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

EFFICIENCY IN SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE SOCIAL SCIENCES 1. Are there parameters of efficiency in information work? There are many publications concerning cost/benefit, effectiveness, and efficiency of information work. Mathematical methods and formulae are used to determine more precisely the meaning of these parameters. It is a relatively clear what is meant by rentability. The rentability is an economic notion and may be applied to the measurement of certain aspects of information work. The meaning of rentability can be summarized as follows: to obtain a maximum of performance with a minimum of input, having given implements. The rentability in fact is an expression of the cost/economic effectiveness (or cost/benefit) relation. Its measurement is based on comparative analysis of different institutions with approximatively the same functions, profiles and size. It could be applied directly to information activity. Efficiency, is a much more complex notion. Its measurement can not be expressed by economic-mathematical formulae. Efficiency does not relate only to economics, it is the expression of a more general social relation. Therefore, the application of quantitative methode for its measurement could give only partial results. The evaluation of the efficiency of information activities consequently is more indirect. The rentability of the information work of a given institution could be high, but at the same time, its social efficiency could be low. What is good for a given institution and for its "clientele", is not necessarilly good on a social level. To give an example. Two institutions with a similar profile follow two different information policies. One of them disseminates up-to-date information, its publications (bibliographies, abstracts, etc.) are in high demand. The indexes of utilization of its files are high. In a word: the rentability of the institution can be considered satisfactory, and to some extent also its efficiency. The other is more oriented at searching for potential and new tendencies of research which are reflected in the special literature. This second institution collects materials for the future, which are not used immediately. The indexes of circulation of its information and those of the utilization of files are comparatively low. Consequently, its rentability is quite low. But at a certain moment, the development of its files oriented at new tendencies of research could become extremely important for the development of new research. It could even be said that the information activity of the given library of documentation center has initiated and stimulated a new outlook. I would consider that such activity is highly efficient. In fact, this is the meaning of the social efficiency of a given institution in spite of its lower rentability.