There is a view, held by many in the library community, that the electronic library is a myth - the hybrid library is the future.

It has been suggested that online subject gateways to all the resources which a library/information centre has access to - electronic, paper, books, reference works, grey literature, audio, sound - are the solution to providing comprehensive access for patrons. Do Library Link members agree? Do they see provision of such gateway services as another librarian role of the future? Do they see Publishers and/or vendors playing a role in helping them to do this?

Issues raised on the web:

• Libraries should do this, preferable in the consortium frameworks
• Gateways are one stop shops for a precisely defined user group � the gateways that the information/web services librarians crawl through to identify relevant links and provide access through their web pages (Hamid Saeed, Lahore University of Management Sciences)
• University of Michigan (mel) suggested as a good gateway
• Gateways are webographies made up of net and tree-based sources
• Patrons to gateways still need telling "what is best on the net" they also need to be reminded that "the best is still not on the net"

Summary of Discussion:

Subject gateways should meet the needs of specific user groups within the unique context of individual organizations. Students are virtually all users of information � but they are not discriminators. Therefore a subject gateway should be:

• Basic as possible
• Lo-tech as possible � offering options
• Person-specific

The subject gateways currently available are typically entered by discipline. Thus the importance of having a good front end. The first level should be a list of resources, and offer links.

Gateways should ideally include:

• Author links
• Links to web sites
• Links to publishers' databases
• Limited bureaucracy of access

• Subject lists
• Subsets
• Links with OPACs, print journals.
• OPACs should link everything � and provide access for journals not taken.
• Access through a variety of points.

Issues include:

• Web access for users
• Maintenance of pages
• Ability to search across all publishers
• Teaching users information literacy (e.g. how to set up accounts and use services)
• Problem of information overload for academics
• Too many citations.

Ideally a user would set up their own profile, mediated by librarian/instructor. It was noted that "ignorance is bliss to the user", so this process should be as simple as possible (both to set up and to use). SilverPlatter use subject thesaurus as a federated subject index.

The people involved need to ascertain user needs � which differs according to the library, faculty, institution and the individual.

How can publishers/third parties add value?

• Linking electronic to paper
• Reference Linking
• Go through an aggregator
• Link aggregator databases, third parties
• They can control all aspects of access

There is a long way to go!

Back to ALA workshop homepage