A PROFILE AND FUNCTIONAL JOB ANALYSIS OF KEY STAFF POSITIONS FOUND IN U.S. ONLINE DATABASE PRODUCTION ORGANIZATIONS (INDEXERS, EDUCATION, EDITORS, TRAINING, ABSTRACTORS; UNITED STATES)

This study investigated the staffing and organizational structure of U.S. online database production organizations. Staff categories involved in the intellectual production of databases were identified and described. The organizational structures of three database producers were studied and summarized.;Results from this study indicated that database production firms have not developed distinct staffing patterns based on organization sponsorship. Most employ few people in any single staff category. Significant shifts in employment patterns have occurred between 1982 and 1984 including serious decreases in the numbers of abstractors and editors employed and a rapid increase in the "other" category. Study data indicate that much of this increase is attributable to an industry-wide increase in employment of marketing, customer service, and user education staff. Four industry-specific positions not included in the most recent edition of the Dictionary of Occupational Titles were analyzed and described. The relationships of staff employed in one large production firm are illustrated in organization and process flow charts.;Recommendations for education of students for careers in the online industry include avoidance of development of education programs designed to prepare students for careers in the industry-specific job categories identified, provision for elective study of index language and thesaurus construction due to the prevalence of controlled vocabularies developed in-house by the majority of database producers, and supplementing library and information science core curricula with substantial study in another discipline.;The study consisted of three phases. During the first two phases all U.S. online database producers were surveyed to ascertain the numbers of individuals employed in eleven categories and to examine matters of policy formulation, decision-making, and management within the study population. The third phase consisted of on-site visits to three production firms for the purpose of describing their staff positions and organization structures. Functional Job Analysis methodology, used by the U.S. Department of Labor to describe U.S. industries and the positions found within them and as the basis for the Dictionary of Occupational Titles, was employed during the third phase.