Currently, there are 5 market sectors in the provision of medical information services.

Business information service. It includes financial, statistical and commercial components.

The importance of this market segment for a medical institution is obvious. The financial flows circulating between medical institutions, insurance companies and health authorities are enormous. The success of a hospital, clinic or private practitioner largely depends on their manageability. No less important is the statistical information on the incidence, the epidemiological situation in the region, region and the country as a whole.

Statistical reporting is one of the main sections of the work of any medical institution. And without computer technology is simply not enough. Finally, the commercial business information sector is now one of the most important components of the successful operation of the hospital in today's economic conditions. Without a targeted and comprehensive study of the market for modern medical equipment using computer communications, it is impossible to well equip a medical institution with equipment and consumables. Computer technology makes it possible to competently and objectively conduct a tender for the purchase of expensive medical kits or to select an organization to carry out repair and construction work.

Special information service. It includes the medical aspect of the activities of a medical institution and a personally medical worker. This service is necessary in order to keep abreast of all modern scientific trends in the field of medicine and healthcare, to communicate with colleagues at work. It allows in scientific and practical conferences, Internet forums to receive operational medical information through Internet mailing lists, to participate in congresses and meetings of scientific societies. Based on this service, a new direction in medicine has emerged - telemedicine.

Consumer information service. It includes the selection and receipt of the necessary medical literature in electronic form, control over news (and not only medical) on specialized Internet sites. Quite an important role of this information service is given as a source of entertainment. Now, through broadband Internet channels, films are shown, music files are transferred, and interactive games are organized.

Information educational services. This is an important direction in the activity of educational institutions. Distance learning of doctors and paramedical personnel in various medical specialties and different levels of complexity is gaining popularity. Almost all major universities have educational websites. In parallel, educational medical museums, training programs, educational visual funds in medicine were organized. Using this service, you can order an electronic version of a textbook or educational article, order the necessary information on a hard electronic media.

Providing and system information services. They provide an opportunity to provide a medical institution through the means of communication with the necessary computer programs related to both the medical activities of the institution and computer equipment. Currently, some companies have organized remote advisory centers for the repair and operation of medical equipment. Many auxiliary programs that are important for the functioning of a medical institution, including those of a systemic nature, can be obtained via the Internet.

When performing various tasks in information technology, information tools are used - a set of computer and software to solve the task. The effectiveness of work on the creation of the final information product - an information service - depends on how correctly the appropriate ingredients are selected - a computer and software.

In the information technology of creating an information product, 3 stages should be distinguished:

1) the choice of the software environment in which the information product will be developed:

2) choice of document style, creation of templates, document frames, auxiliary tables, figures, graphs and other paraphernalia necessary to solve the task;

3) final work on the creation of an information product, its testing and implementation in the information services market.

There are two fundamentally different information technologies: centralized and decentralized information processing.

Who is who and what is where
or the information space of Russian business

The main sectors of the information resources market

The modern information market can be divided into several main sectors according to the nature of the data:

1. The BUSINESS INFORMATION sector is represented by such types and sources as:

1.1 EXCHANGE AND FINANCIAL information - information about securities quotes, exchange rates, discount rates, commodity and capital markets, investments, prices. The sources of such information are stock exchanges and the special exchange and financial information services serving them. The main factor that ensures the commercial value of such information is its completeness, accuracy and timeliness.

1.2 ECONOMIC and STATISTICAL information - numerical economic, demographic and social information. It is provided by economic management bodies and statistical services (state and non-state) in the form of time series, reports, estimates, forecasts, etc. Along with such factors that ensure the commercial value of information as completeness, accuracy and efficiency, accessibility (non-classification) to its consumer is of particular importance.

1.3 COMMERCIAL information - address details of industries, enterprises and their responsible employees (including data on activities, product range, prices, etc.). Its sources are state and a number of non-state organizations. Many collections of commercial information offered on the information market as independent products are secondary processing of information collected by various government agencies (usually responsible for registration, licensing and / or verification of various aspects of the activities of enterprises and organizations of various forms of ownership). The main factor determining the commercial value of information is the completeness and accuracy (adequacy of the ongoing changes) of the data.

1.4 Information on COMMERCIAL OFFERS comes from specialized firms - information resellers. In the simplest cases (for example, in market research that does not imply an immediate purchase and sale as an integral part), only information about goods and prices is sufficient. In most commercially significant cases, potential sellers and buyers are also interested in the address details of counterparties, without which the contact between them and, therefore, the transaction simply will not take place. Today, an integral part of the services associated with the provision of such information is the possibility of an immediate conclusion of a transaction based on the results of the search / selection of data. The quality of this related service determines success in this sector of the information market.

1.5 POLITICAL, ECONOMIC, MILITARY, etc. NEWS of interest to representatives of various social groups, in particular, entrepreneurs. The main success factor here is efficiency (“tomorrow's data should be published yesterday”), accuracy (correspondence to facts, absence of distortions) and reliability of the forecast component (only those forecasts that come true are bought).

