FACTORS AFFECTING DISSEMINATION OF CHEMICAL IKFORMATIOS ploitation of knowledge niust be considered a higher goal than mere information-handling. as important as efficient handling may be in the communication processes of society. Information analysis center development is one practical answer for our community. Re-structuring of our technical libraries into new viable service centers is another.
Well, ladies and gentlemen, for the last half hour I have been competing with your digestive and other life support systems for your attention. You have been most kind in listening to me. I will return t h e kindness by concluding my remarks with t h e hope t h a t chemists will continue t o be in the vanguard of information progress.
Factors Affecting Dissemination of Chemical Information* DAVID E GUSHEE
American Chemical Society Washington, D.C. 20036 Received September 24. 1 9 7 1 This paper demonstrates that the value of information and, hence, the design of information systems, whether for a company, a university, a learned society, or an individual, is in the early stages of a significant change in structure. W e are struggling with a heritage of source orientation in an era of increasing orientation towards problem solving. The signs of response to changing circumstances are increasing, but are still limited in number and varied in nature.
Two major driving forces are changing t h e structure of chemical information systems. One of these is sheer volume; t h e other is economics. T h e impact of increases in rate of generation of scientific information has been well recognized for a t least two decades. But t h e role played by economics is changing in t h a t economics is becoming a more stringent constraint. Currently common assumptions about t h e value of information will t h u s be challenged and, t o a significant measure, overthrown in t h e next ten years. As things s t a n d today, most institutions can be counted on t o buy most books a n d journals published in their fields of endeavor. These institutions take pride in their library holdings a n d tend t o measure their effectiveness, at least in part, by t h e ratio of information requests filled from stock, so t o speak, t o those handled by going outside their own resources through interlibrary loans, special purchases, a n d other relationships. There has been little attention paid t o operations research on such matters as frequency of use, cost per use, dead time, a n d other variables common in inventory and distribution a n d their control. One must, of course, distinguish between academia and industry in such statements, because t h e one has essentially all of knowledge as its field and scholarship as its output, while t h e other has clearly defined areas of knowledge t o work in a n d new products and processes for growth a n d profit as its output. Industry t h u s has always had a greater basic ability t o quantify t h e evaluation of its information resources compared with academia. Nonetheless, industry's growth a n d profitability have been high until recently and t h u s have not led t o sufficient pressure t o cause penetrating analyses a n d painful decisions t o become general. T h e literature in this field is scattered a n d d a t a are hard t o get. T h e nature of things t o come is emerging gradually, a n d studies of cost effectiveness a n d t h e like are beginning t o appear more frequently.l
