ABSTRACT
The most important issue in libraries for the past two decades has been the management of change. Technological, economic and so cial factors have forced librarians to question the professional foundations that have been the basis for traditional services and to develop and implement new services that hold promise to be more appropriate for the future. The movement from the past to the fUture, however, goes through the present. Choices must be made daily, not only about which elements of the past we abandon or retain but also about the extent and timing of new initiatives. In many cases we choose to maintain expensive duplicative services to provide a stable transition from the past into the future. Without experience to guide us, decisions about abandoning past services too quickly or instituting future services before their time are risky. Not only are there many possible choices for future services but all too often the need to build technologically sophisticated, and thus expensive, information delivery infrastructures makes those choices
even riskier. Financial resources are declining both in real and apparent terms. Staff sizes are declining and remaining library staff are increasingly strained to do all that must be done. Critical beyond all other factors, however, is the very high rate of change.
