Integrating networked information into library services: Philosophy, strategy, and implementation at Mann Library

摘要

Until the relatively recent introduction of computer networks into the academiccommunity, the records of scholarship and the collection of the academic libraryhave consisted primarily of physical materials in print-based formats. Thepublication, distribution, and use of scholarly works are being transformedby the application of computer networking and information technologies. AsHirshon (1993) observes, "since the invention of the printing press, there hasbeen no change so fundamental to the publishing industry as the advent ofelectronic and networked information" (p. 1). Advances in computing technologyhave made it possible for digital formats to subsume nearly all previousformats of publication. Text, still and moving images, sounds, music, computerprograms, and statistical data all can be published in a digital format andstored on a computer's magnetic disk. Wide-reaching computer networks makeit possible to distribute those digitally formatted materials to thousands ofpeople within just a few minutes. This transformation from printed tonetworked information is so profound that we are now considered in the midstof a revolution and paradigm shift, in which the very nature of libraries andlibrarianship is being challenged.