The academic library environment is in transition because of the enormous financial pressures placed on university libraries by simultaneous budget decreases and increased demands for services. Changes brought about by economic restructuring of the scholarly research and publication process, the emergence of a scholarly electronic communication network, and the impact of the evolving electronic university are the three major sources of change. These changes are creating a paradigm shift in the nature of scholarly research, in response to which academic libraries need to create and test new, reformulated, and expanded missions. Tactics that will help university libraries respond to the challenges include selective cancellation of serial titles; changing existing intellectual property statutes to allow more resource sharing; increased networking among many participants in the system of scholarly communication; and the development of creative excitement directed at recasting academic libraries and their missions. (KRN)