Colorado State University Libraries' recent decision to eliminate its general gift program-and to restrict future gifts-in-kind to materials supporting archives and special collections-came within the context of a number of converging external pressures. In this article, the authors will examine issues arising from a major change in gift operations, as well as report on the collaborative efforts to formulate, implement, and communicate to constituencies a new policy on gift acquisitions.
When the initial library networks were established in the United States, they provided affordable, online automation services that were available from virtually no other source. The surge of automation experienced by American libraries for the past two decades has altered the historical relationships that characterize library cooperation. Local networks are being created and machine‐readable products previously available only from the networks are now being packaged on optical media and distributed to individual institutions. With these technological advances, the need for, services offered by, and financial viability of the networks have begun to undergo dramatic change. This is also a time of great opportunity for libraries and networks. There is on the horizon what may be the infrastructure for a national information network. The realization of this network will require close cooperation of librarians, who have embraced the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) Reference Model for networking, and members of the academic and research community, which is still relying heavily on the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocols (TCP/IP) for communications purposes.
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