schaffner.p65 Electronic Resources: A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing? 239 Electronic Resources: A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing?1 Bradley L. Schaffner This article examines the impact of electronic technology on libraries and scholarship. It focuses on some of the challenges of using elec tronic resources in research libraries, which include the cost of acquir ing electronic formats and the effect that such expenditures have on other library services and collection development practices. The article also explores how electronic resources have changed the way students and scholars conduct research. The goal of this essay is not to criticize or condemn electronic formats but, rather, to illustrate that electronic technology is simply one tool, among others, for the dissemination of information. As such, electronic resources should complement rather than replace other formats. volving electronic technolo gies, including powerful and inexpensive personal comput ers, scanners, the Internet, the World Wide Web, Telnet, electronic mail, and other advances are rapidly changing the library’s approach to collection devel opment and the storage and retrieval of information. Advances in hardware and software for the digitization of informa tion have made electronic publishing a viable format for scholarly communica tion. The rapid success of electronic re sources has raised expectations among publishers, librarians, and scholars for such formats. The technology is develop ing so quickly that it is difficult to ascer tain what impact future electronic re sources will have on libraries. In “The Changing Nature of Collection Manage ment in Research Libraries,” Joseph Branin, Frances Groen, and Suzanne Thorin wrote that “technical advances in digitization are truly revolutionizing the way scholarly information is published, organized and maintained, and both the scope and extent of this change are diffi cult to comprehend and manage.”2 The authors also stated that because scholarly communication is changing daily, it is difficult to predict what will happen in five to ten years. Although digital technology does benefit library collections and services, it also creates major challenges to the future vitality and health of research libraries. The rapid success of electronic re sources raises many misconceptions about their capabilities. There is the un substantiated presumption that all infor mation will be universally accessible to everyone via electronic resources. An other expectation is that electronic for mats are (or will be) cheaper than paper publications. Furthermore, some assume Bradley L. Schaffner is a Slavic Studies Librarian and Coordinator for International Programs at the University of Kansas Libraries; e-mail: bschaffn@ukans.edu. 239 mailto:bschaffn@ukans.edu 240 College & Research Libraries May 2001 that electronic formats are superior to paper publications. This article examines the impact of electronic technology on libraries and scholarship. It focuses on some of the drawbacks of using electronic resources in research libraries, including the cost of acquiring electronic formats and its effect on other library services and collection development practices. The article also explores how electronic resources have changed the way students and scholars conduct research. The goal of this essay is not to criticize or condemn electronic formats. Rather, it intends to show that electronic technology is simply one tool, among others, that can be used in the dis semination of information. As such, elec tronic resources should complement rather than replace all other formats. Electronic formats have many advan tages. First, they are more versatile than paper publications. Second, using full- text or key word indexing, they provide excellent searching capabilities. Unlike paper publications, these formats allow simultaneous user access. In addition, information can generally be accessed from remote locations, such as an office, home, or dorm room. This technology enhances the collections of research librar ies by providing patrons with access to information that is not available in, or is more accessible through, hard copy. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that most research libraries have em braced this technology. Although digital technology does ben efit library collections and services, it also creates major challenges to the future vi tality and health of research libraries. Ironically, widespread use of electronic resources in academic libraries may result in more restricted access to information. Many electronic products have license agreements that severely limit how this information can be used, particularly in the area of interlibrary loan. Depending on how copyright and fair use laws are revised and modified for digital technolo gies, it is possible that libraries will have to implement restrictive policies on how electronic resources are used in their col lections and by whom.3 Thus, librarians must carefully consider the impact that restricted use will have on the future of research collections. A second major challenge to the vital ity of research libraries is that, although they are racing to keep up with the latest technology, they also are defending their future existence in the electronic age. Pro fessors and students now have options other than the library, such as the Web and the Internet, to