DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS IN THE '90s Available to Purchase

Back in 1986 I wrote a chapter titled “Designing a Spreadsheet Decision Support System in a Library” for a book edited by Peter Hernon and Chuck McClure, Micro‐computers for Library Decision Making (Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing Corp., 1986, pp. 100–117). I illustrated the different types of data that were necessary for decision making (financial, personnel, physical resource, and use) and examined the ways that a spreadsheet could be used to collect, analyze, and report the data. The illustrations showed various formulas that could be used to distribute financial information to various departments. Examples were shown of various charts and graphs that could be made to assist in the analysis of the data. I even plotted a regression line.