sac@well.UUCP (Steve Cisler) (04/27/88)
An Inquiry Into Libraries of the Future --------------------------------------- I am going to be working on a number of projects dealing with the concept of libraries of the future. I would like to have readers of this newsgroup discuss their ideas about what libraries will and will not be. If you post a response, it would be helpful if you state how you currently use or don't use libraries. Some information junkies satisfy their habit without ever stepping foot inside a library; others have people to find the information for them. Many of us visit and make use of libraries several times a week. To start this off I'll introduce myself: I am automation manager in a large county library in the San Francisco Bay Area, but I will be moving to a corporate library of a computer firm and will be dealing with both engineers and librarians involved in projects that will affect the future technology in libraries of all sorts: academic, school, public, private, and government. I also publish a newsletter called Connect: Libraries & Telecommunications. I am convinced there will be extraordinary gains in the areas of information retrieval, telecommunications, and expert systems. But with terabytes of text, images, and sounds available through fiber optic cable and manipulated by 'software agents' what will librarians be doing? How far down the economic ladder will these technologies penetrate? Will we maintain the idea of Free Public Libraries in the 21st century, or will it be pay-as-you go? Feel free to focus on your own special interest or raise more questions about the big (and still fuzzy) picture. Steve Cisler