David Barcomb has put together a marvelous primer for anyone interested in implementing office automation tools. His book covers a broad range of tools and combines an emphasis on practicality with a nice focus on the purpose of these tools (to manage office information rather than merely to engage in the proliferation of technology). Barcomb offers fresh, new, and believable statistics on the costs of accomplishing office activities, and this book will serve as an excellent reference for practitioners charged with cost-benefit analysis of this technology. He advocates a “3 P’s” strategy--“Prototype, Pilot, and Production”--and gives a good outline for proceeding through these steps. He includes primers on topics such as communications, text management and graphics, and electronic mail systems, and he ties it all together with a final section on integrating all of these technologies for improved information handling.

The one difficulty with this book will be finding an audience, as it does not seem to fit into a neat category. It would make a perfect reference book for the library of any company that has an information center. It could also serve as the main text in an office automation course at the undergraduate level or as a supplementary text in a distributed data processing course at either the undergraduate or graduate level. The book is highly readable, easily referenced, and very thorough in its explanations of this technology and the successful implementation of these systems. Barcomb has done the office automation community a great service, and his book offers an excellent vehicle for eliminating confusion about the application of office automation tools and techniques.