Library and Information Science

The author gives, in plain words, the account of how the concept of NIST, a national scientific and technical information network system, was formed in Japan with consideration of the national situation. He gives the essentials of systems concept and then, on the analogy of commodity flow, especially of food stuffs, defines the essential characters of a scientific and technical information network and concludes that the NIST concept satisfies the requirements for a national information system in a developed country.