Describes major changes made in bibliographic control systems in the past three decades and discusses why these changes have occurred. (Author)

Discussion of union catalogs and bibliographic networks covers library cooperation, interlibrary lending, the British Library Lending Division, and other functions of bibliographic networks such as cataloging. Criticisms of bibliographic utilities are also presented, including the negative effect of library cooperation on local book availability.…

Eight articles describe the development, content, and structure of databases outside of the United States. Features discussed include library involvement, authority control, shared cataloging services, union catalogs, thesauri, abstracts, and distribution methods. Countries and areas represented are Latin America, Australia, the United Kingdom,…

Reviews the history of libraries in Lithuania from 1940 to 1992. Highlights include early book collections, and attitudes toward books and reading; changes after the Soviet invasion, including censorship, lack of timeliness, and information barriers; library networks; library education; research trends; library legislation; library literature; and…

Summarizes responses from an international survey of automated library system vendors who offer integrated, multi-user, multi-function systems running on mainframes, minis, and micros using multi-user operating systems. Companies were questioned about their computer systems, products, customers, staff, and sales figures. A comparative analysis of…

Describes the emergence of resource center forums (i.e., popular information networks) in South Africa in the 1980s and 1990s. Background and objectives are summarized for the Transkei Fieldworkers' network, Natal Resource Centre Forum, Cape Inter-Resource Forum, Transvaal Resource Centre Network, Sekhukhuneland Educational Projects forum, and…

Sandra Tauler has tailored her collection and services to the needs of a community that is 97 percent Hispanic. Unfortunately, that's only half the job. The other half is getting potential users through the door. The solution Tauler and other Imperial Valley librarians came up with was Proyecto Televista. With LSTA funding, and the assistance of…

It is tough to make the staff of a large, highly centralized urban library system believe they should make their own decisions and even take risks--all to serve their community better. But that is what Mary Graham has achieved as Brooklyn Public Library's director of the Office of Neighborhood Services. A study of Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) in…

In the contemporary library environment, the presence of the Internet and the infrastructure of the integrated library system suggest an integrated internal organization. The article describes the example of Douglass Rationalization, a team-based collaborative project to refocus the collection of Rutgers' Douglass Library, taking advantage of the…

Fourteen years after its establishment, the Distance Learning Section is one of the fastest growing sections in the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), a division of the American Library Association. Based on Section archives and secondary literature, this article traces the organization's development from its beginnings as a…

This paper describes playback equipment provided by the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped's Talking Books program. The history of these machines is reviewed from 1933 to the present and includes activities during World War II, the introduction of flexible discs and cassettes, descriptions of a variety of machines…

The topic of open systems as it relates to the needs of libraries to establish interoperability between dissimilar computer systems can be clarified by an understanding of the background and evolution of the issue. The International Standards Organization developed a model to link dissimilar computers, and this model has evolved into consensus…

Using data provided by the annual reports of Illinois public libraries and by the Illinois state library, this publication is a companion to the November 1982 issue of "Illinois Libraries," which enumerated the 16 data elements upon which the analyses are based. Three additional types of information are provided for each of six…

Describes a three-year plan and a system study designed to produce a computerized union catalog and an in-process file for both the Library of Congress Division for the Blind and Physically Handicapped and a network of almost 200 libraries throughout the nation. (Author/PF)

Following historical background on the 46 School Library Systems in New York State, the following topics relating to the systems are discussed: (1) mandates set up for the systems by the State Board of Regents; (2) required 3-year Plans of Service which explain how the mandates will be carried out; (3) governance; (4) funding; (5) creation of…