2 Sector of LEGAL (REGULATORY) information with subsections by types of legislative and subordinate (departmental) documents on various aspects of economic activity:

2.1 GENERAL BUSINESS ACTS (civil, arbitration and tax law).

2.2 ACTS REGULATING CERTAIN TYPES OF ACTIVITIES (for example, foreign economic, trade, banking, exchange, licensing of various types of activities, customs problems, copyright protection, etc.).

2.3 ACTS REGULATING THE TRANSFORMATION OF PROPERTY RIGHTS during the transition period (privatization of means of production, land, etc.).

2.4 REGULATORY AND RECOMMENDATION DOCUMENTS ON STANDARDIZATION, including the procedure for certification of products, problems of responsibility for non-compliance with standards and problems associated with an increase in demand for those goods whose quality is properly certified, etc.
The main factors in all subsections of this sector are:

- the ability to obtain not only metadata (data on the content and location of data of interest to the consumer, for example, bibliography), but also the texts of the relevant acts themselves;

– tracking by data providers of multiple changes, additions to changes and amendments to additions; the ability to obtain a consolidated document, which contains all the current modifications of the document;

- tracking not only legislative, but also departmental acts that are not brought to the attention of those who are punished for their violation.

3 Sector INFORMATION FOR SPECIALISTS (bibliography and primary sources). It differs from business and regulatory information that answers the questions WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN and ON WHAT CONDITIONS, is that it answers the questions WHY, HOW and WHAT WILL BE, IF and is not intended for entrepreneurs and employees of commercial services, and for employees of functional (including engineering and research) services.

4 The sector of SOCIAL AND HOUSEHOLD (SERVICE) information is intended (unlike the previous types) to serve the personal needs of people.

5 The sector of HARDWARE and SOFTWARE for automating office and management activities (collection, processing and use of data) is closely adjacent to the four above.

What problems do business libraries face when creating a reference and information fund?

(1) The need to choose the physical representation of data (printed materials, AV materials, data on special microfiche media, machine-readable media, etc.)

(2) The high cost of the initial acquisition of the data set (one of the commercial foreign-language reference books distributed by GPNTL costs $400) and the cost of obtaining their updated versions. As the data becomes obsolete, directories and databases have to be replaced. The price of 6-12 computer database updates per year ranges from 50-200% of the purchase price. Printed guides are updated 1-2 times a year - by purchasing (sometimes at a discount) new editions of the guide. Many information products on the market cost $50-200 and more.
The general rule is that the smaller the number of potential consumers may need an information resource, the more expensive it is. Libraries should keep in mind that the spread in the price of information resources of the same type (in content and quality) can be tenfold (full-text databases on legislative and by-laws cost, including a yearly update, from $ 50 to 500);

(3) The impossibility for the library to have all the data that its clients might potentially need. Therefore, it is necessary to establish partnerships with owners/distributors of information resources (at the level of an agreement on the procedure for obtaining information collections from them on customer orders in printed/machine-readable form). Unfortunately, in most cases, such services are not cheap (many owners/distributors of address-property databases ask for $0.2-1.0 for one card describing one enterprise 100).
The cheapest - in the range of 0.2 - 0.3 dollars per card - are the services of the State Public Library for Science and Technology. But this potential business library partner has a good set of information resources in print form. The set of information resources available in the collections (available in machine-readable form, especially in the form of databases) is still small.
The services of IBIT - the International Bureau of Information and Telecommunications - cost two to four times more. But it has, perhaps, the widest range of information resources available to us in printed and, especially, in machine-readable form among the information centers known to us.

(4) High costs (in terms of time and finances) associated with the need to use both own and borrowed information resources for customer service. It should be borne in mind that the user does not need METAINFORMATION (data on where and how he can find and collect the data he needs), but INFORMATION COLLECTED AND PROCESSED BY THE CONTRACTOR (often the volume of wishes reaches the level of information and marketing research).

A set of wishes of potential users:

• DEPTH OF SEARCH and VOLUME of collected/processed data should be MAXIMUM;

• TIME OF COLLECTION / PROCESSING OF DATA AND THE PRICE OF PAYABLE SERVICES ARE MINIMUM;

• THE RESULT IS DELIVERED "ON THE TABLE" in an agreed (either all in machine-readable or all in printed) form according to the principle: "maximum information from the manufacturer at a minimum cost from the consumer."

