Since the early 1990s, Carl Malamud has made it his business to return to the public what is rightfully theirs: free access to public information. Despite legislation that mandates such access to government information, some categories of information have been excluded, notable among them court opinions (with the exception of the U.S. Supreme…

eHealth is an emerging service sector which has great potential to improve health care delivery to rural and remote communities, facilitate health surveillance, and promote health education and research. Despite the critical need for eHealth services in Australia based on the challenges of distance and human resources, its utility has yet to be…

Because Ohio public, school, and special libraries did not have the infrastructure of their academic counterparts, they turned to a regional OCLC network, OHIONET, to provide Internet access. This article provides an overview of the Internet and OHIONET, discusses OCLC's role in providing services to members via the Internet, and describes the…

This column, part of a series of commonly asked questions on library law, completes discussion of two previous columns on common questions about the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Highlights include: procedures if a request for records is denied; appealing a denial of records; how FOIA is enforced and interpreted by the courts; personal…

In providing information services for distance learners, the University of Surrey library found Internet-based services difficult and time consuming. Issues concerning access and copyright put librarians into the position of "fact controllers," deciding what resources could be offered to distance learners to support their studies. (SK)

Scholarship conducted in an increasingly online environment requires the services of a trusted third party in order to ensure that scholarly communication remains reliably accessible and applicable over the longer term. The library, by virtue of its most fundamental values and attributes, is probably better suited at this time than other…

A review of the debate within the library profession concerning the changing role of libraries and fee based library services is followed by the presentation and discussion of an economic analysis of library services based on an indifference curve model. This model may be used to justify selected user fees. (CLB)

This proceedings contains the introduction, keynote address, panel discussion, and four papers. Topics include: role of the library and librarians in the information age, the librarian as information consultant, marketing the library to the parent organization, ownership versus access, and financial realities of providing information services in…

Documents and journal articles featured in this nine-item annotated bibliography concern information as a critical resource in a democratic society and the role of the library and information services in ensuring access to information, especially that which is government produced. Citations were selected through a computer search of the…

Discusses the Government Printing Office (GPO) Electronic Information Access Enhancement Act of 1993, which shifted the Federal Depository Library Program's emphasis from local collections building to the Superintendent of Documents and the GPO, and outlines implications of this shift from collection building to citizen information service.…

Argues that providing end users with more information does not really address their problems and, in fact, does not even identify them. Topics discussed include the growth of information technology, reasons for the decline in the number of reference librarians, roles of libraries, and the importance of information intermediaries. (MES)

This paper focuses on efforts by library groups and individuals to influence the development of state government information policy in various states in the United States, and emphasizes the need for librarians to make sure they either initiate such development or insert themselves into any existing policy development processes. Emphasis is given…

Discusses the rising costs of library materials from a vendor's perspective. Effects of corporate takeovers of publishers are examined, resource sharing among libraries is discussed, the role of the library as a supplier of information resources and services is considered, and libraries' need for product development and marketing strategies is…

This paper formulates the means for an improved role for all citizens through a dynamic and interactive parliamentary library and information system. It illustrates the success of such a proposal to strengthen the legitimacy of parliaments by referring to the experience of the Congress of the Republic of Peru and explains what is being done to…

Suggests that digital resources and telecommunications give librarians the best chance in decades to reexamine and achieve many of their fundamental goals. Discusses the goals of providing the right information in appropriate formats, keeping the intellectual record, providing personalized information services, and serving as educators, and cites…