Academic Libraries, Networking and Technology: Some Recent Developments

Abstract

This paper explores some of the issues thrown up by the accelerating impact of information technology and networking on higher education, with particular reference to academic libraries. It had its origins in a presentation at a University of Newcastle Library seminar for New Zealand academic librarians in Wellington on 5 July 1994, and has since been updated and rewritten. It reflects the perspective of a provincial university in which there are constant frustrations in attempting to accommodate very real and urgent needs for technology with limited financial resources. The government constantly exhorts universities to accelerate the application of information technology to maximise productivity, but it is rarely accepted that a substantial capital investment may be required over and above existing recurrent expenditure. Without additional funding our universities will have to be re-engineered to resource the innovation that is now essential to survival in the marketplace. © 1994 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.