Introduction

Reports are common working documents in many company-based information units. Their use and availability have increased dramatically since the Second World War, especially within information units dealing with scientific and technical subjects. Reports exist, and are being published, which cover almost every conceivable topic in which an information unit could be interested. The vast majority of reports prepared by or on behalf of industrial and commercial concerns are never published outside the organization itself. There are several possible reasons for this: to protect concepts at an early stage of development; to protect development work proceeding or concluded; and to protect detail of a developed technical idea before or after patenting. Of course staff are needed to handle unpublished reports and an information unit needs to have good quality staff, for good staff are the essence of a successful unit. Good staff can make the poorest system work reasonably well whilst poor staff can ruin the best system.