Describes the activities of the federal government, state governments, and library associations in generating statistics on U.S. libraries, and discusses the problems that arise from a lack of coordination. Issues discussed include standardized definitions, scope and coverage, data collection and aggregation, data analysis and interpretation,…

The issue of ownership of intellectual property is central to scholarly communication of expressed ideas. Our knowledge property arrangements are key to success in the competitive global markets of the 1990s. There is concern that recent social, technological, and economic changes in the scholarly communication system are affecting the balance…

The growing convergence of research library functions with a knowledge network infrastructure is beginning to have a transforming influence on the conduct of university research and instruction. Computing and communication network technologies are forcing a re-examination of institutional missions, the policies that support knowledge transmission,…

The academic library environment is in transition because of the enormous financial pressures placed on university libraries by simultaneous budget decreases and increased demands for services. Changes brought about by economic restructuring of the scholarly research and publication process, the emergence of a scholarly electronic communication…