Intranets: considerations for the Information Services Manager

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Blackmore, Paul

Affiliations: Wirral Metropolitan College, Borough Road, Birkenhead, L42 9QD, UK. E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract: Ever since the advent of the World Wide Web (WWW) in 1992, the number of Internet users has increased annually at a phenomenal rate. The primary reason for this growth can be attributed to the ease-of-use of the WWW's navigational tool, the graphical Web browser. The Web browser allows ‘point-and-click’ navigation of the Internet using hypertext and graphical links enabling the user to retrieve information quickly and easily. It has now been realised that this tool, along with other Internet technologies such as electronic mail, may readily be employed within an organisation's internal Local Area Network or Wide Area Network to radically improve corporate communication processes and information flow. This information system utilising Area Networks used in conjunction with Internet technologies has become known as an Intranet. This paper aims to identify those areas of information provision which stand to benefit most from the use of Internet technologies as an internal information system and the impact it is set to have on the Information Professional.

DOI: 10.3233/ISU-1997-17103

Journal: Information Services & Use, vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 23-30, 1997