Automating the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee.

American industry rushed to adopt the personal computer during the 1980s, but it is not clear that they were wise in doing so. As that decade ended, economists were perplexed to discover that the information age had not brought with it any discernible increase in productivity (David 1990; Roach 1987; Bailey and Gordon 1988). The expectation that computers would save time, money, and paper had been largely unfulfilled. In a maxim attributed to Robert Solow of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, "We see computers everywhere but in the productivity statistics" (Harrison 1996). During the early 1990s, the privatization of the Internet and the inception of the World Wide Web (Web) have taken place. Why has there been so much excitement and hyperbole surrounding these 2 developments? Perhaps because computers are finally beginning to fulfill earlier expectations. Although final judgments about productivity are premature, these 2 developments are already allowing a large number of workers to benefit from computer applications in a very direct and visible way. This article examines ways in which an institutional animal care and use committee (IACUC) might use electronic mail (e-mail) and the Web to enhance productivity.