These wishes arise on the part of the buyer not at all from the fact that he does not understand the complexity of order execution and / or the high commercial value of the obtained data. On the contrary, many are well aware of the value of information. But it is precisely these most civilized groups of entrepreneurs who are currently experiencing the greatest shortage of investment resources. They are clearly aware that their initial capital is simply not enough to extract the potential profit from the information received.
The paradox that the library will inevitably encounter is that the cost for the customer of the information services provided to him is almost independent of the amount of work that he plans in connection with the use of the collected data. As a result, only for a company with a large turnover, these services will be an acceptable part of the cost.
Entrepreneurs with a large turnover apply for services at the level of reputable information and marketing firms. They can only be recruited into the library by specific offers of high-quality service based on a thorough multi-aspect marketing study, on the one hand, of customer needs, and on the other hand, of the library's capabilities to meet them.
The ways to resolve these contradictions are, in our opinion, as follows:

(1) Significant initial funding is needed to thoroughly prepare the library for the transition to information service mode. The importance of concessional funding (at the level of grants and/or at the level of sponsorship) remains in the initial period of the business library's operation. The provision of information services, with all their objective usefulness, cannot be completely self-sustaining.
One of the possible ways to resolve this contradiction is to carefully study the options "Public business library" and "Corporate business library for a narrow circle of sponsoring organizations." Mixed options are possible. However, we should not forget that the most solvent clients can leave if they do not receive privileged service.

(2) A careful study of both the demand (with special emphasis on determining its ability to pay) and the supply of information services is needed in order to form a not too large and not too expensive core library business fund (in print and machine-readable media). This fund will allow it to provide a basic range of services to the bulk of potential clients, as well as to form a set of agreements on the possibility of the library using the resources of other information centers (on a paid and free basis) to satisfy other information requests.

(3) Today, systems of so-called teleaccess (remote access to specially collected data) and telecommunications (remote information interaction of various users of such systems with each other and with owners/distributors of databases) are of particular interest. In the context of a relative increase in prices for printed sources of business information and, conversely, a decrease in prices for computers and telecommunications services, only work with these systems can ensure reliable fulfillment of user requests at an acceptable cost.

Information centers, markets for developers and main owners of databases and data banks in Moscow

The number of information centers in Moscow is quite large. However, most of them reflect the former sectoral structure of production management (sectoral TsNTI and TsNII TEI). With the collapse of this structure, they failed to find their place (first of all, orders backed by funding) in the information market that did not exist at that moment. A huge information potential has been accumulated there, which has a considerable market value. However, having failed to provide jobs/salaries to their most qualified performers, they have lost specialists.
Many centers not only failed to analyze the market of consumers of their information and, as a result, did not restructure their data, did not adapt them to the needs of solvent consumers, but did not even update the accumulated information in the proper amount. The consequence of this was the low suitability for satisfying serious information requests. (For example, TsNIITEI Legprom, which oversees today's priority light industry, has survived and has orders, mainly for subdivisions associated with the publication of custom small-circulation literature).
Many information centers that were previously closed (VIMI, VNTI Center, Central Research Institute of Prices, Center for Market and Marketing Research, etc.) or provided services only within their “own” industry (sectoral GIVC, leading institutes of industries with a powerful information service, etc.) became publicly available. .P.).
In particular, information appeared about the availability of data from registration chambers and employment services - ideal sources for reconciling address and requisite files. These structures have accumulated huge amounts of valuable data and in many ways managed to keep them relevant.
The main drawback is the antediluvian organization of data storage / retrieval in these centers. Information is stored on paper (not even on microfiche/microfilm), while occupying huge areas. Most of the reference and search data is stored in primitive file cabinets. The use of PCs in many of these centers died out before they even started due to a lack of funds and trained personnel.
Many new information services have appeared or left the regime "underground".

(1) Convertible defense industry resources became available. Communication networks - ISTOK-K and ISKRA-2 - are of the greatest interest as a technical base for many information centers, especially for those involved in the rapidly developing information infrastructure of Russia. Information from TsNIITEI of closed ministries (for example, Minaviaprom) has become available.

(2) A number of joint ventures are engaged in either telecommunications (usually with a convertible "defense" - such are many satellite communications projects), or educational and consulting and information and publishing activities (RAU - Russian-American University - is known for its reference and information publications with machine-readable equivalents under the brand name RAU-PRESS).

(3) Small firms have separated from large state organizations. These firms, often located on the territory of their "progenitors", provide services, usually of a very narrow range, for the selection of market price information in their market sector. (For example, STC POLINOM, which was spun off from the IU of the Ministry of Economy of the Russian Federation, deals with data on the computer market and the telecommunications market, publishes price lists, reviews and brochures, and even owns a small information center with teleaccess to data - BBS POLINOM).
In addition, they are engaged in the collection/processing of interesting, effective demand-oriented information (for example, STC Informregister specializes in collecting meta-information on Russian databases and certification of databases).
This group also includes firms whose personnel base has become a group of qualified specialists from state enterprises. They did not receive support from the "ancestors" and, as a result, at the time of creation they did not have any premises, equipment, or money. Often they have to show maximum ingenuity in order to earn from scratch what they were forced to leave at an abandoned workplace.
These centers are willing to cooperate, take on the satisfaction of any solvent information needs of customers. Works are usually carried out with high quality and on time. The main problem for them is the lack of investment resources, which hinders work for the future. The main way out is to search for large state or municipal orders.
There are also many teams that do not have a legal entity in the information services market. As a rule, they act in the form of temporary creative teams of customer firms or so-called "roof" firms. Orders are fulfilled during business hours and at the workplace using the resources of the enterprise in whose staff they are listed.
A "native" enterprise, unable to provide employees with orders and salaries, often looks "through its fingers" at the actual plunder of its resources. Such teams can afford to bring down the price of services within the cost of these resources. For firms that honestly pay for the resources they use, these are the most undesirable competitors.

