ABSTRACT
Even as this is being written a Preconference to the 1983 A.L.A. Annual Conference is being held in Los Angeles with the title “Online Catalogs, Online Reference: Converging Trends.” The speakers at that conference will be talking about services which would not even have been mentioned in passing at the 1973 Preconference on “Library Automation: The State of the Art II” held in Las Vegas. 1 Interestingly enough the same person helped to organize both conferences, Brett Butler, President of Information Access Company. In 1973 the emphasis of the papers presented was on technical services, the building of the data base, the role of the vendor, local systems, and national networks. Even the paper by Lois Kershner on “User Services” presented at that conference focused primarily on circulation systems and alluded to new “data base information dissemination services” which a few libraries and information centers had started (pp. 38–55). Several presentations at that Las Vegas conference included predictions, many of which were quite correct. One was especially prescient when she said:
The overall organization structure of the library may be materially altered as a library proceeds into its third or fifth operational year of library automation. . . . Another change which is not properly accommodated in the present organizational charts is how automation and the reference service or bibliographic functions will be integrated. A loose arrangement via a committee will not provide the proper clout for effecting those needed changes in personnel and objectives in the organization which is implicit in one policy statement: “point of use is point of input.” (pp. 110–111, Atherton)
