Because the volume of information circulating in our society has proliferated since World War II and become increasingly subject to processing by electronic hardware, the public has a vital interest in knowing how information performs, how its flow is controlled, and on what terms it is made available to the public. Since all information systems…

This nine page pamphlet describes the development of such federal library legislation as the Library Services Act (1956), the Library Services and Construction Act (1964), the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the Higher Education Act, and the Medical Library Assistance Act (1964). The effect of this legislation on new forms of intertype…

Cooperative library programs in Great Britain began with suggestions made in the 1915 Adams report commissioned by the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust. Following the report's recommendations and with grants from the trust, countries began library services to rural areas and the Central Library for Students (CLS) was formed and later became a…

The Library of Congress presents the history of its Machine Readable Cataloging (MARC) system. Descriptions of MARC pilot projects and distribution services are followed by a discussion of several conversion projects undertaken by libraries in order to implement MARC. Then MARC's influence on standardization of formats for information interchange,…

This statistical account is based on 1975 library annual report data. Summary tables list data on services, receipts, and expenditures for cooperating county library systems, city libraries, and the state library. Lists of communities served within each county and of each county's taxable property values follow. Directories of college and…

In conjunction with the National Science Foundation (NSD), an on-going experiment is being conducted to test the feasibility of increasing public access to 16 major data bases by providing public libraries with on-line, interactive, retrieval capacity. During the period from January to March 1976, the major activities of the study were: (1) a…

This is a general descriptive and comparative report on alternative forms of library catalogs. The specific problems and factors associated with library catalogs are introduced briefly and then treated with respect to the following physical forms: card catalogs, book catalogs, microforms, and on-line catalogs. Whenever possible, examples of…

The Information Support System (ISS) is a management information system developed for the National Drug Education Program (NDEP). The major components of the ISS are: (1) the Project Growth Record which provides a tool for project self-evaluation and for communication between NDEP project officers and project directors; (2) the Quarterly Project…

A new organization is proposed that will serve as a regional library network for the midwestern United States: the Midwest Regional Library Network (MIDLNET). MIDLNET must meet four requirements in order to assure its success: it must meet the needs of the major academic research libraries in the area, it should be a limited sponsor network, it…

After six years of research in computer assisted instruction (CAI) using PLATO III, a decision was made at the University of Illinois to develop a larger system as a national CAI resource. This document describes the design specifications and problems in the development of PLATO IV, a system which is capable of accomodating up to 4,000 terminals…

The role of the public library within intertype library networks was studied using published reports and information provided by selected state and regional libraries. Intertype networks cross jurisdictional, and often governmental, boundaries to join academic, special, and public libraries. The history, objectives, methods, and fiscal and…

Progress on the development of a mathematical model and associated computer programs for use by the Illinois State Library in evaluation and planning of the interlibrary loan (ILL) network is summarized. Pertinent published literature on ILL networks is reviewed in terms of network structure, operations, satisfaction of requests, and costs. A flow…

This state-of-the-art has been conducted as Phase I of an investigation of the Federal Library Committee, Task Force on the Role of Libraries in Information Systems. The purpose of this review is to determine from the literature the role of the library in relation to other information activities in federal agencies based in the Washington, D.C.…

This study was conducted to define the process of professional information specialists and to identify their requirements. An extensive nationwide field survey was made by interviewing and administering questionnaires to 127 science information specialists who were located in information centers throughout the U.S. An effort was made to select…

This is a report of a pilot project directed toward planning an educational information network. The network will eventually connect the information processing capabilities of the New York City school system to information processing of the State Education Department in Albany. The study reported the fall enrollment and degrees conferred in higher…