unauthorized channels. Gray market sales can come from domestic transactions (Cespedes et al. 1988), but are usually associated with international transactions.  While gray market activity has a number of causes such as product availability and channel integration, its cause is generally associated with large price differentials between markets (Assmus and Wiese, 1995; Cavusgil and Sikora, 1988; Lowe and McCrohan, 1989).  These differentials occur either through price setting by discriminating monopolists or through currency rate fluctuations (Weigand, 1991).

Assmus and Wiese (1995) describe three main categories of gray market transactions: parallel imports, lateral imports, and re-imports.  They write that parallel imports occur when a manufacturer sells product to an authorized dealer in the country of manufacture and to an authorized dealer in an export market.  In their description, if there is a sufficient differential in price between the authorized dealers, an opportunistic dealer in the export country will import product in parallel to the authorized distribution channel.

Assmus and Wiese (1995) describe lateral imports as a manufacturer’s export to authorized distributors in two markets.  In their explanation, if sufficient price differentials exist between the two export markets, then product sales will occur through unauthorized channels from the low priced market to the high priced market.

Two studies describe reimportation (Assmus and Wiese, 1995; Wiegand, 1989).  Both characterize the occurrence of reimportation when an exported product finds its way back to the domestic market.  While both articles mention that reimportation occurs when an opportunistic dealer takes advantage of price differentials between the two markets, Wiegand (1989) mentions retail purchase of a product for personal use or as a gift as another form of reimportation.

Most studies of gray market activity focus on its long-term negative impact on manufacturers, exporters, and their distribution channels (Cespedes et al. 1988).  However, while the short-term effects of gray market activity are mentioned, they remain uninvestigated (Assmus and Wiese, 1995; Cespedes et al. 1988; Ciber Working Papers, 1995).  The authors report short-term advantages of gray market activity include reduced manufacturing costs, increased sales, and increased market share.  Gupta and Wilemon (1990) describe these advantages as typical goals of high technology companies that use fast growth and shortened product introduction cycles as competitive strategies.

The potential revenue impact to these firms from gray market activity can be significant.  STAT-USA (1999) reports the estimated gray market for personal computers (PCs) and related components in Brazil is estimated between 60% and 65% of the country’s total PC market.  Further, the Business Information Service for Newly Independent States (BISNIS, 1998) proposes that authorized channels stand to benefit from gray market activity in developing countries.  The report argues that large markets, such as the Ukraine, have pent up demand, which has created many opportunities for both authorized and unauthorized distribution activities.  It further suggests that such large gray markets will increase the population’s purchasing power, which in turn will create additional opportunities for firms that do not participate in the gray market to establish market niches.

Previous studies on gray market activity considered broad product sectors (Palia and Keown, 1989).  Other studies that focused primarily on technology companies included wide ranges of technology from automobile parts manufacturers (Cavusgil and Sikora, 1988; Weigand, 1991) to disk drives for PCs (Cespedes et al. 1988).  These studies have not focused specifically on the high technology manufacturers, such as telecommunications equipment, network equipment, servers, and workstations.  These manufacturers have rapid development cycles, limited market windows, and shortened product lifecycles (Bayus, 1998; Gupta et al. 1990).  Drastic changes in market conditions, such as privatization of government owned networks, rapid technology changes, and the emergence of customized network operators drive these market conditions (Sarkar, Cavusgil, and Auklakh, 1999).

This is an exploratory study.  Its purpose is to develop hypotheses for later research.  It compares industry segments that require rapid technological advancement to meet customer demand and the possible level of gray market activity allowed.  The intersection of gray market as a distribution channel and the demand for high technology products raise two questions.  First, do factors such as size or rapid technology change contribute to the level of gray market activity?  Second, is there a relationship between a company’s willingness to encourage gray market activity and its ability to stop such activity?

Review of the Literature

While there is an abundance of literature on gray market activities, there are few empirical studies.  Palia and Keown (1991) separate the available literature into four categories: descriptive studies, the legal aspects of gray market activity, strategic studies, and trade publications.  The focus of this review is on descriptive, legal, and strategic literature.

Descriptive studies focus on the reasons for gray market activity (Palia and Keown, 1991).  The authors’ view is these articles look at the external and internal the factors that drive gray market activity.  In their study, along with those by Cavusgil and Sikora (1988), Lowe and McCrohan (1989), and Meyers (1999), these external factors include exchange rate volatility, availability of information, and the ease at which products can be adapted for local use.  The authors contend that companies have little control over these factors.  Therefore, they believe there are times when some gray market activity will occur.

Internal factors are generally under the control of firms (Assmus and Wiese, 1995; Cavusgil, 1996; Palia and Keown, 1989).  Internal factors include pricing policies, the degree of distribution control, channel integration (Meyers, 1999) and cost differentials between markets (Cespedes et. al. 1988).  Weigand (1989) describes opportunistic behavior, by members of authorized distribution channels, as an additional cause for the gray market.  One factor mentioned briefly in two studies is product scarcity (Cavusgil, & Sikora, 1988; Lowe and McCrohan, 1989).  The examples in these studies were luxury items.  However, the gray market can help any manufacturer reach customers outside its normal channels (Champion, 1998).

The first legal issue investigated in the literature is the legality of sales activity by unauthorized channels (University of Toronto, 1996; Palia and Keown, 1991).  The first attempt to stem gray market activity in the United States through legal means was the case of Appolinaris Co., Ltd v. Scherer in 1886 (Ciber Working Papers, 1995; Weigand, 1991).  Since this time, owners of legal trademarks argue gray market activities infringe on their rights, while gray marketers argue the benefits of lower prices to consumers (University of Toronto, 1996).  Although the United States Supreme Court upheld the legality of a wide range of gray market activities, there are legal ambiguities (Ciber Working Papers, 1995; Palia and Keown, 1991). Manufacturers and exporters are expected to solve the problem through market forces, not legal remedies (Palia and Keown, 1991; University of Toronto Working Papers, 1996).

Cavusgil and Sikora (1988) mention product liability as a second legal aspect to gray market activity.  They state that safety features required on products manufactured for usage in the U. S. may not be present in products manufactured for use in developing countries, are generally lower in cost, and frequently appear on the gray market.  At the time of their study, there was a question as to manufacturer liability if a gray market product caused major injury or death.

Strategic studies focus on prevention and remedies to gray market activity (Palia and Keown, 1991).  Cavusgil and Sikora (1988) catalog a variety of proactive and reactive strategies to combat gray market transactions.  They contend the best strategy is prevention and provide a number of strategies, such as market information systems, dealer education and development, and after sales service differentiation to prevent gray market activity.  Should the volume of gray market activity increase beyond a firm’s expectation however, the authors provide a number of reactive strategies that include confrontation, participation, price-cutting, collaboration, etc.  Weigand (1991) offers additional approaches to keep gray market at a minimum such as price changes and second currency price quotes.  While he holds that regular price changes lower the price differential between markets, his strategy raises the question of which member of the supply chain- the manufacturer, distributor, or retailer will feel the largest impact of any price reduction.  His other recommended strategy, second currency quotes, are effective for sales made into countries with unstable currencies.

Another strategy to reduce or halt gray market activity is through development and implementation of control systems (Cavusgil and Sikora, 1988; Cespedes et al. 1988).  The authors consider the ability to identify products by tracking serial numbers, warranty registrations, service requests or other information as a tool to help a company identify the level and location of gray market activity.  They contend these methods can determine which distributors create leaks in the supply chain through regular participation in gray market activities.  Lotus Development Corporation tracked bar code numbers on boxes of Lotus 1-2-3 software as and threatened termination of distributor rights if a distributor made volume purchases and supplied unauthorized dealers with product (Cespedes et al. 1988).

Ahmadi and Yang (Ciber Working Paper, 1995) provide theoretical support that a firm can use gray market activity to increase sales volume, growth, and profits.  Moreover, there is evidence that gray market activity may have a place in a company’s growth strategy (Cespedes et al. 1988).  Several studies indicate some firms will actually create situations to encourage gray market activity to increase sales (Dana 1998; Danzon 1997; Kuhn, 1998; Vickers, 1997).

Cespedes, Corey, and Rangan (1988) describe a typical situation at a disk drive manufacturer.  They reported the manufacturer’s large customers bought more units than required to take advantage of volume discounts.  They described how the customers then sold the excess inventory to unauthorized dealers.  As the authors explained, the manufacturer benefited from incremental business and reduced unit production costs in the short term.  However, they contend, the manufacturer created morale issues within the sales organization in the long term.

Previous studies looked at various independent variables, such as pricing strategies, product standardization, market volatility, etc., to find their relationship to gray market activity, (Assmus and Wiese, 1995; Cavusgil, 1996; Meyers, 1999).  These studies indicated that gray market activity is affected more by internal factors under the control of firms than by external market forces (Myers, 1999).  Cavusgil and Kirplani (1993) investigated the effect of internal variables, such as size and scope of entry strategy, on export performance but not their effect on gray market activity.  However, evidence suggests several factors that contribute to gray market activity can be utilized to increase revenues and market share, such as channel integration, pricing strategies, and product availability (Assmus and Wiese, 1995; Meyers, 1999; Weigand, 1991).

In an exploratory study, Cavusgil and Kirpalani (1993) hypothesized that large and small firms were more likely to be successful in international ventures than medium sized firms.  Additional studies looked at various characteristics of the firm, such as management’s level of experience and export sales goals, to predict export performance (Bello and Gilliand, 1997; Cavusgil and Zou, 1994; Cavusgil, Zou, and Naidu, 1993).  These studies, however, did not look at gray market activity as a predictor of export market success.

Kirpalani and Macintosh (1980) performed an exploratory study on the export effectiveness of technology oriented small firms.  They looked at a broad range of technology products ranging from simple automobile parts to more advanced avionics and numerical control equipment.  Their goal was not to test specific hypotheses, but to test a large number of variables to determine their relationship to the export success of the firm.  One variable tested was the relationship between research and development (R&D) activity and the export success of the small firm.  The authors looked at various measures of R&D activity, such as expenditures as a percentage of sales, the number of professionals involved in the R&D process, and the level of new product export success.  What they found was a small, negative relationship between R&D activity and export success.  This unexpected result questioned the widely held belief that R&D activity is important to the success of exporting companies.  The authors mentioned a previous study by Hanel (1976) that showed a positive relationship between R&D expenditure and export performance.  However, the Hanel study used industries as a unit of analysis and focused on large firms.  Therefore, while this study indicates R&D is important to large firm success, it appears R&D is not important to small firms.

Earlier studies looked at technology in the broad sense, but did not emphasize factors that influence firms focused on such high technology markets as personal computers or telecommunications equipment (Kirpalani and Macintosh, 1980; Bello and Gilliand, 1997).  Firms that service these markets face accelerated technology change and increased customer demand for new features, functions, and services (Gupta and Wilemon, 1990).  The authors contend these markets create an environment for equipment manufacturers where product development is driven by factors that include increased global competition, new technologies that obsolete existing products, ever changing customer requirements, and higher development costs.  Fast time to market, even at the risk of going over development budget, allows a company to charge a premium price for up to date technology and respond to market niches and changes in customer requirements.  Further, products based on the latest technology enjoy longer overall life spans (Bayus, 1998).

In summary, a review of the literature shows the negative impact of long-term gray market activity while it also shows potential benefits to firms that encourage or allow short-term gray market activity (Assmus and Wiese, 1995; Cespedes et al. 1988).  There may even be situations where authorized distribution channels can benefit from the existence of gray market activity (BISNIS, 1998).  Further, current gray market studies do not take into account the size of the firm, rapid product development caused by rapid technology changes, fast time to market strategies, limited authorized distribution channels, or fast growth strategies.

Conceptual Model and Hypotheses

Economic theory states prices paid by buyers will tend towards a minimal per unit cost, information on goods in the market is freely available, and producers are free to enter or leave the market at will (Jackson, 1996).  Several points of market “friction,” however, preclude the existence of a purely competitive market (Spencer and Amos, 1993).  The authors assert that producers tend to produce goods that are not identical, market information is not always available, and while producers may be free to leave a market, there may be sufficient barriers to enter some markets.

Producers create friction to increase profits (Spencer and Amos, 1993).  They explain that as opportunistic monopolists, producers may charge a higher price in some markets.  As profit seekers, gray market participants will take advantage of price differentials and market demand (Assmus and Wiese, 1995; Cavusgil and Sikora, 1988; Lowe and McCrohan, 1989).  To find these conditions, gray market participants take full advantage of information technology, such as CD-ROM databases and fax (Assmus and Wiese, 1995).  Gray market participants can then make large purchases, in some instances an authorized dealer’s excess inventory, and resell the product at a lower price than authorized dealers, moving prices closer to a minimal per unit cost (Cespedes et al. 1988).  Therefore, the main concern with the gray market is that it does not create demand for a specific product, but moves all products of a particular type towards a commodity model (Lowe and McCrohan, 1989).  This effectively reduces the market friction created by the manufacturer, who must lower prices to compete or find other ways to differentiate the product (Cespedes et al. 1998).

A potential predictor of gray market activity is product availability, but a relationship was not empirically tested (Assmus and Wiese, 1995; Meyers, 1999; Weigand, 1991).  Champion (1998) mentions market coverage as one aspect of product availability.  The product development cycle also plays an important role in the availability of products (Gupta and Wilemon, 1990).  The authors indicate that while rapid product development results in higher costs, respondents to their survey indicated competitive pressures and rapid technology changes as reasons for an accelerated new product development.

Based on the market demands in the high technology market and the challenges faced by these firms, it is possible to develop a conceptual framework and determine variables that may predict the level of gray market activity.  These variables fall into three sets of factors that include market demand factors, product specific factors, and firm specific factors.  Figure-1 illustrates a conceptual framework based on these factors.

Market Demand Factors

Several studies indicate that companies have little control over external factors that influence gray market activity (Cavusgil and Sikora, 1988; Lowe and McCrohan, 1989; Meyers, 1999).  However, these studies did not look at two market demand factors, rate of technology change and changes in customer requirements and their potential influence on gray market activity.

Rate of Technology Changes

The rate of technology change required by a market affects the rate that current products become obsolete (Sarkar et al. 1999).  The authors discussed how customers demand more capabilities from their work stations, data servers, and telecommunications equipment.  Moreover, they described how the convergence of technologies, such as computers, packet networks, and telephone switch equipment has created new markets and new competitive pressures that challenge established telecommunications providers.  These conditions were not part of previous gray market empirical studies (Meyers, 1999; Palia and Keown, 1991).  With rapid product development cycles, it is possible that companies will focus more on sales revenue than controlling their distribution channels (Meyers, 1999).  Therefore, as the rate of change in technology increases, a company may be willing to allow higher levels of gray market activity to occur.  This leads to the first hypothesis:

H₁:  There is a positive relationship between rate of technological change and gray market activity.

