A vision of the information technology infrastructure of research (and special) libraries

Abstract

In the increasingly digitized world significant changes are taking place. As the material world appears to a growing extent on the Web – in the forms of digital registries, digital copies, digital process control and observation, digital communication, digital data, and virtual extensions of personal spaces – previously sharp boundaries are blurring. This pertains not only countries, but for professions, institutions, scopes of duties, disciplines and many other factors. Web 1.0 has given place to the Web 2.0 and 3.0 concepts, and the total life of users, and their activities are more and more moving to the web. What does this mean in the field of science, more specifically, for research libraries and public collections?