The Emerging Information Infrastructure: Players, Issues, Technology, and Strategies. Proceedings of Part I of the Meeting of the Association of Research Libraries (123rd, Arlington, Virginia, October 20-22, 1993).

The topic of the 123rd meeting of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is the information infrastructure. The ARL is seeking to influence the policies that will form the backbone of the emerging information infrastructure. The first session concentrated on government roles and initiatives and included the following papers: "Opening Remarks" (Susan K. Nutter); "Canadian Information Policy" (Jocelyn Ghent Mallett); "Developing the National Information Infrastructure (NII)" (Michael Nelson); and "North Carolina's Information Highway" (Jane Smith Patterson). The stakeholders in the emerging information infrastructure are examined in the papers in the second session: "Introduction" (Hiram Davis); "The Public Interest Community: The Social and Legal Costs of the Information Superhighway" (Sonia Jarvis); "The Computer Industry's Assessment of the NII" (Kenneth Kay); "The Telecommunications Industry's Cooperative Role in the National Information Infrastructure (NII)" (Thomas Spacek); and "How the Information Network will Affect the Research and Education Communities" (Paul Evan Peters). Finally, papers concerned with the issues and technology of the infrastructure are presented in the third session: "Introduction" (James Neal); "Convergence and Higher Education" (Richard Taylor); and "Technological Change and the Public Interest" (Frederick Weingarten). (JLB)