Changes in Customer Requirements

The second market demand variable under consideration is changes in customer requirements.  While some high technology markets may not experience high levels of changing customer requirements, such as pharmaceuticals, other markets do experience frequently changing customer requirements, such as PC manufacturers and telecommunications equipment vendors (Gupta and Wilemon, 1990).  As technology changes, it provides the basis for additional services (Sarkar et al. 1999).  The authors write that firms providing those services may require new products or modifications to existing products to serve their customers better.  They suggest these product changes can involve new features, different options, advanced capabilities, etc, and therefore manufacturers are under additional pressure to meet these new requirements.  Further, Meyers (1999) found that standardized products did not contribute to gray market activity.  Modified products may create additional gray market opportunities for product that may not reach all authorized channels (Champion, 1998).  Therefore, the second hypothesis in this study states:

H₂:  There is a positive relationship between the rate of change in customer requirements and the levels of gray market activity a company will allow to occur.

Product Specific Factors

Product specific factors attempt to identify those variables that may drive gray market activity. There are two product specific factors considered: the product development cycle and product availability.

The Product Development Cycle

The first variable considered is length of the product development cycle.  Some high technology firms are in markets, such as pharmaceuticals and aerospace, where slower development cycles are appropriate (Gupta and Wilemon, 1990).  However, the authors discovered these firms have found that shortened product development cycles have provided them a competitive advantage.  Their study further showed that aggressive high technology firms find this competitive advantage has its own risks, such as poor product definition, product quality issues, lower product reliability, and technological uncertainties.  The authors find that as a company’s competitors shorten their development cycle, the company can not slow theirs.  To assure product reaches the largest possible number of customers, any distribution channel may be used.  This leads to the third hypothesis:

H₃: There is an inverse relationship between the length of a company’s product development cycle and its willingness to encourage gray market activity.

Product Availability

Product availability is the second product specific variable in this category.  Several studies mentioned product availability, but neither empirically or in the context of an antecedent to gray market activity (Cavusgil and Sikora, 1988; Lowe and McCrohan, 1989). If an authorized channel is not available in a particular market to satisfy a market’s demand, an authorized or unauthorized dealer in another market may try to meet that demand (Champion, 1998).  Further, some authorized dealers may try to fill this market’s demand by selling product outside their authorized territories (Weigand, 1989).  The fourth hypothesis considers the potential relationship between product availability and the gray market:

H₄:  There is an inverse relationship between product availability in a market and the level of gray market activity allowed by a company.

Firm Specific Factors

The last group is the firm specific factors.  There are four firm specific factors considered as predictors of gray market activity.  These include the size of the firm, its growth strategy, channel development requirements, and control systems.

Size of the Firm

Several studies have looked at potential proxies for firm size, such as available resources and management experience (Meyers, 1999; Kirpalani and Macintosh, 1980).  While these proxies may relate in some way to company size, large firms also face limited resources or may be new to the export market.  Company size is an important variable to consider because studies have shown a correlation between firm size and export marketing effectiveness (Kirpalani and Macintosh, 1980).  Smaller firms, with less developed distribution channels, may have fewer problems with upset distributors because these distributors have fewer competitors.  The fifth hypothesis links company size to gray market activity:

H₅: There is an inverse relationship between company size and the level of gray market activity allowed by the company.

Growth Strategy

The next firm specific variable to consider is growth strategy.  Some firms, particularly in the high technology market place, use a high growth strategy to obtain market share (Gupta and Wilemon, 1990).  These firms may develop the strategy to use gray market activity and trade short-term profits to increase market share (Cavusgil and Sikora, 1988; Cespedes et al. 1988; Ciber Working Papers, 1995; Meyers, 1999).  Further, in a rapidly changing technology environment and rapid product development cycles, a short-term trade off may span the entire lifecycle of some products.  With this in mind, the sixth hypothesis states:

H₆:  There is a direct relationship between a company’s growth strategy and gray market activity.

Channel Development

Channel development is important to firms that do not vertically integrate their distribution channels.  Bello and Gilliand (1997) found that monitoring a distributor results lead to higher export channel performance.  However, they also found that firms that did not invest adequate managerial and financial resources were less able to influence their distributors marketing methods and procedures.  In a separate study, Myers (1999) found two channel variables that led to increased gray market activity.  First, he found that a reduced amount of distributor control would increase gray market activity.  Next, he found that lower channel integration also increased gray market activity.  Therefore, if a company decides not to integrate fully and does not apply enough resources to control of the distributor, the result could be increased gray market activity.  With the higher costs associated with rapid new product development and increased competition a company may invest in product development rather than distributor controls (Gupta and Wilemon, 1990).  A company that does not invest in distribution channels to maintain or increase revenues may use any channels available, even the gray market.  Therefore:

H₇:  There is a direct relationship between the resources required to establish authorized distribution channels and a company’s willingness to encourage gray market activity.

Control Systems

Long term gray market activity is associated with problems for firms and their distribution channels (Cavusgil and Sikora, 1988, Meyers, 1999).  Other studies have shown that external factors, such as currency fluctuations, usually mean some gray market activity will be present  (Meyers, 1999; Palia and Keown, 1991).  At some point, because the level of gray market activity has become intolerable, a company will want to curb the level of gray market activity (Cavusgil and Sikora, 1988).  The authors provide a number of strategies within a firm’s control to prevent or curb gray market activity.  They mention various control systems such as warranty registrations, serial number tracking, etc. to track gray market activity and then take steps to curb it when levels reach intolerable levels.  Therefore, if most of the mechanisms required to control gray market activity are internal to the firm, the strength of a firm’s control systems may be a predictor of its willingness to engage in the gray market.  Therefore:

H₈:  There is a direct relationship between a company’s willingness to encourage gray market activity and its ability to stop or control gray market activity.

Table 1 below summarizes the operational definitions for this conceptual framework.  The one dependent variable is the level of gray market activity.  The eight independent variables include the rate of technology change, customer requirement changes, development cycle, product availability, firm size, growth strategy, required channel development resources, and control systems.

Table- 1

Variables and their definitions

Table 2 below lists the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes (Office of Management and Budget, 1998) used to identify high technology products for this study.

Conclusions

Management in high technology manufacturing firms is under pressure to increase revenue in the short term and protect brand integrity in the long term (Lowe and McCrohan, 1989; Meyers, 1999).  This is a difficult balance to achieve, particularly in a rapidly changing environment with conflicting deliverables.  Companies may not enforce contracts written to prevent gray market activity in order to reduce unit costs through increased production levels (Cespedes et al. 1988).  As the authors relate, this allows large customers to sell excess inventory to low volume unauthorized dealers for more than their cost thus reducing their costs and unloading the extra inventory at a small profit.

It is important for management to understand the different mechanisms that control the gray market.  The general belief holds that price is a main driver for gray market activity (Assmus and Wiese, 1995; Cespedes et al. 1988; Lowe and McCrohan, 19890).  However, other factors such as product availability and the level of technology change can increase demand in established markets or create new markets (Sarkar et al. 1999).  This in turn can lead to gray market activity to meet market demand that is not satisfied through authorized channels (Champion, 1998; Meyers, 1999).

This study focused on the marketing issues of gray market activity.  Future studies could include the effects of gray market sales on after sales support, logistics, manufacturing, and other operational functions within the firm.  While this study explored the effects of gray market on high technology products, future studies could investigate the effect of gray market activity on high technology services.

It is obvious there is demand for gray market goods.  Future studies, therefore, should consider the demand side of the gray market phenomenon.  Conventional wisdom focuses on price as the primary variable for gray market demand (Assmus and Wiese, 1995; Cespedes et al. 1988; Lowe and McCrohan, 1989).  However, other variables should be investigated such as product availability, a country’s level of economic development, country of origin stereotypes, designer labels, perceived quality, product uniqueness amongst others.  Management can benefit by a better understanding of the demand drivers for gray market activity.  In this way, it can better control the phenomenon to meet company goals.

References

Assmus, G. & Wiese, C., (1995).  How to address the gray market threat using price coordination.  Sloan Management Review,  Spring, 31-41.

Bayus, B. L., (1998).  An analysis of product lifetimes in a technology dynamic industry.  Management Science, 44 (6), 763-776.

Bello, D. C., & Gilliand, D. I., (1997).  The effect of output controls, process controls, and flexibility on export channel performance.  Journal of Marketing, 61, January, 22-38.

Bucklin, L. P., (1993).  Modeling the international gray market for public policy decisions.  International Journal of Research in Marketing, 10, 387-405.

The Business Information Service for Newly Independent States (BISNIS), (1998). Chapter IV: Marketing U.S. Products and Services. Available WWW: http://www.bisnis.doc.gov/bisnis/country/9810u05.htm.

Cavusgil, S. T., (1996).  Pricing for global markets.  Columbia Journal of World Business, 31 (4), 66-79.

Cavusgil, S. T., & Kirplani V. H., (1993).  Introducing products into export markets: Success factors.  Journal of Business Research, 27, 1-15.

Cavusgil, S. T., & Sikora, E., (1988).  How multinationals can counter gray market imports.  Columbia Journal of World Business, Winter, 75-85.

Cavusgil, S. T., Zou, S., & Naidu, G. M., (1993).  Product and promotion adaptation in export ventures: An empirical investigation.  Journal of International Business Studies, March, 479-506.

Cavusgil, S. T., & Zou, S., (1994). Marketing strategy-performance relationship: An investigation of the empirical link in export market ventures. Journal of Marketing, 58 (1), 1-22.

Cespedes, F. V., Corey, E. R., & Rangan, V. K., 1988.  Gray Markets: Causes and cures.  Harvard Business Review,  July-August, 75-82.

Champion, D. (1998).  The Bright Side of Gray Markets (Briefings from the Editors).  Harvard Business Review, September-October, 21-22.

Ciber Working Paper Series. (1995). Managing a Multinational Supply Chain: The Impact of Parallel Imports (Number 95-10).  The John E. Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA:  Ahmadi R. H., & Yang, B. R.

Dana, J., (1998).  Advance-purchase discounts and price discrimination in competitive markets.  Journal of Political Economy, 106 (2), 395-422.

Danzon, P., (1997).  Price discrimination in pharmaceuticals.  International Journal of Economics in Business, 3 (November), 301-322.

Gupta, A. K., & Wilemon, D. L., (1990).  Accelerating the development of technology-based new products.  California Management Review, Winter, 24-44.

Hanel, P., (1976).  The relationship existing between R&D activity of Canadian manufacturing industries and their performance in the international market (August). Ottawa, Canada: Government of Canada, Department of Industry, Trade and Commerce.

Jackson, M, (1996).  MBA Economics. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.

Kirpalani, V. H., & Macintosh, M.B., (1980).  International marketing effectiveness of technology-oriented small firms.  Journal of International Business Studies, Winter, 81-90.

Kuhn, K., (1998).  Intertemporal price discrimination in frictionless durable goods monopolies.  Journal of Industrial Economics, 46 (March), 101-114.

Lowe, L. S., & McCrohan, K. F., (1989).  Minimize the impact of the gray market.  Journal of Business Strategy, November/December, 47-50.

Meyers, M. B., (1999).  Incidents of gray market activity among U.S. importers:  Occurrences, characteristics, and consequences.  Journal of International Business Studies, 30 (1), 105-126.

Meyers, M. B., & Griffith, D. A., (1999).  Strategies for combating gray market activity.  Business Horizons, 42 (6), 2-9.

Office of Management and Budget, Executive Office of the President, (1998).  North American Industry Classification System, 1997. Bernan Press: Lanham, MD.

Palia, A. P., & Keown, C.F., (1991).  Combating parallel importing: Views of U.S. exporters to the Asia-Pacific region.  International Marketing Review 8 (1), 47-56.

Sarkar, M. B., Cavusgil, S. T., & Aulakh, P. S., (1999).  International expansion of telecommunication carriers: The influence of market structure, network characteristics, and entry imperfections.  Journal of International Business Studies, 30 (2), 361-386.

Spencer, M. H., & Amos, O. M., (1993).  Contemporary Microeconomics (8^th ed.).  New York, NY: Worth.

University of Toronto Working Paper, (January 26, 1996). A Contractual Approach to the Gray Market (Number UT-ECIPA-Gallini-96-01).  University of Toronto: Gallini N. T., & Hollis, A.

Vickers, J., (1997).  Regulation, competition, and the structure of prices.  Oxford Review of Economic Policy 13 (Spring), 15-26.

Weigand, R. E., (1989).  The gray market comes to Japan.  Columbia Journal of World Business, Fall, 18-24.

Weigand, R. E. (1991).  Parallel import channels – Options for preserving territorial integrity.  Columbia Journal of World Business, 18 (Fall) pp. 53-60.

STAT-USA Internet – Trade Compliance Center, (1999). Brazil Country Commercial Guides. Available WWW: http://infoserv2.ita.doc.gov/tcc/InternetCountry.nsf/baee3c88ac11f4628525653a0071d106/3a390373d9e1a1bf852566bf006bc99a?OpenDocument

Russell E. Blahetka

Doctoral Candidate, Business Administration,

California Campus of the University of Sarasota

Illiteracy is a major hindrance to the programme of human development, and the universality of the problem has led the UNESCO to declare the year 1990 “The International Year of Literacy.” To focus the whole world’s attention to it, an international education conference on the theme was organized in March 1990 in Thailand by UNESCO in collaboration with UNICEF, UNDP, and the World Bank. In doing so, UNESCO wanted to draw the attention of the whole world focusing on illiteracy, so that it can be wiped out by the year 2000.2

The situation of adult illiteracy in SAARC countries

The South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC) was formally launched in Dhaka in December 1985.3 The heads of seven Asian countries jointly pledged to work together for a common future. Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka are the members of SAARC, which comprises one-fifth of the world’s population. Table 1 shows the distribution of illiterate population in the SAARC countries.

TABLE 1 . Illiterate population in the SAARC countries

Illiteracy in SAARC countries constitute a serious socio-economic and political problem. The figure for some individual countries is as high as 60% or more. Table 2 shows the percentage of male and female illiterate population in the SAARC countries.
TABLE 2. Situation of illiterate population in the SAARC countries in 1995 ¹

CAUSES OF ADULT ILLITERACY

In this paper, adult illiteracy means to cover the population of 15 years and above and who can not read, write or do elementary arithmetic. The causes of adult illiteracy are many. Only the major ones, i.e. economic and socio-historical causes, are highlighted here.

a. Economic causes

The economics of the countries of South Asia are among the largest and poorest in the world. They belong to the group classified by the World Bank as the ‘low-income countries’: their per-capita income is about 25% of the average for all the less-developed countries.⁴ A comparative analysis of GDP of some developed .and SAARC countries is shown in Table 3, which shows how the SAARC countries are economically weak.

