Reviews the development of online systems in science and technology from batch searching through the advent of multinational online services, describes the key technological components, and discusses the economics of online systems. (Author/FM)

User perception of data importance and the economic feasibility of hardware and storage devices will determine the future direction of online systems. A retrieval system's functions are ultimately dictated by database design. Early online sytems were designed for bibliographic information limited to citations only using sequential files. When…

This report, the result of developmental research on a planning information system for North Carolina, describes the planning process at higher levels of State government, defines a general information system and derives a planning information system from various types of planning, provides guidelines for system design and evaluation, and…

Designed to focus attention on the design process in such computer science activities as information systems design, database design, and expert systems design, this paper examines three main phases of the design process: understanding the context of the problem, identifying the problem, and finding a solution. The processes that these phases…

Discusses forces at work within today's on-line data base environment which could lead to the emergence of a distributed information network; identifies several important modules in such a network, including an automated subject switching module; and reports research investigations, critical issues, and preliminary findings with regard to…

The impact of technical advances in computer hardware is examined. Size, cost, ease of use, expandability, and availability are discussed to help assess the impact of these advances on information systems. It is suggested that technology is making administrative computing economical and feasible. (Author/SF)

A major information systems planning study undertaken by Boston University and recommendations that were made to enable the university to meet the new demands and changing priorities of educational management are discussed. (BH)

The CardPac System of Educational Accounting project developed instruments and procedures for collecting information about aspects of the elementary and secondary educational programs in Iowa. This project included the development of a bank of educational information that will transcribe, integrate, and store information centrally for purposes of…

Developed from presentations given at a 3-day invitational meeting of 31 leading online catalog designers from both public and private sectors in North America, these papers provide information about online catalogs--their present form, their use, and the questions that need to be considered in their future refinement. All of the papers in this…

The report describes a large-scale computerized system for Selective Dissemination of Information (SDI) developed over the past five years at the U.S. Army Electronics Command to serve its technical personnel. The system, which uses as its document base the current accessions of the Defense Documentation Center, was developed in three phases: (1)…

This report addressed to policy making officials in local government deals with the role of federal assistance in future developments of information systems by local governments through an assessment of the Urban Information Systems Inter-Agency Committee (USAC) Program, which, beginning in 1970, provided grants to five municipalities--Charlotte,…

The methods and considerations in determining computer needs of both academic and administrative computer users in higher education institutions are discussed. It is suggested that computer power in the future may require local distributed interactive computing networks and/or remote job entry to a large off-campus computer. (SF)

This is a collection of 12 working papers dealing with instructional management systems (IMS). The papers are divided into three sections--systems definition, pedagogical studies, and hardware/software studies. IMS is generically defined as a set of procedures and mechanisms for gathering and processing pupil data and returning useful information…