Revisiting 'Information Delivery in the Evolving Electronic Library': The Information Cycle Network (ICN) Then and Now

摘要

In 1992, the "electronic library" was beginning to entice researchers into the sense that the delivery of information resources could be vastly improved by the ongoing technological innovations of full-text formats and the emergence of the Internet. However, the more common experience for delivery of information resources was a frustrating process tied significantly to print resources owned by individual libraries. This paper takes a look back at this discussion and compares the current reality in the delivery of information resources to what was envisioned and hoped for in the "electronic library" in 1992. It argues that great strides have been made in improving easy and effective delivery of information resources in, primarily, electronic form, but the hybrid nature of libraries today still dictate a need for much of the same attention to delivery of print resources as there was in 1992.