TABLE 3. GDP of some developed and SAARC countries in 1995⁵

NA= Not available

Poverty, slow economic growth rate, low per-capita income, unequal distribution of wealth, unemployment, and heavy dependence on the external assistance are some of the common economic problems of the SAARC countries.⁶ All the SAARC countries are deeply engaged in solving the problems of food, hunger, cloth, etc., and/or required to give maximum attention to solve these problems.

2. Socio-historical causes

Before the advent of Europeans in this subcontinent, emperors were the custodian of the society. Then Madrasha and Maktabs were the centre of education. The arrival of the Europeans drastically changed the way of life of the people of the Indo-Pak subcontinent. The white man superimposed his way of life and culture upon that of the indigenous culture. To understand the white man’s new culture and, of course, his government and language, the people had to acquire the ‘magic’ of writing and reading. To do this, a new system of education, the formal school system, was introduced by the missionaries and later on by the colonial government. But the people did not gladly accept the education policy of the Europeans. Some people, especially Muslims, thought that to learn English is sin. The people who acquired the skills and mastery of reading and writing through the alien education system became known as an educated or literate person, but those who failed to acquire the skills of reading and writing remained illiterate.

ROLE OF PUBLIC LIBRARIES IN ERADICATING ILLITERACY

The traditional public library system in the SAARC countries has not yet been able to satisfy the needs of the neo-literates by providing adequate and suitable reading materials. Although most people in the SAARC countries live in rural areas, most public libraries are, however, located in urban areas.

Even the public library system has not made any meaningful impact on the population living in urban areas. This is so because in the first place public libraries do not stock suitable reading materials for the neo-literates. Secondly, no conscious efforts arc made to relate the public library system to literacy campaigns.

In the SAARC countries, public libraries arc not well organized, and their collections arc also not rich. As a result, the libraries can not meet the requirements of the literate population. As for the new-literates, where they exist, they arc mostly left to fend for themselves.

Obviously because of their inadequacies and funding, the public libraries in the SAARC countries have not done much to help neo-literates to retain their literacy. This situation can be partially overcome if the governments of the SAARC countries tackle the problem seriously and with a sense of purpose. During this decade, public libraries must review, and the governments of the SAARC countries must be prepared to allocate more money to their public libraries to enable them to contribute meaningfully to eradicate illiteracy.

NA= Not available
¹⁺ Data for the rest of countries are not available, so the information is not presented here.

PUBLIC LIBRARY SITUATION IN BANGLADESH
The area of Bangladesh, which came into existence as an independent state on 16 December 1971, is 143,998 sq. km.⁷ The public library movement in Bangladesh dates back to the mid-19th century. In 1854, four non-government public libraries were established in the important district headquarters of this region. These four libraries arc: Woodburn Public library (Bogra), Jessore Public Library, Barisal Public Library, and Rangpur Public Library. But the establishment of government public libraries started with the opening of the Bangladesh Central Public Library in 1958.⁸

The Government of Bangladesh has been trying to develop public libraries in the country. During the first, second, third and fourth five-year plans, public libraries have received an increasing attention. The government allocation front the first to fourth five-year plans is shown in Table 5.

TABLE 5. Government development allocation from 1st to 4th five-year plans
(figures in lac) ⁹‘¹²

Till now, the Government of Bangladesh has allocated an amount of Taka 22,49,01,000 for the development of public libraries and the training programme for the library personnel. At present, 66 government¹³ and 883 non-government¹⁴ public libraries are in existence in the country. In spite of all these efforts, till now, the government did not take much initiatives to eradicate illiteracy through public libraries, although public libraries can play a vital role in eradicating illiteracy from the country.

THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT AND NGOS

The government, however, took a programme named INFEP (Integrated Non-Formal Education Programme) in 1991 to educate the country’s illiterate persons. This organization, located in Dhaka, had been converted into a Directorate of Non-Formal Education (DNFE). DNFE has set up 735 Gram Shikkha Milon Kendras (Village Continuing Education Centres) in 69 thana project areas. DNFE considers these centres as rural libraries, which maintain follow-up materials, national dailies, weeklies, monthlies, wall magazines, a radio, and indoor sport items, like ludo, carom, etc. A full-time librarian is appointed for each centre. To supervise the learning activities and operation of the library, a supervisor is assigned for every ten libraries. Other than helping neo-literates, each librarian is entrusted with the responsibility of making ten literates a year.¹⁵

In Bangladesh, some NCOs have been playing a vital role in eradicating illiteracy by organizing resource centres at the community level. These include: Community Development Library (CDL), Action aid Bangladesh, Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC), Gono Shahajjyo Sangstha, Rangpur- Dinajpur Rural Services (RDRS), etc. BRAC has already established some rural libraries on an experimental basis, and has plans to establish 350 libraries in the rural areas by the end of 1998.¹⁶

The Community Development Library (CDL) maintains 30 Rural Information Resource Centres (RIRCs) throughout the country. One of the main objectives of these RIRCs is to provide facilities for continuing education of the local community. The RIRCs organize seminars, workshops, and discussion meetings every month, followed by video shows. Students from the community are regularly taken to the RIRCs for orientation visits, to accustom them to continue to visit in future.¹⁷

The Library Association of Bangladesh (LAB) has already been working vigorously to create awareness and active interest among the various sections of people, including policy-makers, and has been making all-out efforts to socialize and materialize the concept of grameen library and information centres, through organizing meetings with policy-makers, organizing seminars, meeting the people concerned with the development of the rural community, and writing articles and disseminating these through seminars and the newsletter  Upatta. A 7-day training programme on how to provide information support to the village people was organized in January 1996 to train 60 young people of three villages.

With the support of UNESCO, three gramecn library and information centres have been organized and maintained jointly by the Bangladesh National Scientific and Technical Documentation Centre (BANSDOC) and the Library Association of Bangladesh (LAB) in three villages (Hajipara, Kakrain, and Tetulia) of Dhamrai thana, about 40 km from the Dhaka City.¹⁷ LAB had also organized a one-day National Seminar on “Development of a Grameen Library System for Providing Information Support to the Rural People of Bangladesh.” A concept paper on a gramecn library system was presented by Mr. M. Shamsul Islam Khan, the President of LAB, at the seminar.¹⁶

ACTIONAID is an international development organization based in London. It has both urban and rural programmes, and most are centred around the samity. In the education sector, this organization promotes both non-formal primary education for children, as well as adult literacy classes, stressing functional and practical literacy.

The Rangpur-Dinajpur Rural Service (RDRS) is one of the largest rural development agencies in Bangladesh. It has been working in 28 thanas of six northern districts. It also works for Non-Formal Primary Education (NFPE) which meets the needs of non-school-going children. NFPE is a national initiative of the government’s Primary and Mass Education Division, funded by the World Bank.

The Gonoshahjjo Sangstha (GSS) is a well-reputed NGO working in Bangladesh in eradicating illiteracy and in other fields. It has two programmes in this regard. These arc: (i) Adolescent Literacy Centre (ALC), and (ii) Adult Literacy Programme. The Adolescent Education Programme of CSS commenced in 1993 with a suitable two-year curriculum in 434 groups. This programme is aimed at helping those in the 11-15-year age group who have cither dropped-out, or have never been exposed to formal (or any) school system, to acquire any literacy and numerical skills. In phase II (1994/5-1996/7), there were 2170 groups in operation with approximately 30 students per group. It was found from experience that students did not achieve learning targets. So, the curriculum was extended to three years. For the programme to work properly the community is encouraged, through active participation of village committees, to participate in decision-making and cost-sharing in setting up these centres.

The Adult Literacy Programme was started since 1983. It patronizes 46 adult literacy centres, and also maintains 300 Gram Shikha Milon Kendras of DNFPE (Directorate of Non-Formal Primary Education). If a centre is continued for two years, a library or reading centre is established there. At present this NGO has set up 234 reading centres for students, adult persons and others. This centre is open to all, and they also supply 60 books and magazines per year for collection development.

Moreover, the Islamic Foundation is also trying to increase the literacy rate among the rural people by the help of mosque-based libraries. In this regard, the Foundation offers training to the Imams of mosques.

PROGRAMME OF ACTION

The adult literacy programmes and policy-makers in Bangladesh have so far virtually left public libraries out of their scheme of things. All their efforts and the huge amount of money being pumped into their literacy programmes have been and will continue to be of little consequence so long as they fail to make suitable reading or learning materials available to their neo-literates through a well-conccivcd rural library system. However, to eradicate illiteracy from Bangladesh, I would like to emphasize the following programme of action at the national level:

1.      A public library grid should be established all over the country with their branches in all the villages; the establishment of libraries for all villages should be completed within five years.

2.     NGOs may take a vigorous and integrated programme jointly with the government to establish and maintain village libraries and information resource centres. A favourable government policy relating to library may encourage NGOs in this regard.

3.    The village library should run a night school and impart adult education and literacy. The librarian should be entrusted with the responsibility of creating reading habits among the village people, especially among the children and school-going students.

4.      Separate budget should be allocated for library service under the Adult Education Programme Funds. In this regard, the government should give more funds for the development of pubic libraries.

5.     The Primary and Mass Literacy Directorate, Non-Formal Education Directorate, Rural Development and Co-operatives Division, Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development (BARD), Islamic Foundation Bangladesh, and the Social Welfare Directorate may prepare their own action plan for using their own potentiality in the promotion of mass education and mass literacy.

6.     The Primary and Mass Education Division may also consider to institute a separate plan for using the maktabs as feeder schools where the Imams and Muazzins can teach children and which may be helpful to increase the literacy rates.

7.     The government should set up publishing houses to produce cheap, plentiful and suitable reading materials which can be distributed free of charge that may be helpful to be literate.

CONCLUSION

The Government of Bangladesh has given top priority to mass literacy. So, different activities and programmes for promoting literacy are being implemented through the government agencies and NGOs. The government should take necessary steps to involve public libraries in the literacy movement. Public library services should be strengthened, and support services, like the radio, television and film vans, should be introduced in the adult education programmes. Without these ancillary services, the neo-literates will soon relapse into illiteracy.

References

1.     Unesco statistical yearbook 1996. Paris: Uncsco, 1996

2.     Kedem KA. Libraries as partrers in the fight to eradicate illiteracy in sub-Saharan Africa.  IFLA ] 1990;16(4): 447-57

3.     India Q 1996;1&2:73

4.    Asian Development Bank. Key indicators of developing Asian and Pacific countries, 1991:20

5.    The World Bank. World development report 1997. New York: Oxford, 1997: 214-5

6.    Naqash NA. SAARC: challenges and opportunities. New Delhi: Ashish, 1994:11

7.    Statistical yearbook of Bangladesh, 1995. Dhaka: Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, 1995

8.    Ahmad SU. Librarianship and the state of libraries in Bangladesh. Dhaka : Lutfun Nessah Begum, 1994:53

9.    Bangladesh. Planning Commission. 1st Five Year Plan, 1973-78

10.   Bangladesh. Planning Commission. 2nd Five Year Plan, 1980-85

11.   Bangladesh. Planning Commission. 3rd Five Year Plan, 1985-90

12.   Bangladesh. Planning Commission. 4th Five Year Plan, 1990-95

13.   Bangladesh. Department of Public Libraries. Bangladesh Central Public Library: introducing. Dhaka, “1996

14.   National Book Centre. Pathagar nirdeshika (Directory of libraries) Dhaka: National Book Centre, 1995

15.   Bangladesh. Directorate of Non-Formal Education. Let there be light. Dhaka: Directorate of Non-formal Education, 1995:9

16. Khan MSI. Development of a grameen library system for providing information support to the rural people of Bangladesh. Paper presented at the Seminar on Development of a Cramcen Library System for Providing Information Support to the Rural People of Bangladesh, Dhamrai, 2 May, 1997. Dhaka: The Library Association of Bangladesh, 1997.

17.   Harun-ur-Rashid. Community information services in rural Bangladesh. DevPrac 1996;6(4):358-62

Dr. Md. Hanif Uddin

Assistant Professor ,Dept. of Information Science and Library Management,
University of Dhaka
Dhaka 1000, Bangladesh

]]> http://infosciencetoday.org/type/research-type/role-of-libraries-in-eradicating-illiteracy-in-bangladesh-with-special-reference-to-the-situation-in-the-saarc-countries.html/feed 0 http://infosciencetoday.org/type/articles/the-national-library-of-bangladesh-at-a-glance.html http://infosciencetoday.org/type/articles/the-national-library-of-bangladesh-at-a-glance.html#comments Sun, 06 Dec 2009 19:12:11 +0000 admin http://infosciencetoday.org/?p=5 1. Some useful Information

c) Library Timings:- Saturday to Wednesday : 9 A.M to 8 P.M
Thursday : 9 A.M to 2 P.M
Friday and other Government holidays closed.

d) Access:- Reading rooms are open to all users. Regular users are advised to take Library Membership. The Library follows closed systems stacks.

e) Membership:- Any bonafide citizen of Bangladesh subject to submission of  the duly filled in prescribed form can have Membership at the fee of Taka 15. Application forms are available at all reading rooms counters or from Librarian. Reader’s Identity Cards are issued after two working days of submission of (lie form Citizens of other countries may also use the library upon showing some necessary papers and recommendations from
appropriate authorities.

f) Lending: Lending facilities are yet to be introduced except special cases for Libraries Institutions and Government Offices .

g) Special bibliographies are compiled for potential research scholars on request.

2. History:

Alter the partition of the subcontinent in 1947 the Government of Pakistan established the National Library of Pakistan in Karachi and a provincial book deposit branch of the Pakistan National Library in Dhaka in 1967. In fact that book deposit branch was the embryo of (lie National library of Bangladesh which came into being after the independence of the country in 1971. After the Liberation War of Bangladesh it was keenly felt by all quarters that a National Library is indispensable for (lie newborn nation. Considering the necessity and importance, the Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh resolved to set up the National Library of Bangladesh in Dhaka. The Library started functioning with the manpower and resource materials inherited from the Provincial Book Deposit Branch in Dhaka. Later on, in 1973 the two national organizations namely (i) The National Archives of Bangladesh and (ii) The National Library of Bangladesh were merged under the name of the Directorate of Archives & Libraries under the Sports and Culture Division. Ministry of Education, ‘the Directorate was first housed in two separate rented places first at 106 Central Road and then at 372 Elephant road, Dhaka. A new building for the National Library of Bangladesh was built in 1985 and the Library was shifted to its new place called The Jutiya Granthi.igur Bliavcin (National Library Building) at 32 Justice S.M.Murshed Sarani, Agargaon, Sher-e-BangIa Nagar. Dhaka-1207. The National Library of Bangladesh is currently run by the Directorate of Archives and Libraries under the Ministry of Cultural Affairs. The National Library is the legal depository of all new books and other printed materials published in the country under the Copy Right Law
(Modified in 2000) of Bangladesh. 3. Organization and Professional set up: The National Library of Bangladesh is one of the two components of the Directorate of Archives and Libraries under the Ministry of Cultural Affairs. The Director of the Directorate exercises the administrative and financial powers delegated to the Heads of the Directorate of the Government. The National Library consists of the following four sections:

a) Bibliography Section:
b) Processing, Maintenance and Reader Service Section (Library Section);
c) Microfilm Section (Reprographic Section) and
d) Computer Section (Library Automation).

