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This article provides information on the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP). The program operate sunder authority of U.S. Code Title 44 and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-130. Chapter 19 of Title 44 gives the Superintendent of Documents responsibility for acquiring, cataloging, and distributing government information to libraries. Title 44 and OMB Circular A-130 require federal agencies to make their publications available for distribution to depository libraries through the Superintendent of Documents. Among the approximately 1,400 depository libraries, 53 regionals receive all publications distributed through the FDLP and are required to retain documents permanently to ensure the availability of archival collections. The FDLP network is in the process of transforming from a tangible collection of print, maps, and microforms to an online collection available to libraries and the public. Funds for the FDLP come from the Superintendent of Documents' budget. Expenditure reports do not specify the portion of this budget used to support the program. The Government Printing Office and the depository libraries are taking steps to increase availability of and access to government information.

The author offers guidelines to institutions on choosing rare books and special collections to digitize for successful digital assets. She explains the importance of selection for digitization including shaping the online collections that are built by libraries, archives and historical societies. She suggests that institutions should have a selection process to evaluate materials and determine when digital conversion is most appropriate. The cost of digitization is also discussed.

The article reports on the popularity of electronic books and enhanced reading experiences and discusses the impact that the popularity will have on the future of the publication and popularity of printed books. Legal issues which need to be solved before the full potential of electronic books can be seen are discussed. A discussion of research which found that there is has been an increase in consumers who purchase items online is presented.

The article presents news briefs related to information technology. The Cataloging Distribution Service of the Library of Congress has published the Update No. 3 to the USMARC Format for Bibliographic Data. The Dun & Bradstreet's Who Owns Whom, a source of information on company ownership and structure, was launched by Data-Star on June 20, 1991. A publishing resource will be formed through the combination of the Gale Directory of Publications with Directories In Print and Newsletters In Print.

The article offers a look at emerging library applications for optical disks in 1984. While the videodisc at $95 is 50 percent more expensive than a guide to the National Gallery of Art collections published by Harry Abrams, Inc., it contains twice as many images as that book. But there is an even more important advantage of the disk over the book. That is the greater durability of the disk. Digital Research's VidLink, is simply a connector cable which runs from the microcomputer to the videodisc player. It is cheap enough at $49. Digital promises to market the product for IBM personal computers and the Apple series soon. CLSI also offers a laser disk cataloging workstation which they call Lasercat. Two other library application products are in development based on laser technology. One is a telefacsimile service, the other an index database. Neither is yet available for purchase.

The article presents information on the BRS Medline Thesaurus by Maxwell Online Inc. The thesaurus contains a complete, hierarchical listing of the National Library of Medicine's Medical Subject Heading, Annotated Alphabetic List terms. It contains extensive cross referencing and enables users to find spelling variations, terms in different word orders, and "see references" for most search terms. If the system cannot convert a user's term directly to an index term, it will show the term in an alphabetic display of all possible thesaurus entries including the permuted terms, plurals and cross references. This browse list greatly improves the user's ability to find the correct term. The thesaurus also displays scope notes, which are not available in the printed indexes, and annotations.

The article presents information on the MITINET/marc software for the Macintosh computer from Information Transform Inc. The software allows the user to create original MARC records in-house. It also supports cataloging of all formats of library material.