Commonplaces

Government and IT ‐ In spite of all the lip service paid by Government to making a business of information and encouraging increases in the amount of information available online, the Department of Trade is still indulging in foot dragging about online access to tradenames. Since 1979, tradenames have been held on computer and I was told in that year (NLW, November 1979) by the Department of Trade that an index to tradenames would be produced shortly and sold to libraries and others on COM‐fiche. Now two computer indexes are poised for the public market, but it seems the Department of Trade is once again playing a will we? won't we? game, because if the Department went online, the others might not bother. The first independent computer data base is with Datema Limited who have carried out very successful field trials with Laurence Tagg in Newcastle‐upon‐Tyne Business Library, as well as at Sheffield and the Science Reference Library; the second data base is with Compu‐Mark (UK) Limited in London.