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 increasing prevalence of digital information systems and technologies compels libraries across the globe to update systems and provide users with a digital experience outside the confines of the structural library, providing useful benefits to the user while creating new areas of concern such as digital information preservation.…

This paper discusses library development in the changing environment arising within the forthcoming Information/Knowledge Society. The role of the library as a social institution is examined in the context of the evolution of the whole literary and knowledge system. Ideas about conceptual changes to be introduced by the library in order to respond…

Describes the emergence of communities of digital library (DL)research and practice, explores directions of digital libraries arising from these communities and speculates on future directions which point toward the need for extensive research in digital libraries and for the transformation of libraries as institutions. (AEF)

Discusses the managerial, business, and personal skills that will be needed for acquisitions librarians to remain central to the virtual library. Considers the issues of self-leadership, management, and survival in a continual state of change, and the need for creativity and innovation, as well as more traditional skills. (Author/AEF)

There is an electronic revolution in the library which may prove to be a revolution in the humanities and in the nature of learning and education. The humanities are an essentially human enterprise of which the record reposes in books in libraries. The central role of libraries in preserving these ideas must survive the electronic revolution.…

Controversy is the current state of opinion among librarians and others about the future of libraries. The proponents of the electronic library say that now that information is readily available from sources other than the library, the role of the library must be rethought. Some of the advocates of the electronic library see the elimination of the…

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…

Discusses various communities that have contributed to the development of the Yale University Library Electronic Text Center (ETC) and describes the evolution of the ETC from a center for the support of electronic texts in the humanities to an electronic resource center providing support in the creation of World Wide Web resources. (LRW)

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…

Increasingly, digital libraries are being defined as collection pointers to World Wide Web-based resources rather than collections that hold the resources themselves. Maintaining these collections is challenging due to distributed document ownership and high fluidity. Typically a collection's maintainer has to assess the relevance of changes with…

Examines the shift from the vision of the virtual library to the digital library concept. Discusses attitudes toward electronic resources, CD-ROM technology, the appropriate use of electronic formats, differences in information needs, balance between print and electronic media in libraries, and collaborative resource development. A sidebar…

Libraries exist for the benefit of the mind, but they have practical problems coping with the acquisition, storage, and handling of the documents and records with which they deal. Any change in technology that would have a significant effect on the methods available for these procedures could have important consequences for library service. The…

This survey examined whether recent changes in the accessibility of bibliographic records and electronic access has led to an emerging pattern in the way that documents are organized into four areas: (1) general questions; (2) technical services; (3) collections and public services; and (4) changes in the organization of documents service.…