If the resort city of Anaheim, California, home of Disneyland and its "imagineers," marked a departure from the urban reality of the typical American Library Association (ALA) annual conference, it was impossible, at this 2008 meeting, to avoid urgent library issues. How do libraries maintain their value and cultural presence as users…

Provides a historical overview of subscription agencies and describes the current situation. The largest companies are identified and issues for the future--computers and integrated systems, pricing, budgeting, optical technology, and printing technology--are discussed. (MES)

Reports on the Special Library Association's 2002 annual conference in Los Angeles. Highlights include declining attendance; revised bylaws; changes that occurred during the past year; possible changes to the name of the organization; keynote speakers; and future plans. (LRW)

Libraries will not be able to meet the information needs of users without taking seriously the implications of our media environment, without recognizing the awesome influence of mass media. (Author)

It is more important to make available all possible shades of opinion and varieties of creative effort than to have the widest possible range of gadgets and gizmos connected by the fanciest and longest possible networks, but including only a restricted, censored, limited range of topics and their interpretations. (Author)

Science fiction is used to describe four scenarios of the library of the future: completely computerized; rehumanized; post-cataclysmic, reinvented; and post-computer, mental high-tech. The future is discussed in terms of what is possible, probable, and desirable. An exercise is suggested for librarians to examine their own ideas about the future…

International library cooperation is likely to be a major concern in the next quarter of a century. (Author/PF)

Describes the work of people, both librarians and non-librarians, who are change agents in shaping the future of libraries in the areas of community builders; visionaries; mentors; activists; innovators; collection developers; scholars; industry notables; team players; and service providers. (LRW)

One of the most important issues for discussion at a White House Conference on Library and Information Services should be the nature and amount of government support for all types of libraries. (Author/PF)

Outlines the major issues which special libraries will face in the next decade. (Author/PF)

Forecasts the probable results of past and present conditions in public library services for children and young adults. (Author/PF)

The future of books over the next 20 years will depend very largely upon whether we, as a society, recover our faith in education, in research, and in our capacity to use knowledge to achieve a more abundant, humane, and egalitarian life. (Author)

Before the country is saturated with incompatible and competing networks, an overall, national plan must be developed. (Author)

If the users of the new communications technologies insist on using authors' works without giving some appropriate compensation in return, they will find that sooner or later there will be no authors worth reading and no works worth reproducing. (Author)

Libraries must begin to provide not only the information tools which will allow individuals to better manipulate the system, but those that will allow them to research and change the system. (Author)