ABSTRACT
We need to briefly explore several large issues facing the collection development and content management functions within North American academic libraries as a result of the rapid development of computer networks and digital scholarly and academic information resources. One fascinating outcome of new technological developments is that they often enable us to see old technologies and enduring human projects from fresh perspectives. The emerging techno-economic straitjacket will affect texts, collections, users, the processes of collection development, and the intellectual underpinnings of this sub-discipline of librarianship. Suddenly the old things take on new meanings, new possibilities, and new limitations. The diffusion and maturation of computers and computer networks are doing this to the honored principles and practices of collection development in academic libraries. Computer networks are information systems—the current darling of screen and screen. They are beginning to have profound effects on academic library collections, an older and different type of information system. Computers and computer networks are changing the procedures that gird collection development, the economics of the creation and distribution of scholarly information, what people can and want to do with scholarly texts, and the very nature of the texts themselves. In short, computers have changed everything—except perhaps the working assumptions and beliefs of the majority of collection development librarians.
