Conclusion

A thorough assessment of a company’s or organisation’s information needs should be made before the introduction of online searching. However, there is a growing demand for it, as libraries are subject to financial reductions and printed services may no longer be within their budget. As online searching requires more than just some preliminaries and investment but also a constant training of the searchers, the point must be clarified, whether a proper online work station should be installed in a department or wether information experts (inhouse or external) should be given the task. Even if searches are carried out externally, it is generally helpful when the customer has a basic understanding of file structures and contents, and when he is basically informed about the systematics of online searching. In many cases, a combination of procedures will be desirable: simple questions may be processed inhouse, while complex and extensive questions should be handed over to retrieval specialists.