This article explores recent developments in national policy for academic libraries. It considers the shift from traditional to managerial academic librarianship; the move to "social space" and multi-use systems; changes in the balance between meeting teaching and research needs and in public funding priorities; the difficulty of making…

The University of York is among the top universities in the United Kingdom, yet has not adopted all manner of electronic media. The University Library attempts to meet the demands placed upon it by its academic and student users for electronic media of all kinds, while working within a sometimes frame work that does not encourage exploitation of…

This paper reports on a major United Kingdom (UK) government initiative to use the public library service as a key component in the government's agenda for social change, examines future implications for public libraries and library workers if present trends and development continue, and makes predictions about the wider implications of…

Purpose: This paper aims to examine how technology presents both problems and opportunities for the historian, the researcher, small organisations, and cultural heritage institutions. Ways of safeguarding historical material in digital form are suggested, and the role of cultural heritage bodies as managers of sustainable digital collections is…

This paper outlines the efforts of the United Kingdom (UK) Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) to help UK higher education institutions deal with the growing diversity of information resources. These efforts are based on two strands: the Electronic Libraries Program and the development of the JISC collections. These strands are now coming…

Purpose: To review a small specialist repository's strategic and opportunistic approach to utilising collaborative regional and national digital initiatives to increase access. The Birmingham Institute of Art and Design (BIAD) Archives activity is evaluated to determine whether a project-based approach recognises and meets the needs of historians,…

Among information workers, the term "disintermediation" has been used to describe the diminishing role of the intermediary associated with the electronic information environment. IMPEL2 is a JISC-funded e-Lib Project investigating the social, organizational, and cultural impacts of the growing electronic library in United Kingdom higher…

Reviews trends in the collection and use of moving images in Great Britain between 1935 and 1985, concentrating on nonfiction material and the National Film Archive. Topics include collection, preservation, changing patterns of use, the impact of television, regional archives, the need for more systematic efforts, and reports and conferences.…

Traditional information services provision relies on the planned and logical building of a collection to meet current and future user information needs. This is achieved through the acquisition and discarding of material, which might ideally be based on a regularly reviewed collection development policy statement. The evolution of collection…