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Charts the history and development of the UK’s Resource Discovery Network, which brings together under a common business, technical and service framework a range of subject gateways and other services for the academic and research community. Considers its future relationship to other services, and position within the information ecology.

A Distributed National Electronic Resource? was the sixth MODELS workshop and one of the largest to date. Around 50 invited participants gathered at the Stakis Hotel in Bath on 5–6 February 1998, to discuss management and access approaches to the growing mass of currently unconnected resources provided by libraries, data centres, archives, subject gateways, electronic journals, clumps and others. We are grateful to Richard Heseltine of University of Hull, for once again chairing a workshop which posed a number of challenging management questions.

The Information Superhighway is at this stage a vision, and not a reality; conduit, content and connectedness are discussed as the prerequisites for a high speed network, which is still some years away. Possible service scenarios for future networked public libraries are outlined, together with some current issues to be be solved. The importance of a shared view is emphasised.

With networking becoming ubiquitous amongst automated activities, the need for standards which ease the burden of accessing systems by end‐users of widely differing abilities is paramount. The development of network systems, particularly in relation to library activity, is outlined and some of the search tools and standards, both current and emerging, are described.

This paper sets out to explore the shifts in roles evident in the research library community, with illustrative case studies from the University of Minnesota Libraries.

The approach takes the form of a review of environmental forces that are fueling changes in research methodologies and scholar behavior. Changes in research library roles are explored in the context of three case studies, highlighting new forms of engagement with the scholar community.

Three University of Minnesota Libraries' initiatives illustrate: the use of behavioral data to design a customized discovery environment for scholarship, new organizational constructs to engage the community in issues related to control of scholarship, and strategies to develop a virtual community in the field of bioethics.

The paper presents the original perspective of a University Librarian of a large research library and draws on earlier analyses of research behaviors, technology, and research library roles.

Recommendations for increased resource sharing between libraries have been emerging from a range of sources in recent years. However, the majority of local library management systems currently in use do not inter‐operate, so resources are fragmented and there is no unified access. The situation is complicated by organisational and business issues. This was the basis for the fifth MODELS (Moving to Distributed Environment for Library Services) workshop, which explored more effective management of access and resource sharing, and the development of a supporting systems framework. The focus was on public library developments and cross‐sectoral cooperation. The paper develops some of the key issues, together with discussion of the emerging MODELS Information Architecture.

The purpose of this empirical study is to investigate the use of, and perception of, weblogs in the Irish library and information profession, in order to ascertain the extent weblog technology is used by Irish librarians, and what factors promote or discourage the use of weblogs.

The research questions answered in the study were: “What types of library/librarian weblogs exist in the Irish library community?”; “Does the Irish librarian community use weblogs and other social communication technologies?”; “What factors affect the uptake of blogging technologies by Irish librarians?”. The methodology employed in the study combined quantitative and qualitative techniques, and involved content analysis of existing Irish library and librarian weblogs; a survey of Irish librarians concerning weblogs and other social communication technologies; and interviews with Irish librarians who maintain weblogs.

The study found that a high proportion of Irish librarians read weblogs, but weblogs are not extensively used as an information resource or communication method, and e‐mail and websites are preferred. The professional use of weblogs was found to be associated with simplicity of use, and a proactive attitude to technology and to library users. Constraining factors included time concerns, fear of misuse of the weblog, the limitations of the linear nature of weblogs and the newness of the technology. Interest in weblog technology is growing and its uptake will ultimately depend on the interest of the librarian and the perceived and actual needs of the library users.

This study analyzes, for the first time, the Irish biblioblogosphere and contributes to the emergent body of knowledge concerning librarians' use of weblogs.