(4) In many firms, non-core structural divisions have appeared that deal with information resources (books, periodicals, reference books, prospectuses, card indexes and databases). This is WA-2 - a motor transport company, which is a co-publisher of the RAU-PRESS register.

Thus, the trend towards ever narrower specialization of firms offering information services becomes apparent. Meanwhile, the consumer needs a comprehensive solution to his (and not branded) problems. As a result, there has been an emergence of an uncompetitive niche - the provision of a COMPLEX of information services. It is quite capable of accommodating a business library without exorbitant investments.

Telecommunication networks and their resources: a preliminary analysis

An important component of the success of a business library is the ability to teleaccess commercially valuable data. It allows the library to provide its clients with the required level of data retrieval efficiency. Today in Moscow through the system
"MODEM + TELEPHONE" are available about a hundred information centers and - more or less - global information networks. Libraries located in other cities of Russia will have to clarify the possibilities of local long-distance telephone communication to access these information networks or the availability of their own in the region.
The marketing feature of teleaccess systems is the high cost of registration (up to several hundred dollars) and the high level of monthly payments, which do not depend on the time of work with the system, or on the amount of data found and received.
Therefore, it is economically expedient to have a business library in the region (municipal district, city) as a REGISTERED OWNER OF INPUTS to several teleaccess systems, trading in the data found there and/or granting the right to access these inputs for a fee. This benefits both users with their limited teleaccess needs (getting the right data is cheaper in this case), and the library, which is quite capable of not only recovering costs in this way, but also making a profit.
Many telecommunications systems provide their users with access to other television networks. Their services are very similar, as well as the subject of the data contained in them. Despite this, the analysis of the suitability of such systems for the needs of the library, the task of identifying groups, the right of entry into which it should buy, is extremely difficult and uncertain.
The main CRITERIA for selection should, apparently, be not only the SUBJECT of the DATA provided, its compliance with the requests of the library users, the LIST of SERVICES, but also THEIR QUALITY (including the structure of the data, their completeness and reliability, the quality of the interface, the convenience and completeness of the selection of the data needed by the user and etc.).
The following TYPES (classes) of TELECOMMUNICATION NETWORKS are of greatest interest to libraries:

I The so-called "TELETEXT" network. It is the cheapest network available in today's telecommunications market. Information is transmitted circularly, in one path with a standard television signal. (For its transmission, the section of the "pause of the television signal" is used, which corresponds to the period of return of the television sweep beam from the lower right corner to the upper left corner of the screen). The volume of data available via teletext during the day is small, but they are of some commercial interest. The user does not have the opportunity to order the search and selection of interesting (from the large volumes available in the information center) data.
Modern televisions usually have a built-in teletext box. For those devices where this is not available, it can be purchased for a small fee. Information is received in frames the size of a TV screen (usually text, no worse than 16 lines of 64 characters per screen). From the information transmitted circularly, the user can select and view frames of interest to him on the screen. The output of such simple systems on a PC - with the possibility of selecting / storing data in memory for multiple use - is usually not provided.
Teleaccess to data is especially appropriate for social (service) information. In the Russian information market, low-cost systems similar to teletext (designed to receive data on a household TV), but with the possibility of "request-response" interaction, are expected to appear in the near future. In particular, on cable television networks, the Videotext type systems are expected to start operating. In them, with the help of a cheap set-top box for a household TV, a dialogue is possible (with the result displayed on the TV screen) between the user and the system via a cable through which regular television is broadcast. This exchange is very similar to teletext, but the amount of information available to the user is much higher.
The data is stored in a hierarchical (tree-like) structure. The user has the means to navigate through it in search of the desired data. They can also be used to organize and conduct simple, but very effective surveys of the population: the technology is simple, a large number of respondents, hence the low cost. (In the West, they are usually carried out by municipalities, trading and manufacturing firms).
Instead of a household TV set with a video text box, you can use a PC with an inexpensive set-top box. In most systems of the "Videotext" type, the ability to enter some data into the system (thus making it available to other users) is available only to operators serving the central information node of the system. As a result, it is not possible to link two (or more) users to each other.
In more complex (as a rule, using a PC as a terminal device) video text systems, along with tree-organized data navigation tools, there is the possibility of a more complex request for data selection. A special case of this is a request to enter data (usually no larger than a TV screen) into an area accessible to other users of the system. Thus, an ELECTRONIC BOARD of public (with a small subscription fee) announcements is organized. If users have identifiers that allow them to determine who exactly the information is addressed to, then an analogue of e-mail appears.
Unlike "real" e-mail, in which information can be delivered to a subscriber anywhere in the world via communication networks, this "home" is available only to subscribers of this, usually very local, Videotext system.
The main advantage of such systems is their low cost and general availability. You can start working with them almost immediately. The most tempting option for the library may be an agreement with the owner of the local cable network - with investment support for this project from the local administration and / or association of entrepreneurs - to create a business-oriented "video text - network". The library could take on the role of a system operator responsible for selecting new and updating existing data.
The most promising area of ​​work is the dissemination of social information received from local authorities, paid advertisements from organizations, and the creation of a non-commercial electronic bulletin board for individuals.
In the event that the library plans to access global television networks (an event that is unprofitable for many individual consumers), the videotext network can serve as a cheap communication channel between data consumers and their "getter" - the library. This project may be of interest:

