The impact of machine-readable data bases on library and information services

ABSTPACT The growth and proliferation .of machine-,readable data bases have created a need to consider the nature of recent developments, the impact of those' developments on library and information services, and their relationship with'the National. Commission on Library and Information Science (NCLIS) program. Data bases' many contain, information in a variety of forms, maybe produced by government or private business, and may be discipline, mission, orproblem oriented, or niteror multi-disciplinary. The availability of such data basesmay cause changes in such library activities as jpurnal acquisition and interlibrary loans; or libraries may provide 't-arch seryices,,act as intermediaries in preparihg searches, or .,preferpeople to appropriate information services. The role of NCLIS should be to support education, training, and research in the use of data bases, help expand service to new constituencies, encourage improvement of reerieval systems,. promote the use of telecommunications, and provide a basis for networks and data base sharing in gall sectors of the information community. (LS)