Explains the House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology in the UK (United Kingdom) and discusses its report that addresses the need for information technology planning on a national basis. Topics include electronic publishing for access to government publications, universal access, regulatory framework, encryption and verification,…

Discusses the National Information Infrastructure and outlines proposed legislation and administrative initiatives that suggest a radical restructuring of existing support mechanisms for libraries. The need for an information and telecommunications policy is addressed; the telecommunications industry is described; and access to federal government…

Describes the background of the Linked Systems Project, which is designed to link existing bibliographic utilities into a national system of machine-readable bibliographic data and discusses directions being taken by the library community and why the OSI architecture was selected as the system protocol. (CLB)

The foundations of national bibliography remain an effective legal deposit regime and the use of widely accepted bibliographic standards, but its nature, format, presentation, and way in which national bibliographies are produced are evolving to reflect changes in technology and user expectations. This paper presents experiences in Australia,…

This paper, which was presented to National Aeronautics and Space Administration librarians as part of a telecommunications conference, describes features of the proposed National Research and Education Network (NREN). First, NREN's predecessor, the National Science Foundation network (the current NSFnet/Internet system), is discussed and the…

This booklet covers the development of Unesco's General Information Program (PGI), which was created in 1977 to insure a coherent development of Unesco's work in the areas of scientific and technological information, documentation, libraries, and archives. A description of the history of the organization and its predecessors, the structure of the…

Summarizes reports from six sessions of the 1990 seminar convened by the Federation for Information and Documentation (FID). Highlights include policies concerning the availability of information and access to it; information policy problems between industrialized and nonindustrialized countries; the future of FID; and new information technologies…

Surveys the need for an Indian library and information system using Unesco and UNISIST publications as a framework. Highlights include identification of problems through a pre-planning survey, and a proposal that a national committee be set up to be responsible for policy decision making and to coordinate implementation of developmental plans.…

Rural areas lag behind urban areas in access to information technologies. Public institutions play a critical role in extending the benefits of information technologies to those who would not otherwise have access. The most successful rural telecommunications plans address barriers to use, such as unawareness of the benefits, technophobia, the…

Although it has been widely recognized that the United States has moved into the Information Age, the federal government has been slow to establish a single mechanism to coordinate the many facets of the Information Age. The Special Libraries Association (SLA) proposes the establishment of a National Academy of Information to ensure government and…

Describes the role of the United Kingdom's National Council for Educational Technology to promote information technology (IT). Highlights include visions for the future; the role of senior managers and educators; evidence of the effectiveness of IT; special needs students; access to appropriate information; equipment considerations; and…

Discusses the need for a National Information Documentation Centre (NIDOC) in Nigeria. Topics addressed include functions of NIDOC, the location of NIDOC, including the role of the National Library; results of user studies; information storage and retrieval; library staff requirements and training; and access to national information sources. (17…

Discussion of a Canadian high-speed communications network, influenced by the National Research and Education Network (NREN) initiative, focuses on the genesis of the system; expected benefits to Canada's economy, competitiveness, and social welfare; and specific applications such as library resource sharing, free-nets, distance education, and…

The principal aim of Australia's Distance Learning for Inservice Teacher Education (DLITE) Project has been to develop a proposal and knowledge base for the development of a cooperative national policy for the application of distance learning to inservice teacher education in Australia. This report provides background information on the state of…

E-mail has swept the communications and information world, providing instantaneous global information and data exchange. However, an information elite still exists, made up of those with access to and knowledge about computers and e-mail. The diverging trends in access based on income and education are placing significant groups of current and…