ABSTRACT
[KENNEY] The 1990s have been called by some the decade of the image. For those of us concerned with the preservation and access of research library materials, this claim has a specific meaning tied to the emergence of digital-imaging technology, which represents a powerful new way to manage, store, and retrieve information. Its use stems from a convergence of technological capability and opportunity, including the ubiquitous nature of personal computing, the development of high-speed networks that are accessible to an increasing number of individuals and organizations, the declining cost and increasing capacity of mass storage, and the availability of reasonably priced, high-quality, production scanning systems. By providing for immediate, simultaneous, multiple, and random access to resources located at geographically distant places, digital technology has the potential to expand dramatically the rapid availability of information to users world-wide. Increasingly, business, government, industry, and the professional and scientific communities are turning to the use of digital technology to manage information and to make the full text of important sources routinely available.
