The document entitled "A Commitment to Information Services," prepared over a period of two years by the Standards Committee of the Reference and Adult Services Division (RASD) of the American Library Association, and now formally adopted by the Division Executive Board, is a better disappointment. (Author)

A discussion of the questions addressed, and the questions ignored by the June 1977 report of the Network Advisory Group of the Library of Congress on a national bibliographic network. (Author/KP)

Presents the text of the report's transmittal message by the President to the Congress. It stresses the importance of libraries, identifies specific responsibilities of the federal government, characterizes the needs of the disadvantaged, and encourages the use of new information techniques. (RAA)

Unless a limited set of specific goals is pursued with diligence, the local library may find itself running off in all directions at once, trying to satisfy every library-related need of a very heterogeneous "community." (16 references) (Author)

Contains the text of the American Library Association Reference and Adult Services Division's guidelines entitled "A Commitment to Information Services." (PF)

Librarians should expend less effort on debates about fees for services; instead they should seek to provide those services in the fairest possible manner. Cooperation with vendors, administrators, politicians, and others offers an opportunity to minimize through special subsidies the costs of the services to individual users. References are…

This first of three articles describing implementation of 1979 White House Conference on Library and Information Services resolutions covers leadership role of National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, needs of underserved, organizations and professions, international activities, public/private sector interaction, statistics and…

Reviews the historical development of libraries and the evolution of the information industry to describe the impact of information technology upon libraries. Opportunities for librarians are illustrated by practical suggestions for transition from a library to an information context. (RAA)

Do vendor reps provide librarians with the information they need in the way they need it? Do vendors feel they are communicating effectively with their librarian clients? A recent survey of North American and European academic librarians commissioned by Jim McGinty, vice chair of Cambridge Information Group, and carried out by consultants David…

A critical analysis is made of selected portions of an ALA committee document on national information policy. The authors state that the "...document does not provide a conceptual foundation for anything. It is arrant nonsense and deserves to be repudiated as quickly and emphatically as possible." (JPF)

The previous head of the Central Library of Riverside City and County Public Library (RCCPL) (California) examines the economic failure of the system and the effects of the move to total outsourcing to a private commercial firm, Library Systems & Services (LSSI). Concludes that RCCPL had problems long before it was outsourced to LSSI. (AEF)

Library schools must produce new generations of librarians and information specialists with a clear vision of the characteristics and potential of full information delivery systems. (Author/PF)

Economic pressures on the information industry and on libraries are significantly affecting the nature of services and the organization of work within libraries. These effects are illustrated by three phenomena: emphasis on productivity in libraries, marketing of online database searches through libraries, and the repackaging of library services…

The library community will be faced with the challenge of redefining services to accommodate the growing population of older adults. These services should take into consideration factors such as level of education, ethnicity, stage in life and mobility while incorporating technology and lifelong learning into creative programs. (JKP)

The Community Health Information Network, a cooperative library network established between a community hospital and six public libraries, is described. This model program provides health education and information services to patient/consumers and library services to health personnel through their public libraries. Funding, factors leading to the…