Guest Editorial
Abstract
Guest Editorial SAGE Publications, Inc.1983DOI: 10.1177/016555158300600501 H.East University College London United Kingdom As this piece constitutes a mild complaint about computerised information services, I should perhaps mention that I have heen involved with computers in this context for more than twenty years, with few doubts as to the benefits that would be and have been obtained. The future promises even more. Perhaps the difficulties I have been encountering recently (as a user) arise from transition, which inevitably brings problems, not least a temporary blurring of objectives. I suspect that the trouble is related in some subtle way to a current preoccupation in the profession with information systems as opposed (and opposition is what it feels like at times) to information services. Rather than pursue questionable semantics, actual if anonymous examples may be illustrative. On five occasions in as many months I have sought information from different services, all computerised, with highly unsatisfactory results. My queries were not of the type "Is there any information on the contamination of talcum powder with beryllium compounds?": that is, where the files may or may not contain relevant information. They have been requests for information (' hard data') known to be held