Editorial

With this issue of The Bottom Line now in your libraries, it is my hope you take the time to notice some of the recurring trends in our topical scope with the journal. On reflection, I believe the topics included here are of interest to all librarians: grants, the Internet, copyright, electronic commerce, government policy and government information. Each of these articles demonstrates how all types of libraries will feel the changes in policies mandated on other libraries. As alluded to in the article by Miller et al.,take, for example, a corporate library which now works with a document delivery system at a university library to fill interlibrary loan requests for their journals. What will happen to this relationship in the future due to electronic serials? If the university library decides to cancel print subscriptions and utilize electronic formats to better serve their distance education students,will their contract and license allow them to provide interlibrary loan of these new formats?

Another issue is raised in the government information piece written by J.B. McCraw, former Congressional Quarterly researcher in Washington, DC. Her research clarifies what many government documents librarians have known for years. As the shift to electronic information becomes a mandate for government organizations, will access be enhanced or compromised? What visible and invisible costs will the library incur? Training (staff time), hardware and supplies (printer toner and paper), as well as the unseen costs, such as unfulfilled user information needs, are all lumped into the problem of these changes. Without training will users feel comfortable using the Federal Register or Code of Federal Regulations exclusively in electronic formats? Will libraries be ready to rise to this management challenge? Since the usage of government information is across our profession, these changes will affect us all. Only time and a watchful eye on policy will determine how well our organizations will exist in the situation.

As this is my first issue of the journal, I would like to take a moment to make a few comments on the past and future of The Bottom Line. From my short tenure as a columnist and member of the Editorial Board, I have enjoyed working with Charles Harmon, who has personally been a great mentor throughout the past few years. During the past few months of contacting potential authors, I have been welcomed by comments of what a great publication Charles has left me to edit and, for this reason, I wish to take this time to thank him. I have used this publication since its inception, as a librarian and even when I was in library graduate school, in Dr Senkevitch's management course. I find it only fitting to welcome her much needed article on grants in my first issue.

At our Board Meeting in Philadelphia at the American Library Association Mid-Winter Conference, there was much discussion about the future of the publication and what our readers want to read. I think this issue is demonstrative of the types of topics the journal has always done well;overarching, management concerns of all types of libraries, throughout our global profession. I will focus on both the practical and theoretical here,policy and practice, examples and expectations. Upcoming issues will examine:the usage of statistics and their value to financial managers, concerns of higher education institutions and consortium agreements of information, the effects of change in corporate library management, changes at vendors and publishers, revenue streams and organizational commitment to library funding,intellectual property issues and their relationship to the issues of costs,international relationships and partnerships, and lastly funding and fiscal policy.

I welcome your comments about what the publication should strive to accomplish in your professional reading.

James H. Walther