Considers the status of higher education and academic libraries in Saudi Arabia. Topics covered include the role of academic libraries, use patterns, library education, the availability of professional librarians and administrators, library automation, academic cooperation with the United States, and the impact of social influences on library…

Summarizes nine papers commissioned by the Department of Education for "Rethinking the Library in the 1990s." Common themes include user education, technological and social change, public policies, and changing roles for librarians. It is argued that these papers, which address adult services, need to be critiqued in terms of library…

Eleven articles discuss the response of library users and personnel to automation. Topics covered include computerized reference services, online public access catalogs, paraprofessional staff perceptions of technology, organizational and managerial impacts of automation, workshops on new technology, gender differences in motivation to manage and…

Provides an overview of the basics of retrospective conversion and guidelines for the analysis of the collection, including its depth, age, and extent of foreign and nonprint materials. The use of accepted cataloging standards is advocated. (CLB)

Discusses current trends that are predicted to intensify and to change library operations and the way society uses information technology. Trends discussed include focus on user needs; direct user access of electronic information; the obsolescence of first and second generation systems; a contention between optical products and online access; and…

Discusses the current state of the art in virtual reality (VR), its historical background, and future possibilities. Highlights include applications in medicine, art and entertainment, science, business, and telerobotics; and VR for information science, including graphical display of bibliographic data, libraries and books, and cyberspace.…

Reports on a panel presentation given at the 1991 American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference that discussed emerging technologies in resource sharing and document delivery. Highlights include issues to consider before implementing new technologies; managerial and policy issues; impacts on public library service; and public school library…

Proposes a model for creating a technology program that provides a framework for achieving a more effective utilization of new technology in libraries. Topics discussed include environmental requirements; personnel; user needs; technologies, including standards for hardware and software; budgets; costs; maintenance; supplies; training; and…

Discusses issues related to the idea of a virtual library, or electronic library, in an academic setting. Topics discussed include access to academic libraries via personal computers; online catalogs; wide area networks, such as Internet, and their impact on library and computer center services; administrative issues; human and technological…

Discusses reference management software that is used for the storage and retrieval of bibliographic and text files on personal computers. Uses in health sciences are reviewed, selection criteria are discussed, needs assessment is described, guidelines for selecting appropriate software are presented, and a list of software products is included.…

Discusses budgets for library materials and how to select and evaluate book and serial vendors. Trends in automation, publishing, and economics that affect both libraries and vendors are discussed; and examples from the University of California at Berkeley that include serials service charges and approval plan discounts are presented. (six…

Questions the wisdom of permitting visions of the electronic library to drive budgets and strategic planning. Social and economic realities limiting user access to information, new roles for librarians, and models that guide management of information resources and services by real librarians for real users are discussed. A proposed action agenda…

Contains part of a speech given at the workshop "Student Access to New Information Technology in the Library Media Center." Suggestions for technological change are offered, including carrying out existing functions more effectively, changing work roles and organizational structure, developing new functions, and goals; and implications…

Discusses the impact of technology on the profession of librarianship and suggests changes that are necessary for librarians to adapt to their changing role. Topics addressed include focusing on the mission of librarianship, i.e., providing access to information; librarians' sense of self-worth; educational requirements; and technological…

Describes the technical, economic, social, and cultural challenges to building a national digital library system. Selecting and filtering information, building and scaling distributed digital library networks, invoicing, payment, authorizing access, the locus of planning leadership, and the information poor are discussed. (Contains three…