The above 4 sections are manned by 7 (seven) class-I Gazetted Officers and 34 staff members most of whom are technical. The total allocated strength of manpower is 41 as follows :

Chief Bibliographer/Deputy Director (Library)                     1
Bibliographer (Acqui -1, Compi-1, Publi- Ref.-l)                 3
Assistant Director (Lib.)                                                   1
Microfilm Officer                                                             1
Programming Officer                                                       1
Class III Technical/semi tech. staff member                     27
Class IV Staff member                                                     7
Grand total =                                                                 41

4. Functions:

Following are the major functions of Bangladesh National Library:

a) To acquire books and other publications published in the country under (lie
copyright law of the land and to preserve them permanently;
b) To compile and publish National Bibliography. Abstract and Indexes to the
newspaper articles. Directory of Publishers, Union Catalogues etc;
c) To maintain and develop a national collection of library materials;
d) to provide various services to the concerned users;
e) To provide modem facilities of library services to the users including quick and easy retrieval through the automation of the collection;
f) To preserve the library and information materials in modem and Scientific manner
g) to act as country’s international bibliographical documentation centre including the distribution of ISBN;
h) Provides informative assistance/guidelines to the Government
Professional Associations in formulating country’s Library Act, Policy, and in planning and promoting publishing industries.

5. Acquisition Policy :
Bangladesh National Library acquires through purchase, donations etc. books, journals etc in accordance with the following principles:
a) Books &. Journals on Bangladesh published anywhere in the  world;
b) Books by Bangladeshi authors published abroad;
c) Contemporary hooks by Nobel Prize winners, the national level best books of other countries;
d) Standard books on Asian countries and on other countries also;
e) Carefully selected latest books on all brandies of knowledge;
f) Standard reference books:
g) Biographies of eminent personalities of the world:
h) Donation of Institutional / personal collection of books of national level personalities.

6. Collection:

The Collection of Bangladesh National Library is the nation’s pride. The principal characteristic of its collection is that it covers all major disciplines and branches of human knowledge i.e. Literature. Cultural Heritage, History. Arts. Archaeology, Science and Technology. Medical Science. Engineering, Economics, Agriculture, Library and Information Management, Development Administration. Environment, Woman affairs. HRD, etc and is preserved in scientific manner. In addition to country’s all
most all publications the library has a large collection of foreign representational publications especially on Asian countries and more specific related to South Asian Studies. The library enriches its collection by various means i.e. acquiring publication under copyright act, purchase, institutional/personal donations, complimentary copies etc. the following are the National Library’s collection data up to September 2003.

Total Number of Books and Bound Volumes – 5,00,000

Current Bengali dailies’ titles – 55
Current Bengali weekly titles – 75
Current Bengali periodicals titles – 105
English dailies” titles – 6
weekly – 10
periodicals – 20
Number of Maps – 3000
Microfilm – 60 Rolls
Microfiche – 20(1985-93)
Number of preserved Bengali dailies’ titles – 165
weekly – 313
periodicals – 627
English dailies – 25
weekly – 36
Periodicals – 235
Number of National Bibliography published – 11 issues
from 197 2 to 1991
Index, Abstracts etc. Published – 22 Nos.
Library maintains special collections for researchers.

7. International Systems followed:

National Library follows the following international systems for its technical
processing:

a) Dewey Decimal Classification -20th edn.
b) Anglo American Cataloguing Rules 2nd edn
c) Sears list of subject heading – 13th edn.
d) CDS/ISIS software.

8. Physical facilities of Library Building

Area of Library Building       -       2.36 acre

Construction area             -       104880 sft

Carpet area of Library Building -      61.555 sft

Stack area                     -       48.223 sft

Reading room               -      8000 sft

Exhibition room              -      3200

A.C. Auditorium seating capacity-     300 seats

The maintenance of the building, electrical appliance, air-conditioning and security measures are carried out by the concerned Departments of the government.

9. User’s Services

a) Reader Service: Provides reader’s services. It has three reading rooms (one for Bangla materials and one for English and one for Newspapers) covering 8000 sft space area. The Library maintains both card and sheaf catalogue systems.

b) Reference Service: Reference service to individual and departments, institutions are rendered in the light of requirement .

c) Special Bibliography: National Library provides special bibliography compilation service on request to the potential research scholars of various universities / institutions.

d) Lending: Lending of books to the library members is yet to be introduced. However government office , libraries, institutions as exception can avail the lending facilities for official purpose.

e) Photocopy Service: Members of the Library can have photocopy service for research purpose at the charge of TK. 1.00 per impression.

f) ISBN Service: For standardizing Bangladesh’s books internationally, ISBN distribution service is provided to the concerned publishers and individual authors from the National Library. So far ISBN has been distributed to 375 publishers and for 6500 books.
g) Microfilm Service: Microfilm reading services on some selected subject and areas are given to the concerned research scholars in the light of the requirement. One of the important services to the users is map reading service, which is given under special arrangement.

10. International Liaison:

The National Library of Bangladesh is the country’s professional national institution for IFLA. Asia Pacific Cultural Centre for UNESCO (ACCU). Conference of Directors of National Libraries in Asia and Ocenia (CDNLAO).

11. Modern facilities added:

In order to modernize the National Library & its services, the Government of Bangladesh has recently added the following modem equipments and facilities to the Library:

a) Modern computer unit with CDS/ISIS software with server & terminal;
b) One modern Microfilm Unit including Microfilm Reader d Printer & Reader;
c) One fax machine;
d) One photocopy machine;
e) One modern lift.

12. Future Plans :

a) To provide an Advisory Council for the National Library of Bangladesh.

b) To arrange to fill up all the technical vacant posts.

c) To render the National Library a very modem international centre of learning by extending services and adopting new measures.

This study delineates subtle distinctions in organization, management and administration which may be equally important for organizers, managers and administrators of all types of institutions and enterprises- either academic, business, industrial or learned, and the study may be useful and applicable not only to library and information science, but also to management. public administration, finance, economics, statistics, mathematics, psychology, sociology, and the like.

Organization vs. Management

‘Organizing’ literally, is a process of doing work or making arrangement for work, while ‘organization’ is a structure in which the work takes place. In this study, however, to avoid confusion, we will refer to organization as a step or method of making logical arrangement of work of an enterprise as a part of management and administration. It is relatively easy for one to separate organization from management and administration, but it may be generally difficult for him to bring a succinct distinction between ‘management’ and ‘administration’ since the later two terms are closely inter-woven, and there is a greater possibility of one being mixed up with the other. The present study, however, is an endeavour to remove such probable confusion and controversy and is intended to establish the distinctions, through appraisal of the thesis of distinguished writers and thinkers in the field, so the study is useful not only to library and information science, but also to other disciplines including public administration, management, finance, statistics,   sociology, mathematics, economics,  psychology and the like.

Organization may be termed as a process of making logical combination of various units of works to assign them to suitable workers in order to attain the avowed objectives of an enterprise or an institution or a library, whilst management may be briefly termed as a process of getting things done through men and materials. Sheldon defines organization as “the process of so combining the work which individuals or groups have to perform with the faculties necessary for its execution that the duties, so formed, provide the best channels for the efficient, systematic, positive, and co-ordinated application of the available effort.”‘ Hicks and Tillin, while defining organization, give emphasis on (a) human relationships, (b) group work and (c) social structure. They maintain that organization is mainly ‘concerned with human relationships in a group activity that, when taken together, equate to the social structure.’² It is the most effective method to pool the  co-operative efforts of staff and channel them into productive processes.

Library and Society

Society sanctions the organization since it considers the organization capable of satisfying some need. ‘If such a need is reasonably wall satisfied by a particular device, society transmits that device to future generations as integral part of its culture. This has been true of the traditional library, which was basically book oriented, and which has been passed on by society as a useful organization.³ The traditional book library is today unable to meet the increasing multifarious needs of the society. This necessity has given rise to the development of multimedia library to face the challenge of the society through its diversified materials including audio-visual aids, techniques, and contemporary technology including computerization and on-line literature search. An organization is composed of persons who share common interest to attain the same objectives. ‘It is characterized by a management; or leadership which defines the roles and tasks for both the group and its individual members. The roles of these members are structured around the activities or functions necessary to the accomplishment of present objectives. Management furnishes them with the needed tools, equipment, and facilities to achieve the tasks and objectives assigned. The organization creates, through management adequate policies, procedures, authority, accountability, and responsibility for the fulfillment of organizational objective. Organizing is a distinctive basic managerial function which is concerned primarily with formal structure as a means of gaining effective group action.⁴

Organization vs. Administration

Library organization and library administration are closely related to each other. The distinction between the two is very subtle. Organization comes before administration. The latter starts where the former ends. One lays down theoretical principles, whilst the other puts those principles into practice.

An institution or enterprise is established with the aim of attaining certain determined objectives. But ‘how’ and ‘who’ is to achieve it ? For this, ‘an organizational structure is raised, an administrative machinery is created, and management authority is appointed.’⁵ The administrative machinery is responsible for laying down the basic policies of the institution; for providing a proper organizational structure; and for appointing the management personnel for achieving the desired aims. Organization is a process of classification and arrangement of various functions and jobs of an institution to assign them to respective, classified individuals in various units or departments, while administration involves setting out of definite methods, plans and policies to carry out those functions to achieve the pro-determined objectives. Administration is that phase of an institution—academic or business enterprise—which concerns itself with the overall determination and achievement of the major policies and objectives.

“Administration”, William Schulze maintains, “is the force which lays down the object for which an organization and its management are to strive and the broad policies under which they are to operate.” Administration is that function of management which, in reality, executes or carries out the objectives for which the institution is planned, established and then organized. Organization ensures that men, materials, jobs, various units and their included activities are properly classified, defined and nicely arranged showing harmony and functional relationships, whilst administrative function ensures that personnels are properly fitted to the jobs; works are performed properly with satisfaction; and that men, materials, finance and working conditions are congenial and satisfactory to yield the avowed result.

Administration includes various functions or elements, and organization is one of those elements. Organization ‘relates to the establishment of a structure of authority and responsibility which is further defined and co-ordinated for the attainment of specific objectives.’⁶ It is a design of the structure, the grouping and classifying of positions, on the basis of which staff is chosen, whereas administration finds out devices to best carry out library’s planned goals with the help of judiciously selected staff.

Organization involves: (a) identifying the activities and positions necessary to carry out library’s plan and purpose; (b) logically grouping and arranging them according to their functional relationships , including work organization and job
descriptions so as to assign them to respective personnel ; (c) defining the extent and scope of each department or unit and its included activities; and (d) a statement of working relationships between the units and positions, and of the obligations, lines of authority’⁷ or the span of control. Administration, on the other hand, means essentially the directing and executive functions that get these jobs done. It involves comprehending purposes arid needs ; planning, defining problems, making decisions, finding ways and means, managing and following through; organizing, or recognizing and defining, then putting together in sound and simple relationship the component elements or divisions of the operation as a whole, then of its smaller parts-departments, and individual jobs; selection of personnel ; the understanding, choosing and appreciation of people and their development; giving instructions and making supervision 10 ensure that each does his work with distinction. The administrative function also involves certain external and financial aspects, viz. (a) the governmental connections of the library, partly through the board of trustees; (b) its relations with the government or municipal departments ; (c) the financial structure of the library and the sources for securing adequate funds ; their budgeting and use : (d) public relations and the methods by which the library keep? the entire community aware of its purposes, problems, services, accomplishments, and maintains constant awareness of what the community thinks of its library.⁸

Organization, on the contrary, has nothing to do with all these external activities. The domain of organization is basically internal and limited, while that of administration may be both external and internal, and, of course, wider.

Organization is the formal side of administration, and, in some way, subordinate to it. And one duty of administration is to provide its own administrative instrument, which means to organize. The art or technique of administration is the art of directing and inspiring people, while that of organization is of relating specific duties and functions in a co-ordinated whole. The technique of organizing is prior, in logical order, to that of administering. A good skill of organizing is a necessity antecedent to efficient administration. Administration always presupposes something tangible to administer, and this something only organization can supply.^{9
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1. Sheldon, Oliver. The  philosophy of management. London: Isaac Pitman. 1930. p. 32.

2. H;cks, Warren B. and Tillin, Alma M. Managing multimedia libraries.
New York : R. R. Bowker, 1977. p. 20.1.

3. Ibid.

4. Hicks, Warren B, and Tillin, Alma M., op. cit, p. 21 -2.

5. Mittal, R. L. Library administration ; theory and practice, 5th edn, Delhi: Metropolitan Book, 1983. p. 36.|

6. Wilson, Louis Round, and Tauber, Maurice F. The university library : the organization, administration and functions of academic libraries, 2nd edn, New York : Columbia University Press, 1966- p. 116.

7. Wheeler, Joseph L- and Goldhor, Herbert, Practical administration of public libraries. New York : Harper, 1962. p. 165.

8. Wheeler, Joseph L. and Golahor, Herbert, op, cit , p-35

9. Mooney, James D. The principles of organization. New York : Harper & Brothers, 1947, p. 2-4-

Administration creates the techniques by which the purpose of an institution is fulfilled at minimum cost with minimum effort. It is mainly concerned with the directive function through which an administrator unifies and channelizes the efforts of all personnel engaged in an enterprise, and guides their activities in the right direction. The administrator directs the efforts and energies of the personnel in right channels to attain the objectives for which the enterprise is established. Emphasizing upon the arrangement of personnel and the proper allocation of their works as the main function of organization, John Gaus maintains that ‘organization is the arrangement of personnel for facilitating the accomplishment of some agreed purpose through the allocation of functions and responsibilities. It is the relating of efforts and capacities of individuals and groups engaged upon a common task in such a way as to secure the desired objective with the best satisfaction to those for whom the task. is done and those engaged in the enterprise.”10 Administration, on the other hand, is that function which virtually executes or carries out the objective for which a library or an enterprise is organized.

There is, however, no guarantee that a well-organized enterprise with modern equipment and organized personnel shall always be able to deliver the desired goods without an able administrator or commander. The Kimballs have thus rightly compared this state of an organized plant with “a highly organized army without marching orders”, whose success entirely depends upon the efficiency and skill of the commander. The success of a well-organized library therefore depends upon an efficient administration which issues orders to get the works done. “Administration or direction includes all functions and activities that are concerned with the actual work of executing or carrying out the objectives for which the enterprise has been financed and organized. Those responsible for the management and organization of an enterprise may have provided excellent equipment and well-organized personnel but the plant may still b3 unproductive. ln this stage it is likely a highly organized army without marching orders. Administration embraces such functions as issuing orders concerning the work to be done, seeing that the personnel is fitted for the work and trained to operate efficiently, and caring in general for the everyday routine necessary to ensure that men, materials, and equipment are functioning properly toward the desired end.11

From the afore stated analysis, the following distinctions between the two can be gleaned :

1. Organization provides the structure of authority, responsibility, and various functions of a library or institution, while administration applies the techniques, methods, devices, policies ways and means to achieve
those objectives.

