Search results

This article sets out to chart, in a brief and therefore relatively condensed form, the development of the EISSWA Research Project since its inception in February 1977, and to outline its current position at the half‐way stage in the programme. In the course of the article, some attempt is made to describe the ‘action research’ philosophy and method underpinning the project, these being in important respects different from the strategy generally adopted by more traditional research programmes. It is assumed that the article's principal audience will be those already working or researching in the field of social welfare information but it is hoped that the following comments will also be relevant to, and perhaps strike a familiar chord with, practising social workers and probation officers.

This article stems from the work of the EISSWA Research Project, which has been using an action research approach to explore the information needs of social welfare practitioners. It is argued that the research carried out so far has revealed a significant area of information need on the part of this particular user group which is not being met by existing support services, and that the library‐based information services in particular have either failed to appreciate that this gap exists or, being aware of it, have not taken the initiative to respond to it. A possible explanation for this is put forward, special attention being paid to the cultural context in which information work of this kind takes place, and an alternative model is proposed by which library‐based information services could be adapted and developed to more effectively meet the information needs of their practitioner clients.

The broader context in the last twenty years awareness of the information and documentation problems of the social sciences has grown, but almost as if by stealth. During that period there have been significant developments for practice, organization and research in social science information, but knowledge of these has remained largely confined to small groups of specialists closely associated with them. In the main it has been library and information developments in science and technology that have captured the interest and attention of the majority of professionals and specialists as such: for example, the development of computer‐based citation indexes; the introduction of the computer database as a successor to the printed secondary journal; the development of online search facilities and associated software and retrieval techniques; the exploitation of telecommunications and computers to create new information technology, leading to alternative means of interpersonal communication, the possibilities of electronic journals and a vision of the paperless society. This situation is hardly surprising since science and technology provide the productive base for advanced societies.