ABSTRACT
Libraries are currently undergoing the greatest degree of change in their history. This change is driven by several factors. Technology, for example, is making it possible to provide more value-added services for library users. Online public access catalogs enable users to have bibliographic access to nearly all of the library’s holdings, while the card catalog permitted access to only about 60 percent of a library’s bibliographic records. The OPAC also allows commercial and locally-produced databases to be accessed from remote areas outside of the library. Access to other libraries’ OPACs is now available via Internet. The virtual library, in a sense, is already a reality. Expert systems and even principles of neural networking are being used to improve users’ services. More electronic full texts are available for libraries. Some libraries are creating online textual analysis projects whereby scholars can do the work that formerly required 16 years in only 16 seconds. The larger virtues of technology are yet to come to libraries.
