In a year when a difficult economy presented fewer opportunities for immediate gains, the major industry players have defined their business strategies with fundamentally different concepts of library automation. This is no longer an industry where companies compete on the basis of the best or the most features in similar products but one where…

Discussion of information and misinformation about integrated online library systems highlights capabilities and functions that should be offered by an integrated system, practicalities of purchasing a system, visions versus reality, library versus information automation, origins of integrated online systems in the 1960s and 1970s, and future…

Five information company executives present an overview of the impact of technological innovation upon the library and its services and offer their predictions for libraries in 1985. (RAA)

Discusses the information explosion as it relates to the emergence of the information handling capability explosion, or the use of computer technology, citing library network online databases as evidences of information control. (EJS)

Discussion of choices posed by the current microtechnology revolution notes librarians' reluctance to utilize new technologies, ability of libraries to deal with success and fund new services, strategic decision facing libraries and professionals concerning essential "business" of libraries, new microcomputer portables and more powerful…

Discusses the introduction of new technologies into library activities, focusing on benefits, expectations, staff, services, comparison of situations before and after adoption of new technology, costs, funding, and economic considerations. Thirteen references are cited. (EJS)

We should be grateful that Terry Reese had to work his way through college. As a work-study student, taught to do cartographic cataloging in the University, of Oregon's map library, he discovered the mental challenges libraries offered. Later he became Oregon State University (OSU)'s cataloger for networked resources and digital unit production…

Discusses planning for the implementation of a high technology system which includes plans for how it will be phased out and an orderly transition made to its successor. System life expectations, user pressures, software modifications, commercial vendors, integrated systems, eroding economies, and replacement planning are highlighted. (EJS)

A Luddite librarian's views on how super-mechanization of libraries may turn off" current and potential users. (MF)

Discusses information overload and society's and libraries' responses to technology. Considers eight values that libraries should focus on and how they relate to technology in libraries: democracy, stewardship, service, intellectual freedom, privacy, rationalism, equity of access, and building harmony and balance. (LRW)

Outlines expected changes in information-handling technology and related activities. (PF)

Advocates replacing the traditional library card catalog with a more effective system. Technological developments such as machine-readable catalogs, automated authority control, and computer-output-microform make possible integration of nonbook media, government documents, journal literature, and local information into the main catalog. (SW)

Provides an overview of the 1995 automated system marketplace, compiled by analysis of data gathered from 27 vendors. Topics include sales data; dominant vendors in different library sectors; company restructuring and consolidation; plans for technological upgrades, especially Internet connectivity, and improved customer support, service, and…

Reprints five articles originally published between 1933 and 1983 showing that the library field was ready to use technology: "People and Machines: Changing Relationships?" (S. Michael Malinconico); "Guilds or Technocracy?" (Margery C. Quigley); "The Librarian and the Machine" (Jesse H. Shera); "From the…

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…