2. Organization is an element, function, or instrument of administration. It is the machinery of administration. the channel through which the measures and policies of administration are put into effect. Administration, on the other hand, is concerned with the directive function exercised by the administrator of a library or an institution.12

3. Organization comes first and administration follows it. There can be no effective administration unless there is a sound organization.

4. Organization is subordinated to administration.

5. Administration starts the moment an organization is formulated and established. Firstly, a library is planned, founded, and organized. And the administration of the library begins when the day-to-day functioning of the library is undertaken, i.e. administration involves the application of practical techniques for getting the works done in various departments of the library.

6. Organization lays down the theoretical aspects of arrangement to ensure an efficient and sound establishment, whereas administration applies various principles and practical methods for achieving the objectives of the institution.

Management vs. Administration

The terms ‘management’ and ‘administration’ are so closely related to one another that some authors do not separate these terms, and instead, address management as ‘operative management’ and administration as ‘administrative management.’ Some authors identify two distinct functions of an enterprise to be performed, viz. (i) the administrative or policy-deter-mining function, and (ii) the managerial, or, executive, or ‘doing’ function. Spriegel and Davies’ 13 define administration as the one which ‘predetermines the specific goals and lays down the broad areas within which the goals are to be achieved. ‘It is a determinative function within an enterprise and is the primary responsibility of top management’, whereas ‘management directs the active operations within the enterprise and combines the work of the employees with the available capital, equipment and materials to produce an acceptable product.’

Oliver Sheldon, a great English authority, defines management as ‘the function concerned in the execution of policy within the limits set up by administration and the employment of the organization for the particular objects before it’, whilst administration is the function concerned in the determination of the corporate policy.14 E. F. L. Brech, one of Britain’s leading authorities on management, defines management as ‘a social process entailing responsibility for the effective and economical planning and regulation of the operations of an enterprise to fulfil a given purpose or task involving : (a) judgment and decision in determining plans, and the development of data procedures to assist control of performance and progress against plans, and (b) the guidance, integration, motivation and supervision of the personnel composing the enterprise, and carrying out its operation.15 Management, according to him, is neither a science nor an art. It is the overall process of executive jurisdiction for planning, motivation and control’, while organization involves : (a) ‘the responsibilities by means of which the activities of the enterprise are dispersed among the managerial, supervisory and specialist positions personnel employed in its service ; and (b) the formal interrelations established among the positions personnel by virtue of such respective responsibilities’. And administration is ‘that part of the management process concerned with the institution and carrying out of the procedures by which the programme is laid down and communicated, and the progress of activities are regulated and checked against targets and plans.16

Definitions and analysis of management and administration provided by various authorities thus appear to be contradictory in many respects. Brech holds that management is a ‘generic term’ while ‘administration is considered only a part of it. Contrary to this thesis, Sheldon,’17 Spriegel and Davies maintain that ‘management is a part of administration, and go on interpreting that ‘that phase of a business enterprise which concerns itself with the overall determination of the major policies and objectives is administration’, 18 whereas ‘the executive function which concerns itself with the carrying out of the administrative policies laid down by administration is management’19. It must, however, be stated that management is a vital part of administration, for, it is ‘the art and science of organizing and directing human effort’ applied to control and utilize human labour and materials for the benefit of man and the society.

Scientific Management

It is a system popularized by Taylor, Gantt and others in the early 20th century which aimed at developing ( i ) ways of increasing productivity by making work easier to perform and (iii methods for motivating the workers to take advantage of these labour-saving devices and techniques. A famous scientific manager. Henry L. Gantt, who worked with Taylor in 1 887 and who developed ‘task-and-bonus’ system, cautioned as early as 1911 that ‘Scientific Management should not be allowed to mislead anybody’. It simply means : ’study your problem according to scientific methods, eliminating guess, setting each man a proper task, and allowing suitable rewards for the accomplishment of these tasks. This done, increased efficiency is bound to follow’10. This, in other words, means that if a manager studies his institutional problems scientifically avoiding guess-work or conjectures, and assigns proper work to proper man and allows rewards for his achievement, this must result in increased efficiency, and this is scientific management. Scientific management is thus the “application of principles and methodology of modern  science to problems of administration”" or, it may simply mean the method or process of controlling the affairs of an enterprise administered scientifically.

Taylor as father
Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856-1915), who rose from a labourer to a chief engineer, and later a manager of steal works in Philadelphia is generally regarded as the father of scientific management. He believed that the casual, rule-of-thumb approach to management prevalent in his days should be replaced by scientific analysis. He developed a number of management principles which are still operative. Among his contributions was the scientific development of time study and standards. He propounded several basic principles of management ;22

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1. to gather all traditional knowledge and classify, tabulate, and reduce it to rules, laws, and formulas to help workers in their daily work.
2. to develop a science for each element of man’s work to replace the rule-of-thumb method.

3. to scientifically select and then train, teach, and develop the worker.
4. to co-operate with workers to ensure that work is done according to developed scientific principles.
5. to make an almost equal division of work and responsibility between workers and managers, i.e. managers are to be given work for which they are best fitted, as are employees.

10. Gaus. John M, ‘A theory of organization in public administration, In’ The frontieriers of public administration, by John M. Gaus, Leonard D. While and Marshall E. Dimock. New York : Russel & Russel, 1967. p-66-7.

11. Kimball, Dexter S. and Kimball, Dexter S. Principles of industrial organization- New York : McGraw-Hill, 1947 ( 4th Indian repr. 1971 ).p. 158.

12, Immelman, R. F. M. Foundations of library management organization from the administrative angle. Cape Town ; University of Cape Town, 1947.P-22.

13. Spriegel, William R. and Davies, Ernest Coulter. Principles of business organization and operation. 3rd edn- Englewood Cliffs, N. J. Prentice-Hall, 1960. p. 47-9.
14. Sheldon, Oliver, op. cit,

15. Brech, E, F. L. Management: its nature and significance, 4th edn, London : Isaac Pitman, 1969. p, 16-7,
16. lbid..p-25.
17. Sheldon, Oliver, op-cit.
18. Spriegel, William R, and Davies, Ernest Coulter, op, cit, p, 43-59,
19- Ibid, p. 47-8.
20. Gantt, Henry L, quoted in : Dougherty, Richard M- and Heinritz, Fred J. Scientific management of library operations- New York: Scarecrow Press, 1966. p, 13

21. Gantt, Henry L, op, cit.

22. Taylor, Frederick Winslow. Principles of scientific management. New York : Harper and Brothers, 1941, p, 36-7.

Taylor enunciated that scientific management involves a “complete mental revolution”” both on the part of the workingman as to their duties, toward their fellow men, and their employees, as also on the part of the managers without which scientific management cannot exist. This means a complete change in mental attitude of both sides for the substitution of peace for war, brotherly co-operation for strife ; for replacing suspicious watchfulness with mutual confidence ; for becoming friends instead of foes.²⁴

The emphasis of scientific management school is on maximum output with minimum effort by eliminating waste and inefficiency at the operative level. Thus efficiency was the central theme of Taylor’s principles. Taylor was interested in getting more work out of workers, who, according to him, are “naturally lazy”. He explained the logic with example of an energetic and a lazy worker drawing the same salary : “Why should I work hard when the lazy fellow gets the same pay that I do and does only half as much work ? ²⁵ He advocated that faster work could be assured only through :

1. enforced standardization of methods,

2. enforced adaptation of best instrument and working conditions, and

3. enforced co-operation. For this he made several experiments, viz.   (i) work study ;   (ii) standardized tools for shops ; and (iii) selection and training of workers. In the last experiment he emphasized that each worker be assigned to do what he was best suited for and that those who exceeded the defined work be paid bonuses. Consequently, production rose to an all time high.

Classical school : Fayol as father

The classical school started to develop in France at the same time as Taylor’s Scientific management in the United States. Its father was a Frenchman, Hinri Fayol who regarded management as a universal process, and hence the school was often called ‘traditional’ or ‘universalist’ school. Fayol took the scientific approach, but he looked at administration from the top down and laid down the following 14 principles of administration :

1. Division of work

2. Authority

3.  Discipline

4. Unity of command

5. Unity of direction

6. Subordination of individual interest to general interest

7. Remuneration of personnel
8. Centralization
9   Scalar chain

10. Order

11. Equity

12. Stability of tenure of personnel

13. Initiative

14. Esprit de corps.

It was a process through which management was being brought close to administration. Taylor and Fayol were thus considered the founders of the theory of administration or management. Today many organizations including library and information centres depend largely on these classical theories for their management and administration.   Needless to say, the celebrated writers of university library administration, Wilson ²⁶ and Tauber also adopted the above principles, with minor changes adding three more to the above principles, viz. (i) Span of control, (ii) Departmentation and (iii) Line and staff, which are now being taught and practised in the library schools and libraries the world over  Many modern authors of management including Richard Hodgetts²⁷ also depend on these principles in their discourse on management theory.

System school

Theory of this school differentiated between administration representing the owner whip point of view, and scientific management, i. o. approach to work at the operative level as they related to organization and system. This school expanded the thesis of Fayol and along with it began to explore the behavioral aspect of management. Notable thinkers and analysts of this school were German sociologist Max Weber,²⁸ an Englishman Lyndell Urwick,²⁹ aid an American Luther Gulick³⁰ who edited a landmark work on scientific administration. In 1937 Luther Gulick submitted a paper to president Roosevelt³¹ summing up an executive’s functions in the acronym POSDCORB which are now taught and practised by the administrators and library scientists throughout the world as the most systematic elements of administration :

Planning

Organizing

Staffing

Directing

Co-ordinating

Reporting

Budgeting.

These seven elements described to be the major duties of a chief executive or manager was adapted from the functional analysis elaborated by Henri Fayol in his Industrial and general administration.

Human relations schools

These schools which embodied Human behaviour school and Social system school developed in 1930s and were concerned with the study of peoples as human beings rather than as work units. These schools compensated for some of the deficiencies of the classical theories. The inherent thesis of these schools is that because management involves getting things done through people, management study should centre on interpersonal relations, i. e. emphasis is primarily laid on the individual and the informal group in the formal organization thereby integrating people into a work environment. Management is thus concerned more with personnel administration giving prominence to democratization and staff participation. This theory upholds that if human needs are recognized, and the suggestions arid complaints of the staff are considered, morale is bound to increase, as will production.

Human behaviour school

EIton Mayo and Mary Follett, two distinguished apostles of this school made experiments on physical working conditions and their influence on worker productivity.   Their studies laid emphasis on social interaction and psychological factors in determining productivity and satisfaction   These studies revealed several principles :

a. workers are more motivated by social rewards and sanctions than by economic incentives ;

b. workers in their acts are influenced by the group ; and

c. whenever formal organizations exist, both formal
and informal standards exist.

These researchers observed that when the workers associated them with management, productivity rose ; when they were in opposition to management, productivity remained at a minimum accepted level. This school maintains that if the organization can make employees happy, it can gain their full co-operation and effort, plus reaching optimum efficiency.

An Australian professor. Mayo made his most famous experiment in a textile mill in Philadelphia during 1923-24 on the cause of high labour turnover. By introducing rest periods he proved that it not only helped overcome physical fatigue and monotony, but also day-dreaming, which consequently led to high morale, and productivity, and elimination of labour turnover.

Social system school

Chester I Barnard, who was president of New Jersey Bell (1927-) as also of Rockefeller Foundation, and the U.S. Organization, is often regarded as the spiritual father of this school which is so closely related to the human relations
school that the one is sometimes confused with the other. Barnard is thus, otherwise, held as a distinguished contributor to behavioral thought. The social system school encourages management to allow :   (i) the employees develop social groups on the job ; (ii) employee participation in management ; and (iii) democracy in the organization.   Barnard identifies four inducements :

1   material inducements, viz. money and other physical securities ;

2  personal non-material opportunities for distinction, and personal power ;

3  desirable physical conditions of work ; and 4  ideal benefactions, i. e.       pride of workmanship, sense of adequacy, loyalty to the organization, etc.

He emphasized upon maintenance of ‘communication’ system as the ‘first function’ or primary job of managers. Secondly, the workers are to be brought into a co-operative relationship with the organization, which must identify the
people with the firm. Third executive function is the delegation of authority. This theory gave rise to other new theories, one of which is Management by Objectives that will be discussed later.

Decision theory schools

Contributions have been made to management through various disciplines like library and information science, mathematics, statistics, economics, psychology and sociology. This school is basically concerned with the study of rational decision procedures, and the way managers actually reach decisions. The management scientists of all these disciplines share the following common characteristics³²

1   the application of scientific analysis to managerial problems ;

2  the goal of improving the manager’s decision-making ability;

3  a high regard for economic effectiveness criteria ;

4 a reliance on mathematical models ; and

5   the utilization of electronic computers.

Management by Objectives (MBO)

This theory of management was advocated by Peter Drucker³³in 1950s according to which ‘information sharing is desirable’ and that ‘management and workers should share planning and analysis of the operations.’ It combines individual and institutional goal setting with the decision making process. Peter Drucker first enunciated that ‘this approach involves the establishment and communication of organizational goals, the setting of individual objectives pursuant to the organizational goals, and the periodic and then final review of performance as it relates to the objectives.’³⁴ George Odiorne further developed this thesis and defined it as “a process whereby the superior and subordinate managers of an organization jointly identify its common goals, define each individual’s major areas of responsibility in terms of the results expected of him, and use these measures as guides for operating the unit and assessing the contribution of each of its members.”³⁵

MBO underlines the setting of certain specific objectives and approaching them as a team over a stated period of time. It emphasizes that objectives must be measurable, with time limits, and they must require specific realistic action. It is
a unique example of participative management, in which the supervisor and subordinates agree upon specific results to be achieved during appraisal period; and they together establish: (i) what’s to be done, (ii) how long it will take, (iii) how performance will be evaluated, and (iv) how together to review results and set further goals. The complete process depends upon the following rationale: ³⁶

1  Clearly stated objectives.

2 A succession of specific objectives : bench mark must be done to measure progress.

3 Delegation of specific objective.

4 Freedom to act.

5 Verifiable results.

6 Clear communication.

7 Shared responsibilities.

8 Personal accountability.

9 Improving management ability.

The whole process encompasses several phases of operation³⁷ :

1  finding the objectives;

2 setting the objectives;

3 validating the objectives;

4 implementing the objectives; and

5 controlling and reporting the status of the objectives.

