Thoughts about processes and systems

Random thoughts on processes:

Input, process, output. Apply this model to any non-computer system.

A communications system involves: Transmitter, channel, interference, receiver. Feedback is used to compensate for errors – messages may be resent.

What features might a multi-user system require, which would not be required of a single-user system?

Soft Systems Methodology uses the terms: Customers, Actors, Transformation (i.e. input, process, output),
Weltanschauung (world view), Owners, Environment.

A Root Definition in SSM may appear silly, because unforseen properties of systems come to light when you look at them from a distance, for instance:

A library and patron owned and staff and patron operated system to convert pristine books to dog-eared books in the belief that well-used books indicate diffusion of knowledge, in a university environment.

Dog-eared books are well used ones, says the author Lynda Davies.

Optional exercise:

1) Conduct an online search and identify any two journals dealing with both libraries and computing or information technology.

2) Examine the contents pages and or abstracts from a few issues of each journal. Are they peer-reviewed scholarly journals, or journals for practitioners? Are they intended for technically sophisticated or novice/general users? Who are the editors boards, etc? What is their scope (international? historical?).

3) Identify some "hot" topics in these journals. Are these hot topics similar to ones found in comparable journals (based on the evidence of the periodical indexes/abstracting tools?

4) Summarize and evaluate them. Discuss possible users of these journals - would you purchase them?

Some Suggestions:

Electronic Library
Library Hi-Tech
Library and Archival Security
Database
Computers in Libraries
various IEEE publications
various ACM publications
Resource Sharing and Library Networks