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This paper aims to examine how the internet both precipitated and facilitated significant shifts for academic libraries in the kinds of services they provide, and the ways in which they provide access to content. It aims to view this evolution from the perspective of one academic library in an institution that has been at the center of internet and technology development worldwide for over 30 years, the University of Illinois at Urbana‐Champaign.

The first 30 years of the internet in libraries are explored in decade time segments. Each of the three decades is characterized by significant and unique internet developments. Key internet‐based innovations in libraries are explored, in the areas of service, digital libraries, search and discovery. The reasons for the relative impact of these innovations are explored and discussed.

The internet is both foundation and incubator for myriad new social, technical, organizational and legal constructs, including policy and best practices, governance, intellectual property, whole new categories of services, industries, and areas of research. Since diverse stakeholders can participate with little or no investment, the pace of growth and innovation is unpredictable. This pace is sustained over time, occurring on multiple levels. For this reason, the internet does not “grow” simply in one direction, such as exponential user growth, or the systematic installation of infrastructure. In the University of Illinois at Urbana‐Champaign, the internet has fundamentally altered, and continues to enable significant shifts in the direction of the library's programs, services and resources.

This paper contributes to a group of invited papers that addresses the first 30 years of the internet in libraries.

This article explores the hypothesis of Clifford Geertz concerning the importance of essentialism (culture) and epochalism (economics) in the creation of new states. It focuses on the Irish state‐building process, examining the thought of the two leaders of the 1916 rising. It finds that Patrick Pearse throughout stressed cultural revitalization and James Connolly stressed economic/social transformation. The article lends support to Geertz’s hypothesis but notes that each leader also came to appreciate the primary concern of the other.

A year or two ago the Library Association established what was called, a Press Committee, having as its objects the correcting of misstatements and the replying to attacks on public libraries in the newspapers. Our press‐cuttings have not given us many examples of the Committee's activity, and we fear it never did much if any work. This has no doubt been because the library profession is so small that the number of men able and willing to further its purposes is necessarily too limited to carry through a vigorous policy. The article in The Daily Mail to which Eratosthenes refers in characteristic fashion this month is an example of the sort of thing which ought to have been met immediately by the Press Committee. We need a few men with level heads and facile pens promptly to challenge any plea for such misapplied public economy. Plausible suggestions that public libraries are of secondary importance are made every day, and so deeply is this opinion rooted in the minds of some of our public leaders that any opposition to it needs to be both practical and wise. To all who have considered social and economic questions at all the strength of the case for the public library has never been more strong than it is at present. But men who believe that economy will be served by stopping the medical inspection of school children and by the abolition of technical education—and such suggestions were actually made in the article we have mentioned—would certainly not spare the university of the people. Indeed, the author bluntly suggested that the libraries should be closed and the officials dismissed! A writer in the Sunday Chronicle sanely declares the closing suggested to be “not only not economy; it is anti‐patriotic.” Under these circumstances a vigorous publicity committee of librarians and library experts like Aldermen Abbott, Brittain, Leslie and Plummer, might do invaluable service.

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

The erosion in the authority of brands within consumer markets brings into question the orthodoxy of traditional marketing practices across all markets. Argues that corporations urgently need to redefine how they build and manage brand equity along the supply chain. The management activities and competencies required to develop this new brand management process are described and future research directions signposted.

THERE appeared in the Library Association Record some months ago, an article—not very practical—on Accession Methods, and it is with this work that I intend to deal.

The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the complex processes involving state sacrifice of essential values, including a measure of sovereignty, in return for economic benefits which are substantial but not to a point of overshadowing all else.

The research agenda is addressed by reviewing systematically the extensive theoretical and empirical academic literature on China's entry into the World Trade Organization and drawing appropriate conclusions about how the issue at hand should ideally be approached at this juncture.

Useful observations emerge regarding the classification of relevant factors, conceptual integration, analytical responses to problems arising in the context of accelerating economic integration across the globe and realistic model building.

Insights generated may enhance understanding of the interplay between the forces of globalization and nationalism and lead to a more enlightened management of the ensuing tension.

Critical assessment undertaken may pave the way for a less segmented and more grounded academic work on the subject.

Participation in online courses in both traditional universities and newer for-profit organizations is burgeoning. Indeed, students entering higher education increasingly have experienced online education at the secondary and even primary levels. Students have immense wherewithal with digital media use through messaging, gaming and mobile platforms. Reference librarians in the epoch of Wikipedia and Google are experiencing a steady decline in the number of in-person reference questions. However, disruptive innovations in teaching technologies such as multiuser-virtual-environments (MUVEs) now enable quasi-face-to-face consultations by librarians with students. The use of virtual environments might well be bolstered by the unsustainability of the traditional brick-and-mortar based educational facility grounded interaction due to the new financial strictures on many educational institutions and their stakeholders. In many ways libraries and other elements of higher education are evolving away from physical onsite usage to an online interface that in many ways reflects gaming interfaces. That is, geographically separated learners can meet with librarians together as teams to get informational and technical support through a variety of platforms and interfaces. This chapter is a report on providing the support of an experienced reference librarian through the Second Life virtual world interface. Included are descriptions of Second Life sites and resources and how they might be utilized for library functions. Educational venues in Second Life are describes and explained, as are learner avatar use and Second Life educational experiences. Second Life is a technology that invites experimentation and growth for those in higher education.