Use of online information services is currently widespread in public, academic, government, and corporate libraries and information centers. The trend is for smaller libraries of all varieties to install terminals and obtain passwords, while larger libraries add systems of all types. Even in the face of a severe recession, online growth rates have held up well. In the long term, however, the online industry faces serious challenges--economic, technological, and sociological--which it may not be prepared to meet. Online services firms need thoughtful new strategies to deal with user desires for downloading, local control, and simple-to-use systems and protocols. Such strategies need to be based more upon market needs and less upon technological capabilities. Database publishers also need to arrive at an appropriate price per record which is fair compensation for later reuse within organizations, and to begin experimenting with new forms of document delivery. Online users can help themselves and the information industry by enhancing their organization's information resources, becoming activist consumers of online services, and expanding their horizons to include not only bibliographic databases but the numeric services. (DMC)