This article examines the construction and operation of a service industry information system in the early years of the twentieth century. It sets the operations of the Birmingham, UK, company of Mitchells & Butlers in the context of the brewing industry and the operation of public houses. The...

Argues that concepts such as information resource management have more to do with data than information. Notes that this has the impact of distracting from the central issue of how meaning is created. Argues that much more attention needs to be paid to the process of knowledge formation....