TOWARDS INTELLIGENT MANAGEMENT OF INFORMATION RESOURCES - A CASE FOR SPECIAL-LIBRARIES OR THE NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE

The traditional library of a company is in a transition period due to technical advances. It could progress from a document-oriented repository for printed material into what could be called an "intelligent" library, i.e. information-oriented, based upon the possibilities associated with modern technology. Its scope is to aid the users by isolating significant factors in the environment that can influence the immediate or long-range development of the company. The intelligent library needs a financing policy related to the number of potential users who have to make decisions on well-informed grounds. It has also to arrange its information supply so the company is covered from a global point of view to avoid surprises. Thus, it should adapt to obtain information from the many databases available, and adjust itself to gather "competitive intelligence", i.e. information about competitors or potential co-operation partners. The librarian may need conditioning by training, especially to use new means for structuring the information, such as hypertext and expert systems. Thereby, "intelligent databases" could be envisaged, i.e. databases which manage information in a natural way for humans, making the information easy to store, access and use. The limitations and deficiencies to overcome are also touched upon.