ABSTRACT
E. B. White wrote, “There’s no limit to how complicated things can get, on account of one thing always leading to another,” Certainly, when a manager reflects on administrative issues relating to library microcomputer operations, “one thing” always seems to lead to several “things” in a complex sea of interconnected relationships. This paper provides a framework for analyzing the many factors relevant to library microcomputer management. Each relevant factor is identified and analyzed in terms of a scale or spectrum between a pair of extremes. These extremes may represent limits for variation in competencies, experience, or environmental elements. For example, there is a spectrum between extremes for the factor: funding available to send staff to microcomputing workshops outside the library. At one extreme, there may be no money available; at the other end of the scale there may be funding sufficient to fill all requests for extramural microcomputer training. In general, spectra are presented going from less complexity toward more complexity, from less competency toward more competency. We herein discuss the various spectra in groups which will profile large segments of the microcomputing environment.
