buted stories, commentary,
and briefings.

The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA)
provides a very interesting section Electronic Collections and Services.

8. ON-LINE CATALOGS

[In this chapter:]

[8.1. Library Catalogs / 8.2. International Bibliographic Databases / 8.3.
Future Trends for On-line Catalogs]

Why a whole chapter on catalogs? Because, even if most of them are not yet
user-friendly and are still in the domain of information specialists, they are
essential to students, researchers, and anybody who needs a particular document
or wants to know more about a specific topic.

Until now, the catalogs could easily be reproached as being complicated to deal
with, and above all for giving the references of the documents but never giving
access to their contents and full-text. All this is now changing. Catalogs on
the Web have become more attractive and user-friendly. And, in an emerging
trend, catalogs have begun to give instant access to some documents, for
example, the works listed in The Universal Library which can be accessed through
the Experimental Search System (ESS) of the Library of Congress.

8.1. Library Catalogs

Two catalogs, those of The British Library and the Library of Congress, are
impressive bibliographic tools, freely available to all Internet users. They
include many documents published in non-English languages.

In May 1997, The British Library launched OPAC 97, which provides free access
via the World Wide Web to the catalogs of the major British Library collections
in London and Boston Spa. For a wider range of databases and many additional
facilities, the British Library offers Blaise, an on-line bibliographic
information service (which you must pay for), and Inside, article title records
from 20,000 journals and 16,000 conferences. As explained on the website:

"The Library's services are based on its outstanding collections, developed over
250 years, of over one hundred and fifty million items representing every age of
written civilisation, every written language and every aspect of human thought.
At present individual collections have their own separate catalogues, often
built up around specific subject areas. Many of the Library's plans for its
collections, and for meeting its users' needs, require the development of a
single catalogue database. This is being pursued in the Library's Corporate
Bibliographic Programme which seeks to ad