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Following a brief history of cataloguing and the MARC format this paper describes current challenges in developing suitable international formats and cataloguing rules for dealing with electronic resources. Extensive references to the past and current literature provide an overview of the problems faced.

Frederick G. Kilgour, founder and architect of the On‐line Computerized Library Center (OCLC), and his wife Eleanor were special guests of the University of Alabama School of Library and Information Studies at its 1994 Alumni Day, 21 October 1994. The Kilgours toured the Library School, including its typesetting, bindery and computer laboratories, and electronic classrooms. Dr Kilgour spoke at the School's annual alumni day luncheon and made another formal presentation that evening. The evening lecture originated from the Tuscaloosa campus of the University of Alabama and was broadcast by the University's two‐way, interactive television system to audiences at sites in Auburn, Birmingham and Huntsville (points lying approximately at the vertices and centre of a triangle with sides 250, 265 and 330 kilometres long). Because of the interactive nature of the television system, Kilgour and his audience were able to see each other and to speak to each other.

This paper presents a historical overview of technological developments and their use in libraries and argues that librarians have always been amongst the first to adapt to, and use, the latest information handling and communications technologies. Points made are supported by many citations to the relevant literature of the time.

Librarians are finding it increasingly difficult to acquire and to make available to their users the full range of information in print form that they require. Electronic information products and services are appearing at a rapidly increasing rate. Users find them attractive and, when available, use them more heavily than print sources. Consequently, librarians in response to the demands of users, and overwhelmed by the problems posed by print publications, are attempting to make electronic sources available. This paper describes the nature of the problems posed by print publications and trends involving the use of electronic documents in libraries. It discusses the progress made toward introducing electronic documents as alternatives, and complements, to print collections. It also describes a study that the IFLA Information Technology Section is undertaking to assess how rapidly libraries are adopting alternatives to locally held, print sources.

This article describes the emergence of the bibliographic utilities and the services they were able to offer to libraries in the face of the high costs and risks of computerization. In 1980 the utilities had dreams of one vast national bibliographic network and a network‐based total library system providing not only cataloging and location facilities but also acquisition, circulation, serials control and interlibrary loan facilities, too. The reasons why these dreams never materialised are noted together with factors why, although they are still major participants in the library automation and networking environment today, the four main bibliographic utilities in North America are declining in so far as use of their traditional services is concerned. The factors discussed include the trends towards decentralized operation with turnkey integrated library systems, the trend towards local resource sharing and the rapidly growing sophistication of librarians with computers. In Part 2, (to appear in the next issue of The Electronic Library) the ways in which the bibliographic utilities are fighting back to try and overcome these adverse trends will be discussed.

It's not enough to simply acquire alternative and small‐press materials. They must also be made easily accessible to library users by means of accurate, intelligible, and thorough cataloging.

The Albert R. Mann Library at Cornell University has created a working electronic library and has made significant changes in services and staff responsibilities to address users' evolving needs. This article presents an overview of these changes, after discussing the development of electronic libraries at Mann and elsewhere. The increased usage that Mann's collections have received as the electronic library has been developed is also described.

When library systems are managed as a continuing process rather than as discrete projects, they are managed by the same people who guide other library activities and not by specialists. The ongoing management of automation should reflect the style and philosophy of the library. The management issues associated with hardware, software, databases, staff, and the institutional environment are discussed.

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.