An important element of the mechanism of information work: the renewed prospectus
Abstract
Prospectuses, one of the most neglected type of special technical literature, were mostly dealt with by the related technical literature rather than by the technical libraries were they ought to have belonged to.
Taking a closer look upon the huge amount of information included in condensed form in a prospectus, it clearly appears that up-to-date information work can no longer dispense with it. Some ten years ago, the Technical and Scientific Information Institute of the Ministry of Metallurgy and Machine Industry was the first to set up a collection of firm literature to form a separate unit in addition to the Institute’s other special collections. Experiences gained in the work of this collection cast light upon several interesting connexions: some of these may be generalized in the following statements:
Prospectuses have gradually and almost uniformly undergone a change and transformation. Their former characteristics such as excessive advertising and publicity background have faded away to make room for well-constructed contents and a uniform format and size.
The operations, methods and activities of the Firm Literature Collection have also changed considerably over the past years. Besides presenting a graph of activities which have already become traditional, the article also outlines the most remarkable changes. It appeared that – due to certain peculiarities of business life in Hungary – the great majority of users were not so much the investors themselves as rather those who were searching for “a” product of for “the” product. With the new system of economic management instituted, the year 1968 saw a decisive change in this respect, too. It was at that time that the Firm Literature Collection substituted the certainty of a dynamic collecting activity for the mere eventuality of static acquisitions, i.e. it adapted its acquisitions to the actual needs of technological development, thus providing considerable help for industrial companies. This mission-oriented acquisition policy is complementary to the predetermined field of collection.
The fact that this literature has been neglected in the past, falls, to a large extent, to the so many disadvantages attributed by the public to prospectuses. As things are considered today, all these shortcomings are diminishing or having just the reverse effect, since, e.g., its free distribution overcomes certain monetary difficulties, its ephemeral nature has proved to be a misbelief, for as long as the product lives the related prospectus should also be in use, and this usually takes 5 to 6 years. A simplified method of processing is defined by the local conditions. The firm literature’s “en masse”" nature may be narrowed down arbitrarily, its acquisition la the simplest possible work since all it requires is nothing more than a correspondence based on addresses taken from national and international directories. And perhaps the greatest advantage of this literature lies in its laconic nature.
We use the term “prospectus” only for lack of a better word since it is not too appropriate, suggesting the pushing of a certain product. Similarly, collection is rot the right word, either, since it implies a static “collection” rather than a dynamic activity as it actually is, and that makes firm literature an important component of technical information.
