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Presents an edited version of a paper presented by Richard De Gennaro, Director the New York Public Library, at the Second Pacific Conference on New Information Technology, dealing with the need for libraries to become innovative in order to survive. Introduction to technology to libraries; Libraries in the info marketplace; Erosion of the free library ethic and the blurring of roles.

The article highlights problems encountered by the author as a result of routinely ignored computer security policies. The installation of unauthorized application processors (AP) has been a continuing problem, so when he detected one the other day, he was not surprised. He called the network engineering group and gave his device's media access control address and location, thinking that they could log into the switch that was serving the location, look up his MAC address, identify the port and trace it to a specific wall jack. In the past, the author has successfully identified rogue AP in this manner. However, in this instance, the group was not able to find his MAC address. So he tried using AirMagnet's Find utility, which works as a signal-strength meter to help locate the AP. It worked like a charm. He could see the AP sitting right on top of an employee's monitor. A few weeks back, in the aftermath of a SQL Slammer outbreak, a manager proposed that the author's group take on incident-handling and remediation issues. The author discovered that information technology security is not the only group with a written incident-handling policy. To rectify that, the author wrote a single-page incident-protocol document that outlines the main steps all departments should take when responding to an incident. The author focused on four areas: preparation, identification, response and containment. Although they are getting better at responding to incidents, common problems arise. One is that no one wants to take charge. Another problem is that there is always confusion as to who should conduct certain activities. Hopefully, by creating a common incident-response protocol and ensuring that everyone is on the same page, responses to all events will become standardized, and incident management will become a routine aspect of doing business.

The article provides an overview of several papers about information technology. In "Building a Web-Based Laboratory so Users Can Experiment With New Services," Jason Battles and Jody Combs posit that librarians are not as adept at taking the time to find out what patrons really want. In "When InterNET Is InterNOT," Arno Rueser shares six basic aspects of Internet bias and search queries that can be used to show how a skilled librarian can outperform the typical Internet searcher . In "'Copyfraud' and Public Domain Works," Carol Ebbinghouse looks at reasons why people and corporations place copyright symbols on public domain items and then centers on four basic questions pertaining to the complexities that often make copyright law confusing.

The article presents views regarding the use of information technology. According to Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton, Stanford University professors, evidence-based information technology improves the probability of a team to succeed in a project. Adam Miller, CEO of Cornerstone OnDemand Inc. says that team creation is a science given the right tools. Nien-Ling Wacker, CEO of Compulink Management Center Inc., had observed that disks are cheaper than toilet paper. Mark Palmer, vice president of event stream processing at Progress Software Corp., contends that most programmers need to revise their thinking when it comes to creating applications that apply intelligence.