All these theories, principles and approaches to management are neither comprehensive nor an end in themselves. Library and information scientists are practising many of them and exploring potentialities of operation in the management and administration of libraries and information centres. A professionally qualified library manager or information scientist has the responsibility of preparing library budget and is supposed to know much of cost accounting, budgeting and finance, apart from his knowledge and studies in management and administration. He has thus greater facilities and acumen to run the management of a general enterprise, while a manager of a general enterprise is not expected to know technical and professional aspects of library and information science, viz. classification and cataloguing and hence cannot be expected of becoming a successful manager of a library or information centre.

23. Taylor, Frederick Wjnslow. “What is scientific management ?” In: Carroll, Stephen J., Frank T., and Miner, John B. The management process ; cases and readings. New York : Macmillan, 1973,  p-30.

24. lbid.,p-32

25. Taylor, Frederick Winslow.   Scientific management, New York: Herper & Row, 1947. p-31

26. Wilson. Louis Round, and Tauber, Maurice F.. op. cit., p. 117-22.

27. Hodgetis, Richard M. Management : theory, process, and practice. 2nd edn. Philadelphia : W. B. Saunders, c, 1979, p, 22-4

28. Weber, Max. The theory of social and economic organization, tr. by A. M. Henderson and Talcott Parsons. New York : Free Press, 1966. x,436p.

29′ Urwick. Lyndsll, “The function of administration : with special reference to the work of Henri Fayol”. In : Papers on the science of administration. Clifton. N,J. : Augustus M, Kelley, 1973 p. 115-30.

30, Gulick, Luther and Urwick, Lyndell, eds, Papers on the science of administration, op, cit, p, 13.

31. Stueart, Robert D. and Eastlick, John Taylor. Library management. Littleton, Colo. : Libraries Unlimited. 1977. p. 21.

32. Hodgetts, Richard M., op. cit.

33. Drucker, Peter F. The practice of management. New York : Harper & Brothers, 1954.

34. Carroll, Stephen J. and Tosi, Henry L. Managemant by objectives. New York: Macmillan, 1973. p.3.

35. Odiorne, George S. Management by objectives. New York : Pitman Publishing, 1965. p. 55-6.

36  Stueart, Robert D., and Eastlick, John Taylor. op. cit. p. 83.

37. Ibid

Source: Ashill & Jobber

Information aggregation refers to the degree of summarization performed on information. Information accuracy refers to the extent to which the output information is sufficiently correct to satisfy its intended use. Accurate information thus describes data, which are correct for their intended use. Personal information sources involve direct contact with other individuals (such as face to face conversations, telephone conversations and meetings); impersonal information sources describe those sources of information which are written in nature, such as computer generated reports and market research reports.

Marketing Programs for Libraries and Information Centers

Actually, marketing practices are not confined to profit-making organizations alone; but the principles and practices of marketing are increasingly being applied to non-profit organizations, like libraries and information centers. There are four key business concepts that provide the basis for marketing thought and action in the nonprofit environment which are considered (Shapiro, 1981):

1. The self-interest aspect of the transaction or exchange, in which both the buyer and the seller believe they are receiving greater value than they are giving up;
2. The marketing task, which stresses the importance of satisfying customer needs. However, the typical non-profit organization operates in a more complex manner than a profit-oriented organization. The non-profit organization has tow constituencies: a client to whom to provide goods or services, and donors from whom it receives resources. The non-profit dual constituency makes the marketing task more complex, since there are two different consumers to satisfy.
3. The marketing mix, the elements or tasks used in marketing, usually referred to as the four P’s identified by McCarthy (Webber, 1999), i.e. product, price, promotion and place. Shapiro re-categorizes the four Ps for the purposes of a non-profit organization as advertising and product policies.

Model 1: Marketing Mix as Applied to Library & Information Center

Source: Author’s Own Viewpoint

·        Product (service): Defining the characteristics (quality, design, reputation, credibility, authority) of your product or service to meet the needs of the customers (users).

·        Price: Deciding on a pricing strategy. If you decide not to charge for a given service, it is useful to realize that this is still a pricing strategy. Identifying the total cost of the user is a part of the price element.

·        Promotion: This includes advertising, personal selling (e.g. attending exhibitions), sales promotions (e.g. special offers), and atmospherics (creating the right impression through the working environment). Public Relation is included within promotion by many marketing people.

·        Place: Looking at the location (e.g. library), distribution channel (where a service is delivered), geographical coverage, telecommunications, travels, etc.

We can extend the number of P’s – the two, which are usually seen as useful additions for services (including information services) are:

·        People: The essential ingredient (staff/personnel) for providing effective information services among users. Good information services are not likely to be delivered by people who are unskilled or de motivated.

·        Process: The way in which the user gets hold of the service (e.g. the way in which a document or a search can be ordered). The library or information centre should get ready to provide information services for users in a convenient way (e.g. the help of information technology may be taken if need).

1. The idea of distinctive competence: an organization concentrates on what it does best because doing so maximizes profits. For non-profit organizations, this means evaluating their roles in terms of the consumers they serve, the product they offer, and their own distinctive competence – those things that they do better than anyone else. The marketing concept can therefore be seen as a philosophy of action for managers, forcing them to reorient the administration of the organization towards better communication with the customer/user, to understand their needs, to offer them a good product/service, and look for feedback. In libraries and information centers, not only the needs of the user are involved, but also his/her problem.

These four marketing concepts are closely related. Self-interest forces the consumer to search out the best way to fulfill his needs and the organization to search out the most efficient way to satisfy the consumer. Thus the marketing task is based on the idea of a transaction. The marketing mix merely enumerates the tools the marketer has for satisfying the consumer/user. And distinctive competence makes sense because any company/organization, with its limited competence and resources, can most profitably serve only those consumer needs that it can most efficiently serve.

Marketing Concept to Information Products and Services

Marketing in present day‘s context is acquiring, displaying, storing and selling the right type of information (goods) to the right type of users (costumers) at appropriate time (Chakrabarti, 1985). In other words, information available in libraries should be need based, and in a suitable medium capable of being retrieved to the user’s satisfaction. Thus marketing techniques-surveys, publicity, extension services, etc. play a vital role for identification of user-needs and in acquisition and dissemination of information. Every marketing effort must (a) acquire (products) resources for use, (b) make available in a suitable location saving the time of reader (place)- either by decentralization or mobile type of information vehicles, (c) publicize of its products to create demand and satisfy needs of majority of its users, by exhibiting its resources and providing a conducive atmosphere for use, (d) at no cost (price) or at minimal price, thereby, in the ultimate analysis, providing every book its reader and every reader his/her book (Taher, 1997).

The marketing of information services is perhaps best described as being in an immature stage of development as compared with most industrial goods. By categorizing library and information services as ‘industrial’, we mean to distinguish them from the general class of consumer products. In the information-using and information-producing environment, the marketing process starts with observations or hypotheses based on an evaluation of user needs and demands; from such studies, the information product supplier must arrive at decisions as to the types and specifications of products that fulfill the needs; decisions on concept, design, format, and probable costs; evaluation of the composition and size of the market; methods of promoting and pricing the service; choice of distribution channels; procedures for training of field sales force, intermediaries, and ultimate users of the service; and estimation of revenues and profits. It is evident that most such marketing activities must precede the actual production phase by months or even years. ‘Marketing’, therefore, is a comprehensive, generic term dedicated to all the processes and interactions resulting in both satisfaction of users’ needs and the information firm’s requirement for profitable, growing revenues over the long term. To introduce the concept of marketing in library and information centres, the information manager/librarian has to consider certain points, such as (Kumar & Lohia, 1998):

1. Library goals and objectives;
2. Target users (e.g., scientists, social scientists, specialists, etc.);
3. Users/customers preferences and their future needs;
4. Market potentiality i.e., to absorb a particular kind of product/service;
5. Skilled and trained manpower;
6. Product design, its currency, quality and standard, access system, presentation and delivery;
7. Pricing of services/products; and
8. Sales forecasting about the market environment.

In other words, marketing approach consists of identification of the target customers or users groups, determination of their need, designing of the services/products to the user needs at a fair price, choosing the right type of distribution channels after necessary promotional or advertising capacity, feedback and evaluation of products and services.

Benefits

Successful marketing includes the art of deciding that strategy/technique is used in different situation. As non-profit-making organizations, library and information centers cannot avoid marketing practices. Although libraries/information centers as non-profit organizations have three constituencies, e.g., clients to whom they provide services, the parent institution from whom they receive funds and donor agencies; but they should market their services for the following reasons:

1. Marketing enables librarian or information manager to understand the real needs of users for taking good management decisions, which will in turn help in providing maximum information services to users more efficiently and effectively.

1. Librarian or information manager is not only interested for the people who do use the services regularly. He is also interested in non-user groups. Marketing play a vital role to identify the information needs of non-users and helps to provide them with necessary information.

1. Librarians and information managers need to present their services as an indispensable part of the organization and try to justify the claim that their clients/users cannot do their job efficiently or effectively without a library service. In this way, marketing techniques will help libraries and information services receive more funding from their patrons.

1. Marketing may help to improve the image of the library and information profession through collection of revenue performing different services to users.

A well developed marketing library and information services program will bring the following benefits (Kumar & Lohia, 1998):

a. Improved satisfaction of the users/customers;

b. Extension of service to potential users and thereby enlargement of the customercircle;

c. Efficient use of marketing resources;

d. Improved resource attraction to the organization;

e. Development of overall image of the library;

f. Detailed knowledge of library services including details of cost-benefit relationship, price and other pertinent information.

Conclusion

Application of marketing techniques is very important in improving the capabilities of library’s information services towards attaining satisfaction of users. And the market philosophy also requires that library management focuses on the identification of users’ needs rather than library needs. Librarians and information managers seem to be reluctant to become fully involved in marketing their information products and services and when they attempt to market their information services they neglect or fail to understand the behavior of the user. The librarians should understand the nature of information, information needs of human beings, the transfer process between people and information. his understanding will ensure that they will market their information products and services as well as providing an effective library and information service.

References:

Mandal, B. R., Poddar, A. K. & Choudhury, J. C. (1998). Marketing of INSDOC Services: A Report. Libraries and Information Centres as Profit Making Institution, ed. by Seetharama, S. New Delhi: Ess Ess, P. 88.

Baker, Michael J. (1995). Marketing: Theory and Practice. 3rd ed. London: Macmillan.

Brech, E. F. L. (1954). Principles of Management, 2nd ed. London: Longman.

Kotler, P. (1988). Marketing Management: Analysis, Planning, Implementation and Control, 6th ed. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.

American Marketing Association (1969). Journal of Marketing, vol. 33, no. 1, pp. 10-15.

Halbert, M. (1965). The Meaning and Sources of Marketing Theory. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Kotler, P. & Andreasen, A. R. (1995). Strategic Marketing for Non-Profit Organization, ed. by Baker, M. J. Companion Encyclopedia of Marketing London: Routledge, p. 930.

Sherkow, S. (1985–86). Marketing Library and Information Service. Minnesota Libraries, Vol. 28, pp. 106-8.

Ashill, N. & Jobber, D. (2001). Defining the Information Needs of Senior Marketing Executives: an Exploratory Study. Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal. Vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 52-60.

Shapiro, B. P. (1981). Marketing for nonprofit organizations. In: The Marketing of Library and Information Services, ed. by Blaise Cronin, (Aslib Reader Series, vol. 4). London: Aslib, pp. 26-34.

Webber, Sheila. (1999). Marketing library and information services. Inform (Newsletter of the Institute of Information Scientists). Latest Update, November, p. 13.

Chakrabarti, B. (1985). Marketing and the Library: Odd couple or Meaningful Relationship. No. 21, ILA Bulletin, p. 59.

Taher, Mohamed. (1997). Marketing of Library and Information Services: A Case of ASRC.  In: Studies in Librarianship. New Delhi: Anmol Publications, p. 183.

Kumar, S. & Lohia, J. S. (1998). Marketing of Library/Information Products and services. Library Herald, vol. 36, no. 3, pp.178-184.

Published In The Dhaka University Studies, vol. 58, No. 2, December, 2001, pp.127-138 (Bangladesh)

Mark N. Frolick
Xavier University
mark@frolick.net

Abstract

Information technology is proving to be a vital element in the administration of healthcare. Specifically, most healthcare institutions in the United States are adopting information systems that provide more accurate and timely information regarding patient care. This paper explores the implementation of an electronic medical record system at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. St. Jude Hospital is primarily dedicated to the treatment of children with catastrophic illnesses and the performance of research studies to improve the clinical outcomes of such diseases. Appropriate patient care requires the use of clinical procedures as well as applied research protocols. Information must be accurate and immediately available to individuals involved in the care of patients. An electronic medical record system was introduced as a way to facilitate a centralized patient information repository. Benefits realized by this system included improvements in patient care, clinical research, and patient service and satisfaction. The ultimate goal of this project was to provide a paperless patient medical record that linked research and clinical data.

INTRODUCTION

Although technological advancements in science have greatly improved medical care in recent decades, improvements in the management of patient information have been languid. Many healthcare institutions continue to rely on paper-based medical records as the primary source of patient medical and demographic information. Medical care decisions are based on the information stored in these charts.

While most health care institutions employ information systems to manage some aspects of patient care, the systems are often disjointed. Many times each department in a hospital has its own information system. In such cases, communication between departments is reduced to printing the information from one system and sending that output to the other department. Ultimately, these paper records are transferred to the patient medical record. Delayed or inappropriate patient treatment is often due to miscommunication, lost or destroyed records, and the overall inefficiency of the paper system.

Substantial improvements in patient care can be realized through the use of electronic medical records. These electronic medical records provide the ability to capture, organize, and present relevant clinical information in a manner superior to the physical records currently in use. In addition, unlike the paper-based record, electronic medical records allow all caregivers to access the patient record at the same time.

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital (SJCRH) in Memphis, Tennessee is dedicated to the treatment of children with catastrophic illnesses. Defined protocols exist for the treatment of leukemia, solid tumors, specific genetic disorders, and some infectious diseases. The criteria for each protocol of treatment are carefully defined. Patients who meet the criteria of a protocol and are enrolled on that protocol are monitored closely for both clinical and research purposes. In order to accurately assess the effects of treatment protocols, patients must be followed from referral to the end of treatment. Many patients are followed for several years. Complete and accurate documentation of all clinical details and variances in treatment must be maintained. The ability to link protocol-defined treatments with the effects of those treatments on patients improves medical care for future patients.

While undergoing treatment at SJCRH, most patients receive treatment in the outpatient clinic. The fact that the majority of patients are ambulatory introduces another factor into patient care. In order to provide the best patient care, hospital visits must be well-managed so that patients receive all the care needed but are not required to spend excessive amounts of time at the hospital due to an inefficiency of institutional processes. Patient scheduling must be well coordinated. Orders for treatment, medications, and diagnostic testing must be legible, complete, and accessible. In addition, test results must be reported accurately in order to provide the best and most efficient patient care.