access information. These new information technologies have led some people to question the value or need of “traditional” libraries. A 1996 survey showed that Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 do not support maintaining or building new libraries; instead, they believe libraries will be of little value in the digital future.4 Writing for the Coun cil on Library and Information Resources in 1999, Abbey Smith noted that “digiti zation often raises expectations of ben efits, cost reductions, and efficiencies that can be illusory, and, if not viewed realis tically, have the potential to put at risk the collections and services libraries have provided for decades.”5 Such expectations for electronic resources can indeed have a devastating effect on the continued de velopment of library collections. Politi cians and administrators, who control funding and who already have made enormous investments in technological infrastructure for their institutions, sup port the idea of a virtual library based on a desire to believe that electronic infor mation is free or cheaper than paper for mats. Such beliefs would result in reduced funding for libraries. After all, if a virtual library were possible, there would be no need to store books, serials, and docu ments, and certainly no need to pay li brarians or staff. Unfortunately, electronic resources are often expensive. In many cases, books, serials, newspapers, and microfilm con tinue to be the best and most economical format to distribute and archive many types of information. Nevertheless, some librarians and administrators now place Electronic Resources: A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing? 241 the highest priority on the acquisition of electronic formats. Because most librar ies have limited resources, expenditures for more traditional publications such as monographs and serials are cut in order to acquire electronic resources. This re sults in fewer resources available for sub jects such as area studies, foreign lan guages, the humanities, and other fields that currently do not have the extensive coverage in electronic resources that the sciences do. Focusing solely on acquiring electronic resources improves access to some information but limits access to other, equally important, publications that are not digitized. Even when specialized electronic re sources are available, they are often ex tremely expensive, particularly when one looks at the cost-per-user ratio. For ex ample, in the field of Russian studies, a growing number of vendors offer elec tronic databases. These databases prima rily offer full-text access to newspapers and journals from the region and range in price from about $2,000 to $23,000 an nually.6 The sales pitch of many vendors includes the statement that their Russian database costs substantially less than other databases such as Lexis-Nexis’ Aca demic Universe. What they fail to acknowl edge is the fact that at U.S. universities, the user population for a Russian-lan guage database is going to be substan tially smaller than the user population for a general product such as Academic Uni verse. To illustrate this point, there are approximately 26,155 students and fac ulty members at the University of Kan sas (KU). About three hundred have the language skills and the need to access specialized Russian or Slavic studies re sources. Database A, a general informa tion database that could be used by ev eryone at KU, costs $80,000 per year. This cost can be broken down to $3.06 per user per year based on the potential audience for the resource. Database B, a specialized Russian database, costs $23,000 per year. If this cost is divided among the three hundred potential users of this resource, it is $76.67 per user per year. Although the vendor is correct in arguing that its database is cheaper in total dollars than other databases, the cost per user can be extremely high, making it difficult for universities, even those with strong in ternational studies programs, to justify the acquisition of specialized databases. Ironically, the very nature of research is such that most resources will have only a few targeted, specialist users and the problem of high cost-per-user electronic products will continue to grow, particu larly if the institution plans to support serious in-depth research by its students and faculty. There appears to be a growing unifor mity developing among libraries regard ing electronic resources offered. One need only look at the electronic resources that most ARL libraries offer to see that these institutions generally purchase similar electronic materials. This indicates that these products constitute “core” library materials. Unfortunately, it also means that as more and more collection devel opment money is used for the purchase of electronic resources, the distinctive character of individual research libraries will be lost as each institution offers its patrons access to the same materials. Care must be taken to ensure that the unique character of a research library is main tained. We must work to continue to de velop library collections that support the total teaching and research mission of the university. The emphasis placed on electronic technology over more traditional re sources is not limited to higher education. In a recent poll, U.S. teachers ranked com puter skills and media technology “as more ‘essential’ than the study of Euro pean