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Describes how recent technological developments have changed the way that information is stored, managed and accessed. The impact of the Internet has created a need for public libraries to realign their position in the information marketplace. Addresses the challenges facing the library director in creating and selling the multidimensional library of the future, setting out ideas on the skills that will be required in terms of marketing, fund‐raising, and gaining staff commitment to the changes. Critical to this is the mix of physical and virtual, the idea of the library and the reality of the library. In future, public libraries will need integrated services, use of technology, and the right leadership.

Public relations activities as they relate to the roles of the circulation librarian in an academic library are discussed. The position of the circulation librarian as the public relations officer of his or her library in fulfilling the objectives of the institution and the library are also discussed. Services must be acceptable and the only way to make them acceptable is through public relations activities. The quality of the circulation librarian is highlighted for good public relations results. The services of the circulation librarian who uses public relations tools to function are also discussed as well as the ways the impact can be felt. This discussion highlights the similarity of the activities of the circulation librarian and the public relations officer of any establishment, and how they affect their organisation in positive ways.

Although a large number of Chinese libraries keep some sort of electronic publications, mainly formal publications on CD‐ROM and online, the usage is quite different from one library to another. While the hardcopy business process is mature, the rules and regularities of electronic publications in libraries are under development; many business models are on a trial basis. This paper plans to investigate what and how many of these electronic materials should be bought and brought to the users, and how they are used, which are still embarrassing questions for librarians.

The authors made an inquiry into the current status of formal electronic publications, including e‐books and e‐journals at the two major library groups: public and university libraries, as found out from the explanation of the gap by literature analysis and interview.

Through the survey on a few leading libraries of China, we found the big usage gap of e‐journals in public versus university libraries in China. The factors that cause the usage difference are that public libraries have diversified reader needs, lack of general‐purpose e‐publication, inferior skill in using e‐publications, a charging service model of e‐publications, less negotiating power and pricing.

The authors believe that if the improvements outlined in the paper are introduced, then public libraries can lift their e‐publication service to a higher standard, including extension of the subject scope, building of consortia, upgrading of the reading environment, and enhancing of the user training and service.

This paper aims to determine the adequacy of the public library system with respect to the total population as well as the viable population of different regions of Tehran city, the capital of Iran, especially pertaining to book collections in accordance with the IFLA/UNESCO Guidelines.

A survey was conducted through a questionnaire distributed to librarians of the public libraries under study. The other resources of data used for this study are annual reports and official records of the libraries at the provincial and national level.

The findings reveal the ratio of book collections with respect to the viable population of different regions of Tehran. Only one of 22 regions has a book collection as per IFLA/UNESCO Guidelines.

This paper highlights how public libraries in Tehran are providing access to information resources and whether the book collections of the libraries are adequate as per international standards. It also suggests certain improvements for the existing system.

The purpose of this paper is to increase the understanding of what public relations in university libraries encompasses. This is especially important in the digital age. Information has economic value and requires an information marketplace in which such value can be exchanged. The paper also aims to educate librarians, information managers/analysts and the library clientele/public about the various benefits associated with public relations and marketing of library services.

After a literature review of available resources (academic literature, journal articles, and books) the benefits associated with public relations in organizations – libraries being client‐oriented organizations – are investigated by means of a questionnaire survey administered to 180 students at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile‐Ife, Osun State, Nigeria.

From the findings contained in 150 returned questionnaires, it was discovered that some 40 per cent of students do not know where to locate materials in their disciplines within the University's Hezekiah Oluwasanmi Library. An even higher number have a poor opinion of the library staff competences. This points to the fact that the library's marketing and promotional efforts were not enough to attract the attention of the library patrons. The library needs to take on a greater role in this respect and use its ICT capabilities more.

The paper increases the understanding of what public relations encompasses and how it can be utilized by librarians and information managers/analysts in discharging their mandate of information provision. The ideas and discussions put forth may give the librarians/managers new insights into the provision of public relations services in their libraries. The study makes recommendations concerning the marketing of library resources in order to create awareness and enhance the library's visibility. It also advocates that the library's web site should be used in promoting library services and activities.

