Reports on activities at the 1995 ALA (American Library Association) Midwinter Convention in Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) that were largely based on considerations of the ALA Goal 2000 plan that focuses on funding for libraries, technology, and intellectual freedom. Highlights include the proposed dues increase and the overlap of ALA divisions.…

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…

Discussion of rural library technology concerns focuses on the Kalona (Iowa) public library and its attempts to acquire up-to-date technology. Topics include costs, politics, Internet service providers, personnel concerns, funding, and national and state-based opportunities. (LRW)

Explains a team approach to writing grants that was developed at the Southern University (Louisiana) library to meet their need for updated technology. Discusses the need for outside funding sources for academic libraries; team responsibilities; the library director's role; and the role of the Internet as a source of information. (Contains 2…

Highlights some important conditions, both present and future, which will have an impact on public libraries. Discusses holding down expenses, including user fees, alternative funding sources, and private cosponsorship of programs; increasing productivity; use of computers and new technologies; staff development and internal marketing; improving…

"Intranets"--web sites written and used internally by organizations--are being developed as a means of enhancing communication, improving productivity, and reducing costs. The University Library at the University of Nebraska at Omaha is in the early stages of developing an Intranet. Considerations that led the library to establish an…

Discussion of the development of undergraduate libraries focuses on Harvard's Lamont Library. Topics include financial issues, including sources of revenue, computerization, and personnel costs; technological changes, including hypermedia and the virtual library; and organizational changes, highlighting the merger of libraries at Cornell…

The Eastern Iowa Community College District (EICCD) libraries received a federal College Library Technology and Cooperation grant to provide and link public access catalogs at each college of the district--Clinton Community College, Muscatine Community College, and Scott Community College. That network is named Quad-LINC (Quad Cities Libraries in…

Discusses results of a survey of state-level school library officials conducted via fax to determine statewide school enrollments, funding, media center staffing, state-mandated minimum levels of staffing for school libraries, the ratio of students per school library media specialists, staffing standards, staff shortages, and technology and…

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…

Minnesota's libraries provide public access to information technologies and teach the skills necessary to use them. The challenge is to leverage these organizations, largely funded and nurtured at the local level, so that they will be an effective and efficient part of a statewide information infrastructure. In this report, the Minnesota Library…

This paper explores the challenges and opportunities facing libraries as they evolve into the electronic networked environment, and looks at options for libraries in the year 2000 and beyond. The internationally networked environment has fundamentally changed the way in which people acquire and use information resources and services. The paper…