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terminals from a single computer in Columbus, Ohio. This system allows participants to access a large data base, containing over one-and-a-half million bibliographic records, to produce catalog records and cards for their own holdings, or, if there is no existing record, to enter the data to establish a record (which can then be used by others). Location information is included in each record, so that the file also constitutes a union catalog. The Center has recently added remote label production, accession lists, and serials control to its services, and future plans include: subject search; direct user access; circulation control; and collection of management information. Also, a commercial firm makes available a bibliographic service for libraries. Both organizations provide for service charges according to a fee schedule, and both make active use of the Machine Readable Cataloging (MARC) computer tapes prepared by the Library of Congress. At the state level, the state of Washington uses a cataloging data base as the foundation for an automated network connecting all libraries in the state. On-line development is expected to be completed by 1976. In addition to supplying centralized cataloging for the libraries of the system, computers will also produce processing kits (cards, labels, etc.) as well as book catalogs. Development of acquisitions, circulation, and serials modules is being planned for the 1975-77 biennium at the close of which all state-supported institutions and major public libraries will be on-line to the central data

base.

Although none of the existing library networks has reached full potential, a few have demonstrated the viability of resource sharing through electronic networking and have shown some of the benefits that can be derived from speedy electronic communication. Library functions which can obviously benefit from improved interlibrary communication are interlibrary lending, coordinated acquisition program, and shared cataloging.

The primary source of centralized cataloging data in the United States is the Library of Congress, which makes available, for a fraction of the cost of original cataloging, printed catalog cards of any of the titles it has processed since the turn of the century. Shared cataloging, in the form of printed cards with common bibliographic information, is also available from commercial companies.

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In the area of reference services, some consortia, as well as many individual libraries, are using interactive computer timesharing systems for citation and data retrieval, while still others are investigating future use of electronic communications as an alternative to mail, for the routing of larger volumes of textual material from library to library.

Some of today's statewide networks include only one type of library, e.g., public or college; others, called "multitype" or "intertype" involve all types of libraries and information centers. Their administrative structures vary, as do their services and membership. The degree of formality in a statewide network appears to be a function of size. Strong statewide networks require dependable and sustained funding, a legal base, a willingness on the part of the members to yield some local autonomy, a structure that will survive changes in personnel, and provision for growth and change. The impediments to success are preoccupation with questions of control and organization, and impermanent funding mechanisms. Workshops and continuing education programs in organization and management help to bring about understanding of the human and administrative problems; the National Program would help to provide continuity and stability to such efforts.

While many statewide networks are considered successful on local, state, and regional levels, most are proceeding without plans for an eventual tie-in to a nationwide network. Statewide networks are the cornerstones on which a nationwide network will eventually be built, and it is only through careful planning toward a nationwide system than they can develop in harmony. Interstate compatibility is mandatory, if statewide networks are to be economical and efficient in the context of a national network.

It should be emphasized that NCLIS regards the self-generating and on-going trend toward cooperative statewide and multistate networks as a movement which should be encouraged and abetted with Federal support. Although there is no standard by which to measure the “value” of increased access to information that a network may provide, it seems clear that economic, educational, and recreational benefits will accrue in due course both to the individual and to the country as a whole when a nationwide network is implemented.

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Barriers to Cooperative Action

In viewing the environment in which a nationwide network could become a reality, the Commission recognizes the following barriers and impediments which will have to be overcome to achieve the increased cooperation required to implement a nationwide network:

(1) The information community in the public and private sectors is growing more diverse, and the component parts— the libraries, the publishing industry, the indexing and abstracting services, the education community, and the various government agencies—have had little or no experience in working together toward a common national goal. The Commission recognizes that the success of any comprehensive nationwide program must, therefore, have the fullest involvement and cooperation of all the elements of the information community. The Commission also regards it as important that the functions and relationships of all segments of this community be carefully studied and integrated into the program. Only if the total information community is joined together by a common objective will it be possible for the nation to attack the pressing information problems which confront it.

State, local, institutional, and private funding for libraries and information activities is unstable and insufficient. Funding is not planned to foster interlibrary cooperation in a major way, and, consequently, no mechanism exists whereby local, state, and Federal funds can be made mutually reinforcing for a cooperative national purpose. (3) Jurisdictional problems are impediments. Although information and knowledge respect no geographic boundaries, and user needs are as various as human concerns and interests can make them, the provision of information service in many localities is still limited by the taxes supporting a particular jurisdiction. Traditional funding patterns will need to be changed to make them equally supportive of local and nationwide objectives.

(4) No national guidelines are available to ensure the de

velopment of compatible, statewide and multistate network development. Unless administrative guidelines of this kind are formulated soon, there is danger that a heterogeneous group of networks will emerge which may be difficult and

expensive to connect, or which may never be connected at all.

(5) The rich and specialized resources of the Federal libraries, nongovernmental special libraries, research libraries and information centers must become an integral part of the nationwide network. Such integration will require that these institutions adopt a more open policy toward serving the general public in addition to their respective organizations, and a willingness to form or join library and information service networks.

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✓(6) Professional librarians have concerns about the use of new technology. The computer and other electronic information systems have made the average librarian and information specialist apprehensive about the loss of personal contact with the patron. This concern is reflected in the caution with which some libraries throughout the country have moved to convert from traditional methods to machine methods. Such conversion, in large part, implies a reallocation of personnel, and entails a new and unfamiliar approach to library management. Mainly, the problem is not technical but attitudinal. Technology also implies an entirely new conception of the library and its services. It requires the librarian to remold his thinking, to be willing to change his notion of librarianship, and to “. . . . rise above the computer, above the engineer, above the systems analyst ." and thereby push the profession into a position of real social utility." 7) The human resources required to plan, develop and operate the nation's libraries and information centers are, of course, the most important elements in today's systems, as well as in tomorrow's networks. Because future systems are not yet determined, the quantity and quality of human resources which will be needed to meet future demands cannot be assessed with certainty. It is evident, however, that new approaches to library and information science education will be necessary, if professionals, paraprofessionals, and other personnel are to be equipped to function in nontraditional ways. Although many library operations will, undoubtedly, continue to be performed in traditional ways, it is becoming progressively more important for librarians to be acquainted with the new technology. Schools of library and information science are in the process of re

evaluating their curricula in order to accommodate innovative programs. Today, however, many of our educational institutions are not turning out professionals who are technically equipped to deal with nonprint materials, or with computer and communications technologies.

(8) Except for the Library of Congress, the United States does not possess an official national bibliographic center to coordinate the processing and distribution of standard bibliographic records for the use of all libraries and information centers. The current complex pattern of bibliographic services consists of a multiplicity of organizations, in the public and private sectors, providing a variety of products and services. National bibliographic control is needed to identify items of recorded information in all media, to provide intellectual access to each such item of information, and to standardize the processing and communication of relevant data.

(9) One of the chief obstacles to sharing resources is the lack of public knowledge about the location of available resources. Not only must the public be made aware that library networks and commercial information services exist, but every potential user must be instilled with the desire to learn, to read, to find out, and to know. Every technique known to the teaching profession and to the television, radio, and newspaper media should be used to educate the users, at every age level, about the location of library and information services available to serve their needs.

The barriers and problems recounted above are, in part, a result of the independent growth which has characterized the development of libraries and information services in this country. To erase barriers to cooperative action will call for a major new program which is built on the concept of national cooperation. A new program will require cooperative action among libraries and also call for cooperative action between the distributors and users of information. The endurance of the information cycle, from production to use, depends on viable economic relationships. The next chapter addresses these issues and sets forth the outline of a proposed National Program.

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