Information Policy in the Electronic Age

Citation

Morgan, S. (1999), "Information Policy in the Electronic Age", Library Review, Vol. 48 No. 2, pp. 95-111. https://doi.org/10.1108/lr.1999.48.2.95.19

A series of nine Information Policy Briefings organised by the British Library Research and Development Department took place in 1995‐96 to raise awareness of information policy issues. This volume contains all nine papers. Since some of the presentations were given some time ago, the earliest have either been updated or have a postscript added to highlight any major developments in the area The editor’s introduction provides a useful update of information policy documents since the papers were given. The nine papers can then be split into three groups. The first group of two (by Carbo and Oppenheim respectively) look closely at policy development and planning for the information society. Another group consists of three papers, each covering the major changes their sector is undergoing due to increased access to IT – special (Cropley), public (Batt) and higher education (Law). The remaining four papers show in their different ways that the increased reliance on electronic information is also creating problems at the technical and regulatory level. The issues covered include copyright (Cornish), database quality (Mahon), communications networks (White) and electronic publishing (Rowland).

Oppenheim’s paper considers the role of national governments in making (or, perhaps more accurately, not making) information policies. The overlap between UK government departments is so great that any striving for coherence is fraught with difficulties. Nevertheless, on the plus side there are reasons for great optimism with a public library service that is the envy of the world and such ventures as the eLib projects (which are described in more detail in Law’s paper) and SuperJANET in higher education. The National Information Infrastructure (NII) was proposed by Vice‐President Al Gore. Carbo, in the second paper, looks at each component of such an all‐embracing policy – people, information content, hardware, software, standards, laws and regulations. The NII builds upon many of the existing services and mechanisms including the Internet, satellite systems and cable networks. Chris Batt describes the future of public libraries in the UK and focuses on three areas – why people use public libraries today, why we are facing change within the universe previously inhabited mainly by the public library and why he believes that the public library will have an even more important role to play in the future. Many issues are addressed in this paper provoking much thought, with the author indulging in some informed speculation – what will the public library of 2017 look like? Noises coming from New Labour suggest that public library services are to be less starved of funds in the future than has been the case in the past. We can but hope.

“Commercial drivers for information policy” (Cropley) outlines the increasing contribution of information technology to business success. She emphasises the importance of having competitive advantage as well as the ability to work at maximum efficiency. The needs of the customer are paramount and any information policies must reflect that. The thrust of Law’s paper on higher education is the enormous progress that has been made in spite of the financial constraints under which the sector has been operating in recent years. Issues addressed include convergence of library, computing and other central services, computer assisted learning, the challenge to academics (as well as librarians) in coming to terms with the digital library, the funding of paper‐based materials in parallel with electronic products and the proliferation of co‐operative ventures. For Cornish the electronic environment poses all kinds of exciting challenges such as authors’ rights, owners’ rights, intermediaries’ needs and users’ needs. The solution lies in a combination of technology, law, contract and a continuing dialogue between the authors, owners, intermediaries and end‐users. The quality of information, and in particular that of databases, is examined by Mahon. He discusses the problems of the relative nature of quality – it means different things to different people – and the importance of standardisation.

Electronic publishing and its policy implications are at the centre of Rowland’s paper. One among many of his concerns revolves around the potential blurring of formal and informal communication particularly in respect of scholarly publishing. Distinguishing between scholarly journal and popular magazine is not difficult in print format but can be problematic in electronic media. The issues of preservation of, and pricing structures for electronic publications are also explored in some depth. White is interested in how increasing access to information will affect society and what will be the impacts. He also emphasises the huge problem of teaming people to manage information and its overload.

Taken together, these contributions raise a whole host of issues about the information society, about how we are currently coping with it and what is likely to be in store for us in future. The amount of collective expertise on these issues is substantial and that is reflected in the overall quality of the content. It is an important collection.