history, biology, chemistry and physics…and than reading modern American writers such as Steinbeck and Hemingway or classics such as Plato and Shakespeare.”7 Unfortunately, schools are dropping traditional courses, such as art and music programs, to fund technology, even though there are no valid studies that prove such technology enhances a child’s ability to learn.8 The long-term 242 College & Research Libraries May 2001 implications of such priorities are pro vocative. The Impact of Electronic Resources on Research Access to electronic resources has already influenced and changed the way that stu dents and scholars conduct research and use libraries. As mentioned above, elec tronic databases and indexes allow a pa tron to search a vast amount of informa tion quickly. For example, a researcher can conduct an extensive literature search using multivolume resources, such as the MLA Bibliography, in a matter of minutes. After being introduced to electronic re sources, most patrons embrace the tech nology and expect to conduct all of their research online using electronic indexes and full-text databases. They often are Librarians and teachers must educate students and other users to evaluate information obtained on the Web by the same standards used to evaluate other research materials. disappointed to learn that not all schol arly materials are available electronically. As noted earlier, in the field of Slavic stud ies, a small, but growing, number of elec tronic resources are available. However, the preponderance of research must be conducted using traditional paper and film formats. This comes as a surprise to many, particularly younger students in the field who have used electronic re sources for other course work and re search. On several occasions, students have requested assistance in changing the focus of their research to a topic that could be searched using only electronic sources. This trend toward using electronic re sources exclusively should be cause for concern about the direction of scholarship if it now focuses exclusively on data avail able online. A wealth of research mate rial is not now—and may never be— available in electronic formats. Such growing dependence on electronic re sources makes one wonder if future un dergraduate students will have any train ing or experience in conducting research with more traditional formats. When students or scholars become fully dependent on searching online re sources, what will happen when they have to conduct research in an archive or a library that is not online, or that is not covered in electronic formats? It is easy to counter with the argument that some day everything will be online. However, using the Slavic example, it is doubtful that there will ever be money available to finance the electronic conversion of all information. Simply converting the card catalogs of the Russian State Library in Moscow and the Russian National Li brary in St. Petersburg to an electronic format would be a major undertaking, given that the two libraries’ combined holdings number more than 72 million items. The cost of converting all of these cataloged publications to a full-text digi tal format in a country experiencing se vere economic exigencies is unthinkable for at least a generation or two. An additional problem of electronic resources is the difficulty of identifying relevant, valid information. The Web, one of the most popular electronic resources, provides good examples of the challenge presented in identifying and accessing legitimate information. Scholars from around the globe use the Web to conduct and disseminate research. But, as we know, the Web is not limited to academic use. Individuals, social groups, politi cians, eccentrics, and businesses, to name a few, also use the Web. The sheer num ber of sites on the Web makes it difficult to identify relevant information. Further, because of its open nature, anyone with the appropriate equipment can “publish” on the Web, even if what they are posting is inaccurate or willfully misleading. Al though the Web is an excellent tool that can provide a wealth of information, be cause of its size and open nature, it has limitations for scholarly research. Many people praise the Web for being very democratic. Anyone with a com puter and Internet access can use it, con struct home pages, and distribute elec Electronic Resources: A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing? 243 tronic documents. Although this egalitari anism is a noble idea, it can create a minefield for students and scholars con ducting research. In general, documents on the Web do not undergo editorial re view. As a result, not all documents or information acquired on the Web are ac curate. Much of what is available on the Web is, in essence, vanity publishing. Ironically, scholars who would never con sider using self-published materials, as they have not undergone editorial review, often do not think twice about using in formation acquired on the Web. Librar ians and teachers must educate students and other users to evaluate information obtained on the Web by the same stan dards used to evaluate other research ma terials. Another problem associated with us ing the Web for research is the mobility of information. After a student or scholar has determined that a site provides valid information, he or she has no way to know how long the site will be available. On the other hand, when a scholar cites an archival