Explains Unicode, a standard for the representation of multilingual character sets that extends the traditional ASCII (American Standard Code Information Interchange) character set. The consortium that created Unicode is described, integration of Unicode with existing hardware and software is discussed, and the role of librarians in defining…

Describes library services of the Miami-Dade library system for the Hispanic community. The system provides a variety of bibliographic and community outreach services for Hispanic American users, who constitute about 40 percent of the population. Services to this community may be threatened by English Only legislation pending in South Florida. (AF)