Discusses how the library vendor's role is expanding to encompass a more active coaching component in a digitized environment. Topics include centrality of the reader; professional expectations for librarians; and coaching in the areas of bibliography information, licensing, networking, product/service awareness, and industry/market advice. (LRW)

Considers whether libraries are artifact-bound institutions and therefore will be replaced as the dominant technology for information communication moves from tangible objects to electronic bits on a network. Topics include what libraries are for; libraries as information subsidy; subsidies for networked information; and the digital library as…

Describes the IMPEL (Impact on People of Electronic Libraries) project that investigated the social, organizational, and cultural impacts of the increasingly electronic environment experienced in academic library and information services in the United Kingdom. Topics include librarians' perceptions of their role and future role; subject…

Discusses the development of networked information services from a user's perspective. Topics discussed include user education; the issue of access to, versus retrieval of, information; the role of the library, including education and training, bibliographic control, and electronic information services; and training and education for librarians.…

Questions the wisdom of permitting visions of the electronic library to drive budgets and strategic planning. Social and economic realities limiting user access to information, new roles for librarians, and models that guide management of information resources and services by real librarians for real users are discussed. A proposed action agenda…

Discusses the concept of a global library made possible by recent technological, social, and economic changes. Topics addressed include universal information access, the information superhighway, the shift toward a learning-oriented society, the contemporary role of libraries, the need to form a global coalition, and barriers to a global library.…

Argues that while academic libraries should integrate technology, maintain holistic computing environments, deliver core services through networks, make technology work for everyone not just the technologically adroit, and collaborate across administrative lines, reference services should retain traditional values such as equity of access,…

Six articles cover topics related to the impact of the Internet on reference services, including Internet's effect on communication between reference librarians; integrating the use of electronic resources with traditional reference duties; reference services and the virtual library; offering remote services; Internet instruction; and Internet…

Twelve articles describe the impact of library technologies on reference services. Staff training, the academic librarian as teacher and information provider, decision-making models for planning reference services, patron database access options, management of reference services, systemwide electronic access, and the electronic library are among…

Defines the concept of the virtual library, reviews factors in its inception, indicates prerequisites for its success, and explores the implications of the concept for librarianship, with an emphasis on the school library media center. (49 references) (KRN)

Three articles discuss the issue of the mediator's role in the library of the electronic age. Topics addressed include computer-assisted instruction; online catalogs; computer networks; professional identity; reference service and bibliographic instruction; CD-ROMs; online systems; personal home microcomputers; Internet and list servers;…

Libraries have long been pivotal community institutions--public spaces where people can come together to learn, reflect, and interact. Today, information is rapidly spreading beyond books and journals to digital government archives, business databases, electronic sound and image collections, and the flow of electronic impulses over computer…

Libraries offer a variety of services and play an assortment of roles. While few people disagree that libraries have been valuable institutions in the past, many wonder how necessary they will be in the future. Shrinking budgets make it harder for libraries to contradict these perceptions. This report examines the social and economic impact that…

As a reference guide for library professionals, this volume helps librarians prepare for the future in the growing electronic environment by examining the historical and theoretical background of the National Electronic Library and assessing the role of libraries in the past, present, and future. The book is divided in two sections: "The…

The papers presented at this conference challenged participants to become an integral part of the planning necessary to keep libraries on the cutting edge of technological advances. Academic libraries are admonished to reposition themselves to deliver both new and traditional services, or face the prospect of being preempted by other agencies. The…