Describes the objectives, testing, procedures, and effects on document delivery systems of the OCLC interlibrary loan (ILL) subsystem, an uncoordinated national ILL network which provides users with immediate access to the OCLC On-Line Union Catalog, the ILL Transaction File, and the ILL Message Waiting File. (CWM)

Discusses the author's report, "The Future of the National Library of Canada," in terms of its scope, intent, and limitations. (CHC)

Describes a system of external depository libraries that receive, control, and circulate a varied and changing collection of course related materials for the off campus student. Laurentian University serves 3,000 part-time students enrolled in 70 courses at 15 outside centers spread across an area 400 miles in diameter. (RAA)

Presents background information on DOBIS (an online library system) evaluation, software acquisition, and development, and describes the status and plans for DOBIS in the Canadian government. Appendices provide an overview of the Canadian government version of the system from a librarian's and a systems analyst's perspective. (CWM)

Presents the full text of the Task Force report on networking, adopted by the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science to delineate the position of the school library media program within the total framework of national networking. The role of the school library media program is clarified. (Author/CMV)

Outlines the perspective within which the multimedia librarian must prepare for the future including future developments in networks, individualized information, increased computer use and cable television. (KP)

Focuses on designing a library network to maximize security. Discusses UNIX and file servers; connectivity to campus, corporate networks and the Internet; separation of staff from public servers; controlling traffic; the threat of network sniffers; hubs that eliminate eavesdropping; dividing the network into subnets; Switched Ethernet;…

Illustrates an approach for providing networked access to licensed databases over the Internet by positioning the library between patron and vendor. Describes how the gateway systems and database connection servers work and discusses how treatment of security has evolved with the introduction of the World Wide Web. Outlines plans to reimplement…

The Australian and New Zealand academic library statistics for 1996 provide data on overall staffing, services, collections. expenditures, and population in 43 Australian and 7 New Zealand academic library systems. Includes amendments to the 1995 statistics. (PEN)

Describes research into charging mechanisms for the delivery of digitized texts to higher education students in the United Kingdom and discusses the need for a satisfactory pricing model. Explains the HERON (Higher Education Resources On-Demand) and PELICAN (Pricing Experiment Library Information Cooperative Network) projects and considers…

Describes an automated interlibrary loan request routing and referral system made available to U.S. biomedical libraries by the National Library of Medicine. The description covers the databases used and the systems modules that support various functions. The current status of the system and possible future developments are discussed. (six…

Identifies the questions librarians should ask before adopting local online, and compares the advantages and disadvantages of CD-ROM and site database systems. User reactions to local online are discussed and the impact of such systems on reference services and the reference librarian's job content are examined. (CLB)

A study for assessing automatic vocabulary switching from a thesaurus to Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) revealed that a maximum 61%, but a more realistic 41.5%, of the terms could be switched automatically; as long as LCSH is used for subject descriptions in online catalogs, interfaces for vocabulary switching can only be partially…

Reports on a project which developed a measure of levels of difficulty of reference questions handled by the California Interlibrary Reference Referral Network, and identified indicative measures that would reliably stand for the concept of difficulty. Correlations of predictive difficulty and actual difficulty are discussed. (nine references)…

Discusses academic and public libraries that expand the range and type of their services via fee-based information services and private information businesses that charge fees. Questions of billing the total cost to the patron versus part of the cost are considered; and the impact of such fees on library cooperation and networks is described. (six…