MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SERVICES Available to Purchase

Traditionally special libraries have developed collections of technical literature concerned with the products that are manufactured by the company or organization with which the library is associated. Until recently, if one went into the average special library—if there is such a thing—one would have found very few publications on the shelves on how to manage the company, how to evaluate the personnel and how to market the products. This restriction of special libraries to primarily technical information is in my view a short‐sighted approach, as many of the important decisions which will affect, for example, research and development environment will be taken outside the r and d environment. It is obviously important for the library to ensure that a company is effectively managed so that such decisions prove to be correct. Librarians too rarely seem to be involved with internally generated information, and this also seems to militate against the concept of the special library as the memory of the firm. The librarian's skills of handling and disseminating information could also be applied to wider areas such as desk market research and personnel records.