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The humanities are facing considerable difficulties and pressures in Australian universities, as staff numbers fall and research funds shrink. Despite this, various innovative projects, aimed at creating electronic versions of texts and other cultural materials, are currently in progress. A range of different cultural institutions is involved, though the university and state libraries are the most active participants. Funding for such projects is difficult to come by, and the future looks somewhat uncertain. If a more coordinated and coherent approach to building digital libraries is to succeed in Australia, researchers and cultural institutions will need to work together to establish the appropriate financial and organizational frameworks.

To the front‐line soldier, war is far from being the kind of experience described by military historians and analysed by the strategists and generals. From the memoirs of those soldiers fortunate enough to have survived the battles which they fought usually emerges a picture of incomprehensible marches and movement, fragmented, intense action, and unconnected but significant details. There is no sense of the purposeful moves and counter‐moves, and unified patterns of action, seen by the historian or the general. While the analytical, “bird's‐eye” perspective may appear to make more sense of the events, it does so only at the cost of over‐simplification and loss of authenticity. A full account of a battle ought really to reflect the different “realities” perceived by the various observers and participants, but very few military historians have been able to do this. A notable exception is John Keegan, in The Face of Battle, who succeeds in conveying an impression of the individual soldier's perception of a battle, as well as giving the broader, analytical picture.

This paper seeks to discuss the possibility of reviving browsing as an access framework in the midst of the “single search box” phenomenon.

The paper provides an overview of recent trends in the implementation of “single search” products and contrasts this with the emergence of the Linked Open Data framework.

The paper suggests that the Linked Open Data framework will provide an important platform for reviving browsing as an alternative to searching in information systems.

The paper aims to stimulate further discussion about the relative importance of browsing and searching, as well as about the implementation of the Linked Open Data framework.

Reports that higher education in Australia is in the middle of far‐reaching changes resulting from the Federal Government′s White Paper of 1988 which provided the blueprint for the new “unified national system”. Comments on how this has affected the provision of library services and on a particular review of higher education libraries that reaffirms that each institution is responsible for deciding the level of funding for its library. Concludes that this review has aimed to make its recommendations feasible and pragmatic, especially in terms of sources of funds for identifiable projects.

Proposes a new model of bibliographic access, the virtual catalogue, to serve the virtual library. Suggests the use of current software and networks to build links between distributed bibliographic databases of all kinds, including full text, to enable the user to search a specified subset of them. Suggests that local data be limited to holdings information linked to, but separate from, bibliographic databases both local and remote.

How do you know if a newspaper is good? What are the best newspapers in the world? Most of us have opinions on these questions, but few would claim that our views are more than impressionistic and even intuitive. But one man who has publicly attempted to answer both these questions in a systematic way is John Merrill, Professor of Journalism at the Louisianna State University. He has put forward a list of “the world's top 20 newspapers”, accompanied by a detailed account of the grounds for his assessments.

One of Australia's unique achievements in the world of librarianship is the Australian Bibliographic Network, generally known as ABN. It performs several different roles: it acts as a source of bibliographic records, a national bibliographic database, and an inter‐library loan system. Since its foundation, in 1981, it has grown to link all states and territories, and counts nearly 1,200 libraries as members, though there are still several major institutions which have not joined. The ABN database consists of 8.7 million bibliographic records, from five different countries, as well as more than 15 million holdings statements for Australian libraries. In its size and truly national scope, ABN is probably unique in the world.

Discusses the user pay approach in Australia with particular reference to Government publications. Notes that although the Australian Government Publishing Service (AGPS) has been increasing its prices gradually it still provides free deposit copies of all its publications to the State and many university libraries. Concludes that government policies are being driven by economic crisis and appeals to the principles of free information and equality of access are perceived by politicians and administrators as being unrealistic.

In 1974, at the height of the French revolutionary terror, the abbé Henri Grégoire, a member of the Convention and of its Committee of Public Instruction, presented a report to the Committee on the need for a national bibliography and a national library. He attacked the bibliophages (“eaters of books”) who wanted, in the name of the revolutionary republic, to destroy the accumulated books and libraries of the pre‐revolutionary era. The materials in these libraries, he argued, were “national assets”, which should all be listed in a national bibliography and made available to the nation in a great national library.