The objective of this project was to develop the concept of the experimenting and extended library, and to oversee its physical and operational design in a new college--Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. The basic arguments of this report are: (a) that the economic and social contexts within which libraries will operate in the future are…

The effects of social change on libraries nationally are presented in order to provide a framework for the Indiana-oriented study of library futures. The two major postwar social changes that have most directly affected libraries are: (1) population changes in growth, distribution and quality; and (2) increased investment in scientific research…

Designed to fill the need for a continuing series to provide scholarly reviews of the reapidly changing field of librarianship, this book presents critical articles and surveys based on the published literature, research in progress, and developments in libraries of all types. The eleven subject areas covered are: (1) "The Machine and Cataloging"…

The first proposals for serious research at Lancaster were made some six years ago: the intention was to investigate the real needs of the library users and the best ways of meeting these needs. This article summarizes past, present and possible future activities in this field. (Author/NH)

A survey of the status of the federal library community and its involvement with automation was undertaken; the results are summarized in this report. The study sought to define which library operations were susceptible to automation, to describe potentially useful automation techniques and to establish criteria for decisions about automation.…

This article deals with the results of a mini-evaluation of the microcatalogue environment at the University of Toronto Library, carried out in 1977. The microcatalogue environment, the purpose of the evaluation, its results, and how these results are used in decision-making are the main focus of this article. (Author/AP)

This report presents a statement of the Library of Congress's view of its position as the National Library of the United States. The Library has developed from a small parliamentary library to serve the Congress to a library that performs more national-library functions than any national library in the world. Its organizational position in the…

The third phase of a four-phase program developed by the Federal Library Committee Task Force on Library Automation in conjunction with its overall objective of reviewing and reporting upon the status of automation in Federal libraries is reported. The first phase of the overall program appraised the current activities in library automation and…

Comments on changes in the public library in the United Kingdom due to local government reorganization and recurring financial crises, and discusses the implications of networking and technological innovation. (CWM)

This paper describes a decision making framework for library networking which can be used by individual libraries, groups of cooperating libraries, or centralized services to evaluate current operations and define alternative approaches to automation and networking. It is noted that networking has not yet achieved its full potential because of a…

The Conference Poceedings are divided into three broad topics: systems planning, audiovisuals in biomedical communication, and automation and networking. Speakers from within the Veterans Administration (VA), from the National Medical Audiovisual Center, and the Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications, National Library of…

This article is a summation of several university and university library publications. Subjects covered are automation, university reform and the library, librarians, and the future of university libraries. (6 references) (DH)

Librarians have an alternative to providing library services with their own resources. The alternative is to purchase these services from outside contractors. The library manager must carefully consider several service and economic factors along with the range of available services. (7 references) (Author/DH)

This report responds to a proposal for an internal audit of the library collection at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) and describes various measures that University Library Services (ULS) has already implemented to automate the inventory process and improve security. Introductory materials provide an executive summary and background…

Libraries will play a key role in providing access to machine-readable data bases by functioning as the interface or broker between the users on campus and these regional and special processing and distribution centers. High cost will prohibit libraries from acquiring and managing data bases. (6 references) (Author)