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Today's online catalogs typically access machine‐readable records for books, journal titles, and audio‐visual materials, and indicate their circulation status. In the future, the database of these traditional records may be dwarfed by additional databases that will become part of the future electronic library. A few libraries are already experimenting with the addition of other text files to their catalogs. Broad‐band telecommunications networks and supporting technologies are being developed rapidly and will significantly affect the evolution of online catalogs. Growing applications of online catalogs, and network access to them, will require more sophisticated and powerful processing. Six prominent consultants—Joseph Becker, Gayla Kraetsch Hartsough, Raymond DeBuse, Jose‐Marie Griffiths, Rick Richmond, and Wilson Stahl—address these and related issues.

Library automation has both tested the educational preparation of librarians and created new educational demands. Four major consultants—James E. Rush, Jose‐Marie Griffiths, Wilson M. Stahl, and Rob McGee—discuss the competencies currently required of professional librarians, consider the extent to which new graduates and working librarians possess these qualifications, and identify methods by which organizations and individuals can realize the goal of professional competence. In addition to addressing formal educational programs, the consultants place a great deal of emphasis on continuing education. Continuing education must become a job requirement; library managers must be responsible for creating, encouraging, and supporting such opportunities for individuals and the total organization.

Unethical behavior hurts everyone, including the offending person or organization. Unfortunately, the effects of unethical behavior are often long delayed, so the consequences are thus often attributed to the wrong cause. When librarians purchase automated systems, unethical practices—whether committed by consultants, vendors, or librarians—will cause significant harm to the libraries because they can not only acquire inadequate systems, but encounter many managerial and operational problems as well. In this symposium, five major consultants—Rob McGee, Howard Harris, Jose‐Marie Griffiths, Susan Baerg Epstein, and James Rush—share their experiences and thoughts on related issues.

Five prominent consultants—Susan Baerg Epstein, James Rush, Jose‐Marie Griffiths, Rob McGee, and Wilson Stahl—address the development and use of the request for proposals (RFPs) in the library automation procurement process. Most consultants agree that the RFP is an effective means of selecting a system, if used properly. But it can be misused, is frequently substituted for sound judgment and intelligent decision making on the part of library staff, and is expensive. Librarians often focus so much on preparing the RFP that the goals of the planning process are lost. The preparation of the RFP is only one step in the procurement and installation process. It should be viewed as one intermediate objective, which must be coordinated with others to achieve successful results.

Five prominent consultants—James Rush, Richard Smith, Susan Baerg Epstein, Jose‐Marie Griffiths, and Rob McGee—address the issues that most effect system performance. They note that virtually every phase of planning for a system involves issues related to performance. No single topic is more essential to the successful implementation of a system. Guidelines and advise are provided.

When, back in 1994, I spoke to the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS) on the state of network development in Tennessee, I began by saying, “In Tennessee, as in many states, network development is multidimensional, multidisciplinary, multifaceted, multilateral, multidirectional—and therefore multi‐confusing.”

The library automation marketplace is characterized by five significant realities. The first is the changing status of vendors in the marketplace. The development of capabilities and the support of installed systems compete for the same corporate resources, resulting in an evolution in the leadership position of vendors. Second, the market is polarized, containing experienced institutions that are replacing systems and institutions that are entering the market for the first time. Communication within the marketplace is intense, which can contribute to the success of a project; the peer network also can increase the chances of replicating older, proven technologies while making it more difficult for new vendors to enter the marketplace. The institutions that comprise the marketplace are extremely slow to develop their plans and commit their resources. The library automation marketplace is also very small and relatively poor. Library automation vendors must recognize and contend with these realities.