Discusses the relationship between technology and librarianship and suggests questioning new technology, including whether it benefits the user and whether it is accessible, affordable, and cost effective. Considers Google's success, recommends that libraries become more involved in technology development, and includes a sidebar describing new…

Librarians must get the most for their money and look to technology for new solutions. Several respondents think poor budgets mean more reliance on online databases and electronic full texts with less purchase of print. Companies that produce both media are likely to continue as long as there is a market for both, but they are gearing up for the…

Blogging offers an alternative and sometimes superior way to communicate with library patrons. It provides an opportunity to speak more directly to them, and it does so in a manner that is more comfortable and convenient for all involved. A library's Web site may be the only interaction that patrons have with the organization, so it makes sense to…

In response to the changing educational landscape of the community college, reference librarians must adapt their service to fit the information needs of their patrons. One such update is synchronous digital reference, which applies instant messaging technology to library service. Todd Library at Waubonsee Community College (Sugar Grove, Illinois)…

The University of Maryland University College (UMUC) serves a dispersed patron base, and its library has developed, over time, a circulation system for distributing physical research materials to its patrons throughout the United States. This article discusses the development of this system and its associated interface/database management system…

Different views on the future of research libraries are presented in this collection of papers from persons affiliated with the State University of New York (SUNY) at Albany. Joseph Z. Nitecki (library director) discusses the effect of social change on library missions, operations, and procedures. Warren F. Ilchman (vice president for research and…

Addressing both positive and negative issues associated with adapting telefacsimile technology to meet library service needs, this guide provides basic information about the technology while illustrating how librarians have begun to incorporate it into their work processes. The following topics are covered: (1) the definition of telefacsimile and…

History, development, evaluation, and problems of computerized biomedical information systems, with emphasis on the National Library of Medicine and MEDLARS. (LS)

Intended to provide recommendations which will permit Wisconsin libraries to make more effective use of current automated systems, select the most appropriate new systems, and provide a basis for statewide library automation planning, this report describes the current and future use of automation technology in that state's libraries. Its four…

This directory is designed to provide information on automated systems and/or equipment used in libraries to provide a tool for planning future automation in the context of interlibrary cooperation considerations, and to inform the library and information community of the state of the art of automation in Massachusetts libraries. The main body is…

This volume is concerned with providing a cross-view of library automation developments in the Orient and throughout Southeast Asia. The first part provides an overview of computer and information developments in Southeast Asia which relate to library services. Various aspects of regional cooperation are described, and the advancement of…

Many library operations involving large data banks lend themselves readily to computer operation. In setting up library computer programs, in changing or expanding programs, cost in programming and time delays could be substantially reduced if the programmers had access to library computer programs being used by other libraries, providing similar…

The introduction to this addendum (the Action Plan is LI 004 521) discusses the present use by libraries of information-handling technology and identifies some of the trends taking place in performing essential library services. While some limited inroads have been made in automating certain public library functions, the bulk of services is still…

Results of a recent study of potential demand for electronic information transfer services in 1970-1990 are presented. Projections are made for new services such as electronic mail, remote library browsing, checkless society transactions, video telephone and others, as well as conventional services such as telephone, telegraph and network program…

Discusses the advantages of parallel processor computers in terms of expandibility, cost, performance and reliability, and suggests that such computers be used in library automation systems as a cost effective approach to planning for the growth of information services and computer applications. (CLB)