Class Discussion Lecture Notes
MIS AND IRM Information Professions and the Professional Culture

Disciplinary and Professional Development of Library and Information Science -- LIS 391D.4 -- Fall 1997

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I. MIS and IRM

1. Control of Data
2. Organization
3. Boundaries

1. Information is an asset that should be managed
2. Requires process and systems knowledge, communication, and technical expertise
3. Used by information workers who create;and process information
4. Description from Handbook For Professional Managers, McGraw-Hill, 1985

IRM, on the other hand, represents the broadest interpretation of the resources available to the Management Information System—from paper files to microform—and encompasses the policies in an organization, on a par with labor, captial, and material. The management of information resources is a necessary prerequisite to the success of an MIS.

C. Knowledge Management and Knowledge Workers

1. Knowledge workers are expected to stay abreast of the developments in science, technology, the arts, and social thought and be internal consultants and change agents
2. Knowledge management is aimed at promoting the creation of new knowledge and making certain it is dispersed for use
3. Knowledge management centers which combine services to deliver complete systems and administrative functions, comprehensive information and knowledge services, and measurement of use.

II. Today’s World and Information Professions

1. Intellectual Capital Use
2. Intellectual Capital Creation/Innovation

1. Long cycles to quick hits
2. Data processing to multimedia information processing
3. Organization charts to client/service models
4. Internal planning to integrated internal and external models
5. Planned event training to continuous learning and action learning through participation
6. The IT function to business functions and integrated into business strategies

1. Project Manager
2. Business Sponsor
3. Business Operations Manager
4. IT Manager
5. Database Administrator
6. Network Administrator
7. Unix Administrator
8. Data Administrator
9. Decision Support Administrator
10. Users

1. NSF estimated that over 23,500 computer scientists and engineers arrived in 1993 and currently 40% of the research and development jobs are held by these folks from other countries.
2. American Universities Are Cranking Out Fewer Computer Science Graduates According To The Information Technology Association Of America Which Estimated 43% Fewer BA Degrees Coming Out In Computer Science In 1994 Than 1986.

III. Today’s Culture

1. User Centered
2. Open - Networked

1. Multipolar World
2. Open Environment

1. Information Based
2. Intellectual Capital Based
3. Focused On Socio-Technical World

D. New Focus on Content And Analysis And User’s Use

1. Gather
2. Analyze
3. Disseminate - Disperse
4. Monitor Receipt And Use

IV. Today’s Challenges

B. Building Something With Enduring Value And Sustainable And Rich In Meaning

1. Shift from focusing on strategy to building lasting mechanisms
2. Shift To Consideration Of Your Core-The Abstraction--Benefiting Society, Alignment With World And Family, To Love, To Grow, And To Serve.---A Holistic, Ecological Attitude
3. Making Decisions About Value

C. Transformation Is Difficult

Quote From Article -Davenport

Interviewing Drucker:

Q. In My Work With Companies On Their Business Process, I Have Yet To Find A Major Operational Process That Hasn’t Been Transformed By The Use Of Information Technology. But How About Management? Has That Been Affected As Much?

A. No. I [Never Met] The Senior Manager Who Knew What Information Was Available For Decision. Very Few Senior Executive Have Asked The Question "What Information Do I Need To Do My Job?" In Part Because They’ve All Been Brought Up With The Accounting Information That They Understand. But The Other Type Of Information System, They Don’t Understand.

Q. What Industry Do You Think Has Been Affected The Most By The Information Revolution?

A. The biggest impact will be on knowledge industries such as education and medicine, which are in great need of increased productivity. the impact on education will be profound, but first there will have to be a critical mass of technology in the classroom.

2. Quote From ARIST--1968. V.3.

"Think of the lives this would change....the student in a small college tapping the resources of the greatest university in the hemisphere--the country doctor getting help from a distant laboratory or teaching hospital --a scholar in atlanta might draw instantly on a library in new york--a famous teacher could reach with ideas and inspirations into some far-off classroom, so that no child need be neglected. eventually, this electronic knowledge bank could be as valuable as the federal reserve bank. and such a system could involve other nations, too--it could involve in partnership to share knowledge and to thus enrich all mankind.--November 7, 1967, President Johnson Signing Into Law The Public Broadcasting Act.

Has Our Ability To Apply Been Rapid?

Is Change In Our Environment Rapid? Balance Is Needed

A. Often Achieved Through Merger or Fragmentation.

Amalgamation May Be Happening Council On Library And Information Resources Formed By Merger--CLIR From Council On Library Resources And The Commission On Preservation And Access.