document, the item remains available unless the archive closes or the document is destroyed. Other research ers assume that they could go to the archive to examine the document and evaluate the first scholar ’s interpretation. Unlike archival resources, information on the Web can migrate. Many good Web sites are shut down or move to a new lo cation (URL). After a Web site closes, the information posted on that site may no longer be available. If a scholar cites in formation from a Web site, it may be im possible for others to review and evalu ate his or her research. The search process on the Web also brings up several points that need to be considered. These issues apply to the search process of other electronic formats, as well. Full-text or keyword searching provides quick access to vast quantities of information. However, the information retrieved is only as good as the source’s indexing and the key words used in the search. On the Web, using the same search terms will lead you to varying results de pending on the search engine used (for example, Go To or Alta Vista) or the time of day the search is conducted. A single search often reveals hundreds or thou sands of hits, most of which are inappro priate for the topic under consideration. The scholar must know how to use the appropriate key words and a combination of search engines to find relevant infor mation. In an article in the New York Times, Steven R. Knowlton wrote that “the Internet makes readily available so much information, much of it unreliable, that students think research is far easier than it really is. As a result, educators say, stu dents are producing superficial research papers, full of data—some of it suspect— and little thought.”9 This illustrates that a major challenge for researchers using electronic resources is to develop a search strategy that will identify relevant infor mation. When conducting a search, the user must be accurate when entering the in quiry into the database. Computers will search for a term exactly as it is entered, and typographical errors could result in no hits. Surprisingly, spelling errors of ten result in hits. An article on search strat egies for the Web reports that searching the incorrectly spelled term “mathmetics” retrieved more than two thousand hits be cause the creators of the documents re trieved also misspelled the word.10 This alone makes one question the validity of much of the Web as a serious research tool. One also must consider the ramifica tions of using information that is possi bly taken out of context. Searching the Web or a full-text database, one can down load a passage or two that cover a sub ject. However, the passage alone may be an incomplete work. Such a search may not provide the researcher with all of the background material needed on the topic. Publishers could use hybrid formats to improve access while still meeting the needs of users. Textbooks, for example, may best serve students in a paper for mat. However, publishers could provide a Web version, or include with the book a 244 College & Research Libraries May 2001 CD-ROM version, of the text in lieu of an index. Students could use the electronic version to quickly access information but could study the paper version. Publish ers would benefit from not incurring the cost of creating an index. Cost People are often surprised to learn that most electronic scholarly publications are not free; in fact, they frequently cost more to acquire than the paper version. Charles B. Lowry, dean of libraries at the Univer sity of Maryland College Park, and Denise A. Troll, assistant university librar ian for Library Information Technology at Carnegie Mellon University, wrote that: Too often, work on digital libraries, not to mention much theoretical dis cussion, proceeds without a thor ough grounding in the realities of cost. There are certain assumptions which precede this state of affairs, among them the notion that digital libraries somehow will be cheaper than print libraries, perhaps even free. One suspects that this arises from the misplaced hope that digi tal libraries will liberate us from the difficult cost dynamics of print li braries. There is also a presumption that electronic access will mean added value to library patrons, but it begs the question if the access is at a cost patrons are unwilling to pay.11 Indeed, academic librarians and pa trons must carefully weigh the benefit versus the cost of electronic resources. Are we willing to pay for the added value of access (both in searching capabilities and convenience through remote access) if it comes at the cost of the breadth and scope of the research collection? Focusing all collection development funds on elec tronic resources will privilege some dis ciplines in a library’s collections at the expense of others that do not extensively use digitization as a scholarly communi cation format. Currently, a number of options are available to libraries for access to elec tronic resources. One is to own and store the information on local computers and/ or by using CD-ROM products on stand alone workstations or on a LAN (local area network). The alternative is to pro vide access to information that is owned and maintained by vendors or publish ers through Telnet, Web-based, or direct- dial access. One study shows that on-site storage of digital information at libraries is more expensive than storing traditional publi cations such as books and