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EBSCO's Executive Seminar for research library directors, Digitising the reserve function: steps toward electronic document delivery, was held on 5 February in Philadelphia, PA during the American Library Association's Midwinter Meeting. The Meeting was attended by more than 60 librarians from some of the most respected research libraries in North America.

The term ‘automated serials system’ has frequently been applied to nearly anything that gives a list of serials holdings for some sort of machine readable data. Actually, a computer assisted serials system can be as simple as one which produces a yearly holdings list or as comprehensive as a total serials system. The former provides computer printout of machine readable titles and holdings information with locations and call numbers (if any). The total system can encompass: a means of check‐in of serials by machine readable methods; computer programs which use the receipt data to automatically update holdings information; display of holdings information through printouts and/or video terminals; automatic or assisted claiming of individual serial issues which are overdue; notification of volumes (and their respective titles) which are ready for binding; preparation of bindery notices (instructions) and claim forms; maintenance of fund accounting, subscription payment, and renewal records. Such a system can function in either an on‐line or batch mode of processing.

Welcome to The Column concerning interlibrary services in the OCLC universe! Dare if you will to join me in my continuing mission to infuse new life, explore strange new visions, and boldly go where no humor has gone before. In this episode we investigate new desires, tips, space visions, and titillating trends….

As CD‐ROM becomes more and more a standard reference and technical support tool in all types of libraries, the annual review of this technology published in Computers in Libraries magazine increases in size and scope. This year, author Susan L. Adkins has prepared this exceptionally useful bibliography which she has cross‐referenced with a subject index.

Librarians are finding it increasingly difficult to acquire and to make available to their users the full range of information in print form that they require. Electronic information products and services are appearing at a rapidly increasing rate. Users find them attractive and, when available, use them more heavily than print sources. Consequently, librarians in response to the demands of users, and overwhelmed by the problems posed by print publications, are attempting to make electronic sources available. This paper describes the nature of the problems posed by print publications and trends involving the use of electronic documents in libraries. It discusses the progress made toward introducing electronic documents as alternatives, and complements, to print collections. It also describes a study that the IFLA Information Technology Section is undertaking to assess how rapidly libraries are adopting alternatives to locally held, print sources.

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.

This paper aims to explore the attractiveness of Library and Information Science (LIS) careers to students and alumni and examine their decision-making process and perceptions of the field with an eye on discerning the best ways to build and develop the recruitment narrative.

The authors reached out to 57 LIS graduate programs in Canada and the USA accredited by the American Library Association through a Web-based survey; the questions presented a combination of multiple-choice, short-answer and open-ended questions and generated a wealth of quantitative and qualitative data.

The online survey has disclosed that students may not have an in-depth understanding of current trends, the diversity of LIS professions and the wider applications of their education. A significant disconnect exists in how the goals of LIS education are seen by certain groups of practitioners, students and faculty members.

Creating a program narrative for the purposes of recruitment and retention, departments should not only capitalize on the reach of the internet and the experiences of successful practitioners. They should also ensure that faculty know their students’ personal backgrounds, that students empathize with demands of contemporary academia and that a promotional message connects pragmatic educational goals to broader social applications. By exposing and embracing the complexity of LIS education and practice, the paper chooses a discursive path to start a conversation among major stakeholders.

Society has undergone important changes. This can be perceived in the advances in computer, information and communication technology and the progress made in information science. The use of computers in our daily life, specially in the scope of libraries have pointed out development and possibility to store, to organize and to retrieve information in huge volume and in a rapid way. Communication between users has been supported through links between computers. This interconnectivity, in means of networking is transforming how libraries provide and users seek information. The organization of knowledge is necessary, otherwise retrieval will be difficult for the end‐users. They will not obtain the needed information unless they spend much time or they have gained vast experience in searching. In view of this, Information Professionals have to affront the emerging demands of the end‐users. Advances in technology and end‐users demands are evolving increasingly rapidly. The role of the information professionals has changed dramatically from a “book‐lending” person to a recognized “intermediary” between information and users. This recognition is not in general. In case of Latin American countries this situation is more evident, because of the budget decreasing. The expectation of a library is not only to satisfy users demands, without considering those accomplishment to require essential training, infrastructure and economic resources. Institutions in charge of formal library and information science education are making effort to affront training and skills to face the marketplace. The reluctance to change must be considered by the profession and society, which by means assimilate very slowly those changing profile. In contrast society demands these changes without recognizing the library as an active agent in a social system, neither to support the necessary infrastructure to satisfy users demands. In view of this information professionals got together to discuss issues about their concern of the directions of the profession. They concluded that the future is uncertain. There is a lack of policy and great diversity of opinion among members. Libraries in general are confronting with the idea that this institution is a decreasing stage because the overpromoting of the computer. Users specially in the educational environment have the idea that using a networked environment will immediately solve their information problems. Others have in mind that the cyberspace will substitute the library function and that libraries will be soon disappeared. Libraries in general have been affected not only by these mentioned opinions but also in their budget, which had strongly influenced their possibility to acquire appropriate equipment to satisfy information needs of users and training of the workers.

The professional discourse on academic library planning and design is examined. A critical realist philosophical stance and a constructionist perspective constitute the theoretical framework that, paired with Fairclough's methodology for critical discourse analysis, is used to examine the constitution of interpretative repertoires and of a discourse constructing the academic library as a learning place. The information commons, learning commons, and library designed for learning repertoires are described and the effects of discursive activity are analyzed. Three types of effects are presented: (1) the production by the LIS community of discourse on academic libraries of a sizable body of literature on the information commons and on the learning commons, (2) the construction of new types of libraries on the commons model proposed by Beagle, and (3) the metaphorization of the library as business. The study concludes that the existing discourse takes a facilities management perspective dominated by concerns with technology, equipment, and space requirements that does not address the physical, psychological, and environmental qualities of library space design. Consequently, it is suggested that architectural programming techniques should be used in library planning and design that consider the architectural features and environmental design factors contributing to the making of a place where learning is facilitated.