topic, furthering interlibrary loan.

What does the Internet bring to librarians, libraries and library users? It
brings:

- the use of electronic mail for internal and external communications, and as a
means of communication with the public;

- the participation in newsgroups and discussion forums;

- the use of the library website to give additional information, open a digital
library, and offer a selection of sites relating to the public's topics;

- free access to the library's catalogues;

- a gigantic information provider; and

- a simpler way to look for another job.

With the Internet as a main information provider and the quick development of
digital libraries, what is the future of librarians? Will they become
cyberlibrarians, or will they disappear because the public will not need them
any more when all the information and documents they need will be available
on-line?

As for journalists, the librarians will probably continue being useful, as
stated by Peter Raggett, Deputy-Head of the OECD Library, in his e-mail of
September 18, 1998:

"I have to filter the information for my clients. This means that I must be
familiar with the sites which contain useful links. In addition I expect that
there will be an expansion in Internet use for education and research. This
means that libraries will have to create Virtual Libraries where students can
follow a course offered by an institution at the other side of the world.
Personally, I see myself becoming more and more a 'Virtual Librarian'. My
clients may not meet me face-to-face but instead will contact me by e-mail,
telephone or fax and I will do the research and send them the results
electronically."

7. DIGITAL LIBRARIES

[In this chapter:]

[7.1. The Digital Library: A Definition / 7.2. Digital Libraries: Some Examples
/ 7.3. Digital Image Collections / 7.4. Future Trends for Digital Libraries]

7.1. The Digital Library: A Definition

Digital libraries may be the major contribution from the print media to the
Internet, and vice versa.

Thanks to the Internet, hundreds of public works, literary and scientific
documents, articles, academic and research works, pictures and sound tracks are
available on the screen for free. The collections of existing digital libraries
increase regularly, and new digital libraries come up constantly.

Some digital libraries are created by "traditional" libraries who want to put
their documents at the dis