György Rózsa: Information: from claims to needs (Joint edition published by the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the Kultura Hungarian Foreign Trading Company. Budapest, 1988)

I. The socio-professional aspects of the development of the scientific information with special regard to social sciences

19 Approach of a system analysis An approach of a system analysis could be envisaged in the following way, in a kind of index, or a list of keywords for such analysis: — definition of the policies of the institution — what are its functions? — analysis of the utilization in general and special analysis of these services — the level of the management of documents (inventories, statistics, etc.) — are there written instructions? — methods and forms of written instructions — social climate — material conditions (budget, space) — structure, organization, interrelation of units — external relations — plans and projects, short, medium, and long term — professional training — tasks of units, definition and description — written instructions concerning different procedures (for example, treatment of documents, indexing of periodicals) — flow of publications — flow of information — development of collections — usage and facilities provided by its services — methods of storage and conservation — reproduction methods. And so forth, bearing in mind the factors and elements most relevant to the functioning of the institution, one could determine the features formulated in the system analysis study which fixes the actual state of things and serves as a point of departure for future specialized analyses. Approach to a feasibility study for automation Based on the system analysis study, one could envisage feasibility study for automated projects. First of all, one should check which services could be improved through traditional methods. In other words, what are the factors and the elements of the existing documentary system to be developed which could be realized in a more rational and economic way without using expensive equipment. Thus, one should envisage a marketing study with the aim of knowing what will be the services to provide, to whom they will be addressed, through what means and the implications of the cost-benefit. This marketing study, however, should not lose sight of the fact that information service has not only the task of answering requests, but