This dissertation analyzes how North Carolina State University's (NCSU) James B. Hunt Jr. Library extends the ways in which the information architectures of academic research libraries can function as a technology, as discourse, and as rhetoric. The starting point for the analysis is the libraries of antiquity, which functioned technologically as…

Using the "point oh" naming system for developments in librarianship is attracting debate about its appropriateness, basis and syntax and the meaning and potential of Library 2.0. Now a new term, Library 3.0, has emerged. Is there is any significant difference between the two models? Using documentary analysis to explore the terms, the…

There is a growing interest in making available and making sense of the data on the Web and trapped in databases. Rather than a web of unstructured documents, full of information understandable only to humans, there is a movement whose intention is to make these data structured, reusable, machine-readable, and interrelated. This approach to Web…

Discusses applications of Lotus Notes groupware developed by MCI Communications Corporation librarians. The development of administrative databases used for reference request tracking, interlibrary loan, book ordering and other purposes, and corporate wide databases used to disseminate internal and external information are described. The strengths…

Discussion of issues concerned with providing library reference services to machine readable data files focuses on numeric databases. The team approach used at the University of Florida, which incorporates reference librarians, programers and data managers, database producers and vendors, and professional associations, is described. A bibliography…

Full-text services require more instruction and reference help than electronic bibliographic databases. To relieve pressure on reference staff, librarians at Pennsylvania State University developed weekly "Just-in-Time" demonstrations to help patrons learn how to use LEXIS-NEXIS. This article provides an overview of LEXIS-NEXIS and…

Describes Janet (the Joint Academic Network), a wide area network linking computers and users in the British academic community. Topics discussed include interactive working; file transfer; electronic mail; job transfer; and online access to library catalogs, bibliographic and numeric databases, and commercial online hosts in Great Britain or…

A system in which the function of the library is to acquire, store, and organize materials is proposed which separates the reference function into a group of subject specialists backed up by computerized information retrieval systems. This division of labor is caused by the scientific community's need for access to graphic and other specific (not…

Outlines the history, form of membership, legal incorporation, and technical aspects of the College Libraries Activity Network of New South Wales (CLANN) and describes Insearch DIAL (Division of Library and Information) Services and its place in the information services network. (RAO)

Describes the background of and the concept, and purpose of a local file in the Pikes Peak Library District's community resource and information system. The year established, scope and function, and sample records are reviewed for the nine files that currently comprise the system. (two references) (MES)

Explains how a multipurpose bibliographic/MARC data base of machine-readable data files (MRDF), created according to the MARC II record format, was conceived, and how much an information resource would benefit the general user and professional librarian. (Author/CWM)

With fiber optic networks that can deliver library materials directly to the user from computerized data banks, is there any need for the library function? For the short term, public libraries will survive. The answer for the medium and long-term is much less certain. Libraries will survive if librarians see themselves as active providers of…

Programs of the National Library of Medicine over almost a century and a half are described, ranging from a history of American medical literature and the development of medical indexing to modern technological developments. Activities covered include the development of the Toxicology Information Program and the online data base TOXLINE; the…

Surveys the impact of computers and related technology on reference work in Australia highlighting online information retrieval and related databases; Australian Information Network; coverage of Australian material in local and foreign databases; Australian Bibliographic Network; electronic mail; Australian Consortium for Social and Political…

Examines factors which may affect the receptivity of librarians to the use of optical disk technologies, including hardware and software issues, the content of currently available databases, and the integration of optical technologies into existing library services. (CLB)