Introduction to Library Trends 54 (3) Winter 2006: Library Resource Sharing Networks.

摘要

Library Trends last considered issues of library cooperation and resource sharing in volume 45, number 3, in the winter of 1997. There have been many important developments related to this far-reaching topic since then. This issue explores the theme that through cooperation, aided by technology,libraries are being bound ever more closely together. They are increasingly becoming nodes in a common information network. The issue takes a broad approach in order to explore many diverse aspects of library sharing and cooperation and the many ways in which libraries are working more closely together. I have provided a summary of some of the factors drawing libraries together. These include the benefits of sharing new technology, new and increasingly detailed information interchange standards, and informal software and programming standards. New Web-based centralized resources forsharing library holdings and indexing information are rapidly developing.New widely shared services like virtual reference are also emerging. New partnerships???between libraries, between information companies, and between vendors and libraries and other organizations???are also bringing information services together in a variety of new ways.