An information system for decision support in national information policy-making and planning

摘要

It is widely recognized that national information policies and plans severely suffer from the lack of timely and relevant data which could support decision-making. Through a pilot project sponsored by UNESCO/PGI and a subsequent application project at the Brazilian Institute for Information in Science and Technology (IBICT), an information system is being developed in order tentatively to overcome this obstacle. It consists of several related modules for the control of the internal production at the national agency and of the development projects and their related contracts, and for the monitoring of the information scene, both national and international. The two first modules are based upon the items of standardized work plans. The third one consists of a coherent series of data bases which contain basic information about the actors and components of the information scene, further transformed into single and aggregated numerical values. The latter are themselves aggregated and standardized according to a comprehensive list of variables, which are calculated on an international basis for the upper levels of the system. The system has been designed in order to cater to various perspectives of the information sector and the calculation of specific or composite indicators. It is linked with a bibliographic information system which controls the documents from which part of the data have been extracted, and with a referral system. The principles and examples of practical applications of the system are presented. The prospects and requirements for its full-scale implementation are discussed.