The paper suggests that libraries were generally too shortsighted in their application of information technology and computing and submits that there are significant challenges facing libraries today.
This forum updates a similar symposium published four years earlier, and when read in tandem, the 1985 forum and the 1989 version cover most of the same technologies and issues but there is a difference of emphasis.
Understanding the actual value of the information components of a library's catalog will allow librarians to be better informed about the costs and benefits of maintaining or enhancing a library’s catalog.