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An overview is provided of the global electronic access changes currently impacting upon library operations. The consequences for library structure and operating environments are outlined, with particular reference to developments at the Australian National University.

Australia is the size of the continental USA but with only 19 million inhabitants. Although it has benefited greatly from Internet connections, Australia’s declining dollar in recent years, and the double digit publishing inflation, have replaced the “tyranny of distance” with the “tyranny of purchase”. Libraries have had to cooperate to gain efficiencies in the system. Australia lacks resource co‐ordination at a national level, but several important initiatives are under way.

This paper describes the development of satellite television and information access in Australia, principally within Australian higher education institutions. Client groups and basic technologies are overviewed as well as the role of the library in the provision of satellite services.

We have taken as the theme of the interview section of this issue's Focus (‘The Changing Face of Information’) the question of the role of the information professional in the epoch of the so‐called ‘Knowledge Economy’. The following question was put to members of the Editorial Board of The Electronic Library.

This review is based for the most part on conference proceedings. It begins with a look at recent developments in interlending in Australasia, with a comparison of interlending statistics, and papers from a resource‐sharing conference in New Zealand reporting Australian and New Zealand interlending practice. Unresolved attempts to define an interlending plan for Australia are discussed together with the present situation. Two delegates' papers at a conference in Western Australia report contrasting developments there. Turning to the UK, four papers from an interlending conference consider the current UK situation, financial aspects, the end user's view and future development of interlending. Finally, a world‐wide collection of ‘proceedings’ is reviewed, dealing with different interlending systems in the UK, FRG, GDR, USA, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, China and the European Communities' DOCDEL project, with particular reference to Patent information in Germany and the TRANSDOC project in France.

ALTHOUGH you are reading a professional journal, you may be interested in the impressions of a semi‐outsider, one who has teetered on the edge of the maelstrom of modern librarianship without actually having fallen in—yet. The experience may even be salutary; who knows?

The term ‘digital library’ now seems to have become an encompassing term for what was once known as the ‘virtual’ or the ‘electronic’ library. In a stimulating essay on ‘Information Specialists of the Future’, given at the impressive (in terms of contributions) Essen Symposium on the Information Superhighway: The Role of Librarians, Information Scientists and Intermediaries (Essen, Universitatsbibliothek, 1995) Sheila Corrall wondered if the profession is ‘suffering from some sort of identity crisis’ in definitional terms.

Describes the Australian Libraries summit held in late 1988, concentrating on interlibrary lending (ILL) and document delivery aspects. Reports on the Summit′s main objective, that being to establish the most effective means of providing library and information services in Australia. Lists the Summit Resolutions and a summary of the discussions. Considers some of the debates concerning the current state of document supply in Australia.

A survey was conducted in the second half of 1987 as to the state of automated systems in major Australian tertiary national and state libraries. An almost 100% response rate has enabled a comprehensive overview to be obtained. The survey proves that Australia has many similarities to other countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States, notably in the increasing purchase by institutions of integrated proprietary systems. Trends in commercial vendor success and related issues are discussed. Clearly in many instances such trends for Australia also set a pattern for other Australasian countries.

Developments in document supply in Australia in the five years following the Library Association of Australia's 1980 national interlending conference are surveyed. Little progress seemed to have been made, apart from the development of the Australian Bibliographic Network, by the time of the second interlending conference in 1983. Six resolutions from this conference were considered in the LAA's National Plan for Document Supply and Delivery. A Document Delivery Conference was called in November 1984 to discuss reactions to the plan, and a working party was formed to progress the Conference's recommendations. The working party's final report is due shortly, and indications are that the National Library of Australia is set to assume a major role in interlibrary lending.