Integrated Library Systems: Pragmatic, Philosophical, and Economic Issues in Networking Available to Purchase

There are many basic public policy issues surrounding the growth of the eventually ubiquitous electronic communications network. Unfortunately, as with many and perhaps most new technologies, many of these issues are being ignored or given lip service at best. As with most policy issues, there are no clearly marked lines delineating these issues into neat subject categories. They can, however, be squeezed, shoved, and massaged into three broad categories: pragmatic, philosophical, and economic. Each issue has components falling into the other broad categories but I shall attempt to use this taxonomy. This month, I will discuss some pragmatic issues. In future months, I will discuss philosophical and economic issues.