The imperatives of the opening age of computer assisted library service requires the adoption of this standard. Much of the international bibliographical and cataloging world has already seen the light. Shall we lag far behind? (Author/NH)

The author, a working librarian-programmer, wonders how such a far-reaching recommended standard could have reached this advanced stage of development with so little public notice. (38 references) (Author/NH)

Discusses the possible effects of library automation and networking on standards of catalog accuracy, catalog maintenance, circulation control, and other processes, and describes the mission of the Research Libraries Group (RLG), a consortium of 25 research libraries. (FM)

Presents results of a survey of 30 library systems vendors to examine how successfully they met the key challenges of 1997: integration, testing, and marketing a new generation of systems. Character-based systems, the Dublin Core, Java, and the Z39.50 standard are discussed. Profiles describing sales and product developments for each of the…

Discusses emerging theory that there are two different kinds of technical services, one for public and school libraries and another for academic/research and special libraries. Highlights include use of "The Anglo-American Cataloging Rules," library size versus type, classification, library automation, and results of survey of 13 library…

Discusses how collections in the digital library, instead of traditional cataloging, call for metadata, structured information about information. Describes three categories of metadata information about digital resources: descriptive, structural, and administrative. Examines emerging standards for digital-library classification. (AEF)