Organizational considerations relating to the implementation and use of management information systems

A management information system (MIS) is the process and structure used by an organization to identify, collect, evaluate, transfer, and utilize information in order to fulfill its objectives. It is a system that provides management with information to make decisions, evaluate alternatives, measure performance, and detect situations requiring corrective action. For library managers to utilize an MIS in their operations, precise and well-defined data categories are required as Runyon points out in his discussion of the need for systems to assemble elusive and fugitive library statistical measures. Bommer and Chorba (1982) have described the use of MIS for academic and special libraries in a more highly evolved mode that of a decision support system with detailed consideration of management reporting as a means of better identification of the activities, problems and needs of users. Dowlin (1980 and in these proceedings) has consistently presented examples of evermore refined "up-and-running" MIS in library settings with an emphasis on system components and decision-making.published or submitted for publicatio