Summary

The rise of the Internet and the rapid expansion of electronic information present new challenges for librarians who must acquire, store, organize, preserve, and disseminate this information to their users. How can you locate the electronic resources most relevant to the needs of your users, integrate those resources into the infrastructure of your institutions, manage the necessary technology, and anticipate future trends? Deegan and Tanner suggest both the why and the how in this meticulous and completely practical examination of the strategic issues we face in a digital future. Chapters like: Digital Futures in Current Contexts; Why Digitize?; Developing Collections in the Digital World; Economic Implications of Digital Collections; Resource Recovery; Structures and Services: Mechanisms for End-User Access; Digital Preservation; The Changing Profession of Librarianship; and Digital Futures encapsulate the themes, concepts, and critical issues facing every librarian.