serials. “Based on a ten-year replacement cycle, digital storage and access will cost academic li braries sixteen times as much as print to store locally.”12 The ten-year cycle in cludes the replacement of computer equipment and the migration of the in formation to newer formats so that it con tinues to be accessible. Given how quickly computer equipment is evolving, ten years is a long time between upgrading hardware and refreshing the digital in formation. Publishers and vendors offer remote access to electronic resources as an alter native to actual ownership of digital in formation. Remote access offers many advantages. First and foremost, a library will not have to maintain the equipment and incur all associated costs to store, re fresh, and migrate the information. It need only supply relatively inexpensive workstations to access the resource. In addition, if a vendor maintains the infor mation, it can be updated on a continual basis. But there are a number of issues that librarians must consider when they pay for remote access to information. First is the user’s ability to access the remote site. For example, over the past few years, the KU libraries have switched to Web inter faces to access many databases. Librarians and patrons are discovering that connect and response times can be slow. Librar ians need to question paying $80,000, or more, to a vendor when access to the da tabase is difficult or impossible. Library Electronic Resources: A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing? 245 patrons expect a quick response time to electronic inquiries and will not be satis fied if they must wait several minutes simply to connect to a Web page. A pub lished study on accessing scholarly elec tronic journals reports the following: A full 55 percent of the e-journals in the sample could not be accessed on the first try by one or more of the methods listed in the directories [for example, Web, Telnet, gopher, etc.]. More than half of the access failures were due to the problems of the e-journals themselves, such as servers being down or server loca tion changes. Moreover, about one- fifth of the e-journals had incom plete archives and almost a quarter had probably ceased publication.13 Incomplete electronic archives lead to a second, and major, issue concerning re mote access—the purchase of “cyber va por.” When a library subscribes to a pa per or microform index, journal, or news paper, the institution keeps the acquired issues of the publication. This ensures that the item will be available to future schol ars, even if the library no longer sub scribes to the title or the title ceases pub lication. The trend to provide access to, rather than acquire ownership of, publi cations means that there will only be ac cess as long as the library is willing to pay. If a library subscribes to an electronic da tabase for a number of years and then has to cancel its subscription because of finan cial problems, it is left with nothing tan gible for its investment. This could lead to a situation where a library administra tor might feel compelled to continue to subscribe to an electronic publication so that the library does not lose its invest ment. This issue is complicated by the very real possibility that electronic publi cations will see “captive audience” price increases similar to those in costs of sci entific journals over the past decade. In fact, this is already happening. The KU libraries were notified that a subscription to a certain database would increase from about $24,000 in 1997 to $250,000 in 1998. (It should be noted that the vendor did offer an alternative subscription plan for $80,000 per year, but the database would not include all of the information in the more expensive version.) Few libraries can absorb such price increases. Given recent developments in the li brary environment, publishing trends, and patron needs, the move toward pro viding access to information, rather than actual ownership of material, is a reality for most research libraries. However, li brarians must carefully consider the im plications of purchasing only access to information. Libraries will have to de pend on a vendor or publisher not only to provide access, but also to archive the information. If the vendor goes out of business or decides that it is not finan cially viable to continue to maintain a publication, the library will lose its vir tual holdings to it. Some vendors, such as East View Publications of Minneapo lis, Minnesota, have come up with a workable solution. East View offers nu merous Russian newspapers in electronic format. Rather than waiting six weeks to receive the paper via airmail, a person in the United States can read news reports the day they are published. Unfortu nately, the subscriber will have access to this information electronically only as long as the vendor maintains the data in the computer. For archival purposes, East View offers microfilm copies of the pa per at a discounted rate to electronic sub scribers. This enables a library to provide immediate access to the current newspa per but also ensures that their future pa trons will have access to the same publi cation, albeit in a slightly different format. However, this solution will not work for all electronic publications. Librarians must take the initiative in encouraging vendors and publishers to guarantee that appropriate electronic products will be available to future gen erations of