The Electronic Library Manager's guide to systems similarity

Some two and a half years ago I was transferred internally within my organisation. One day I was a librarian and information scientist, the next I was a system and programmatics engineer. Just like that, as Tommy Cooper would say! My work changed — no longer did I run (virtually single‐handed) a library and information service for a large technology‐oriented establishment; instead I attended meetings on conceptually designing future spacecraft and space‐borne services. I had to get involved with system engineering tools and other subjects I didn't know so much about. But because of my education and training and interests, I managed to provide the other staff in my division with much needed information which had previously remained latent to them. As I was not really an engineer, despite my title, my colleagues knew I could not effectively design a satellite — but equally well, they knew that I could come up with ideas for uses and services, and I could synthesise and analyse any kind of information they might require. I was also more free to start studies of my own on topics like mapping the knowledge and information resources of the organisation. My title may have changed (I was no longer the Head of the Library and Information Services) but my experience and knowledge and ideas were still required — welcomed, even — in a different kind of information context. It is this that I want to talk about in this Editorial, because it shows that the same problems and issues which we face in librarianship and information science are the same as those faced by others who do not consider themselves as having anything to do with our brand of information.