USE OF PACKAGE PROGRAMS FOR INFORMATION PROCESSING

The main aspects of Information Processing are collection, file creation (including indexing), analysis, retrieval, presentation and dissemination. The term ‘Information retrieval’ is too frequently used in lieu of ‘information processing’’ and I believe that one of the major dangers in designing an information processing system is that by calling it an information retrieval system the design can be implicitly motivated to concentrate on the narrower aspects of retrieval at the expense of the broad issues of what information needs to be collected and filed and why and how it should be processed.