students and scholars in or der to secure their investment. This could be done through the use of an indepen dent third party, such as OCLC or RLG, http:publication.13 246 College & Research Libraries May 2001 that would store and disseminate a re source if the vendor goes out of business or decides that it is no longer economi cally feasible to offer the product commer cially.14 If this scenario were to occur, the database or electronic files would be transferred to the third-party site. Librar ies that subscribe to the product would be assured of continued future access to the resource. However, such backup sys tems are only in a nascent state of devel opment and the costs are still unknown. Preservation Librarians need to consider whether digi tization is an appropriate format for stor age and preservation. Given the rapid development of computer hardware and software upgrades, will current materi als will be accessible in ten years? For example, with regard to CD-ROMS, we find that: not that the compact disks them selves are short lived, but the hard ware needed to read them is ever evolving. Support for today’s tech nology may not be available tomor row. What use is a disc that can last 500 years, even 100 or 50 years, if there is no machine which provides access to the information on the disc?15 By way of illustration, the U.S. govern ment compiled the 1960 census on punch cards. The only machine that can still read the data from this census is now in the Smithsonian. A more recent example is seen in some early personal computers that are no longer produced. Often files created on such equipment can only be accessed on this equipment; current equipment is not compatible. Along with hardware is the issue of updated and re vised software. Early versions of many popular word-processing programs are no longer compatible with current ver sions; if one does not have the earlier pro gram available, the information originally created with the program will be very difficult or impossible to access. Any in formation that is stored electronically has to be constantly refreshed and migrated to maintain its integrity. This is an ongo ing expense that can be costly. Each time this action takes place, there is the chance that data will be corrupted or lost.16 Currently, there are many challenges that need to be solved before on-going digital storage of information becomes cost effective for libraries. The long-term digital preservation problem calls for a long-lived solu tion that does not require continual heroic effort or repeated invention of new approaches every time for mats, software or hardware para digms, document types, or record keeping practices change. The ap proach must be extensible, since we cannot predict future changes, and it must not require labor-intensive translation or examination of indi vidual documents. It must handle current and future documents of unknown type in a uniform way, while being capable of evolving as necessary. Furthermore, it should allow flexible choices and tradeoffs among priorities such as access, fi delity, and ease of document man agement.17 Consortia of libraries and scholarly institutions can work together to use elec tronic resources effectively. JSTOR (Jour nal Storage) is one cooperative project that has promise. It is a nonprofit organiza tion dedicated to making full use of digi tal technologies by providing access to and preservation of back files of impor tant journals.18 Studies done by JSTOR participants show that this form of coop erative access and preservation is actually cheaper than storing numerous copies of the original journal in separate libraries.19 Savings are achieved through coopera tion. Libraries and scholarly institutions that participate in JSTOR share in the cost of storing and refreshing the information, rather than attempting to do so individu ally. http:libraries.19 http:journals.18 http:agement.17 http:cially.14 Electronic Resources: A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing? 247 The Paperless Society It has been argued that we are moving toward a “paperless society,” meaning that all information will be stored and accessed electronically. Andrew S. Grove, CEO of Intel, believes that all information can and will be stored electronically. He has written that digital information lasts forever and is “information without boundaries, fitting in with the trend to ward a single, global community: it is in stant, consistent with the rhythm of times—fast, fast, and faster.” Further, he has written that the publishing industry has been built on “elaborate and expen sive printing presses.”20 This last state ment fails to take into account the cost of editorial review of publications and as sumes that paper publication costs are based solely on physical production costs. Recent publishing and reading trends in the United States, at least, indicate that we are not headed toward a paperless society anytime soon. Editorial review is an expense that will occur regardless of format. Even elec tronic publications will need editorial re view. So far, there has been no indication that electronic formats will be cheaper to acquire than hard-copy publications.21 Although printing equipment is an ex pense for paper publications, electronic formats have additional computer access and storage costs. Moreover, it should be stressed that Grove is talking about in formation rather than knowledge. In most