In 1982 the Kanazawa Institute of Technology Library Center inaugurated an international seminar program and invited noted scholars from all over the world to participate. This volume brings together distinguished papers presented over the past ten years. Thirty-three papers organized into five broad subject areas--research libraries in the Twenty-first century; information access in the new era; new technology, new media, and library buildings; library education; preservation of research materials; the technological university library; and managing knowledge in the twenty-first century--deal with topics considered to be of greatest interest to those involved with the future evolution of research libraries.