Changing Roles in Information Dissemination and Education

Abstract

The World Wide Web (WWW) is changing the face of today’s academic libraries — the way we use them and how we give value to them. In this article I will explain what the WWW means to the academic library and why it has become worthy of consideration. I will show that the WWW will impact greatly upon the Library whether the Library wants it to or not, and this impact will be in large part be dictated to the Library by forces both technologically and socially based, and thus beyond the Library’s overall control. Some consequences that I see of attempting to ignore WWW technology or providing inadequate resources to it will be discussed as well. Finally I will present some observations that I see on how the WWW is changing the balance between the Library as provider of information and teaching faculty as providers of education.