Jason Epstein: "The huge, worldwide market for digital content, however, is not a fantasy. It will be very large, very diverse, and very surprising: its cultural impact cannot be imagined. E-books will be a significant factor in this uncertain future, but actual books printed and bound will continue to be the irreplaceable repository of our collective wisdom."
in March 2001 AALL President Bob Oakley appointed the "Special Committee on the Future of Law Libraries in the Digital Age." The Committee is charged with considering the implications of electronic publishing for the future of law libraries, including those serving law firms and corporations; federal and state courts and agencies; and law schools.
Over the course of the past year, members of the Futures Committee have worked to complete a variety of tasks:
* Researched and prepared "Trends Briefings" identifying seven significant trends external to libraries that are shaping the face and the future of law libraries
The e-Depot is a digital archiving environment that ensures long-term access to digital objects which would otherwise be threatened by rapidly evolving software and hardware platforms as well as media decay. It is the dedicated archiving environment for the KB's national electronic deposit collection. In addition, it will include the Dutch web archive and digitised master images. In line with the international nature of information provision, the KB has extended its e-Depot services to publishers worldwide. The e-Depot is supported by sustained research and development efforts geared towards maintaining the integrity of stored digital objects.
eIFL.net is a not for profit organisation that supports and advocates for the wide availability of electronic resources by library users in transitional and developing countries. Its core activities are negotiating affordable subscriptions on a multi-country consortial basis, supporting national library consortia and maintaining a global knowledge sharing and capacity building network in related areas, such as open access publishing, intellectual property rights, open s