While up-to-date techniques are increasingly being used to make information available, traditional practices inhibit the more eftective use of this effort. Some groups have produced their own ad hoc solutions and these could be systematized. The technology exists to record and retrieve full texts and numerical data; many of the conceptual problems relating to tbe organization of the stored data and their manipulation by users have been solved, and communications facilities are there to do it. Examples are mentioned, many from the humanities. Desirable political, commercial, legal, social and professional attitudes to, and aspects of, the introduction of an electronic library are discussed.
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