This paper explores the challenges and opportunities facing libraries as they evolve into the electronic networked environment, and looks at options for libraries in the year 2000 and beyond. The internationally networked environment has fundamentally changed the way in which people acquire and use information resources and services. The paper…

Provides an overview of the importance of user-based evaluations of networked information services; reviews data collection techniques that provide a user perspective when assessing networked information services, including focus groups, user logs, interviews, observation, and surveys; and offers practical suggestions and guidelines for using such…

Explores the impact of electronic networking on social evolution, new notions of literacy, and social equity. Strategies to develop the Internet/NREN as a vehicle for reconnecting segments of society and promoting a network-literate population are needed. The role of libraries and the educational community in accomplishing these objectives must be…

Argues that much work needs to be done to assess the impacts of global networking on academic institutional performance. How the academic networked environment can be defined, possible assessment criteria, the need for a user perspective, and specific research needs are discussed. (Contains 11 references.) (KRN)

Discusses the accessibility of networked information services, i.e., NREN (National Research and Education Network), and suggests a focus on research in two particular areas to identify and meet the information needs of network users: (1) a conceptual description of the academic networked environment, particularly from a user perspective; and (2)…

Provides an overview of information policy, including its importance, its key instruments, and its complexity. Information policy issues that may create new roles for libraries include the ramifications of the public's right to information, the organization and retrieval of electronically networked information, information literacy training,…

As more academic institutions spend larger sums of money to network their campuses and provide network connections to sources outside their campuses, questions emerge concerning the selection and configuration of appropriate network technologies and the appropriate types and levels of services to provide. Increasingly, academic administrators are…

This book provides an overview and status report on the progress made in developing the National Research and Education Network (NREN) as of early 1991. It reports on a number of investigations that provide a research and policy perspective on the NREN and computer-mediated communication (CMC), and brings together key source documents that have…

This study continues the research reported in "Federal Information Inventory/Locator Systems: From Burden to Benefit: Final Report" (McClure, et al., 1990). Begun May 1, 1991, and completed in August 1992, this exploratory and descriptive research was intended to improve access to and use of U.S. Government information. Its methodology…

Provides an overview of U.S. federal information policy and its treatment of electronic information resources. Highlights include government publications; electronic government information; main providers of government information, including the Government Printing Office; the Freedom of Information Act; public access and use; information…

Summarizes a study that identified and described federal information inventory/locator systems and resulted in the Federal Locator Database--an electronic database describing 250 federal databases. Recommends that the U.S. Office of Management and Budget develop policy frameworks for the design of a governmentwide locator system accessible over…

Describes a study commissioned by the Office of Technology Assessment that was conducted to identify innovative information technology applications, management practices, and policies to help integrate the electronic delivery of federal government services. Highlights include the information infrastructure, existing federal information policy,…

Describes a project that assessed the impact of connecting rural public libraries to the Internet and the effect on librarians, local communities, and the larger Internet community. The evaluation approach, factors critical to project success, conclusions about public libraries and the Internet, and comments on the future of networked public…

This report describes the results of an assessment of Sailor, Maryland's Online Public Information Network, which provides statewide Internet connection to 100% of Maryland public libraries. The concept of a "statewide networked environment" includes information services, products, hardware and software, telecommunications…

This compendium is a companion document to the Maryland Sailor Online Public Information Network assessment final report, and contains detailed study findings, study data collection activity write-ups, detailed methodologies, data collection tools, and consultant notes on the uses of the study's data collection instruments. The purpose of the…