- the owner of a television cable network (increasing the range of consumers and, consequently, gross income), - entrepreneurs as potential subscribers of a cheap information channel with access to global information networks, - a local administration receiving a circular notification channel with feedback - up to the possibility -surveys, - a library that receives not only its own niche in the information services market (with minimal investment costs), but also the potential opportunity to occupy an additional niche.

The latter is related to the provision of services for access to global telecommunications networks. The most famous Russian analogue of such a system is the TeleTASS system, which provides access to TASS resources.

Types of payment: * The user pays for a set-top box that provides access to data (in the Teletext system - usually to the TV manufacturer, in the Videotext system - to the owner of the cable network and "in a share" - to the system operator. Often the system operator charges only advertisers , and therefore its share in the cost of the set-top box is zero.* There is no connection with the user in the Teletext system, and, therefore, there is no way to track the use of the data provided.Therefore, receiving data does not require either a monthly subscription fee or a fee for actually received volume "Free" data is paid for by those who are interested in bringing it to consumers (local administration, advertisers, etc.) * In the simplest Videotext systems, the principles of payment are practically the same. not only to detect the fact of an appeal, but also to give or not give a specific user access to certain data. m stage of operation may be charged for access to the closed part of the information. For access to the open part, as in Teletext, the interested organization pays - the local administration, marketing or sociological services conducting an express survey, advertisers, etc.

When deciding on the creation of networks of this type, the library should clarify the following: * what investment resources will be required to create a system of the “Videotext” type and what are the expected costs for the current operation of the system; * Does the potential consumer of information services have the resources (television receiver with a special prefix) necessary to start working with the system; * how sensitive it is to the threshold value of the investment resource required to start working with the system. (Today, when the cost of an inexpensive PC-compatible computer with a modem is about $ 700-800, it is necessary that the Videotext prefix (to a TV set and / or PC) cost no more than $ 100 - this is the price of an inexpensive modem built into the PC case Otherwise, the project is unprofitable.An interesting option is to use a cheap household (embedded in a keyboard and using a household TV as a display) PC as a base for an inexpensive hardware and software implementation of the Videotext terminal); * what kind of data the potential consumer would like to receive from the system, to what extent he is satisfied with the actual unidirectional data exchange (Circular data from the system to the user gives the user minimal opportunity to control this flow, as a rule, by navigating through the data based on a choice from the menu); * how much he is interested in the possibility of more complex flow control (for example, the ability to independently set the algorithm for searching / selecting the necessary information); * how much he needs the opportunity to put his data into the system, bypassing the system operator, is he ready to pay for these additional features, and if so, how much; * whether anything is known about the availability and expected appearance of analogue systems. (They can be considered as competitors to the services of the library. It is also important that their absence causes the potential user to fear that if he is not satisfied with the services of our Videotext, he will be able to use the TV, but the set-top box will have to be thrown away. This plan looks more preferable for the user: it remains possible to work with a PC, regardless of whether he is a subscriber of the system or not.In such a set, the share of the cost of a video text set-top box is much lower).

