ABSTRACT
John Swan and Anita Evans present a summary of the issues that face librarians, at a time when all libraries are incorporating electronic information sources into the range of materials available. The issue each addresses is how reference librarians can mediate these electronic sources along with the paper resources, not converted, in order to meet the users’ needs. This problem is compounded by the availability of electronic services from outside vendors similar to those offered by libraries. Computing centers, not-for-profit, and for-profit vendors offer services that can be made available anywhere that a patron can plug a computer into a phone line. The forms of electronic information will change over the next five years as will the players. Rather than focusing on specific technologies and players as Swan and Evans have, I would like to look at what can be generalized from their observations. These generalizations might best be expressed in a series of questions.
