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LITC is a familiar organisation to almost anybody in the UK library sector. It was originally known as the Library Information Technology Centre. It was founded in 1982 by the DTI and the British Library to help libraries choose computerised library house keeping systems. The twenty years since then has seen an astonishing change to the business in which we work; information technology, especially the Internet has changed every aspect of the way information services operate. The library management system has become but one component in the effective delivery of modern libraries, albeit it continues to be a major component.

A short survey of the use of online information retrieval is presented and shows that 70% of academic libraries were users. The main justifications for implementation were felt to be cost‐effectiveness and greater retrieval capability. Most services were directed at academic and research staff and few at undergraduates. At this stage only a small number of trained searchers exist in each institution. The pros and cons of charging for services are evaluated and linked to the results of American surveys.

The purpose of this article is to present an overview of the history and development of transaction log analysis (TLA) in library and information science research. Organizing a literature review of the first twenty‐five years of TLA poses some challenges and requires some decisions. The primary organizing principle could be a strict chronology of the published research, the research questions addressed, the automated information retrieval (IR) systems that generated the data, the results gained, or even the researchers themselves. The group of active transaction log analyzers remains fairly small in number, and researchers who use transaction logs tend to use this method more than once, so tracing the development and refinement of individuals' uses of the methodology could provide insight into the progress of the method as a whole. For example, if we examine how researchers like W. David Penniman, John Tolle, Christine Borgman, Ray Larson, and Micheline Hancock‐Beaulieu have modified their own understandings and applications of the method over time, we may get an accurate sense of the development of all applications.

The paper provides a review of CD‐ROM networking technology. It includes a resume of currently available systems and discusses their functions and relative merits. Operational experience of systems installed in libraries, mainly in North America, is also covered, including such issues as usage levels, user education and wide area networking. Finally, some thoughts on future developments and problems are indicated.

This paper reviews the concept of on demand publishing (ODP) including the underlying technology and associated techniques. It looks at the potential benefits of ODP and analyses some current applications, particularly the use in higher education to support courses. Copyright issues are addressed briefly and a number of current projects noted. Finally some thoughts on the potential future of ODP are presented. There is a selective bibliography.

Many libraries have expressed an interest in the possibility of using CD‐ROM to provide an interactive public access catalogue, as an alternative to fiche‐based products and to providing online access to the networked library system. Similarly, many systems suppliers have included CD‐ROM in their list of future developments. However, to date in the UK, there have been few moves to introduce CD‐ROM‐based library catalogues. One of the first library systems' suppliers to provide a CD‐ROM product is CLSI; as with all CD‐ROM products, it has found its first users in the US market, though it is available to all CLSI customers. In the US, libraries have turned to CD‐ROM sometimes as an interim solution between manual or fiche catalogues and an integrated online public catalogue or, sometimes, when the multi‐site nature of the organisation or cooperation between library organisations made a union catalogue necessary. In these cases, the enhanced and interactive searching available on CD‐ROM made it a preferable option to fiche or other passive catalogue forms. This article does not discuss the feasibility of CD‐ROM for library catalogues; these arguments have been covered elsewhere, for example in the report by John Akeroyd et al to the British Library Research & Development Department. This article is a purely descriptive account of one commercial product which happens to be the first available in the UK aimed specifically at providing an interface similar to that available on an OPAC. In this instance the OPAC in question is CL‐CAT; CD‐CAT emulates the facilities and searching available on CLSI's online CL‐CAT, but takes advantage of the power of the CD workstation (the PC) to make greater use of features such as windows, colour and output to print files.

An overview of CD‐ROM and its development is presented to provide an introduction to this emerging medium. The technology itself is described including WORMs, and software approaches are summarised. Applications, including CD‐ROM as an information and bibliographic resource, are noted. Future developments described involve networking, novel publications and multimedia discs.

History of the project South Bank Polytechnic Library has been networking CD‐ROM databases since the summer of 1990. John Akeroyd, Head of Library Services at South Bank Polytechnic, initiated the CD‐ROM networking project at the London Road library, the main library within South Bank Polytechnic, after carrying out a British Library research project and visiting the USA where CD‐ROM networking was successfully established in libraries there. He was particularly impressed with the OPTI‐NET software that many libraries were using.

In this article we review the development of Integrated Library Management Systems, and look at some broad trends in their development. More and more core functions and special features have been integrated into library systems, and there has been a move towards industry standard databases, operating systems and architecture. The second part of the article looks at more aspirational library system designs, that reflect libraries' new needs in the light of the electronic publishing revolution and the open source software movement.

The information aspects of information technology are considered with particular reference to polytechnic libraries. The automation of library housekeeping is examined retrospectively and its relevance to users criticised. The library catalogue is assessed in particular and suggestions made for its future development. Online information services and similar primary online services are discussed and the present position examined. The slow development of online services is criticised. These developments are placed in the context of the library and polytechnic network and conclusions drawn as to likely futures for the academic library. Finally, the role of the academic librarian is discussed and deprofessionalization argued.