New Duties--Interagency--Collaborative

We’ve Seen A Shift From Social Origins As A Value To Scientization Or Informatization And Efficiency Of Service. Will We Shift Again?

Questions For Discussion

What Groups Are Threatening Our Jurisdiction?

Will There Ever Be A Single Group Capable Of Holding A General Jurisdiction In The Information Arena?

What Is Our Set Of Abstract Knowledge?

Management Processes That Have A Tenuous Connection Between Abstractions And Actual Work Performed Are Open To Claims By Others? What About Us?

Too Little Abstraction We Become Weak
Too Much Abstraction We Become Weak
Too Singular A Purpose We Become Weak
Too Concrete A Purpose, We Become A Skill Not A Profession.

Slogans From The Media

Old Tradition New Thinking (Harvard Funds)

Knowledge Is Powerful Medicine (Eli Lilly)

The Difference Between Information And Insight (Merrill Lynch)

Knowledge Is Power (Fidelity Boston Globe)

The Wisdom Of 147 Years. The Imagination Of A Five Year Old (First Unum Life Insurance)

Build A Better World Through Innovative Technology (Hyundai) From Now On, If You Can Imagine It, You Can Manage It (Informix Software)

Look Up On Your Screen. It’s Data. It’s Insight. (Relevant Knowledge)

Speed Of Light Vs. Bullet In .0043 Seconds, The Entire Works Of William Shakespeare Translated Into 200 Languages Sent From New York To Omaha, Nb Without Skipping A Verse. Ride The Light (Qwest, Northern Telecom, Nortel)

This Also Ran More Recently As Speed Of Light Vs. The Running Child

Twaiwan Innovalue: Helping Your PC Keep Its Cool

The Bank of New Ideas (Bank Of New York)

Citations used in lecture

Bittel, Lester Robert and Eugene Ramsey Jackson, eds. Handbook for Professional Managers. New York: McGraw Hill, 1985.
Provides definitions for MIS and IRM.

Collins, Jim. "What comes Next?" Inc. (October 1997): 41-44.
Why products, strategy, and charismatic leadership will become things of the past…interview with best selling author, Jim Collins. Book: Built to Last.

Davenport, Thomas H. Process Innovation: Re-engineering work through information technology. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1993.

DeMocker, Judy. "Web Careers: Moving up, moving on, identifying opportunities." Web Week (October 6, 1997): 56.
National Science Foundation estimated that over 23,5000 computer scientists and engineers arrived here in 1993 and currently fill nearly 40% of the research and development jobs in the U.S.

Drucker, Peter F. "The Information Executives Truly Need." Harvard Business Review 73, no. 1 (January-February 1995): 54-63.

The ENTOVATION Network. "Highlights of Business Intelligence/Ernst and Young Survey." Latest Knowledge Innovation News (October 1997). Available from http://www.entovation.com/news/news.htm

Fletcher, Liz. "Information retrieval for Intranets: The case for knowledge management." Document World 2, no. 5 (September October 1997): 32-34
Tools for decision making and how to management them: Tracking and assessment covered

Freeman, Eva. "Birth of a terabyte data warehouse." Datamation 43, no. 4 (April 1997): 80-84.
Provides definitions for various functional positions: IT manager, Database administrator, Network administrator, etc.

Kerr, James M. The IRM Imperative: Strategies for managing information resources. New York: John Wiley, 1991.
Promotes the thought that to meet the highly competitive needs of tomorrow we need an aggressive management initiative that will recognize the need to involve IS executives in direction setting and that the IS professional has a unique mix of business and technical expertise. IRM views information as an asset that should be managed.

Laudon, Kenneth C. and Jane Price Laudon. Management Information Systems: Organization and Technology. 3rd ed. New York: Macmillan, 1994.

Patel, Bibi, Karen Hlady, and Jane Stewart. "Synchronicity Revisited: BNR’s Next Generation of Information Services." Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science 22, no. 4 (April/May 1996): 12-14.

Tan, Djoen S. and Aad A. Uijttenbroek. "Information Infrastructure Management: A new role for IS managers." Information Systems Management 14, no. 4 (Fall 1997): 33-41.
Discusses the globalization of the marketplace and the accelerated technological developments that enhance information and knowledge intensive activities.

University of Minnesota. Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs. "Secondary Principles: Competitiveness, Customer Orientation, Partnerships, Measurement and Evaluation." In State and Local Economic Development Models Available from http://www.hhh.umn.edu/Centers/SLP/Emerging Principles/Economic Models.html