This case study examines the implementation of an electronic medical records system at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. It addresses the problems that existed with the paper-based medical record and explores the advantages of electronic medical records. In addition, this paper explains the issues that SJCRH explored before choosing the Cerner HNA Millenium system. As a result of this implementation effort, all active patients at the hospital have a paperless medical record that provides both demographic and medical information. This electronic medical record provides a single point of access for all employees seeking information both for clinical treatment of patients and for research data collection.

PROBLEMS WITH PAPER MEDICAL RECORDS

Providing excellent medical care for a patient requires an accurate and organized record of the patient’s medical history. While SJCRH had previously implemented a computerized information system to manage a limited amount of patient information such as demographics, clinical laboratory results, diagnostic imaging results, and pharmacy records, the records in this system still lacked a vast amount of information. All manually generated paperwork and printouts generated by individual department’s information systems were ultimately stored in the paper medical record. Thus, the paper medical record represented the only complete source of a patient’s medical history.

The Medical Record as a Source of Information

The typical paper medical record contained nine sections including information on admissions, discharge summaries, progress notes, protocols, laboratory results, radiology results, surgical and pathology reports, orders for treatment, and nursing notes (I.T.S. steering committee, 1999). Most documentation regarding treatment of a patient was written directly in the patient’s medical chart. However, some additional paperwork items such as consent forms and transfusion records were also stored in the chart.

Appointment scheduling, treatment plans, and record keeping were performed manually in departments such as physical therapy, respiratory therapy, social services, and psychology. Patient care activities in these departments produced another set of paperwork that had to be stored in the patients record.

Patient medical records were stored in the Health Information Management Services (HIMS) department and were retrieved for use when a patient was admitted for inpatient care or returned to the outpatient clinic for treatment.

Computerized Information

While all patient information was stored in the paper record, SJCRH had previously installed a computer information system in order to automate some of the record-keeping processes required for patient care. This original information system at SJCRH consisted of two separate systems. One system was used to manage patient scheduling and registration. Information collected in this system was transferred to a second system that provided record-keeping and test-resulting capabilities for the clinical laboratory, pharmacy, and diagnostic imaging departments (Rogers, October, 1999). While this record-keeping system was used to order, enter, and review clinical test results, printouts of all test results were ultimately placed in the paper medical record.

Accessibility of the Medical Record

On any given day, physicians, nurses, medical residents, health information management personnel, data managers, and hospital unit coordinators needed to access the information in the medical record. Typically, charts were pulled from HIMS the day before a patient’s scheduled return, transported to the outpatient clinic where the patient would be seen, and then returned to HIMS at the end of the day to be filed again (Milli-our system, 1999). In addition, data managers, who collected information for clinical protocol review and research studies, retrieved the medical charts from HIMS and manually extracted data several times during a patient’s enrollment on a protocol (Milli-our system, 1999).

It was necessary for the medical record to follow the patient throughout their visit. Thus, if the patient was seen in one clinic where orders were written, it was necessary to physically transport the record when the patient moved to the medicine room for treatment. Inpatient charts were kept at the appropriate nursing station until the patient was discharged.

While the record-keeping system was available to review test results, the information available in this system was limited. Information such as physicians’ notes, transfusion records, and dietary notes could not be accessed through the computer system. Thus, it was necessary, under most circumstances, to have access to the patient’s medical chart in addition to the computerized records.

The Medical Record as a Form of Communication

The information added to a patient’s medical record was regularly reviewed to determine adherence to protocol standards and to monitor a patient’s progress. In addition, attending physicians used the charts to review the previous attending physician’s notes in order to provide the best care for their patients. For example, notes that detailed an adverse reaction to a specific medication could be used to prevent that medication from being prescribed in the future. Nurses beginning their shifts reviewed their patients’ charts to determine how the patients had progressed through the day as well as to follow up on any orders that had not been filled. Dietary personnel and psychology staff used the chart to determine if particular medications had been prescribed that would alter a patient’s eating habits or behavior patterns. Needless to say, caregivers relied on the information in the record to be accurate and complete.

In addition, departments such as the blood bank and pharmacy were obligated to have a physician’s signature attached to any order they filled. Thus, a copy of the original order for medication or transfusion was faxed to the appropriate department. Unfortunately, faxes were not always legible nor were they always sent to the correct department. Patients’ wait times were unnecessarily lengthened because orders were illegible or sent to the wrong department and had to be faxed again when the mistake was discovered.

Disadvantages of the Paper Medical Record

While the tasks of retrieving patient records, extracting and adding information, and returning these records to their appropriate place of storage each day was burdensome, managing the information in the records was even more tedious. Patients who had been followed for years often had medical records consisting of several large volumes. Any of these volumes might have contained the information necessary to properly care for the patient. As a result, all of the volumes had to be accessible to caregivers.

Since the medical record consisted of many individual pages from many different sources, pages could easily be misfiled or even misplaced entirely. In some cases, if information could not be located in the record, tests and procedures were simply repeated. For example, patients or their guardians were required to sign medical consent forms that were then placed in the medical record. If a signed consent form could not be found, a new form was completed and added to the chart. Of course, such actions led to redundant information being filed in the patient record. Most institutions find that such extensive documentation is often incomplete, inaccurate, illegible, and difficult to access when needed (Protti, et al., 1998). The risk of improper patient care or misinterpretation of research protocols increases when data is illegible or inaccurate.

SOLVING THE PAPER CHART PROBLEM: ELECTRONIC MEDICAL RECORDS

While the first attempt at computerizing medical records helped with records management, it was little more than a storage mechanism for a very limited amount of patient information. As a result, SJCRH undertook the development of an electronic medical records system.

The introduction of electronic medical records at SJCRH afforded the possibility for records to be created, processed, stored, retrieved, and cross-referenced more efficiently. The electronic records of SJCRH patients include all of the information stored in the paper-based medical record. It allows caregivers with appropriate security clearance to access patient’s electronic medical records from any personal computer in the hospital. This feature eliminates having to locate the patient chart in order to obtain information necessary for treatment.

In addition, information can be easily sorted or grouped according to certain criteria such as the date on which the test was performed. The electronic medical record also allows the user to graph a set of results over time. For example, a patient’s blood glucose level can be graphed over a time period of ten days, thus allowing the caregiver to notice trends that might be important for proper patient care.

Not only does the electronic medical record system provide a central location for storing patient information, it provides several powerful functions that allow for better patient care. These functions were facilitated by the various components of the electronic medical records system.

The Components of the Electronic Record: OCF, PowerChart, and Discern Expert

The electronic medical record system at SJCRH has several components. The Open Clinical Foundation (OCF) is the repository at the center of the new electronic medical record. The OCF is an Oracle database that stores clinical and administrative information. This new database functions as a data warehouse and has the ability to group information based on any one particular patient parameter. For example, patient clinical outcomes with regard to a particular protocol can easily be grouped and presented by the electronic medical records system, thus eliminating the need for data managers to collect the information manually (Rogers, October, 1999).

PowerChart is the graphical user interface that caregivers access at the clinical workstation. It is composed of two parts: the Organizer and the Chart. The Organizer allows the user to quickly check for new patient test results immediately after logging onto the system. In addition, it allows the user to indicate which test results they have reviewed.

The Chart is the electronic form of the patient medical record. It is through this interface that the user can review clinical lab results, nurses’ notes, physicians’ notes, and patient demographics. Features that are available in the Chart such as the problem list, visit list, and growth chart also allow caregivers to track a patient’s medical progress. This electronic medical record makes gathering patient information more efficient because it automatically groups similar data together.

PowerChart will act as the foundation for more advanced patient care applications to be installed in the future (Milli project scope document, 1998).

Discern Expert is a program that evaluates best clinical practice criteria and monitors events in the system for compliance. It is part of a decision support system that assists healthcare providers at the point of care by linking historical patient data with current clinical data and assessing that data based on built-in clinical rules. Historically, work in clinical decision support systems has been concentrated on designing alerts and reminders for physicians, however more recent systems are focused on overall compliance with patient care plans (Broverman, 1999). A “starter set” of rules was developed in Discern Expert for the lab, radiology, pharmacy, PowerChart, admitting/registration, and the Chart modules (Milli project scope document, 1998). Managing patient care through the use of decision support systems ultimately means that a patient’s quality of care improves.

Benefits of the Electronic Medical Record

The benefits of the electronic medical record system at SJCRH includes information that is more accessible and improved communications.

Information that is more accessible. All clinical laboratory and patient demographic information is a part of the electronic medical record and can be viewed at any computer terminal in the hospital as long as the employee has security clearance. Data retrieval is more accurate and efficient due to automated clinical documentation and protocol information being electronically linked to clinical data reports (Milli project scope document, 1998).

Information systems that collect and deliver information efficiently are only the forerunners to more sophisticated systems. Ultimately, electronic medical records systems will not only deliver the correct information, they will actively assist in the treatment of patients through the use of that information. The electronic medical records system will act as an assistant to the healthcare provider in addition to its role as a storage device for patient information. The ultimate success of these systems, however, ultimately depend on healthcare providers’ willingness to “change the way they have traditionally recorded, retrieved, and utilized clinical data” (Anderson, 1999, p. 62).

Improved communication. Communication between departments in a healthcare organization can also be improved when all healthcare providers have access to the same information. For example, an electronic medical record that provides ready access to patient scheduling, test ordering confirmation, and completed test results allows healthcare providers in every department to clarify orders and assess patients more efficiently (Barsukiewicz, 1998). Essentially, the quality of patient care depends on the collection of detailed clinical information and the timely delivery of that information to the appropriate healthcare provider (Chan, et al., 1999).

Clinical decision support systems can improve patient care, reduce costs, support clinical diagnosis and treatment-plan processes, manage patients on research and chemotherapy protocols, monitor the need for follow-up care, and manage administrative details (Perreault, et al., 1999). Essentially, SJCRH’s new electronic medical record provides a link between clinical treatment and adherence to research protocols.

The benefits realized by the implementation of an electronic medical record include “increased efficiency in managing clinical information and improved quality of care and cost savings through decision support and management of patient care” (Anderson, 1999, p. 62). In addition, orders placed through the use of an information system are legible, free of transcription errors and can be directly routed to all departments that need access to the order (Teich, 1999). Improvements in the manner used to capture and store patient information and then relate the information to clinical treatment and research protocols has lead to much better patient care.

ISSUES TO CONSIDER WHEN IMPLEMENTING AN ELECTRONIC MEDICAL RECORD

While SJCRH had previously installed an information system to manage some aspects of patient care, it was not a substitute for the paper medical record. Most businesses have determined that information systems can greatly reduce errors, increase customer satisfaction, and provide better employee time management. Likewise, healthcare providers have discovered that information systems can improve patient satisfaction as well as employee performance. In an effort to improve patient care and satisfaction, SJCRH implemented their electronic medical records system. While implementing this system, SJCRH discovered several important issues that should be considered prior to implementing an electronic medical records system.

Determine Objectives

In an effort to support institutional objectives, Information Technology Services at SJCRH identified the implementation of an advanced clinical information system as one of its goals. The mission of the electronic medical records software implementation was “to provide immediate access to clinical information, to enhance patient care and accelerate clinical research” (Milli project scope document, 1998, p. 1). The implementation of the new system resulted in improvements in the following areas:
patient care, patient service and satisfaction, clinical research, and access to both clinical and research data (Milli project scope document, 1998).

Determine Who Should Evaluate the System

A system selection committee was formed that consisted of a representative from each hospital department including physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and clinical lab personnel (Rogers, December, 1999). In addition, process-improvement teams were formed that consisted of a process improvement consultants, a SJCRH application analyst, an application analyst, and a SJCRH departmental subject matter expert (Milli project scope document, 1998). Process improvement teams were responsible for documenting and analyzing the former processes and recommending the goals to be achieved by the new system. Leadership teams comprised of SJCRH senior management representatives were assigned to each of the process improvement teams (Milli project scope document, 1998).

Once these process and leadership teams made their recommendations, a Steering Committee that was comprised of senior management representatives reviewed the recommendations of the process improvement teams. The proposal was then presented to the SJCRH board of directors for approval (Rogers, December, 1999).

Determine Which Software To Implement

Several clinical software packages were reviewed. Three packages appeared to meet the desired criteria. Final vendor selection was based on the clinical functionality of the software, the stability and market position of the vendor company, the product strategy, the implementation and follow-up support provided by the vendor, and the cost and business terms of the agreement (Rogers, December, 1999). Since the Cerner platform was already in place at SJCRH, the system selection committee felt that conversion to a newer Cerner system would be easier than introducing an unfamiliar system. In the end, the Cerner HNA Millennium (Milli) package was chosen.

An Oracle database that housed research data was already in place at the hospital. The Cerner system also provided an integrated system in which all information would be stored in a single database (Oracle) thus eliminating redundancy (Rogers, December, 1999). In addition, data from the research database could be easily transferred to the new system.

Determine Risks and Advantages of the New System

Risks involved with choosing this particular software package, however, included the fact that very few clinical products had been written to this particular platform. In an effort to influence the final product design, SJCRH entered into a developmental partnership with Cerner. This agreement ensured that the specific criteria defined by SJCRH would be incorporated into any new software that Cerner developed (Rogers, December, 1999).

CONCLUSION

Electronic medical records provide healthcare workers with an extensive option for improving patient care. Not only can electronic records not be misplaced as paper records can, but the information in the record is more accurate as well as legible. St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital has implemented a paperless medical record in order to improve care for both current patients and future patients. Successfully linking clinical treatment plans with research protocol information provides valuable information when assessing the effectiveness of particular treatment plans. Research efforts can move forward more rapidly when data is collected in an efficient manner as is provided by the electronic record. In addition, human error is less of a factor than it was when data was collected manually from paper charts.

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital’s goal was to implement a system that not only met the organization’s current needs, but would also provide support for a growing number of protocols and clinical treatment plans. Not only does the new electronic medical records system maintain and organize all the information necessary to support clinical and research efforts, but it also guides healthcare providers in their daily treatment of patients. All in all the new system is at the center of providing the best possible patient care and advancing treatment for future patients.

References

Anderson, J. D. (1999). Increasing the Acceptance of Clinical Information Systems. MD Computing, 16 (1), 62-65.

Barsukiewicz, C. K. (1998). Managing care Through Managing Information:
Are We Headed in the Right Direction. Journal of Healthcare Information Management,
12 (4), 67-77.

Broverman, C. A. (1999). Standards for Clinical Decision Support Systems. Journal of Healthcare Information Management. 13 (2), 23-31.

Chan, W., Centiu, C., & Morris, J. A. (1999). Uniform Data Standards for Capturing Patient Medical Record Information at the Point of Care. Journal of Healthcare Information Management, 13 (3), 85-95.

