Advances in computers and communication technologies have changed, and will continue to change, the structure and functions of libraries throughout the world. This work is designed to help the library community prepare for the challenges of the new millennium. The 17 chapters are arranged into an introduction and four sections, which discuss national libraries in a digital world; academic libraries and their expanding research role; public libraries and community information networks; and policy problems concerned with digitization, dissemination, and the organization of information materials on the Web. Since no one person could be an expert on all of these topics, the editors invited contributions from people in different countries and organizations throughout the world. The relevant background, education, and work experience of each author are listed at the back of the book.
Chapter 1 introduces the challenges faced by libraries due to the advent of the Internet, the World Wide Web, and the entire global information infrastructure. This chapter also describes the organization of the book and states the authors’ goals, namely “that this collection will stimulate creativity and attention to an institution that has been with us over the centuries” (p.4).
The section following this introduction discusses the responsibilities of national libraries to collect, preserve, and provide access to their national imprint, while ensuring that today’s online publications will still be available to researchers in future centuries. This section consists of chapters 2 through 5, which describe the projects undertaken by the national libraries of Australia, Canada, Portugal, and South Korea as they strive to meet the challenges resulting from the transition from printed to digital documents.
The second section focuses on the academic library environment; how these libraries make electronic information available to their patrons; and how they deal with such complex issues as government involvement, ownership of electronic materials, cost sharing, and serving their users. The three chapters in this section discuss trends in Web-based services in the US, the impact of the Internet on Malaysian libraries, and the Cybrary, a virtual library at the University of Queensland, in Australia.
Section 3 focuses on projects undertaken to provide new public library services to populations with special needs. Chapter 9 describes the development of a unique Web-based network that will connect all public libraries in the UK with each other and with the Internet in order to “promote social inclusion by helping to bridge the gap between those who can afford access to information and those who can’t…” (p. 131). The Queens Borough Public Library in the US has developed a unique Internet-based multilingual information system, InfoLinQ, which is discussed in chapter 10. Chapter 11 describes the Virtual Library Project being developed at the Naval Surface Warfare Center to facilitate the incorporation and use of library documents relating to the design and manufacture of ships for the US Navy fleet.
The final section, chapters 12 through 17, is a miscellaneous collection of policy and practice problems that will challenge world libraries in the new millennium.
Librarians and computer technologists concerned with the impact of the information highway, with the growth of electronic information, with universal access to information, and with the present and future role of libraries in society will find a great deal in this collection of essays to stimulate their imagination and creativity.
