Invited Contribution: The Virtual Library: A New Common Ground?

Session Chair: Terry Winograd, Stanford University

J. Andrew Magpantay, American Library Association

The institution of the library has served as a common ground for society, a place where all citizens, regardless of their background or socio-economic status, could come to search for and find the information they need to enrich and enhance their lives. As with other segments of society, librarianship is undergoing a transition and transformation as computing and telecommunications technologies evolve, converge, and affect the way information is produced, distributed, and made accessible. Libraries are continually incorporating these new technologies as part of their basic services and introducing these technologies to more and more people. This evolution has sparked discussion within the library community about the notion of a "virtual library" and how this concept might be realized. For while computing and telecommunications technologies present new and powerful ways to meet users' information needs, they also can magnify the problems of organizing and making information accessible. Furthermore, some of the current economics and proposed policies surrounding these new technologies threaten to undermine the concept of a common ground where all citizens can participate fully in a free and open information society.

J. Andrew Magpantay is Director of the American Library Association's Office for Information Technology Policy in Washington, D. C., which was established in June of 1995. This office provides policy development and analysis for ALA's legislative and public policy agenda in the areas of technology and telecommunications. Magpantay has held positions as special assistant for innovative projects and planning at the University of California, San Francisco, and as computer systems manager at the Earl Gregg Swem Library at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. Magpantay was also visiting librarian at the William R. Perkins Library at Duke University, in Durham, North Carolina, where he worked on issues related to technology and reference services. He has worked as a programmer on several projects at the University of California, Los Angeles and has been a staff researcher for the California Public Utilities Commission Task Force on Telecommunications Network Infrastructure and a reviewer for the U.S. Department of Commerce's Telecommunications Information Infrastructure Assistance Program.

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