In the journal "The Chronicle of Higher Education," an article by Geoffrey Nunberg criticizes Google's Book Search (GBS), emphasizing that disturbing errors are endemic. He recognizes that for mainstream "googling" purposes, "they don't really care about metadata provided by a library catalog." In perhaps his most discouraging point, linguistics…

Based on "Library Journal's" 1997 Public Library Budget Report, this article discusses the state of public libraries in terms of Internet-related costs, budgets, local, state and federal funding, and fundraising. Presents--in six tables segmented by population served--the financial situations of 84 randomly surveyed public libraries.…

Compares current and past results from two surveys done of Association of Research Libraries' members to determine how electronic reference services affect staff, patron expectations, and user instruction. Increases were found in: patron Internet access; end user online searching; local area networks; and tape-loading databases. Decreases were…

Discussion of electronic information access in libraries focuses on five areas that impact quality and cost: (1) hardware, including networking, graphics, and full-text capabilities; (2) software; (3) access and utilization, including Internet and instruction and training; (4) licensing, including suggestions for publishers as well as librarians;…

Discussion of the information crisis focuses on possible new forms of library collections. Topics discussed include the rising quantity and costs of publications; improvements in access through new technologies; vendors' plans using electronic text; information flow; economics factors, including user fees; and the role of the commercial sector.…