ABSTRACT
The issue of the mediator’s role in the library of the electronic age takes on peculiar forms in that part of the library that has felt the impact of the new technology most heavily. It is true that some types of libraries and some fields of inquiry are being overtaken in their entirety by full-text computerization and other forms of total paperlessness, but in general there is a balance, albeit an uneasy one, between the computer and the materials that the computer is there to access. The patron typically uses a computerized catalogue or index or online search in order to get at something that is itself not on a computer. In the reference area, however, the primary paper tools, certainly their most recent, most frequented portions, are themselves being displaced. This is most obvious among the indexes, but it is increasingly the case among dictionaries, encyclopedias, and a host of other sources as well, as the power of the CD manifests itself to both publishers and their customers.