II Information resources can be accessed via teleaccess (usually according to the "COMPUTER + MODEM" scheme). However, simple (inexpensive to build and maintain) systems that provide access to such resources may not provide the communication functions of a full scale telecommunications system.
Typically, such a system is a local (within the company) network that provides the creation and updating of information resources. It has several (in the simplest case, one or two) modem outputs to the public switched telephone network and / or several gateways (software and hardware systems that provide access to communication networks or telecommunications networks). Thus, it is possible to relatively cheaply organize information services for users at the expense of the system, shifting the execution of their requests to communication networks.
A typical example of such systems is the telecommunications access system of the State Public Scientific and Technical Library of Russia (STD-2 GPNTB). The system provides remote access to a number of databases located on the host (head PC) of the GPNTB local network. The main type of information provided is bibliographic.
Gradual connection of commercial databases held by the Business Information Cabinet (BIC) of the SPSTL is planned for 1994. In the first and second quarters of the current year, STD-2 operates in the testing mode (entrance to it is still free). From the third quarter, it is planned to switch to the mode of planned operation of the system, and the entrance to it should become paid.
This is a prototype of that form of information interaction with data consumers, which in the current conditions may well compete with Videotext. It is possible that the library will collect this data on its own initiative and/or at the request of consumers from both printed and electronic, including telecommunications, sources. Creating such a simplified teledata access system does not require too much investment.
The organization and operation of simplified versions of STD can be even cheaper than the creation and operation of a Videotext type system. For the user, access to the latter will require significantly higher initial costs (computer + modem) and may cost more in monthly payments.

Types of payment: * The user pays a fixed amount for registration in the system - setting up an account name/password (a part of the registration fee can be counted as a non-refundable prepayment for subsequent services actually performed by STD). * The user pays a fixed amount monthly in the form of a subscription fee for maintaining his registration in the system - saving an account name / password (part of the subscription payment can be counted as a non-refundable prepayment for subsequent services actually performed by STD). * The user pays (including non-refundable prepayments) for the time spent in dialogue with the system and for traffic (the amount of data selected according to his instructions and received by him through the communication channel). * Differentiation of payment can be made depending on the sections of data, subscriber access to which is allowed to the user, on the type of user (individual, commercial, non-profit, charitable organization), on the expected time of interaction (the period during which the connection is established, the duration of the connection per month /year), etc.

When deciding on the use of teleaccess, the library should clarify: * whether the potential client uses the services of any teleaccess systems. (If so, which services; under what conditions; what data does he need; how does he evaluate the data received and the fee for them; what guided him when choosing a teleaccess system; is he satisfied with the systems at his disposal; is he ready to change the teleaccess system and what will be guided by this (price factors, quality of data and service, etc.) * what investment resources are needed to create a STD type system and what are the expected costs for the current operation of the system; * whether a potential client needs information services, involving teleaccess to data; * does the potential consumer of information services have the resources (computer + modem) necessary to start working with the system; how sensitive is he to the threshold value of the investment resource (computer / modem / registration fee / software) required to start working with the system; * what kind of data the potential consumer would like to receive from the system; how much he is interested in those capabilities of STD that create advantages over Videotext (active search, the ability not only to receive data from the system, but also to enter data into the system yourself and - through the mechanism of the "electronic bulletin board" - actively interact with other subscribers of the system) ; how much, finally, he is ready to pay the owner of STD for these benefits; * Is the potential user ready to limit himself to the possibilities of teleaccess, or does he necessarily need telecommunications (e-mail, teleconferences, data transfer, certified by the so-called digital signature, electronic trading, etc.); how highly he assesses the possibilities of telecommunications; is he ready to share access to the telecommunications network with other users (or does he need these inputs for exclusive possession); how much for each of these opportunities is willing to pay.

III Of particular interest to the business library is the international amateur network FIDO-Net, a set of interconnected BBSs. BBS (Bulletin Board Sistera) or EDO (“electronic bulletin board”) is a “computer + modem + program” system that allows users with similar sets to enter information into a public area and / or read information entered by other users from there.
There are privileged users - SYSOPs (system operators) who organize the communication of individual BBSs with each other (this is a simplified version of e-mail that allows you to talk about the totality of BBSs as a FIDO-Net network). They also set the way for other (unprivileged) users to use the BBS. Most EDI are free, funded by sponsors whose products they advertise, or by the enthusiasm of sysops.
Some EDOs have two entrances - paid and free. In the first case, all information is available to registered users. In the second, they have access to advertising and / or public (does not require a license to distribute), as well as a stripped down version of commercially valuable information available through a paid entrance. (In this case, address details and / or data for the last few days that have the greatest commercial value are usually “cut off”; the rest is intended mainly for advertising complete information).
The main advantage of EDI is the low investment cost of their creation. The volume of initial investments for the creation of EDI is small: you need a PC, a modem, a communication program and a telephone channel, which fits well into $2000.
The disadvantage is that cheap EDI provides only one-channel service (serves only one client at a time; average service time is tens of minutes).
For the efficient operation of EDI, a multi-channel telephone channel and an appropriate number of modems are desirable. But they (together with service programs) are not included in the volume of initial investments and can be added gradually - as they become famous.
FIDO-Net is of interest to libraries in the following areas. First, as a cheap (often free) source of data to meet the needs of their customers. Secondly, as an inexpensive way to independently enter the information services market, especially if you can find sponsors interested in advertising their products among EDI adherents and / or in an inexpensive channel of interconnection. Thirdly, as an option that is competitive with systems like "Videotext" in terms of linking the library (and/or its sponsors) with clients.
Such a system should, apparently, have two entrances - public (preferably sponsored) and corporate (for communication with library clients).
When a library decides to be included in the FIDO-Net, it is necessary to: * clarify the list of public and commercial BBS, the direction, volume and quality of the information offered, its suitability to meet the Information requests of potential library users; technical possibility of access to this information (system operation time, channel load, etc.); * conduct a comparative analysis of the "Videotext" and "BBS" options and work out a project to create an EDI as an information telecommunication base for the library (including an agreement on joining FIDO-Net), select potential investors/sponsors and draw up a business plan to attract various categories of potential investors/sponsors.

