ABSTRACT
Until very recently libraries have been fundamentally nineteenth-century institutions that could be characterized as labor-intensive craft workshops. As such, their organization has centered around specialized skills and knowledge applied to complex manual filing systems. This organization is based on the storage and retrieval role which libraries undertook as part of the task of managing information represented in the print form codex, the bound volume as it has existed for centuries. Today, the library is being transformed into a capital-intensive, high technology light industry. The increased use of technology in libraries over the past ten or so years is unprecedented in scope and impact. 1
