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A study on the accomplishments of Victoria's Community Network, virtual library network of State Library of Victoria, Australia is presented.

This article presents an investigation of the conflicting values of privacy and security in the use of public access computers in academic libraries. A summary of appropriate use policies in universities is included with recommendations and a sample policy statement.

A survey revealed that 65% of sci-tech and 52% of business libraries in the US are members of library information networks. Lack of need for such information sources was cited by some respondents as their main reason for non-membership in the networks., This research is a descriptive study of the resource-sharing (networking) practices of librarians in two different types of special libraries--business and sci-tech--in corporations or other for-profit firms, not for-profit organizations, [...]

It is known that end users of products and services sometimes innovate, and that innovations developed by users sometimes become the basis for important newcommercial products and services. It has also been argued and to some extent shown that such innovations will be found concentrated in a 'lead user' segment of the user community. However, neither the characteristics of innovating users nor the scope of the community that they 'lead' has been explored in depth. In this paper, we explore the characteristics of innovation, innovators, and innovation sharing by library users of OPAC information search systems in Australia. This market has capable users, but it is nonetheless clearly a 'follower' with respect to worldwide technological advance. Wefind that 26% of users in this local market nonetheless do modify their OPACs in both major and minor ways, and that OPAC manufacturers judge many of these user modifications to be of commercial interest. We find that we can distinguish modifying from nonmodifying users on the basis of a number of factors, including their 'leading--edge status' and their in--house technical capabilities. We find that many innovating users freely share their innovations with others, and find that we can distinguish users that share information about their modifications from users that do not. We conclude by considering some implications of our findings for idea generation practices in marketing. (Lead Users; Idea Generation; New Product Development), 1. Introduction and Overview Empirical research in a number of fields has shown that users are frequently the first to develop and use prototype versions of what later became commercially [...]

Colleges and universities throughout the UK and the US are adopting advanced technologies to develop sophisticated communications networks and information systems. SuperJanet (Joint Academic Network), for example, will link 100 research laboratories and universities in the UK. Several schools are installing videoconferencing and teleconferencing facilities and equipment, while libraries, such as the New York University Library, are creating campus-wide networks and school-owned television stations and studios.