VI In addition to teleaccess to information, many potential users are interested in the possibilities of TELECOMMUNICATIONS. These include E-MAIL; access to TELEX / TELEFAX; TELECONFERENCES; ELECTRONIC SHALLOW BOARDS and MEANS OF DATA TRANSMISSION, certified by an authorized digital signature, and various systems based on them, including a TV market / stock exchange / store / clearing center, etc., ensuring confidentiality, etc.
Unlike the situation in the late 1980s, when only global defense networks and the network of the Academy of Sciences were partially available in the USSR, today there are more than three dozen networks in Moscow alone.
With a fairly similar list of opportunities and the services and resources offered, the variation in the price of the offer is very strong.
The undoubted price leader is the SEDAB network, which asks for DM 25,000 just for registration (in the full range of services, mainly for access to international information resources).
The minimum price for registration is with the full-scale KATYUSHA network (MBIT), which provides both teleaccess to data and electronic commercial services, as well as communication services through the IAS-Net network, of which it is a subset. Payment - within tens of dollars with offset of actually rendered services.
Of undoubted interest for firms entering the information market without an excess of financial resources is RELCOM, an exclusive branch of EUNet (the European branch of InterNet - the world telecommunications network). In fact, all e-mail within the CIS, to one degree or another, goes through RELCOM channels. The network has already gained a critical mass of users and, as a result, can afford a low registration fee ($10-20).
Through the RelARN association, a non-profit organization (including a business library) can register on preferential terms (with payment of only the registration fee, but without paying for traffic - the time spent in the system, and the amount of data sent to the system and / or received from it) . Such preferential terms, valid until the traffic exceeds the threshold, will allow the services of the bureau-fax of the local post office and e-mail to be provided to library customers. It is possible to create a local mini-host or branch one registration address to several library clients.
It is important that these services can be provided by the library both within Russia and in the CIS countries, and at the international level. The cost of such services (especially for international shipments) will be significantly lower than similar services provided, for example, by the post office. (Thus, the Moscow post office is registered with SovAmTelePort (the registration fee is over $1,000) – in a system that mainly provides access to international networks and, above all, to the EUNet/InterNet global network, the Russian fragment of which is RELCOM).
Equally significant is the fact that huge volumes of unstructured commercially valuable information accumulate in RELCOM. This information is organized in the form of a so-called. "newsgroups", some of which are publicly available, while others are available only to those who have paid a subscription. A niche has already emerged for providing end users with services related to the collection of unstructured information from various sources (most of which are available through RELCOM), its analysis and structuring for a specific user request. The library could start providing such a service without large investment costs.
The SITEK network (NPF Mastak), popular in Moscow, is somewhere in the middle of the price range and is not yet the undisputed leader in terms of the range of services offered.
TELECOMMUNICATION NETWORKS (TCN) can and should be of interest to business libraries in the following qualities:

(1) TCS as a source of data necessary to satisfy user requests. In this regard, it is extremely important to determine the expected range of queries and the degree of their commercial attractiveness for the library (the ratio of search resource intensity to the funds that can be hoped to help out by selling search results) and for potential users (what information they want to receive and how much they are willing to pay for it).

It is quite possible that the most cost-effective (in terms of cost / return ratio) will be CONSULTING SERVICES in choosing a telecommunications network and SERVICE (purchase / installation of a modem and software, training, preliminary study of contracts with telecommunications networks, etc.). The costs for the selection of information and training of personnel necessary for the implementation of such a micro-project are not high. Demand for services can be significant.

The most specialized for the library will be, apparently, price-sensitive consumers of information services.

(2) TCS as a potential partner in serving the business information needs of the population and organizations in the world of telecommunications.

Such cooperation, for example, is offered by the Delovoy Mir information bank, RELCOM and the SITEK network. These are, in particular: - a purchase from a group entry network (a kind of informational wholesale, with a discount for each of the pool participants up to 50 percent or more of the cost of an individual entry). There can be many options for such a purchase - from simple ones, related only to the organizational efforts of the library to create a pool and software and hardware solutions of the owners, to more complex and commercially more risky, associated with the purchase of a hardware and software complex (costing from a thousand to tens of thousands of US dollars). ) and organizing a network node on its own; - renting a fragment of a large network and creating its own small network on its basis. (For example, the Katyusha network was created on leased fragments of IASNET - the network of the Institute of Automated Systems). An analogue of STD with global access can be created, it is possible to organize, for example, a network of business libraries (for example, based on the same IASNET), extending to cities where there are already regional nodes of the core network. This is a logical development of the idea of ​​a business library as an information broker.

