The contradictory yet complementary relationship between libraries and information brokers is examined in this volume, first published in 1988. Since its escalation in the 1960s, information brokering has challenged the role of the library in society. Librarians discuss their concerns about information brokers - the impact of brokers on reference services, the competence of brokers, abuse of library services by brokers, and whether libraries should provide competing fee-based services. Brokers share their own view as 'entrepreneurs', providing background, offering advice, and explaining the risks involved in their business. This lively, often controversial discussion offers suggestions for improving relations between libraries and information brokers, while continuing to serve the public well.

This book, first published in 1987, provides important information on reference publishing, including valuable guidelines on evaluating publications and sources. The articles contained here are all written by leading experts in the field.

Here is one of the first books to focus on the Internet's impact on library services. Libraries have evolved over many years and contain traditions of organization. The Internet---disorganized, fluid, mutative--challenges the logic of the librarian. How responsive are librarians to the Internet? How do they use it? What are their interests? What does the Internet mean to their world? Librarians on the Internet addresses many questions such as these and provides a snapshot of librarians'work with the Internet.Authors from around the United States and Canada discuss many aspects of Internet use, including gophers, VERONICA, science sources, electronic text, bibliographic instruction, training, and implementation of information services. Chapters focus not so much on the Internet in general as on librarians'use of the Internet as they take on a new task--essentially using a virtual library. Readers will discover how their colleagues are using this new technology to their advantage. Librarians on the Internet makes it clear that librarians who utilize the Internet have an edge in the world of information. The questions this book answers--and those it raises--inform and challenge librarians as they forge ahead into the future on the Internet.