This article presents the narrative accounts of the beginnings of digital library programs in five European national libraries: Biblioteca nacional de Portugal, Bibliotheque nationale de France, Die Deutsche Bibliothek, the National Library of Scotland, and the British Library. Based on interviews with policy makers and developers of digital…

This study examines the influence of culture on digital libraries of the first wave. The local cultures of innovation of five European national libraries (Biblioteca nacional de Portugal, Bibliotheque nationale de France, Die Deutsche Bibliothek, the National Library of Scotland, and the British Library) are reconstructed in case histories from…

Discusses political and cultural battles over the role of a national library in France and the future direction and function of libraries in general. Uses accounts from the press to trace changes in the project as well as ways in which it influenced French librarianship. Contains 34 references. (Author/LRW)

This document is based on transcripts of recorded informal interviews with: (1) selected senior professors in the library schools at Warsaw, Krakow, and Wroclaw (Poland); (2) the director and a member of the Books and Readers Institute of the National Polish Libraries; and (3) a group of Polish librarians and students in the field. The report…

Among information workers, the term "disintermediation" has been used to describe the diminishing role of the intermediary associated with the electronic information environment. IMPEL2 is a JISC-funded e-Lib Project investigating the social, organizational, and cultural impacts of the growing electronic library in United Kingdom higher…

This book draws on an extensive literature review and personal experience to examine cross-cultural issues in the development of libraries for Arctic indigenous communities. Although the book highlights circumstances in Alaska, its geographical scope is circumpolar, including Canada, Greenland, and the former Soviet Union and present-day Russian…

Includes three papers that discuss government publishing in developing countries and its effects on library collection development. Highlights include national information policies; user expectations; the role of culture; bibliographic control; acquisition and access to publications from Africa and Asia; and an indexed bibliography of 236 works…

Discusses the National Library of Australia's leadership of the Australian library system in light of the failure of key electronic aspects of the Strategic Plan. Topics include overseas collecting; electronic access; the Distributed National Collection (DNC); culturally discriminatory collecting policy; and costs of access, including user fees.…