ABSTRACT
The library manager considering the automation of specific library activities will be presented with a number of choices. For technical support functions — the essential routines sometimes referred to as ‘housekeeping’ activities — the choice is usually going to be between the packages offered by a number of vendors. The library processes most commonly automated are cataloguing, catalogue access, and circulation, acquisitions and serials control. Shared cataloguing is usually associated with the ‘cataloguing cooperatives’ or the ‘bibliographic utilities’ as they are called in North America. A cataloguing system should provide the means of selecting, creating and editing general bibliographic and local level records for all kinds of library materials. An acquisitions system should provide for all types of library material and methods of procurement including firm orders, approval schemes, standing orders, subscriptions, gift and exchange. Developments in telecommunications and networking increasingly provide for links between what are conventionally thought of as library technical support systems and external information retrieval systems.
