The Public Library as an Information Dissemination Center: An Experiment in Information Retrieval Services for the General Public

A decade ago, on-line access to large bibliographic data bases was \nrestricted to \nlarge governmental organizations that had the financial assets \nneeded to prepare \nlarge data bases and to access them in an efficient manner. \nAs a result of reduced computer and communications costs, this access \nbroadened to industrial users and to universities over the past several years' \nand now, \nfinally, an experiment is being conducted which brings such access \ndirectly to the public through the public library system. If the use of on-line \nservices for reference retrieval is to continue to \ngrow, the next potential user \ngroup is the general public who, in fact, paid for much of the creation of \nthese data bases \nthrough taxes. It is appropriate that an attempt be made to allow the general public to benefit from the vast research and development \nexpenditures of the 1960s through convenient computer access to these files \nof \nbibliographic material. The first part of this paper summarizes the experi- \nment to date; the second part provides individualized insight into its operation \nthrough the eyes of one of the participating librarians in the study.