The EPA INFORMATION MISSION

Almostfrom the start the European Productivity Agency recognized the importance to productivity of a free flow of information and new ideas. As proof of this one has only to note its activities in this field: EPA Digests, the Question and Answer Service, provision of Technical Information Officers in the various countries, Technical Information Conferences, and even more the contribution it has made to the ‘small firm problem’. Firstly, there was a Survey carried out in Europe and the United States on how small firms obtain technical information which, though it revealed no more than was already known in the information world, usefully focused the attention of many other people on the unsatisfactory situation which exists. In order to widen the range of resources known to firms the next stage was to produce a directory of sources of information, and this was followed by the commissioning of a pamphlet giving advice to small and medium‐sized firms on the setting up of technical information services. This was supplemented by a further publication giving case studies of how eighteen firms solved their own information problems.