Advances in Librarianship

As in the previous volume, the predominant theme of Volume 26 of Advances in Librarianship is the advance of technology in libraries. This volume focuses, in eight of its ten papers, on how libraries have been changed by electronic communication of information and knowledge. From the approach of SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) that is creating new scholarship venues electronically, to an in-depth treatment of the limitations of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act for electronic publishing, the volume examines how technology is affecting libraries. Use of technology has resulted in new collaboration and cooperation by libraries and museums in the USA in providing electronic access to the American cultural heritage and technology has allowed a similar approach in Sweden for combining services of all libraries to offer electronic access to their cultural resources. Another technology paper presents a comprehensive examination of steps required to involve Humanities faculty and the Library collaboratively in producing, distributing, and accessing scholarship in machine-readable form. Two more technology papers by authors from the de fact American national library, the Library of Congress (LC), examine issues of importance to libraries in the Digital Age. The first paper from LC looks at the development of MARC 21 in providing electronic access to collections, and how it is being increasingly used internationally. Finally, the second paper describes the newest experiment in reference taking place at LC, the Collaborative Digital Reference Service (CDRS) that brings reference and information services to patrons via the Internet wherever they live. This volume not only covers digital trends but also looks at issues of significance to librarians today in the areas of reference and management in its last three papers. The first reference paper concerns public service and surveys, in an extensive article, how reference departments in libraries have responded to reference queries during the past century and how this process has been improved and refined. The management paper is a comprehensive bibliometric study of management literature showing how research in this area affected library publications and practices. This paper can be of great use to anyone looking for the core articles on managing organizations and libraries. The last paper examines in detail the advantages and disadvantages of proposed 24/7 reference services, which are possible in part due to the electronic revolution but also raise philosophical issues about reference service.