ELECTRONIC INFORMATION: Storage, Communication, and Access Available to Purchase

A user of information has three strategies for capturing, storing, and accessing information in electronic form: a personal collection, a local library, or a remote service. Each strategy embodies a different mix of storage cost, communication cost, and user effort. Rapid and radical technical changes in storage, communication, and access methods may be causing changes in the relative costs of the three strategies. As a consequence, libraries face the challenge of devising a collection policy for electronic documents in an evolving environment.