cases, information probably can be best stored electronically. However, most stu dents, scholars, and library users, in gen eral, are not simply looking for informa tion. The goal of a library is to provide access to knowledge. In their 1995 book, Future Libraries: Dreams, Madness & Real ity, Walt Crawford and Michael Gorman wrote “that libraries are not wholly or even primarily about information. They are about the preservation, dissemination, and use of recorded knowledge in what ever form it may come so that humankind may become more knowledgeable; through knowledge reach understanding; and, as an ultimate goal, achieve wis dom.”22 In contrast to Grove’s narrow view of electronic resources, Umberto Eco recently noted that, rather than moving us toward a paperless society, electronic texts have actually resulted in the increased produc tion of printed material because we print off documents from our computers. Rather than dealing with published books and journals, we will have to cope with “tons and tons of unbound sheets of paper.”23 Eco believes that new technologies will render only some types of publications obsolete, such as multivolume encyclope dias. Most printed books that are durable, portable, and economical will continue to prosper. Recent publishing and reading trends in the United States, at least, indicate that we are not headed toward a paperless society anytime soon. Public library book circulation increased by 15 percent be tween 1990 and 1991. A year later, book sales increase by almost 16 percent.24 One only has to look at the phenomenal growth of the book “superstore” to see that print is not dead or dying. These stores are often open fourteen hours a day and are usually crowded. The prediction of a paperless society is premature. Conclusion This article has attempted to point out some of the potential limitations, costs, and problems of using electronic formats to access knowledge and information. Its goal was to take a thoughtful look at the impact that technology will have on li braries and education. Because digitiza tion and electronic access is relatively new, it is often seen to be “better” than traditional formats such as newspapers or books. The access and storage options offered by electronic technology and digi tization are exceptional in range and quantity. For many resources such as in dexes, bibliographies and statistical works, digitization is the best format http:percent.24 http:publications.21 248 College & Research Libraries May 2001 available. However, the challenges and expense of digitizing all available publi cations are great, making the outlook for the total electronic conversion overly op timistic, given today’s technology. The belief of many people that elec tronic formats are superior to other for mats is too simplistic. This belief is often reinforced because institutions, having invested enormous sums in creating a campuswide technology infrastructure, want to see this infrastructure maximally used in order to justify their investment. If this outlook prevails, it could have a devastating effect on the development and maintenance of library collections by diverting funds from the continuing de velopment of unique collections. Al though electronic formats offer many ad vantages, investing huge sums in these resources will possibly reduce the library’s ability to serve its patrons as ac quisition budgets are used to purchase electronic resources at the cost of acquir ing books and serials. Many disciplines in the academy, particularly the humani ties, continue to conduct scholarly com munication through traditional formats, such as monographs. One should not con sider electronic resources superior to other formats simply because they use current technology. Library resources need to be evaluated and acquired based not on format but, instead, on content and patron and disciplinary need. As electronic resources for the publica tion of information become more preva lent, perhaps the all-or-nothing attitude in support of or against them will subside. We now have many communication choices, including mail, fax, telephone, and e-mail; and we choose the right format to meet our communication needs on a daily basis. No one form is better then the other. In much the same way, publishers, librar ians, scholars, and the reading public will use the appropriate format to access infor mation with no one type superior to the other. Currently, electronic formats are best suited for resources such as indexes, full- text databases, and other publications that benefit from enhanced searching capabili ties and the ability to update information on a regular basis. Other publications, such as novels, magazines, and newspapers, will probably continue to be published in inexpensive paper formats. One would be hard pressed to find a better format for a fifty-cent newspaper, which is inexpensive and easy to access. Notes 1. An earlier edition of this paper was presented at the 1997 Globnet conference held in Warsaw, Poland, in November 1997 (available online at http://slim.emporia.edu/globenet/ globenet.htm). An abbreviated earlier version of this article was published as “The Effects of the Digital Revolution on Libraries and Research,” NewsNet: The Newsletter of the American Associa tion for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, 38 (May 1998): 1–3. 