(3) TCS as a channel for delivering "home" to the consumer the results of the data search ordered by him - regardless of the material form of their presentation and the search method. Delivery via e-mail channels of networks such as RELCOM to library subscribers is provided;

(4) TCS as a communication channel of the main library and branch libraries to provide readers with access to remote catalogs and services, as well as to use branches as points for receiving orders and issuing information service results.

Types of payment: * The basic types of payment for information services are the same as in the purely information STD (see above); * When using communication channels, telephone network services are additionally paid. According to current rules, the telephone channel used with the modem must be registered.

When making a decision by the library, it is necessary to clarify: * possible options for cooperation with the TCS and expected investment resources for initial actions (entry threshold), as well as expected operating costs for ongoing cooperation; * the expected demand for services that require access to the TCS: what kind of data the potential consumer would like to receive from the system; how interested he is in the capabilities of the TCS, which is its advantage over the STD (e-mail, teleconferences, forwarding data certified by the so-called digital signature, electronic trading, etc.); how highly he assesses the possibilities of telecommunications; whether he is ready to share access to the telecommunications network with other users, or whether he needs these inputs for monopoly possession; how much he is willing to pay for each of these opportunities, and most importantly, how much he is willing to pay the owner of STD for these benefits; * comparative characteristics of the BBS and RELCOM options (group registration with individual addresses) as communication channels between the library and its clients: it is important not only to compare direct material costs / incomes, but also to take into account the interests of local authorities (the possibility and expediency of a circular communication channel them with entrepreneurs, and the interests of the latter (whether they want to have a corporate network that is inaccessible to outsiders, what implementation options it provides);

© ANO Institute of Information Initiatives
© Russian State Library for Youth

The infrastructure of the information market is a set of sectors, each of which brings together a group of people or organizations that offer homogeneous information products and services.

The composition of the information market infrastructure is shown in Figure 1. Allocate five sectors of the market of information products and services.

1st sector - business information, consists of the following parts:

Exchange and financial information - securities quotes, exchange rates, discount rates, commodity and capital market, investments, prices. Suppliers are special services of exchange and financial information, brokerage companies, banks;

Statistical information - series of dynamics, predictive models and estimates for economic, social, demographic areas. Suppliers are government services, companies, consulting firms;

Commercial information on companies, firms, corporations, areas of work and their products, prices; about the financial condition, connections, transactions, leaders, business news in the field of economics and business. The providers are special information services.

2nd sector - information for specialists , contains the following parts:

Professional information - special data and information for lawyers, doctors, pharmacists, teachers, engineers, geologists, meteorologists, etc.;

Scientific and technical information - documentary, bibliographic, abstract, reference information in the field of natural, technical, social sciences, on branches of production and spheres of human activity;

Access to primary sources - organization of access to information sources through libraries and special services, the possibility of acquiring primary sources, obtaining them by interlibrary loan in various forms.

3rd sector - consumer information, consists of the following parts:

News and literature - information from news services and press agencies, newspapers, magazines, reference books, encyclopedias;

Consumer information - transport schedules, reservation of tickets and places in hotels, ordering goods and services, banking operations, etc.;

Entertainment information - games, teletext, videotext.

The 4th sector - education services, includes all forms and levels of education: preschool, school, special, secondary vocational, higher, advanced training and retraining. Information products can be presented in computer or non-computer form: textbooks, methodological developments, workshops, developing computer games, computer training and control

systems, teaching methods, etc.

5th sector - providing information systems and tools, consists of the following parts:

Software products - software systems with different orientations - from a professional to an inexperienced computer user: system software, general orientation programs, application software for the implementation of functions in a specific area of ​​​​affiliation, for solving problems by typical mathematical methods, etc .;

Technical means - computers, telecommunication equipment, office equipment, related materials and components;

Development and maintenance of information systems and technologies - examination of the organization in order to identify information flows, development of conceptual information models, development of the structure of the software package, creation and maintenance of databases;

Consulting on various aspects of the information industry - what information technology to acquire, what software is necessary for the implementation of professional activities, whether an information system is needed and which, on the basis of which information technology, it is better to organize one's activities, etc.;

Preparation of information sources - creation of databases on a given topic, area, phenomenon, etc.

In each sector, any type of access can be organized:

Direct to the storage of information on paper;

Remote to remote or located in this room computer databases.

The information market, despite different concepts and opinions regarding its infrastructure, exists and develops, and, therefore, we can talk about the business of information products and services, which means not only trade and mediation, but also production.