The computerization of documentation in the French education system

Abstract

The methods traditionally implemented for processing and distributing information, even when they are computenzed, have proved to be inadequate. On the one hand, the implemen tation of successive programmes for supplying educational institutions with microcomputer equipment seems to be the principal prime mover of computerization processes in the French educational system. On the other hand, the creation of new databases is being hampered by the ever-increasing pace of technical progress, the emergence of new storage and editing devices, the invention of novel ways of information recording, the existence of new distribution outlets, and the rapid obsoles cence of the equipment used. There is a need to combine, rather than merely to juxtapose, these new technologies. But little progress has been made so far in this direction.