2. Joseph Branin, Frances Groen, and Suzanne Thorin, “The Changing Nature of Collection Management in Research Libraries,” Library Resources & Technical Services 44 (Jan. 2000): 26. A version is also available online at http://www.arl.org/collect/changing.html. 3. For an excellent examination of the issues related to copyright, fair use, and ownership of intellectual property in the digital age, see: National Research Council, Committee on Intellec tual Property Rights in the Emerging Information Infrastructure, The Digital Dilemma: Intellectual Property in the Information Age (Washington, D.C.: National Academy Pr., 1999); also available online at http://bob.nap.edu/html/digital_dilemma/. A good overview of this extensive re port can be found in Ann Okerson, ed., “The Digital Dilemma: Intellectual Property in the Infor mation Age,” Against the Grain 12 (June 2000): 45–54. 4. Buildings, Books and Bytes: Libraries and Communities in the Digital Age (Washington, D.C.: Benton Foundation, 1996), 4. 5. Abby Smith, Why digitize? (Washington, D.C.: Council on Library and Information Re sources, 1999), iv. 6. For a good evaluation of the databases that are currently available, see: Michael Neubert, “Online News from Russia via the Internet,” Slavic & East European Information Resources 1, no. 1 (2000): 45–67. http://bob.nap.edu/html/digital_dilemma http://www.arl.org/collect/changing.html http://slim.emporia.edu/globenet Electronic Resources: A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing? 249 7. Todd Oppenheimer, “The Computer Delusion,” Atlantic Monthly (July 1997): 46. 8. Ibid., 47. In fact, people are questioning the value of having young children use comput ers. See, for example: Kathy Kelly, “False Promise: Parking Your Child in Front of the Computer May Seem Like a Good Idea, But Think Again,” U.S. News Online (Sept. 25, 2000); available online at http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/000925/nycu/computers.htm. 9. Steven R. Knowlton, “How Students Get Lost in Cyberspace,” New York Times Education Life 2 (Nov. 1997): 18. 10. Julia K. Nims and Linda Rich, “How Successfully Do Users Search the Web?” College & Research Library News 59 (Mar. 1998): 158. 11. Charles B. Lowry and Denise A. Troll, “Carnegie Mellon University and University Mi crofilms International ‘Virtual Library Project,’” Serials Librarian 28, nos. 1/2 (1996): 160–61. 12. Ibid., 165. 13. Stephen P. Harter and Hak Joon Kim, “Accessing Electronic Journals and Other E-publi cations: An Empirical Study,” College & Research Libraries 57 (Sept. 1996): 454. 14. OCLC is developing Electronic Collections Online (ECO) as a way to archive digital pub lications. Through negotiated agreements with publishers, libraries that subscribe to ECO will continue to have access to electronic publications covered during the paid subscription period, even if the library discontinues its subscription to the title. Information on ECO is available online at http://www.oclc.org/oclc/eco/archive.htm. 15. Marcia Watt and Lisa Biblo, “CD-ROM Longevity: A Select Bibliography,” Conservation Administration News (Jan. 1995): 11–13. 16. For a concise explanation of the problem, see: Howard Besser, “Digital Longevity,” in Handbook for Digital Projects: A Management Tool for Preservation and Access, ed. Maxine K. Stitts (Andover, Mass.: Northeast Document Conservation Center, 2000), 155–65; available online at http://www.nedcc.org/digital/dighome.htm. 17. Jeff Rothenberg, Avoiding Technological Quicksand: Finding a Viable Technical Foundation for Digital Preservation: A Report to the Council on Library and Information Resources (Washington, D.C.: Council on Library and Information Resources, 1999). The publication is also available online at http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/rothenberg/introduction.html. The quote in the text is taken from the executive summary of the Web version located at http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/ rothenberg/preface.html#executive. 18. Kevin M. Guthrie and Wendy P. Lougee, “The JSTOR Solution: Accessing and Preserving the Past,” Library Journal (Feb. 1997): 42–44. 19. William Bowen, “JSTOR and the Economics of Scholarly Communication,” in The Eco nomics of Information in the Networked Environment, ed. Meredith A. Butler and Bruce R. Kingma (Washington, D.C.: ARL, 1995), 28–30. 20. Andrew S. Grove, “What Can Be Done, Will Be Done,” Forbes 158 (Dec. 2, 1996): 193. 21. In addition, the potential for profit, at least for popular magazines, is not as high as some would believe. “Magazines are going to be losing money on the Web for years to come, says McKinsey and Co. Director Joanna Barsh following a 2 ½-month study done in cooperation with the Magazine Publishers of America.” From David Lieberman, “Study Says Magazines Shouldn’t Rush to Web, as Profit Potential Is Low,” USA Today, 23 Oct. 2000, 3b; available online at http:// www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/cti705.htm. 22. Walt Crawford and Michael Gorman, Future Libraries: Dreams, Madness & Reality (Chi cago: ALA, 1995), 5. 23. Umberto Eco, “Gutenberg Galaxy Expands,” Nation 264 (Jan. 6, 1997): 35. 24. Crawford and Gorman, Future Libraries, 16. www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/cti705.htm http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/rothenberg/introduction.html http://www.nedcc.org/digital/dighome.htm http://www.oclc.org/oclc/eco/archive.htm http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/000925/nycu/computers.htm