I.T.S. Steering Committee Strategic Planning [Slide Presentation]. (1999, June). (Available from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, 332 N. Lauderdale, Memphis, TN 38105).

Milli — Our System for Advanced Patient Care and Research [Slide Presentation]. (1999). (Available from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, 332 N. Lauderdale, Memphis, TN 38105).

Perreault, L. E. & Metzger, J. B. (1999). A Pragmatic Framework for Understanding Clinical Decision Support. Journal of Healthcare Information Management. 13 (2), 5-21.

Protti, D., & Peel, V. (1998). Critical success Factors for Evolving a Hospital toward an electronic Patient Record System: A Case Study of Two Different Sites. Journal of Healthcare Information Management, 12 (4), 29-38.

Rogers, J. (Director of Patient Care Systems). (1999, October). [Interview]. St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, 332 N. Lauderdale, Memphis, TN 38105.

Rogers, J. (Director of Patient Care Systems). (1999, December). [Interview]. St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, 332 N. Lauderdale, Memphis, TN 38105.

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. (1998, January). Milli Project Scope Document (Document No. unknown). Memphis: No Author.

Teich, J. M. (1999). Inpatient Order Management. Journal of Healthcare Information Management, 13 (2), 97-110.

]]> http://infosciencetoday.org/type/articles/using-electronic-medical-records-to-improve-patient-care-the-st-jude-childrens-research-hospital-case.html/feed 0 http://infosciencetoday.org/featured/moving-from-a-mainframe-to-a-web-based-design.html http://infosciencetoday.org/featured/moving-from-a-mainframe-to-a-web-based-design.html#comments Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:32:05 +0000 admin http://infosciencetoday.org/?p=439 ABSTRACT

Conversion from mainframe to web-based design provides straightforward access to information and allows new applications to be developed at a faster rate.  User adaptation to a web-based design is an integral part of the conversion process and key to its success.  This paper explores many of the issues involved and provides the tools for strategic planning that produce a mainframe to web based design conversion process.  

The main issues concerning conversion are: end-user behavior modification, developer process modification, security risks, and outsourcing.  This paper reviews how the database, as well as the network, can be secured through encryption, controlling user access, identifying users, and authenticating users.  Business process implications are reviewed including outsourcing and testing procedures. New development tools and implementation of standards are explored as ways to ease the conversion process allowing future applications to be developed faster.  This paper also shows how user involvement in the process not only increases user productivity, but also modifies the application design. 

INTRODUCTION

In today’s diverse technological society, maintaining legacy applications on a mainframe system is becoming increasingly difficult to justify.  Companies are becoming increasingly diverse and are relying heavily on information that is available anytime, anywhere.  This often requires that applications be web-based and relational database driven.  Migrating to a web-based system often dictates migrating legacy systems, to insure compatibility.  Mainframes, which were once the standard, are becoming too expensive, increasingly difficult to maintain, and do not perform enough tasks for the growing web-enabled world.  Web technology can breathe new life into older systems, improving information quality and associated processes, lowering costs associated with getting information, and at the same time exposing the process to a wider audience (Wiseth, 1998a) .  Converting from a mainframe to web-based system allows companies to continue moving forward in the world of technology while facilitating straightforward access to information.

Between the promise and the reality of the Internet lie two sweet spots for corporate developers.  The first one is the ability to use the Internet as a wide-area network (WAN).  The second is the ability to use the Internet, specifically, the World Wide Web, as a new interface to existing corporate applications (Scheier, 1996) .  To cut management costs and enhance relationships with their business partners, some users are nudging customer management functions to the web.  Web-based customer information systems offer definite advantages over mainframe systems, including easier user training, less expensive support, faster upgrades, and better information sharing (Girard, 1998) .  Web-based systems are no longer the wave of the future, they are the present requirement for continued successfulness. 

While the benefits are numerous, if not planned and implemented properly, the conversion can be a nightmare.  Organizations face many problems when migrating from a mainframe to web-based design.  This paper discusses these problems, lays out a process for converting from a mainframe to web-based design based on these problems, and demonstrates the need for this conversion.

 PROBLEMS ORGANIZATIONS FACE CONVERTING FROM A MAINFRAME TO WEB-BASED DESIGN  

Migrating to the web entails many changes.  Unfortunately, users often resist change.  Mainframe applications generally use keyboard navigation.  Though inflexible, keyboard navigation is straightforward and memorizable.  It is easy for a user to go through the motions and stop thinking about process.  Mouse navigation of a graphical user interface provides so many possibilities. Despite the fact that many users want a graphical user interface, they can become intimidated by the interface and overwhelmed by the options.  Applications are a failure if the end user cannot determine how they work, regardless of their stability.  As a result, developers should take care to ensure ease of use for this new interface.

End-users are having greater demands placed on them for a better understanding of applications.  Although they should, many users do not have much input into the design and development of applications.  Consequently, applications may require several redesigns.  These redesigns are inefficient and can create frustration for both the user and developer, thus, increasing the risk for application failure.  To overcome this pitfall, standards are a must for application development.  These development standards require coordination between the end-user and developer to ensure that all of the users needs are met. 

Developer’s skill sets must also be addressed. Much like users, some developers are also resistant to change. This new skill set is essential to ensure successful conversion from the mainframe to web-based design. This resistance is more common in veteran IT professionals. That having been said, the desire to learn new technology is often seen as a positive experience among most IT professionals (Wetherbe, et al, 1996).

Many companies have recently moved or are in the process of moving to the Internet and harbor fears about an insecure network or database (McKendrick, 2000) .  Security must be considered when migrating to a web-based design.  It is important to understand that security risks can originate from both inside and outside the organization.  “Security quickly becomes critical when a company does anything more ambitious than posting a home page with electronic versions of its press releases” (Scheier, 1996) .  In addition to preventing attacks, recovering from attacks in a timely manner is also a security issue.  Security risks are increasing everyday and should be taken seriously.       

Converting mainframe legacy systems to a web-based design is time consuming and expensive.  Although outsourcing can increase short-term cost, many companies don’t have the staff or time to do the conversion in-house.  If only certain aspects of applications are outsourced, consideration must be given so that all facets of the application are compatible when the conversion process is completed. In addition, organizations that perform conversion outsourcing may not understand the complete functionality of applications.  As a result, testing applications can pose a serious risk.  To ensure a seamless conversion, a mapped process can minimize migration problems for a seamless conversion.

 THE PROCESS OF CONVERTING FROM MAINFRAMES TO WEB-ENABLED SYSTEMS

This paper lays out a tactical plan for converting from a mainframe to web-based design based on the important issues that an organization faces.  These issues include:  end-user adaptation, developer adaptation behavior, security risks, and outsourcing issues.  With proper planning, mainframe to web-based design conversion can allow organizations to insure data integrity and take advantage of current technology.

 End-User Adaptation

End user adaptation is influenced by many factors including the use of graphical user interfaces, training and the availability and use of query tools.

Converting to a useful graphical user interface (GUI) is important for the success of a web-based design.  The World Wide Web has proven to be a great training ground as it has provided a graphical user interface to which many people have become accustomed.  Standards development is a good way to ease the process of learning to use a graphical user interface.  The success of an application is based not only on its technical design but also on how useful it is.  Standards should be established based upon a combination of user requests and the development team’s input.  The user must be satisfied with the look and feel of the application.  After all, if the user doesn’t know how to use the application, it is ineffectual. 

End-user adaptation also requires training.  There are various approaches to training including, traditional classroom training and web or computer-based training.  The type of training used depends on the situation and the user.  Computer-based training is more cost effective and less time consuming as it eliminates travel time and expenses typically related to classroom training (McGee, 1998) .  On the other hand, traditional classroom training provides a unique one on one interaction, but typically involves more costs.  All methods of training offer different advantages and disadvantages.  Each situation should be evaluated to determine the best solution, rather than putting just one medium out there” (McGee, 1998) .  Reducing the risk of implementation failure through training strengthens the relationship with the customer, while at the same time it opens additional service opportunities for integrators (Torode, 1998) .  Training is an integral part of the migration process.  Therefore, every business should carefully evaluate their needs to determine which type of training is best.

Moving to a web-based design encourages user input and query as a whole.  Users can be trained to use query tools so they are able to design their own reports. However, caution must be taken so that the user does not have full access to production databases. With new query tools, such as BI/Query and Crystal Reports, more users are able to develop their own reports.  If the users know how to use query tools, they will be better able to assist in the design of new applications, as they will have a better understanding of how applications are put together.  This increases the users knowledge of applications development.  User input in the design process increases productivity, allowing the user to have direct input not only in the initial design but throughout the development of applications.  This user input decreases the need for several redesigns, thus decreasing the time to develop new applications. 

 Developer Adaptation Behavior

The developer must be trained in the use of new software to maintain the converted applications as well as developing new applications.  To keep pace in today’s faster growing and moving world of technology, experts suggest that IT leaders should look to raise training’s profile from that of a necessary evil to the cornerstone of application development, deployment, and maintenance efforts (Levin, 1998) .  Training developers helps to eliminate confusion with new development tools while at the same time increasing developer productivity.

The development of standards is another important task that influences developer behavior.  Standards help speed up the development process for new applications.  One popular standard that helps with developer productivity is the use of design templates.  For example, each time a new application is developed, the designer could use the template (ex, see Figure 1:  A Design Template).  There are a number of things that should be standardized including:  the color of the screen, color of the font, size of the screen, size of the font, size of the fields, the use of images, the size of images, and the basic graphics to be used, if any.  Establishing template standards not only decreases the time it takes to develop new applications, but also insures consistency across all applications.  The results are applications that are more user friendly.  

Figure1:  A Design Template

Designing applications using a template helps to ensure that applications maintain the same look and feel. The result is an application that is easier to use and more intuitive to the user.

 Another area that influences the success of adopting a web-based design is training developers in the testing methods employed with the new technology. Constantly dealing with problems in testing can cause frustration and resistance on the part of the developer.  Learning not only how to develop systems using new technology, but how to properly test these applications, will help ensure the implementation of systems that better meet users needs. The result is increased user satisfaction.

 Security Risks           

Converting legacy applications to web-enabled applications also has security risks. There are many different tools that can be used to increase security for an organization.  One of the most common ways to handle security is through user authentication.  Many applications that have confidential data prompt for a username and password.  Many database administrators suggest changing passwords at frequent intervals as well as removing default user groups. 

 Encryption is also a common means of security.  Most databases, as well as web browsers, have some form of encryption.  Though, one should take care that there is also encryption on the network link as well as other software used to access applications.

Maintaining up-to-date software is another security measure that many organizations take.  The longer software is available and the more widespread its use is, the more likely the software is to have security issues.  As the vendor becomes aware of these security issues, they begin to create patches or upgrades for the software to fix the problems.  Applying the patches or upgrades can help to prevent attacks through these holes in security.

Firewalls are a common primary defense against external attacks.  Firewalls prevent unauthorized access to a network by authenticating the source and destination of Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, as well as port sources and destinations.  Network Address Translation (NAT) is another way a firewall may be used to address security.  NAT addressing only allows internal users direct access to IP addresses.  The IP addresses are, “phantom” IP addresses, meaning the IP address an external user sees doesn’t actually exist.  This will limit the direct access outside users have, thus increasing security.

Hackers do not always cause security risks. They may be caused by the users.  For instance, the user may accidentally download viruses or corrupted files.  There are many software packages that check for viruses and corrupted files, such as McAfee VirusScan or Norton Antivirus.  However, the user does not always have to download files to put his/her computers at risk.  The user’s browser might have inappropriate default settings.  Failing to turn off Java, for instance, will subject the system to network activities that users probably don’t need or want (Chamberlin, 1999) .  Heightened security often leads to limited access and services, but limiting access and eliminating unneeded services can increase security.  Reducing services reduces log entry thus making the detection of unexpected or unwanted behavior easier.  Therefore, it is imperative to keep a close eye on users and their behavior.

In addition, there should also never be anything of great value, such as passwords or credit card numbers, stored on the web server.  It is a good idea to have applications and data stored on different servers, eliminating the assurance that just because someone has access to one server, means they have access to another.  Physical access should also be limited to the proper individuals.  With the proper design, a web server can be like a house with a well-designed security system. 

It is not only important to take measures to prevent attacks, but to also be able to recover from an attack.  A back up of each server should be made everyday.  There should also be a manual recovery procedure in place to help ensure faster recovery.  If you manage your web server appropriately, you can be confident that any attack on your server will send alerts to the network manager so that the effort can be stopped in its tracks” (Rash, 1999) .  It is almost impossible to be totally secure from hackers, but if the server is backed up and the security is designed thoughtfully, one can be confident that a recovery from an attack could be done quickly. 

Sure it is possible to break into a house with the best security system money can buy, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have one.  It is much easier to break into the house that does not have a security system at all.  In the case of criminals who want to break into a web server, it pays to make it hard enough that they will go elsewhere (Rash, 1999) .  Security issues are becoming increasingly important, and one should take precautions to prevent attacks.

 Outsourcing   

If certain aspects of the migration are not core to your business, you will probably benefit from outsourcing some, if not all of the work (Wiseth, 1998b) .  Converting legacy applications can be a resource intensive task.  Many firms focus on the conversion of legacy applications and can convert them faster and cheaper than converting the applications in-house.   Some companies may choose to outsource only part of the migration process, such as forms conversion, and convert the programs, such as SQL, C, or COBOL, in-house.  Outsourcing can give companies the benefit of the conversion process with comparable cost implications and a reduction in resource consumption, while allowing development of new applications to continue.

Choosing what and when to outsource is a critical task for a successful business.  Although outsourcing is a good way to get the job done faster, no one knows the applications better than the designer and user.  Therefore, to insure quality assurance, it is critical for testing to be in-house.  Testing should occur on a development database.  After testing the converted applications should be moved to a production database.  This allows testing of all applications, while users continue with day-to-day activities.  

 CONCLUSION

Web-based design allows employees and customer’s straightforward access to information needed to perform tasks.  To continue to be successful, it is almost mandatory to move to a web-based design.  Converting legacy applications to a web-based design allows programmers to move towards the new technology needed to develop new applications.  This eliminates support for two different types of systems, eventually reducing costs.  Therefore, a conversion makes good business sense. 

The question information systems professionals should be asking today is not whether client/server computing has a future but whether a browser-based application can handle their business needs.  If uncertainty still exists about whether the World Wide Web is the wave of the future and critical to the success of a business, consider that it took only five years for the web to get fifty million users, whereas it took almost forty years for the radio to get the same number of listeners (Niemiec, 1998) .  Moving to web-enabled applications will prepare a company for the next turn of the wheel by allowing users straightforward access to information with a secure database and network, by saving long-term costs, and allowing the developers and end-users the ability to take advantage of current technology.  The key is using the proper conversion process.

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