Public libraries must embrace the new electronic network technologies as they strive to meet the needs of their communities. As the borders of cities, states, and nations blur as a result of electronic information networks and global communication, and as access to information becomes seamless, the public library must firmly claim its place as a major provider and access point in the realm of electronic networking.

The Bertelsmann International Network of Public Libraries was created by the Bertelsmann Foundation of Germany to think flexibly about the public library of tomorrow and to develop model solutions to address the issues faced by public libraries across the world. From the first meeting, topics of relevance to public libraries were discussed and then the first group of participants had to choose a topic to research and create a model which could be implemented in other public libraries. Summaries of all research papers are available on the Internet at www.stiftung. bertelsmann.de Some models are currently being implemented in libraries of the participants and the new members of the Network are currently working on their research.

Flickr is being used by an increasing number of public libraries for providing access to collections and services for their communities. Public libraries are also using Flickr to build community engagement. Local communities are participating in building collections on Flickr, adding context and their own stories to images. The purpose of this paper is to explore public library expectations and strategic objectives for using Flickr.

This paper uses Flickr statistics from public libraries around the world as well as qualitative survey feedback to analyse the impact of Flickr on public libraries.

The paper explores public library expectations and strategic objectives for using Flickr, what the libraries have observed about their presence on Flickr, how Flickr relates to the other social networking tools they are using, what is the tagging, commenting, favouriting activity like, and how the libraries have responded to the use of their images on Flickr.

This information will enable public libraries to plan more effectively for their presence via Flickr and how to use it with other web 2.0 developments.

This paper usefully investigates the increased public library use and impact of Flickr that had not been evaluated in any depth.

This is very much a personal view of public library service to commerce and industry and does not attempt to give a considered survey of the position in the country as a whole. It is almost impossible to generalize for there seem to be almost as many policies as there are public library systems and the priority given to this service compared with all the other diverse services to the community which a public library is expected to give, varies from authority to authority. At one extreme there are those who appear to take the view that ratepayers' money should not be spent in contributing further profits to rich companies and, in any case, if such a service is required it is not the responsibility of local government. Other public libraries claim to give a service to commerce and industry but, in fact, make very little positive provision in the way of staffing and stock. Probably a minority of authorities are far‐sighted enough to appreciate that business enterprises pay a large share of the local rates and employ the majority of domestic ratepayers, and that money spent in providing this kind of service is a sound investment in the economic vitality of an area. The proportion of libraries appropriate to each of these three categories is difficult to assess but Dr Clements found that 4 public libraries out of 33 surveyed dealt with 56 per cent of the commercial and technical enquiries. Quality of service is not necessarily related to size of system and there are a few comparatively small libraries which maintain excellent co‐operation with local industry. Next year there will be a revolution in local government outside London and the number of library authorities will be reduced from 381 to 117. The elected representatives and most of the chief officers of these new authorities have now been chosen and will take office on 1st April 1974. New policies are already being discussed and if you feel dissatisfied with your present service, now is the time to act.

This article explores the impact on public libraries in Victoria, Australia, as they become increasingly reliant upon information communications technology (ICT) to manage, access and deliver information services. Libraries Online and Rural Libraries Online have, since 1998, been developing Internet access in Victorian public libraries. Funded by State (Multimedia Victoria) and Australian Federal (Networking The Nation) and delivered by VICNET, a division of the State Library of Victoria, these projects have provided a library approach to e‐services which includes provision of bandwidth, infrastructure, ICT skills, and content. The specific projects such as satellite delivery of bandwidth, rural points of presence (POPs), Victoria’s Virtual Library, the Gulliver Consortium and the SWIFT Initiative are discussed. Aligned critically to the actual ICT models and implementations is the capacity of the 44 individual public library services to understand and meet the ongoing issues.