rmation science resources; library and related organizations; library
projects, reports, bibliographies and documentation; library related e-mail
lists and e-journals; LIS (library and information science) training &
professional development; museums; publishers and newspapers; scholarly
societies; indexes and bibliographic information sources; frequently asked
questions (FAQ) files; and web indexes and lists.

The Library of Congress's section Library and Information Science Resources
provides links to: general resources; national libraries; state libraries;
school library resources; library home pages; on-line catalogs; research and
reference; technical services; special collections; digital libraries;
professional organizations; library and information science schools;
professional journals; library vendors; and library conferences.

Compiled by the Berkeley Digital Library (California, USA), LibWeb: Library
Servers via WWW currently lists 2,500 web pages from libraries over 70 countries
(as of December 10, 1998), with a daily update. The search is available by
location, library type or library name.

6.2. The Internet in Libraries

The Libraries Programme of the European Union "aims to help increase the ready
availability of library resources across Europe and to facilitate their
interconnection with the information and communications infrastructure. Its two
main orientations will be the development of advanced systems to facilitate user
access to library resources, and the interconnection of libraries with other
libraries and the developing "information highway". Validation tests will be
accompanied by measures to promote standards, disseminate results and raise the
awareness of library staff about the possibilities afforded by telematics
systems."

Many libraries are developing a digital library alongside their other
collections. Digital libraries gather mainly texts, and sometimes images and
sounds as well. They allow a large audience to have access to documents
belonging to specialized, old, local or regional collections, which were
previously difficult to access for various reasons, including: concern for
preservation of rare and fragile documents, reduced opening hours, forms to fill
out, long waiting period to get the document, and shortage of staff. All these
reasons were hurdles to get over and required of the researcher an unfailing
patience and an out-of-the-ordinary determination to finally get to