Entity‐Relationship analysis, the operational requirement and a buyer's view of the market for automated library systems Available to Purchase

Database design using the technique of Entity‐Relationship (E‐R) modelling has become relatively common since the technique was proposed by Chen in the 1970s. However, there are few reports of the use of the technique in the analysis and design of library databases. Following work done in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and Overseas Development Administration (ODA) libraries in an earlier library automation consultancy, E‐R analysis was used to produce diagrammatic representation of library processes from which the requirements of the library were derived and described in an Operational Requirement (OR) issued to the trade. The progress of this work is discussed and some observations are made in the light of suppliers' responses to the OR. The E‐R diagrams derived for the FCO OR are presented together with an explanation of the notation used.