The Alliance Library System (ALS) is one of 12 regional library systems in Illinois, providing a full spectrum of support services for 300 member libraries of all types (public, school, academic, and special) located in west central Illinois. This paper describes the process by which ALS implemented a voice/video/data network connecting their four…

Discusses impacts of the Internet on reference services and changing roles for reference librarians. Describes a continuum of libraries (Sutton) from a paper-based (traditional) to a fully digital library. Examines K-12 uses and benefits of digital reference services (question-and-answer services sometimes referred to as AskA's). Describes K-12…

Eleven papers delivered at the annual meeting of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions for the Division of Management and Technology are presented. Some were presented at a roundtable on audiovisual media, and others are from sessions on library buildings and equipment, information management, and statistics in…

The author argues that traditional library cataloging (MARC) and the online public access catalog (OPAC) are in collision with the world of the Internet because items in electronic formats undergo MARC cataloging only on a very selective basis. Also the library profession initially isolated itself from World Wide Web development by predicting no…

Traditional library tasks, for example database searching, are increasingly performed by library users, forcing both the librarian and the user to assume at times dichotomous roles of teacher and student. Modern librarians install new software and guide organizations in multimedia applications. Librarians need to be cognizant of the human factor,…