Introduction of electronic book ordering with EDIFACT in a special library: a case study

For some time, the central library at Boehringer Mannheim, a company in the research‐based pharmaceutical industry, has placed the majority of its book orders using EDIFACT. This article describes the situation before the introduction of the system, the technical and organisational preconditions, and the changes that were necessary to DP systems. The results are presented and the new situation of EDI versus the Internet is discussed.