A new acronym, NATIS, has officially entered our professional langugage. It stands for National Information System and signals nothing less than an all-out attempt to cope, on a national, regional and global level, with the staggering problems of information gathering and control on “Spaceship Earth”.

Library surveys, irrespective of their range of inquiry and specificity of information sought, can turn into incredibly taxing and even hazardous undertakings as those who have had the temerity to participate in them can vouch from personal experience. The primary objectives of such surveys consist of collecting relevant information from several similar library sources and the subsequent presentation of such information in a comprehensive and accurate manner. Unfortunately, a considerable degree of divergence exists between ideal surveys and the real world in which they are expected to be conducted.